On Anniversary of Rwandan Genocide, Bill Clinton’s Words Ring Hollow [View all]

[Divernan]

This powerful HuffPo article condemns Bill Clinton & his administration for his actions in pushing to remove 90% of the United Nations peace-keeping force, and watering down the mandate of those remaining from peace keeping to merely observing. It is written by two black survivors of the Rwandan genocide & war. They have impeccable credentials. I would have preferred to post this in the AA forum but have been banned from there. Will any of their approved members cross-post this article? I hope they do, and look forward to their comments on this article and the role Bill Clinton played. The article points out that "first lady Hillary Clinton" joined Bill in visiting the State Department to congratulate its task force on evacuating white Americans. As the authors forcefully point out, Rwandan black lives didn't matter to the Clintons.

Alice Gatebuke is a Rwandan genocide and war survivor, Cornell University graduate, and a human rights advocate. She serves as the communications Director for AGLAN. She can be reached at [e-mail].

Claude Gatebuke is a Rwandan war and genocide survivor. He is the executive director and co-founder of the African Great Lakes Action Network. He can be reached via email at [e-mail], Facebook at the African Great Lakes Action Network (AGLAN) page, and on Twitter @AGLANglr.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-gatebuke/on-22nd-anniversary-rwandan-genocide-bill-clinton_b_9677440.html

During the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, President Bill Clinton and members of his administration pushed for the reduction of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda from over 2,500 troops to 270, with the remaining troops’ mandate being reduced to a mere observers’ role. The U.S. government evacuated foreign (read: white) personnel from Rwanda, and pretty much ensured the total success of the 100-day slaughter that occurred. President Clinton later told Rwandans that he “did not act quickly enough after the killing began” in his 1998 address in Rwanda.

President Clinton did not fail to act as he told the world then. Actually, he actively pushed for a particular course of action. The genocide began after the April 6 assassinations of the Rwandan and Burundian presidents. By April 11, U.S. government and foreign personnel were successfully evacuated from Rwanda. Once the evacuations were completed, President Clinton, along with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, “visited the State Department task force in charge of evacuating American citizens to congratulate them on finishing their job.” President Clinton’s administration then strongly and successfully pushed for the reduction and evacuation of the peacekeeping force, by April 21, 1994.

On the day the Rwandan Genocide is generally commemorated, former President Clinton’s words rang hollow both in material and delivery. Instead, they conjured up images, of white foreigners being evacuated from Rwanda to safety at the outset of the genocide. The rest of us, the innocent civilians, were provided with neither the option of evacuation, nor the decency of protection, but were left, amidst a bloody war and genocide, come what may.

What about our black lives made them immaterial to President Clinton and his administration? The cynicism of his utterance “Black Lives Matter” in Africa juxtaposed to his administration’s comments and actions goes even deeper. In discussions about whether to call the events occurring at the time in Rwanda genocide, Clinton National Security Council staff member Susan Rice, who went on to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., and as current National Security Advisor, said, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”

It is almost impossible to articulate the depth of betrayal felt at this profound sense of political expediency. While our lives were being slaughtered, at least somewhere in the United States, elections were being won. And in exchange, 800,000-1,000,000 casualties of black lives that apparently did not matter more than mid-term elections were lost.