Perspectives
History 2.4
Romeo Dallaire
INTERVIEWER: Why did you become involved in Rwanda before the genocide?
I was appointed as Major-General of UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) which was set up to help carry out the Arusha Accords accords and end the Rwandan Civil War which had raged for three years. The Arusha Accords would end the war which had sucked up much of Rwanda's already limited resources. I never anticipated the impact the Arusha Accords would have as the agreement was said to be favoured to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and it is suspected the Hutu anti-Tutsi extremists shot down the plane so the agreement could not be signed. Following this shooting the anti-Tutsi government took control and the genocide started.
INTERVIEWER: Did you foresee the event of the genocide?
I knew there had always been ethnic tension in Rwanda between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority since their colonial period but I never anticipated the scale of the tension. In 1959 there had been ethnic purges of Tutsi causing 20,000 to be killed which I thought would be the height of the violence in light of recent UN involvement which aimed to fix much of Rwanda. I also believed the civil war between the RPF and Rwanda was how tension between Tutsi and Hutu extremist was going to be fought out, not through mass genocide. Even though tension was growing leading up to the time of the plane crash of Juvénal Habyarimana and the warning signs of Hutu extremist preparing of Genocide, I never anticipated the speed at which the genocide would start. I came to the shocking realisation that a genocide was being planned but was unable to act as I was not given resources.
INTERVIEWER: What actions did you take to address the increasing tension and why did you take these actions?
The arrival of a French plane load with weapons and ammunition to the capital of Kigali changed my attitude towards the growing tension. I learned on January 20, 1994 that Hutu government agents were planning to use these weapons were going to be used to kill Tutsis following the withdrawal of Belgian troops. I sent a telegram to the UN warning of the Hutu extremists intention and the weapons cache but was told it was not under UN mandate to raid the site. The discovery of the weapons changed the urgency of my actions and I wanted to raid the sight within 36 hours of hearing about it. I spent the next month trying to convince the UN department of peacekeeping operations in new york that something had to be done. After two months the raid was approved but this was much too late and really showed issues with the UN and how it needs to react more quickly to solve problems. I felt let down by the international community for a slow reaction to a brutal and obvious problem.
I may have been under the impression of a false sense of security in the time leading up to the genocide. This is because UNAMIR had 2,548 military personnel in Rwanda most of which were Belgian soldiers and my belief was that the UN’s influence could control any unrest that was building at that point. I didn’t realise that the start of a genocide would actually cause Belgium and the west to withdraw troops rather than protect the Tutsi’s from being slaughtered.
INTERVIEWER: What actions did you take to address the issues in Rwanda once the genocide had begun?
After the president was killed in the plane crash. I acted quickly so that I could try influence the next government to be moderate Hutu. We protected the newly appointed in prime minister who was a moderate Hutu with peacekeeping forces but we were outmanned and she was killed. With her death came the extremist anti-Tutsi leaders.
Even though the Belgian troops who were my best trained military personnel were withdrawn following the death of 10 soldiers I still had a limited number of Pakistani, Canadian, Ghanaian, Tunisian, and Bangladeshi soldiers. I decided to focus my resources on defending urban areas where I knew Tutsi were hiding. As my peacekeeping troops had been greatly reduced, I could only protect Tutsi area and could not attempt to use military action to stop Hutu killings else where which is something I may have been able to do with large numbers of Belgian troops.
I also tried to broker a peace deal between Hutu extremists and Tutsi during the genocide but any talk of such was a waste of time in hindsight, this had been planned for years and that is one of the factors of this genocide that especially shocks me. There was no doubt in the leaders mind of the Hutu about what they were doing.
INTERVIEWER: What was your opinion on the action you took in response to the Rwandan Genocide and were you limited by UN ineffectiveness?
My perspective is that Belgians should not have withdrawn their troops as this was the most important stage in genocide prevention. I felt that the Belgians were partially responsible for the situation as they had colonised Rwanda and had introduced racial barriers such as identity cards that were used the genocide to identify Tutsi. The withdraw also importantly showed Hutu they were going to get away with genocide and so they intensified efforts. I also believe I could have prevented the genocide completely if significant numbers of troops were introduced immediately following the start of the genocide.
