RWANDA GENOCIDE BLAMED ON ‘COWARDLY’ GLOBAL POWERS

On the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi, the country’s president accused the international community of not doing enough to stop it. Paul Kagame took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in Kigali in memory of over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates slaughtered in the space of 100 days from April 7th, 1994. He said the world had effectively stood by and watched it unfold either through ‘contempt or cowardice.’

As early as January that year, the UN’s Rwanda mission (UNAMIR) had indications mass killings were on the way. However, its Commander-in-Chief, Roméo Dallaire, was told he didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

A few months later, in April, his request to double the mission’s troops to 5,000 was rejected, and the UN Security Council voted to withdraw 90 per cent of its forces. By late April, UNAMIR had just 450 poorly equipped soldiers.

The following month, France offered to send troops. However, their deployment took weeks after a disagreement with the US over the cost of using military equipment for peacekeeping forces. After their arrival, they were accused of letting those guilty of atrocities escape through the French-controlled buffer zone.

The UN only accepted responsibility for its inaction in 2000. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lamented in 2004 that he’d not done enough to stop the mass killings. It was only recognised as genocide by the UN in 2014.

During commemorations, Kagame vowed he’d never allow politics in his country to be organised on the basis of ethnicity and religion. He’s been in power since 2000 but has been in de facto charge since 1994 when his rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, seized control to end the genocide.

Critics however, accuse Kagame's government of participating in acts of mass killing in Eastern DRC under the pretext of hunting the 1994 génocidaires.

What do you make of his comments?