Washington | Tuesday
THE US government fully anticipated mass killings in Rwanda following the 1994 death of Rwanda’s president but still found ”insufficient justification” for retaining UN peacekeepers in the country, according to declassified documents released Monday.
The documents, obtained by the National Security Archive, show that as extremist ethnic Hutu militias set up roadblocks and fanned out across the country ahead of the killings, US diplomats advocated ”an orderly withdrawal” of the Rwanda-based UN force known as UNAMIR that some believe could have helped protecting civilians.
The killing rampage in Rwanda, now considered one of the most gruesome acts of genocide of the 20th century, was triggered by the April 6, 1994, death of Rwandan Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana in a suspicious plane crash interpreted by many Hutus as an assassination and blamed on ethnic Tutsi.
Within hours of the crash, according to witnesses, extremist Hutu militias backed by elements of the armed forces set up roadblocks and barricades in preparation for the massacre that would eventually take the lives of as many as 800_000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus.
The documents show the US Defence Department knew about these activities, with a Pentagon official writing a memorandum to undersecretary of defence Frank Wisner noting ”unless both sides can be convinced to return to the peace process, a massive (hundreds of thousands of deaths) bloodbath will ensue that would likely spill over into Burundi.”
”In addition, millions of refugees will flee into neighbouring Uganda, Tanzania, and Zaire, far exceeding the absorptive capacity of those nations,” the official wrote on April 11, 1994.
Just three days later, the State Department, in a confidential cable, instructed the US Mission at the United Nations to work toward full withdrawal of the UNAMIR mission.
Taking the situation into account, the ”department believes that there is insufficient justification to remain a UN peacekeeping presence in Rwanda and that the international community must give highest priority to full, orderly withdrawal of all UNAMIR personnel as soon as possible,” the cable said.
The UN Security Council voted to pull out the troops on April 21. – AFP
20