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Rwanda’s genocide could have been prevented: 3 things the international community should have done – expert

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

The Tutsi were targeted primarily due to long-standing ethnic tensions between the Tutsi minority and the majority Hutu population.

Key Points:

The Tutsi were targeted primarily due to long-standing ethnic tensions between the Tutsi minority and the majority Hutu population.
As the mass killings were happening, the international community stood by in a stupor, even though the nations of the world had a legal and moral obligation to intervene in cases of genocide.
To its credit, the United Nations had already put in place a peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (Unamir).
In my view this was possible but would have required three main things: detailed intelligence, preventive measures and political will.

Unfortunately, the UN mission felt deaf and blind in the field as it did not have the analytical capacity to synthesise these important pieces of evidence.
It was also prevented by UN headquarters from taking measures to secure more information and taking steps for prevention.

Had the UN taken deterrent actions early on, it might have been able to stop the genocide at the outset.
Later, a large deployment of troops would have been needed to bring a halt to the many senseless killings.
UN preventive actions should have dealt with people (both plotters and resisters), the genocide structures (networks) and the tools (weapons) of the genocide.
In response to illicit weapons flowing into Kigali, the peacekeeping force should have firmly applied the embargo.
Quick, decisive action by the UN might have isolated the genocide to the Kigali sector before it spread into the countryside.

The simple answer is a lack of political will.
The lack of US commitment was largely the result of a disastrous mission in Somalia the previous year.
Still, these peacekeepers managed to save 20,000 to 30,000 lives, showing what dedicated action from a small force can achieve.

Primarily it is a matter of fostering a sense of enlightened self-interest among all nations, linking human welfare around the globe with one’s own.
It means recognising that when crimes against one section of humanity are committed, no matter where, it is a crime against all of humanity.
If this isn’t enough, then the fear of inaction should also be a motivating force.

Walter Dorn receives a salary and funding from the Department of National Defence.