United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda

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The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was a relief mission instituted by the United Nations. It lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. UNAMIR's purpose was to aid the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed August 4, 1993, aimed at easing tensions between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi rebels (for the most part centered in the RPF). Its mandate included "ensuring the security of the capital city of Kigali; monitoring the ceasefire agreement, including establishment of an expanded demilitarized zone and demobilization procedures; monitoring the security situation during the final period of the transitional Government's mandate leading up to elections; assisting with mine-clearance; and assisting in the coordination of humanitarian assistance activities in conjunction with relief operations."

The UNAMIR has received much attention, and is regarded as a major failure of the United Nations [1], for the role (or lack thereof due to the limitations of its rules of engagement) it played during the Rwandan Genocide.

1 Establishment
2 Genocide
3 After the genocide
4 See also
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] Establishment

UNAMIR was established on 5 October 1993 by Security Council resolution 872 (1993). Its authorised strength was 2,500 personnel, but it took some five months of piecemeal commitments for the mission to reach this level. The head of the mission was Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh of Cameroon, and its Force Commander was Canadian Major-General Roméo Dallaire. Around 400 of the troops in this early part of the mission consisted of Belgian soldiers, despite the fact that Rwanda had been a Belgian colony, and normally the UN bars the former colonial power from serving in such peace-keeping roles.

During the remainder of 1993, both sides of the Rwandan struggle appeared committed to holding to the ideals of the Arusha Accords, and reaffirmed such commitment to creating a new, broad-based transitional government by the end of the year.

Squabbling between interested parties delayed the UNAMIR goal of assisting the formation of the transitional government following the inauguration of President Habyarimana on January 5, 1994. The violent clashes that followed, including the assassinations of 2 major political leaders and the ambush of a UNAMIR-led convoy of RPF forces led the UNAMIR forces to move to a more defensive footing. UNAMIR thus contributed support to the military and civilian authorities in Rwanda, while the UN continued to place pressure on Habyarimana and the RPF to return to the ideas set forth in the Accords.

On April 5 1994, the UN voted to extend the mandate of UNAMIR to 29 July 1994, after expressing "deep concern at the delay in the establishment of the broad-based transitional Government and the Transitional National Assembly" and "concern at the deterioration in security in the country, particularly in Kigali."

[edit] Genocide

On April 6 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi was shot down near Kigali. What followed was the collapse of the unstable peace in Rwanda and the Rwandan Genocide, estimated to have claimed between 800,000 and 1,017,100 Tutsi and Hutu victims over 100 days.

Among the first targets of the genocide were Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and 10 Belgian members of the UNAMIR forces. These troops were murdered after handing over their weapons to Rwandan government troops. They were advised to do so by their battalion commander who was unclear on the legal issues with authorising them to defend themselves, even though they had been under fire for about two hours already.

This confusion over legal protocols typified the response of UNAMIR to the escalating chaos. The mission's vague mandate, created under Chapter VI of the UN Charter was unclear about the right to use force, particularly in defence of civilians. The mission's original intention was to oversee the implementation of the Arusha peace agreement. However, by the time of the genocide, the peace agreement was completely irrelevant and UNAMIR was legally powerless.

Frightened by the deaths of their soldiers and aware of the international embarrassment the United States suffered in Mogadishu, Somalia after the civil war there claimed the lives of several American troops (see Battle of Mogadishu), the Belgian government quickly called for the withdrawal of the Belgian contingent of UNAMIR. After the withdrawal of other nations' contingents, UNAMIR was left with 270 soldiers supported by less than 200 local authorities. General Dallaire, despite orders to withdraw from Kigali, refused to abandon the country to the genocide, and remained to lead what forces remained.

Understaffed and abandoned, UNAMIR did the best it could with what forces remained. As individuals and as a group, members of the UNAMIR forces did manage to save the lives of thousands of Tutsis in and around Kigali and the few areas of UN control. General Dallaire requested the immediate insertion of approximately 5,000 troops, but his request was denied.

For the next six weeks, approximately, UNAMIR coordinated peace talks between the Hutu government and the RPF to little avail. Eventually, on 17 May 1994, the UN security council adopted a resolution that would deliver nearly 5,500 troops and much needed personnel carriers and other equipment to UNAMIR. However this and subsequent resolutions were still unclear on the right to use force in stopping the genocide. Unfortunately, in the face of the mayhem in Rwanda and this diplomatic watering down of UNAMIR's mandate, many UN member states delayed contributing personnel for some time, until the main wave of killings ceased.

At the beginning of July, Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh was replaced by Shaharyar Khan of Pakistan as head of UNAMIR.

[edit] After the genocide

In July 1994, the RPF swept into Kigali and ended the genocide that had lasted 100 days, and RPF leader Paul Kagame (who became president several years later -- and still is today -- but effectively controlled the country from July 1994 through the present) reaffirmed his commitment to the Arusha Accords.

In August of 1994, suffering from severe stress, Dallaire was replaced as Force Commander by Major-General Guy Tousignant, also from Canada. In December 1995, Tousignant was replaced by Indian Shiva Kumar.

Following the end of the main killings the challenges for UNAMIR (and the many NGOs who arrived in the country) were to maintain the fragile peace, stabilise the government and, most importantly, care for the nearly 4 million displaced persons in camps within Rwanda, Zaire, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda. The massive camps around Lake Kivu in the north west of Rwanda were holding about 1.2 million people and this was creating enormous security, health and ecological problems.

After the late arrival of the much needed troop support, UNAMIR continued to carry out its mandate to the best of its abilities. In 1996, however, with assertion from the new Rwandese government that UNAMIR had failed in its priority mission, the UN withdrew the UNAMIR mandate on March 8, 1996. In the end, 27 members of UNAMIR - 22 soldiers, three military observers, one civilian police and one local staff - had lost their life during the mission.

Despite the failure of UNAMIR in its main mission, its humanitarian services during the 1994 genocide are recognized to this day as having saved the lives of thousands or tens of thousands of Rwandan Tutsi and Hutu moderates who would have otherwise been killed. However, the actions of the UN in Rwanda (and particularly the Head of Peacekeeping Operations at the time, Kofi Annan) have been used by some as examples of the over-bureaucratic and dithering approach of the UN. (General Dalliare was particularly critical of Annan's performance.)

Countries that contributed troops to UNAMIR throughout its existence were: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, India, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

General Dallaire received the Aegis Trust Award (the first) for his acts of bravery, yet the spectre of his mission's failure haunted him greatly. Having attempted suicide and having not responded to therapy following diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), General Dallaire was medically dismissed from service. In 2004-2005, he was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University, where he was studying and writing about different forms of conflict resolution. On 25 March 2005, he was appointed a Canadian senator, representing Québec as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada; he serves on the committee for Human Rights. He also speaks publicly about his experiences relating to genocide, PTSD and suicide.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

Barnett, Michael. Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda. Cornell University Press, 2002.
Dallaire, Romeo. Shake Hands with the Devil: the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Carroll & Graf, October 10, 2004.