Dear Member,
The Rwanda Genocide which in two months out did Hitlers killing machine rate (ie over 400,000 a month for two months) was allowed to take place for the following reasons:
1> The Somalia October 1993 Ranger/Aideed Battle and the withdrawal of US and UN forces. That sent a very clear message to the thugs. You kill a few UN or UN authorized forces and they will leave.
2> The UN had decided to be the honest broker between the murder (the radical Hutus) and the victim (the Tutsis) and thought persuation would stop the genocide.
3> The killing of the 11 Belgium Paras in the begining. They were killed going to the rescue of the PM of Rwanda a lady Tutsi (ie the President was a Hutu). The press had made a huge error in reporting that they had been killed after they had surrendered the lady to the Hutu presidential guard. When I was a Sysop on Compuserves Military Forum I posted a pretty rough message about those soldiers having no honor. Before I knew it a Belgium para officer was on line asking me why they had no honor. He explain what really happened and I was forced to eat crow in public with no mustard or ketchup. The 11 Belgium UN paras were on the way to rescue the lady who was hiding in a Hutu friends house. She was taken and killed before they arrived. But on route to the location they were deliberately ambushed by the Rwanda presidential guards and a few of them wounded (ie one killed if I remember correctly). They took up a defensive position along the road. got on their radios back to their base for help. Hours later they were told by radio that the UN civilian offical in charge had been in contact with the Rwanda Army and that they were to surrender and hand over their weapons and they would be escorted back to the UN base at the airport. He stated it was Kofi Aman who issued the order. This has been disputed by Aman. When they surrendered they were instead taken to a cave and tortured and then all butchered. And then to add insult to injury the UN had to negotiate to get their bodies back. It pretty well upset the people of Belgium and resulted in that Genocide Law that a lot of non government agencies tried to use against US civilian government officials and US military commanders over Yugoslavia and elsewhere till the Belgium goverment changed that law to apply only to Belgium citizens and where Belgium citizens are involved -- ie so they could bring to trial some Hutus who had Belgium connenction and fled to Belgium. BUT all together this sent a message to UN military in Rwanda: We hope you are not hurt or killed, but we will do nothing if you are.
4> The lack of any major nation (ie even Canada who was in Rwanda and was the major commander) would take over as the lead nation command. Even Israel which stated that "Never Again" who could have easily stopped the Rwanda Massacre refused to send combat troops. The US of course refused for political reasons connected to the 1993 Somalia.
5> And last. To have stopped the massacre would a have required the mass killing of a lot of the Hutu mobs. And the news video would have show mainly white European/American/etc troops killing a lot of Blacks. It was the political correctiness factor. And it would have required battle harden professional troops (ie not civilians in uniform as many nations send to the UN to feel good) to do the deed. And in doing the deed those troops would have come very close to breaching international laws on warfare. In fact when I was Sysop on Compuserves Military Forum and it had a large number of ranking military officers I asked a question in a message: If you were put in charge of a military force to stop the genocide in Rwanda, could you do it within the 1949 Geneva Convention? All said they could not.,
Finally, this discussion brings up an important question: When soldiers are in combat with their national command authority they obey their officers. Including orders to lay down their arms and surrender. Even if they disagree with that order. But if a nations soldiers are serving with the UN should they be required to surrender if they believe it is counter to what they expect will happen? Remember a lot of UN soldiers are serving in areas where they do not respect international law on prisoners in anyway and with civilian overall commanders who have no knowledge of military operations and worst think talking and open discussion can settle any issue.
Jack E. Hammond