International Bystanders
For those with eyes to see, it had been clear for some time that a crisis was brewing. The UN had ample evidence of the potential for catastrophic violence in Rwanda. Yet when the genocidal frenzy was unleashed, the deaths of ten Belgian soldiers led Belgium to call for the immediate withdrawal of UN peacekeepers. The UN pulled its force out and foreigners were evacuated to safety, giving the killers a clear signal that they could continue unrestrained.
Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire, leader of the UN mission, sent a message to New York just hours after the plane crash that killed President Habyarimana, pleading for more resources so that he could do more in the situation, but the response from the Security Council, and in particular from the USA and the UK, indicated that there was no interest in intervening. Lt.-Gen. Dallaire later wrote: 'We watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect.'
The only intervention from the international community was mounted by France, a long-time ally of the late President Habyarimana, which for years had armed, trained and protected his regime against the RPF. France played a crucial role in the UN Security Council, deliberately delaying intervention to halt the genocide with the aim of hampering the RPF and blocking the growth of 'Anglo-Saxon influence' in Rwanda. Eventually France dispatched troops who set up a 'humanitarian zone' in the southwest of the country, but in reality this was designed to provide military protection for the killers and the Rwandan army, who by this time were retreating in the face of the advancing Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) forces. Thanks to French protection, thousands of Hutu refugees were guaranteed a safe passage to exile in neighbouring Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
It was only due to the offensive by RPF forces from the north and from neighbouring Uganda that the killings finally stopped. The RPF was a lightly armed force that had held a rebel front line in the north for nearly four years. When the genocide was unleashed it fought its way through the country, driving the Hutu extremists before it.
By mid-July the RPF had won control of most of the country and announced the establishment of a broad-based government of national unity. Only when the RPF had restored a measure of security was it deemed safe for UN troops to return.