Tacitus again. It's the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, and "Mille Collines redux" offers a full account of exactly what happened in Rwanda, posted after returning from a week in that sad country.
His account is detailed, clear, and easy to follow. Pay special attention to his description of the role of the French (something we also covered last September), the deadly consequences of a process over content mindset for the Tutsis, and the aftermath for Rwanda. I do wish he had paid more attention to the endless cynicism and complicity of the U.N. and Kofi Annan (see Belmont Club's post and follow-up, but it was even worse than he describes and Annan played a personal role). Even so, this is a great article:
"The mists never dissipate over the Mille Collines, and the green terraced slopes and the red wounded earth forever yield their bounty of tropical crops and grasses for the cattle. Rwanda's silent hills swallow up their history, till all that is left in the mud-brick homes and winding dirt paths is the hope and fortitude of the peasants and laborers who are not "bilingual," but speak the Kinyarwandan tongue to friends, loved ones, and enemies. Who is which changes too frequently, and so they look to their beloved leaders to let them know. And therein lies the danger of Rwanda; therein lies the slumbering volcano whose eruption is heralded by barely-felt rumblings of electoral fraud, Hutu political neutering, and the furtive, erratic return of the corvée. The government functionaries may smile, and the Western consciousness may end in July 1994. Scratch the surface, though, and you realize the awful truth: History -- that history -- is not over yet."
One thing I noticed: Tactitus states: "Enraged Hutu Power ideologues shot down the presidential aircraft as it returned to Kigali." Yet the only determination mentioned by the BBC is that a French report says that current (Tutsi) President Kagame ordered the plane to be shot down: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1288230.stm. (article colletion here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/rwanda/default.stm)
Frontline's 2-hour Ghosts of Rwanda is excellent and reccommended viewing to anyone with an interest in the history of the Rwandan genocide. It contains interviews with a number of the principles, including Albright, Kofi Annan, Anthony Lake, the general in charge of the UN mission, &c.
I also have a post up on Richard Clarke's role in the international ignoring of the Rwandan genocide here.
=darwin
The role of the french gov in this genocide is starting to appear in the french media. French TV and newspapers are now quite explicit in how the french soldiers did nothing during the genocide, and then helped the genociders to run away. That is a good start!
The excuses of the french gov may come also, but in some decades still...
Pleeeeaaaaaase.
Don't tell French soldiers did this or that. Soldiers do what are they are told to do. I don't
know if they were happy or unhappy when they exfiltrated the genociders. What I know is that they were following orders, what I know is that the orders came from government, what I know is that the the one pushing for helping the genociders, who in fact was advocating for French Army attacking the Tutsi and restoring the genocidical Hutu government was Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. He was prevented from doing so by the right wing governement dragging its feet so the compromise was putting the French Army on the way of the FPR and exfiltrate the bad guys. What I know is that three hundred thousand "left-wing" Parisians went to weep when Mitterrand the genocider died. What I know is that hundreds of cities in France are soiled by monuments or streets bearing his accursed name.
Hundreds of cities in France are soiled by monuments or streets bearing Mitterrand's name
And about nobody in France is ashamed about it.
JFM's point re: the soldiers is a good one. The issue in Rwanda isn't about decisions by French soldiers, but about policy decisions taken at higher levels in the French government.
Yes, of course! I never intended to say that the soldiers decided by themselves what to do! Of course the president and/or the government was giving the orders!(sorry for this confusion, it was very obvious for me).
But I think it is new that the French media aknowledges the role of France in this tragedy.
When the genocide occurred, what they said was quite different.
Samantha Power's A Problem from Hell has a powerful section on Rwanda. I read it over a year ago but I seem to remember some French soldiers talking about how they thought their mission was to keep the Tutsi rebels from taking over the country - not stop the genocide.
French soldiers were sent to a zone where the genocide was finished: politicians hadn't sent them there to stop any genocide but to buy time for the retreat of the Interhamwe (Hutu militia) and Rwandese Army.
Etiop, the French media's reaction is still far from outrage and critics conveniently ignore the President of the Republic before and during the genocide.