I am proud of the limited action i could take. Some of my UN troops were only unarmed observers but I believe our influence in the regions we did protect saved lives often as we were often outgunned and outmanned but Hutu were reluctant to attack us.
In my opinion my work during the genocide in releasing information to the international community was good and I raised awareness but no major power was prepared to take responsibility for the Rwandan crisis and all believed that someone else should do it. I believe that this reluctance to save people shows the dark side of human nature when 100,000s of lives are at risk. I believe that the events in Somalia years earlier made countries reluctant to go in to africa again as many international troops had been killed.
INTERVIEWER: What is your opinion on Hutu and Tutsi as a race?
My perspective is that the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi is insignificant especially when you consider that they speak the same language and over time reproduction between races has led to them sharing many traits. I don’t believe that the issue of race is important when considering why the Hutu wanted to exterminate Tutsi. I believe that the genocide was an expression of unrest within Hutu and Tutsi were wrongly framed for actions they did not commit and race made it easy to create a scape goat. When I first arrived in Rwanda I believed the races of Hutu and Tutsi were different as I felt belgians would not have declared them different for no reason but I soon realized this distinction was superficial.
I believe Hutu and Tutsi are effectively all one people.
INTERVIEWER: Why do you think Hutu felt compelled to hate Tutsi to the level of a genocide?
I believe there were a mix of factors that caused unrest and one of the ways to deal with this unrest was to use the scapegoat, Tutsi. I believe population pressure in Rwanda was a significant factor in the genocide as this population boom in the 1960s exasperated the problem of inefficient food supply from farmers and led to even more inefficient farming and food production drops from 2050 calories per day to 1500 calories per day per farmer. It is my perspective that the younger generations lack of available jobs due to a non-diversified economy that resulted in unemployment, starvation and unrest was a significant factor in the lead up to the genocide. With the population increasing the average farm size decreased from 2 hectares to 0.7 hectares. Many younger were unable to find non-farm jobs and this caused resentment towards wealthier Tutsi counterparts. This to me explains why it was the regional farming Hutus who were the first to passionately support the genocide movement.
I also think that the the collapse of coffee prices was a more significant factor than some historians made it out to be. The international export price of coffee fell by over 50% from 144 million to 30 million which affected mainly Hutu farmers financially and had major flow on effects for other less well off Hutu as the Rwandan franc was devalued by 40% following this economic downturn. I believe Hutu would have resented Tutsi following this coffee price collapse as Tutsi were more wealthy and so wouldn’t have gone hungry whereas many Hutu died of starvation.
I also believe that the colonisation of Rwanda was a significant factor as it sowed the seeds for the longstanding resentment of the Tutsi minority. The role of the Belgians in formally identify and separating Tutsi and Hutu was a major event as before this Hutu and Tutsi races were only socially tied. The introduction of separate identity race cards created a distinction between the races that I think should never have really existed.
The final factor I believe was significant in starting the genocide was the Hutu killing of Tutsi in 1959 years earlier where Hutu were no punished for their actions. This lack of punishment for demonising Tutsi reinforced support for the dehumanisation of Tutsi. Belgians had believed Tutsi to be superior and this was evident in some of the policies in Rwanda as well as society. The empowerment of Hutu in the 20th century as they got better education led them to rise up against the once dominant Tutsi minority.
I believe that Hutu were misguided by propaganda to believe that Tutsi were the reason for unfavourable economic conditions.
INTERVIEWER: You mention propaganda in the genocide, what role did you think this had and what actions did you take to address this?
I believe propaganda was only important in this genocide because it was needed to educate the lower education farmers who could be easily convinced. These farmers would always be susceptible to this propaganda and they would be especially easy to influence as they were suffering through drought, export markets collapse and reduced farm size. I think that the dehumanisation of Tutsi would have been a way for Hutu farmers to escape their bleak situation.
