Sweaters in Rwanda

Global view Human destinies AUDIO AND SUBSCRIPTION This 14-year-old boy escaped a massacre in Rwanda by hiding under corpses for 2 days. 1994 The signal for the start of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda was the death of its president, whose plane was shot down by a rocket on April 6, 1994. The Hutu leaders blamed the ethnic Tutsis for the murder and began their methodical extermination the next day. In 13 weeks, 800,000 people died, including those Hutus who refused to kill. The destruction of the Tutsis was planned for several months: local armed groups were created, mass propaganda was carried out, machete knives were purchased and distributed to the population. There was no mercy for anyone - neither children, nor the elderly, nor pregnant women. People who sought salvation in schools and churches were pelted with grenades and burned alive. But the governments of the UN member states were more conce Sweaters in Rwanda rned about the fate of their own military personnel. The Security Council has decided to downsize the already understaffed UN Mission in Rwanda. Says former Mission Commander General Romeo Dallaire: “Within 48 hours of the start of the massacre, 2,000 troops from the best armies in the world - France, USA, Great Britain, Italy - arrived in the capital, Kigali, and other areas. They came to evacuate their compatriots - and some Rwandans. And although they stumbled over the corpses and the smell of decay reached them from the streets, from the alleys, from the houses, this did not shake their determination to ignore the catastrophe that was happening around them and to fulfill their task. And I got a call from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and was told that there was nowhere to wait for help. Nobody is going to save the Rwandans." On the radio they explained how to kill, how to cut out the insides, dismember, rape. All this time I've been asking permission to turn off this radio station. Miraculously surviving Eric Nzambihimana tells how, fleeing persecution, he stopped French soldiers passing near his village. “I began to explain to them what was happening, but they did not understand, although all around them lay bleeding wounded and fresh corpses. I asked them for protection, but they said they couldn't help us. We insisted, begged them, but it was all in vain. In order to get rid of us, they promised that they would return in three days, and they told us to hide.” By April 22, when more than 100,000 people had already been killed, a handful of peacekeepers remained in Rwanda, doomed to the role of helpless observers. Romeo Dallaire says: “While millions of people were driven from their homes, maimed and killed, we managed to save only 30,000. But I was ordered to leave them too. The order came from the Security Council, which expresses the will of all countries that are members of the UN. So it was the decision of the international community and no one even tried to protest.” General Dallaire was not allowed to stop the propaganda of the local extremist radio station either: “One can only guess how huge the influence of this radio station was in a country where radio is practically the only means of communication, and for some residents of remote villages, the voice from the radio is almost the voice of God. On the radio they explained how to kill, how to cut out the insides, dismember, rape. All this time I've been asking permission to shut down this radio station. But in response, they explained to me that the radio station is under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state and we have no right to interfere.” The international community has betrayed Rwanda “The international community has betrayed Rwanda,” said former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was also personally responsible for what happened. “I myself, as head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the time, appealed to dozens of countries to contribute troops. At the time, I felt like I was doing everything in my power. After the genocide, I realized that I could and should have done more.” In the end, on May 17, a month and a half after the start of the massacre, the Security Council decided to send an international contingent to Rwanda. The troops arrived at the scene only in early August. By that time it was all over. These women from Rwanda were lucky - after the massacre of Tutsi Rwandans, they survived. During the two spring months of 1994, 800 thousand of their compatriots were brutally killed Kofi Annan, perhaps becau https://jiji.co.rw/25-sweaters