Why do some say the United Nations failed in Rwanda?
Because it did fail. It utterly and completely failed to prevent a genocide of an ethnic population, something which it was specifically set up to do.
The case of Rwanda is one which haunts the United Nations and the West to this day. Bill Clinton called it the single greatest regret of his presidency.
Skulls of those killed
The Rwandan Civil War in 1990 saw the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), mostly comprising ethnic Tutsis based in Uganda, fighting against the government of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. The RPF struggled to bring down the government, which was backed by both France and Zaire and could only manage to control a small parcel of land in the north. After a couple of years of negotiations, a peace agreement was agreed in Arusha, Tanzania on 4 August 1993. The Arusha Peace Agreement provided for a role for the United Nations through what was called a Neutral International Force. They would assist in the implementation of the peace agreement, as well as helping to secure the capital, integrate the two sides armed forces and ensure the security of civilians.
However, even a week after the agreement was signed, there were reports, including one from the UN Special Rapporteur of the Commission of Human Rights, which indicated that mass executions and other human rights violations were taking place in Rwanda, mostly targeting ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu parts of the population.
In October of 1993, the UN Security Council established the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). It was originally meant to include 2,500 peacekeeping personnel and assist in the recovery of arms. However, the Security Council resolution did not include this, and the initial peacekeeping force was only around 1,400, with the troop level only reaching the 2,500 after a number of months.
In November 1993, the Force Commander of the new mission, Canadian Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire, sent a draft set of Rules of Engagement to the Secretariat for approval. Included was a specific clause which would allow the UNAMIR to use force if necessary. Headquarters never formally responded, which would set the scene for the greatest failure of the mission.
Romeo Dallaire
In January, Dallaire informed the UN via telegram that he had a top-level informant (later named to be Prime Minister Designate Faustin Twagiramungu) who was willing to provide information in exchange for protection for him and his family. One of the key pieces of information was that all Tutsi in Kigali had been registered and death squads, placed around Kigali the capital, were ready to spring into action to exterminate them.
The telegram was shared around the UN, including being seen by then Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Kofi Annan, and was sent to the Executive Office of the Secretary-General. The response from UN? Nothing should happen, including giving protection, until further assessment had been done. In their view, this action contravened the mandate of the Security Council resolution which implemented the UNAMIR. Dallaire was told to tell Habyarimana about the militia groups, ask him to take action and report back.
Between then and April 1994, the UN were told repeatedly about the worsening security situation in Rwanda, and Dallaire begged to be able to conduct more deterrent missions such as capturing stockpiled ammunition. Each time, he was told no. The UNAMIR mandate was extended in March 1994 but only for less than four months, and the Secretary-General warned Habyarimana that it would be withdrawn unless the political process moved forward.
On 6 April, a plane carrying Habyarimana and the President of Burundi was shot down, with everyone on board killed. Thus started the 100 day genocide in which 800,000 to 1 million Rwandans were slaughtered. The death squads were real and they were brutally effective. And because there had been no authorisation of force from the UN, the peacekeepers had to sit there and watch it unfold. The Prime Minister at the time tried to hide in the UN Volunteer residence but militias stormed the compound, found her and killed her.
Members of the UNAMIR were also targeted. Belgium had provided peacekeepers for the mission despite Rwanda being a former Belgian colony, and the militias wanted to provoke the Belgians into withdrawing their contingent. They did this by targeting ten Belgian UN peacekeepers, who were surrounded and were told to hand over their weapons. As the authorisations from the UN around the use of force was unclear, they were told to hand over their weapons. They eventually did so and were then killed. Even after hundreds of thousands had already been killed in the slaughter, members of the Security Council still fought for a watered down proposal to send more peacekeepers in, looking to keep themselves out of the action.
The UNAMIR on the ground did the best they could, but after