.... The UN Security Council pulled most of a small UN peacekeeping force out shortly after the genocide began and key members of the Council - the US, Britain and France, lobbied against reinforcing the UN presence in a way that UN commanders on the ground recommended. But subsequent investigations, such as [Linda] Melvern’s book [Conspiracy To Murder - The Rwandan Genocide], show that in fact the killings were to a large extent planned in advance by a relatively small group of extremist ethnic Hutu politicians from northern Rwanda who obtained support from the outside world. This reinforces suspicions among many that something could have been done to stop the worst of the killings, and that this group of politicians were susceptible to outside pressure.
One of the most revealing episodes from the transcript is where [Rwanda’s Prime Minister] Jean Kambanda reveals that the genocide was openly discussed in cabinet meetings. ... one cabinet minister said she was personally in favour of getting rid of all Tutsi; without the Tutsi, she told ministers, all of Rwanda’s problems would be over. The Kambanda testimony also gave an insider’s account of the roadblocks where so many Tutsi lost their lives. As Prime Minister, he received complaints from some Hutus about the roadblocks; he didn’t get complaints from Tutsi for obvious reasons.
Linda Melvern’s book .... reveals, for instance, that in 1993 the government of Rwanda imported, from China, three quarters of a million dollars worth of machetes. This was enough for one new machete for every third male. Machetes were used for many of the murders committed during the genocide. The details of pre-genocide arms imports from Egypt and France are also given, as is the extent of French military cooperation with the parts of the Rwandan army most responsible for the genocide. |