A People Betrayed summary

In 1959, 46-year-old King Rudahigwa of Rwanda – a Tutsi – went to the hospital for a routine procedure. After being given an antibiotic injection by Belgian doctors, he inexplicably died. 

The Tutsi elite believed the Belgian doctors, with the support of Hutu extremists, had killed him. Violence erupted throughout the country, ultimately resulting in the abolishment of the monarchy, establishment of political parties, and, in 1961, a declaration of Rwandan independence. 

On October 1, 1990, several thousand Ugandan soldiers abandoned their posts and crossed over into Rwanda. The RPF’s long-awaited ground invasion had begun.

But the Rwandan army was ready for them. Alongside French special forces, the army counterattacked, sending the RPF back into Uganda or into the inhospitable Virunga mountains, where many froze or starved to death.

After 13 months of deliberation, the international corps of delegates was ecstatic. Collectively, representatives from five African countries, the United States, France, and Belgium had cajoled the RPF and the Rwandan government into ending their civil war. They signed a landmark agreement in Arusha, Tanzania in August 1993. 

The Accords, as they came to be known, were supposed to bring radical constitutional reform to Rwanda. Refugees would be allowed to return home. The RPF and Rwandan armies would merge. As a first step, a UN peacekeeping force would be sent to observe proceedings.

The same month that Dallaire landed in Kigali, 19 American Special Forces were killed in the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, while under the official aegis of the UN. 

US President Bill Clinton blamed the UN. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, now the UN Secretary General, blamed the US. The Battle of Mogadishu highlighted a disorganized UN that lacked the power to control a combat operation. It also contributed to a UN Security Council whose members were determined to block peacekeeping efforts that could be politically risky.

President Habyarimana didn’t normally travel at night. But, after being delayed at a regional summit in Dar es Salaam, he was anxious to get home. On April 6, 1994, as Habyarimana flew over the dark city of Kigali, his plane was shot down by a missile. 

It was the signal Hutu Power had been waiting for. RTLM announced that Habyarimana had been assassinated by the Belgians in cahoots with the RPF – and they should be made to pay the price. The targets were Tutsi and Hutu Power’s opponents, as well as UN peacekeepers from Belgium.

Amid the stampede to get out of Kigali, the International Committee of the Red Cross – or ICRC – stayed on, headed by the heroic Swiss Philippe Gaillard along with 26 staff members. On a Kigali hillside, they created an emergency field hospital in a former girls’ convent school. 

The ICRC team developed a routine. Every morning, ambulances left the hospital to look for people who had been attacked and abandoned on the streets. Medical staff had to choose which wounded they could take to the hospital, prioritizing those who would die without medical attention. Children were also a priority. It was pointless to rescue Tutsi men because they would just be killed at checkpoints. They had to be back at the hospital by 01:00 p.m., before the militia members at checkpoints were too drunk to negotiate.

When the UN pulled out its peacekeepers on April 21, thousands of Rwandans were being hacked to death every day based on their perceived ethnic identity. At this point, the US State Department had undeniable proof of the planned ethnic cleansing. But the UN Security Council was unprepared to face the reality of the genocide – along with the legal liability they would assume if they acknowledged it.

Others were less wary of calling the genocide by its name. On April 25, after estimating that 500,000 people had been killed in the previous 18 days, a British Oxfam officer working in Rwanda phoned headquarters to report that genocide was taking place. On April 30, Dallaire told Reuters that unless the international community acted, it would be unable to defend itself against the accusation that it did nothing to stop genocide.

As April turned to May, Rwanda was totally consumed by violence. RPF General Paul Kagame stopped investigating massacre sites; he’d seen enough, and feared that the accumulated trauma would impact his decisions in battle. The time for UN intervention, he realized, had passed. The genocide was almost complete. It was up to the RPF alone to stop it.

Kagame’s RPF was the superior fighting force compared to the bloated, undisciplined Rwandan army. By early June, it controlled almost every major city in Rwanda. The interim government was on the run. 

With the Rwandan capital now firmly in RPF hands, the war was over. But the country was starting again from zero. Government buildings had been looted down to their door frames. There was no food, water, livestock, or crops. Only one-sixth of Kigali’s pre-war population remained. Rotting bodies lay in piles on the streets.

Rwandans outside Rwanda may have had it even worse. The RPF advance, in concert with RTLM fear-mongering, had triggered an exodus. One million refugees crossed into Zaire over the course of two days – the largest and fastest movement of people in history. Refugees lived in terrible conditions in camps. Thousands died from dysentery, cholera, and starvation.