INTERVIEWER: How do you think the UN could be changed to prevent these crimes against humanity in the future?
In my opinion the Rwandan Genocide showed just how aggressively and quickly a genocide can take place. 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu Rwandans were killed within the 100 days of the genocide it shows the need for quick and effective United nations intervention. I believe this intervention can only occur when the international community unites but this often takes time especially in the early days of the genocide.
Organisations such as United Nations Advisory Committee on the Prevention of Genocide and Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies are important in studying the underlying causes for genocide so we can better prevent them in the future. At the end of the day though if these organisations (which I am apart of) recognise a genocide in process, it is up to the UN and the international community to allocate resources to stop them and ensure human rights, resources I lacked for the majority of the genocide and which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
INTERVIEWER: Your actions in Rwanda have been have been credited to saving at least 32,000 lives in Rwanda. What is your attitude towards this?
I am humbled but believe this is an significant number when compared to the hundreds of thousands we could have saved with more resources.
INTERVIEWER: What is your opinion on the future of Rwanda following this genocide?
Rwanda has some tough problems to face ahead though I believe though better education and equality Rwandan can live on following this genocide. It is important that we never forget the genocide and in particular who quickly it happened for future generations to learn from. Hutu and Tutsi now live side by side but I can’t help but feel the problem is not there. In future the international community should act swiftly in Rwanda. I believe that through empowering women in Rwanda, politics in this community can move forward. I believe women were a missing voice in politics in the genocide aside from the replacement prime minister who was killed.
INTERVIEWER: What is your opinion on the international response to the ISIS conflict in iraq where ethnic purges have been label genocide? Do you believe the international community has changed?
I am thankful that in this case America in particular has taken swift action to defend the lives of the minority. I can only hope that it is because of lessons learned in Rwanda. I don’t believe the international community has changed as America probably entered and saved these people due to their previous involvement in Iraq and the fact that is group is anti America. America are not being selfless in this decision to intervene.
INTERVIEWER: Do you believe the UN involvement in Rwanda reduced the overall clarity of the situation?
As you said earlier, we were able to save thousands of lives and I believe that we did the best that we could with our available resources. The situation wasn’t clouded by the UN, the actions taking place were abundantly clear and the international community should have intervened.
INTERVIEWER: What is your overall opinion of the genocide?
The Rwandan genocide was the most shocking thing that I have ever seen. I personally had a carry dead bodies of children in Rwanda and these images will haunt ment for the rest of my life. It these images thats have led to my 4 suicide attempts since the genocide. My working genocide prevention is not helping to ease the suffering.
Thank you for your time Romeo Dallaire.
Théoneste Bagosora
INTERVIEWER: What was your role before the genocide?
I was a Rwandan Military officer at the time of the genocide.
INTERVIEWER: What actions did you take in organising the anti-Tutsi movement?
Before the genocide started, I established the local interahamwe which was a local military that acted in conjunction with the police throughout the country. This interahamwe was trained to kill Tutsi in the forests and the interahamwe became one of the most brutal forces in Rwanda. In addition to training the interahamwe, I also secured the import of over 500,000 machetes which was double the usual import amount.
In addition to this, I also identified political targets to be killed once the plan was put into action. This in my opinion was a very important move and moderate Hutu leaders were becoming more powerful in government and I had to rid the government that failed to see the Tutsi for who they were.
Another key political move I undertook was my vote of no confidence around the moderate Hutu Agathe Uwilingiyimana. This vote didn’t work out as expected though as she was still able to take political power of Rwanda. I didn’t kill her. I know Hutu extremist would have seen her for the moderate Hutu she was and they would know he wouldn’t blame the Tutsi properly for shooting down our president's plane.
INTERVIEWER: Some say you were the most likely compurit for shooting down the presidents plane as you though he was giving into the Tutsis. What is your perspective on this?
I did disagree with the arusha accords and the presidents ever increasing moderate Hutu stance but I would never shoot down his plane. Only the Tutsi can be blamed for that as they wanted to continue the war and kill more of our people.
