A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (96 page)

2. Alison Des Forges, "The Method in Rwanda's Madness; Politics, Not Tribalism, Is the Root of the Bloodletting," Washington Post, April 17, 1994, p. C2.

3. James Woods, interview, "The Triumph of Evil," Frontline, PBS, January 26, 1999, p. 15; available at PBS Online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fronttine/shows/evil/interviews/woods.httiil. The Interaharnwe, meaning "those who attack together," were Hutu extremist militiamen supported by the National Revolutionary Movement for Development party, which helped orchestrate the slaughter ofTutsi civilians.

4. Cited in Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the 114st in Rwanda's Genocide (London: Zed Books, 2(100), p. 71.

5. Alison Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), pp. 207-208.

6. Ibid., p. 212.

7. Canadians are extremely supportive of international peacekeeping. Some 80 percent of those polled in 1994 backed Canadian forces' participation in armed UN interventions. A survey published in 1998 placed the figure at 82 percent. National Defense Headquarters, "Canadians on Defense," April 1998.

8. Des Forges, Leave None toTell the Story, pp. 96-179; United Nations, Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda, UN Doc. No. A/54/549, December 15, 1999, pp. 3-11, 47-52; Organization of African Unity (OAU), International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and the Surrounding Events, Rwande: The Preventable Genocide (Organization of African Unity, 2000), chap. 7.

9. IMF Rwanda Briefing Paper, 1992, Article IV, "Consultations and Discussions on a Second Annual Arrangement " May 14, 1992, given to Melvern and cited in A People Betrayed, pp. 64-65.

10. Africa Watch, International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, Interafrican Union for Human and Peoples' Rights and the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Report of the International Commission of Investigation of Hurnan Rights Violations in Rwanda Since October 1, 1990 (Paris: 1993).

11. United Nations, Report of the Independent Inquiry, pp. 3-4. See also report by B. W. Ndiaye, special rapporteur, on his mission to Rwanda, April 8-17,1993, Extrajudicial, Summary orArbitrary Executions, E/CN.4/1994/7/Add. I (Geneva: United Nations, 1993).

12. Organization of African Unity, Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, OAU, chap. 9, p. 5.

13. Reprinted and translated in African Rights, Rivanda: Death, Despair and Defiance (New York: African Rights, 1995), pp. 42-43. The commandments in fact referred to "Mobutu*' and "Mututsi" for the singular and'Bahutu" and "Batutsi" for the plural. I have omitted the prefixes here.

14. OAU, Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, ch. 9, p. 4, citing Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droites de l'Homme, Rwanda Report of March 1993, pp. 24-25.

15. The HRW report by Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story, includes thirty-two pages of early warnings prior to April 1994. The OAU report found, "If the rest of the world could not contemplate the possibility that they would go that far, it was certainly known that they were prepared to go a great distance indeed"; OAU, Rwanda: 77u• Preventable Genocide, ch. 9, p. 3.

16. UN Security Council Resolution 872, October 5, 1993.

17. From 1956 to 1977 the United Nations launched just ten peacekeeping operations; from 1978 to 1987 it staged only one. But in the stormy six years leading up to 1994, the Security Council had authorized twenty missions.

18. Bob Dole,"Peacekeeping and Politics" ,N'ewYork Times, January 24, 1994, p.A15. Dole noted that the Security Council, with U.S. assent, had begun, continued, or expanded peacekeeping operations in Mozambique, on the Iraq-Kuwait border, in Somalia, Georgia, Cyprus, El Salvador, Haiti, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and Liberia. In fact, Dole noted, the council had "said no only to Burundi." The Peace Powers Act that he introduced the next day would have banned U.S. troops from serving under foreign command in UN operations. "Our military personnel should be asked to risk their lives only in support of U.S. interests, in operations led by U.S. commanders;' Dole wrote. The act also demanded that the White House consult more with Congress before casting Security Council votes for deployments. And it urged that the UN "be put on notice" that the United States would not continue to pay 31.7 percent of peacekeeping costs or subject itself to the "UN's warped accounting methods"

19. "The Clinton Administration's Policy on Reforming Multilateral Peace Operations," Presidential Decision Directive 25, May 3, 1994.

20. Jim Wold, "Clinton Moves to Limit UN Peacekeeping Role," Reuters, May 5 1994. Another Pentagon official described the new policy as "We'll only go where we're not needed"; Woods, Frontline interview.

21. Woods, Frontline interview.

22. Romeo Dallaire, "The End of Innocence: Rwanda 1994," in Jonathan Moore, ed., Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention (Lanham, Md.: Rownian & Littlefield, 1998), pp. 71-86.

23. Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Infirm You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998), pp. 104-107.

24. lqbal Riza, interview, "The Triumph of Evil;' Frontline, PBS, January 26, 1999, p. 3; available at PBS Online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/interviews/riza.html.

25. The New 1i)rk Times ran a tiny blurb describing only "violence between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups"; "New Government Is Delayed as Violence Rocks Rwanda," New York Tirnes, February 24, 1994, p. A 13.

26. United Nations, Report of the Independent Inquiry, p. 9.

27. Confidential, priority cable from U.S. embassy in Kigali to State Department, March 24, 1994.

28. In the secretary-general's second report on UNAMIR, issued a week before mass killing began, he wrote, "Continued support for UNAMIR would depend upon the full and prompt implementation of the Arusha peace agreement by the parties.The United Nations presence can be justified only if the parties show the necessary political will to abide by their commitments and to implement the agrees est. 'Second Progress Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda," S/1994/360, March 30, 1994.

29. I)es Forges, Leave Now to T-11 the Story, pp. 19, 599; United Nations, Report of the Independent Inquiry, p. 27.

30. State Department briefing, Federal News Service, April 8, 1994.

31. .Meet the Press, NBC, April 10, 1994.

32. Face the Nation, CBS, April 10, 1994.

33. Cited in OAU, Rivanda:71te Preventable Genocide, chap. 10, sec. 15.

34. Des Forges, Leave .\'oue to INI the Story, p. 22.

35. Confidential memorandum from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East/Africa James Woods, through Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Chas Freeman, for Undersecretary of Defense fir policy Frank Wisner, "Talking Points on Rwanda/Burundi,"April 11, 1994.

36. CNN News, April 7, 1994.

37. [1cekend Edition, NPR., April 9, 1994.

38. All Things Considered, NPR, April 9, 1994.

39. Keith B. Richburg, "Slayings Put Rwanda in Chaos; Clerics, Foreigners Among Casualties; Americans to Leave," l[/askit(tton Post, April 9, 1994, p. Al.

40. Robert McFadden, "Western Troops Arrive in Rwanda to Aid Foreigners." New York Times, April 10, 1994, sec. 1, p. A 1.

41. Keith B. Richburg, "Westerners Begin Fleeing Rwanda; 17(1 Americans Leave by Convoy," llashintitor Post, April 10, 1994, p. Al.

42. William Schmidt, "Refugee Missionaries from Rwanda Speak of Their Terror, Grief and Guilt," Neu, York, Times, April 12, 1994, p. A6.

43. Donatella Lorch, "Strife in Rwanda: Evacuation; American Evacuees Describe Horrors Faced by Rwandans;' Nov ork7'intes, April 11, 1994, p. Al.

44. "Tribes Battle for Rwandan Capital; New Massacres Reported," New York Times, April 16, 1994, p. A5.

45. Other groups also responded quickly. On April 21 the international Federation of Human Rights declared the killings genocide. Official bodies and states began to follow. The pope first used the word on April 27; on the same day the Czechs and Argentines introduced a draft resolution to the Security Council that pointedly included the terns; and Boutros-Ghali declared a "real genocide" on ABC's .\'i,'Iitline on May 4, 1994.

46. Julia Preston, "Death Toll in Rwanda Is Said to Top 100,000; U.N. Votes to Pull out Most Peacekeepers," Washington Post, April 22, 1994, p. Al.

47. Jennifer Parmelee, "Fade to Blood; Why the International Answer to the Rwandan Atrocities Is Indifference," lCishingto,r Post, April 24, 1994, p. C3.

48. "Aid Agency Fears Genocide Under Way in Rwanda;' Press Association Newsfile, April 28, 1994.

49. Melvern, A People Betrayed, p. 177.

50. Confidential memorandum to Ambassador Albright from John S. Boardman, thru Ambassador Walker, "Subject: Your Meeting with Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Representative Claude Dusaidi,Thursday, April 28, 3:00 vm.;'April 28, 1994.

51. On April 8 Dallaire had warned that a ruthless campaign of"ethnic cleansing and terror" was under way. Riza remembered,"There was no reference to an impending genocide.... This term of ethnic killings and ethnic cleansing had been there for a long time and it was adopted, of course, from Bosnia. Ethnic cleansing does not necessarily mean genocide; it means terror to drive people away"; lqbal Riza, Frontline interview, pp. 9-10.

52. Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story, p. 636.

53. Office of the Secretary of Defense, "Secret Discussion Paper: Rwanda," May 1, 1994; emphasis added.

54. State Department briefing, Federal News Service, April 28, 1994, pp. 1-4.

55. Melvern, A People Betrayed, p. 179.

56. Ibid., p. 180.

57. Confidential cable from U.S.-UN to Secretary of State Warren Christopher and embassies, April 27, 1994.

58. United Nations Security Council, "Statement by the President of the Security Council," April 30, 1994, S/PRST/ 1994/21.

59. Secret memorandum from Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research Toby Gati to Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs George Moose and Legal Adviser Conrad Harper "Rwanda-Geneva Convention Violations," May 18, 1994.

60. Ibid.

61. Confidential cable from Secretary of State Warren Christopher to the U.S. Mission to the UN in Geneva and embassies, "Subject: UN Human Rights Commission: `Genocide' at Special Session on Rwanda," May 24, 1994.

62. State Department briefing, Federal News Service, June 10, 1994.

63. Michael R. Gordon, "U.S. to Supply 60 Vehicles for U.N. Troops in Rwanda," New York Times, June 16, 1994, p. A 12.

64. Rita Beamish, "Clinton Shocked at Presidents' Death, Subsequent Violence," Associated Press, April 7, 1994.

65. "Take Care of My Children," Washington Post, April 8, 1994, p. A21.

66. Confidential cable from Secretary of State Warren Christopher to the U.S. Mission to the UN,April 15, 1994.

67. UN Security Council Resolution 912,April 21, 1994.

68. OAU, Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, chap. 12, sec. 42.

69. Dallaire, "The End of Innocence," p. 82.

70. Interagency Working Group, "Secret Discussion Paper: Rwanda," May 1, 1994.

71. Ibid.

72. Memo from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Frank G. Wisner to Deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, "Rwanda: Jamming Civilian Radio Broadcasts," May 5, 1994.

73. Interagency Working Group, "Secret Discussion Paper: Rwanda."

74. "One, Two, Many Rwandas?" Washington Post, April 17, 1994, p. C6. The Washington Post published a letter from Amnesty International Executive Director William Schultz almost two weeks later, on May 1, 1994, "U.S. Leadership in Rwanda Crisis," p. C6. Schultz's letter expressed shock at the Post's assumption that the United States had no leadership role to play in the Rwandan crisis. "In a disaster of such huge proportions, it is understandable that we may feel impotent and be tempted to cope by withdrawing," Schultz wrote. "We must resist this tendency, however, for it is precisely such isolation and distance that allow us to accept as inevitable the killing of 100,000 people in two weeks." He juxtaposed the paper's spirited editorial support for intervention in Bosnia with its timidity on Rwanda. "As the tragedy unfolds, one has to wonder why the atrocities in Bosnia receive the widespread attention they do while the massacre of tens of thousands in an African country is met with a collective denial of responsibility and a hasty retreat." He urged the United States to "turn its attention to doing whatever it can to alleviate the plight of the equally innocent and defenseless civilian population of Rwanda whose lives are no less worthy of protection." Schultz pressed the United States to support expanding the UN presence and assisting in the evacuation of at-risk Rwandans.

75. "Cold Choices in Rwanda," New York Times, April 23, 1994, p. A24.

76. Nightline, ABC, May 4, 1994.

77. Steven Livingstone and Todd Eachus, "Rwanda: U.S. Policy and Television Coverage,' in Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke, eds., The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (New Brunswick, N.J.:Transaction, 1999), p. 209.

78. Paul Richter, "Rw..nda Violence Stumps World Leaders; Africa: Though Clinton and Boutros Boutros-Ghali Have Made Guarded Threats, Calls for Action Have Been Eerily Absent;' Los Angeles 'Times, April 30, 1994, p. A13.

79. Kevin Merida, "TransAfrica Leader to Fast in Protest; Robinson Labels U.S. Policy on Haitians Discriminatory, Racist," Washington Post, April 12, 1994, p. A15.

80. "The Month in Review," Current History, September 1994, p. 293.

81. Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis, War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics (New York: Scribner, 1996), p. 304.

82. Paul Simon, PS.: The Autobiography of Paul Simon (Chicago: Bonus Books, 1999), pp. 340-341.

83. All Things Considered, NPR, July 22, 1994.

84. Melvern, A People Betrayed, pp. 202-203.

85. Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story, pp. 624-625.

86. Confidential cable from Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to the U.S. Mission to the UN, May 13 1994.