INTERVIEWER: What other actions did you take following Agathe Uwilingiyimana’s death?
I tried to have the military take over the government but many officials did not approve of my stance on Tutsi so my take over was denied. I thought this was a major setback at the time as I could not organise the genocide if moderate Hutu were in power so I had to make another plan to gain control.
INTERVIEWER: Some have accused you of starting the genocide not because you hated Tutsi but because you wanted control. What is your perspective on this?
My only goal was the kill the Tutsis who had denied us rights while they were in government and took the wealth of our control. I disliked Tutsi because they had persecuted against us for years as they found their new power as the minority. I didn’t believe such as corrupt money stealing race should be able to control the long suffering Hutu, many of which had died due to lack of money while Tutsi government officials were taking it.
Instead of me being put into power, I organised a group of political leaders who were extremist enough to support my decisions.
INTERVIEWER: Were you directly involved in killing Tutsi?
On the morning of April 7 I gave the order for the interahamwe to begin extermination and witnessed many killings but I never killed anyone myself. My perspective on this is that I wanted my Hutu brothers who had suffered so much in economic conditions under Tutsi government to seek revenge on Tutsi.
INTERVIEWER: What was your motivation for organising and facilitating the anti-Tutsi movement?
Tutsi leaders had been very prominent in Rwandan government from colonial times where policy had always favoured the Tutsi was unfounded belief based off material wealth. Furthermore, many Tutsi leader became very wealthy due to their roles in the government. I believe they were corrupt and conspired against Hutu while in power to purposely restrict us and our power. Once Hutu became more educated we could finally take control as the majority but I wanted the wealthy Tutsi to pay as many of our people had died under the hands of their government due to starvation and lack of jobs. The Hutu Majority should not have to put up with a minority prioritising themselves. We lived in fear of full Tutsi government while under a government of significant Tutsi rule and because we traditionally obey authority we were unable to shake off the biased government. I believe that one of the reason why the genocide has mass participation of Hutu was that Hutu people were tired of living in fear of a completely Tutsi government so that our rights could be even more restricted.
Even if Hutu wanted to become wealthy and power, Tutsi restricted our people. We worked for our ”masters” and leased cattle from their for our farms as we by law were unable to own our own cattle.
The recent economic troubles in Rwanda had affected Hutu but not Tutsi and I didn’t believe their wealth as fair game. They leased cattle to Hutu who did all the work but the Tutsi go the reward.
By the 1990 we were seeing just how big the gap between Hutu and Tutsi had become. 86% of Rwandans lived below the poverty line. The share of the wealthiest Tutsi had increased from 22% to 54%. Many Tutsis made their money from being in government. The Tutsi governments refusal to fairly govern the population led to us having no choice but to take back our country and seek revenge for the years of political neglect.
Lack of land was hurting our people. Starvation was crippling Hutu. By removing Tutsi from Rwanda we could ensure a better future and increase the land available to Hutu. Rwanda was too small for so many people. By removing Tutsi, we could not only get rid of the countries race of animals but we could also generate Rwanda economy for Hutu.
INTERVIEWER: What is your opinion on the propaganda used by Hutu extremists during the genocide?
The propaganda used in radio stations such as Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines during the genocide helped us inform the farming population of development during the genocide and inspired people to take revenge. We did not plant new views into farmers mind, they already dislike the Tutsi, we just reinforced their idea of how much we had been neglected by Tutsi.
We showed the Tutsi for who they were.
INTERVIEWER: How did you justify killing moderate Hutu?
In my opinion moderate Hutu may aswell be Tutsi. They encourage the neglect brought on by the Tutsi.
INTERVIEWER: What's your opinion on your imprisonment following the genocide?
The International Courts could not understand the neglect of Tutsi leaders that we faced and that the killing of Tutsi was the only solution to the economic and social problem in Rwanda. I knew they wouldn’t understand and I pled not guilty as I believe the killed were justified and furthermore I never personally killed any Tutsi. I was only a motivator.
Thank you for your time.
Tim Armstrong
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