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April 21, 1994
President Clinton
The White House
Dear Mr. President:
My country and I have suffered grievously since last
December when you spoke so many kind words about me at the White
House. I am sure that you know that tens of thousands of
Rwandans have been summarily executed over the last two weeks,
since a plane bearing President Habyarimana was shot down in
Kigali, the capital city. These killings have been carried out by
the.Presidential Guard and by the militia trained by the
president's political party and its allies in government. I
myself barely escaped from Rwanda with my life, wearing only a
single cloth tied around my body.
Although the situation in Rwanda now seems like anarchy, it
is only a small group of extremists around the late President
Habyarimana who have planned and intensified the massacres. They
have been able to cause a catastrophe of this magnitude because
they were carefully organized and very well armed, and because
they were attacking people who had neither organization nor arms.
This slaughter of the defenseless - which continues even today accompanies but is different from the fighting that has been
going on for some years between the mainly Hutu Rwandan army and
the RPF, the mostly Tutsi rebel movement. Although most of the
victims of the latest massacres are Tutsis, many are children,
women and the elderly, who have never taken up arms against the
government or joined any opposition movement. Among the 1,150
people killed in a church at Musha, 650 were children, according
to the pastor.
The forces of the UN that came to Rwanda to supervise a
ceasefire between the government and the RPF (UNAMIR) are
protecting thousands of Rwandans from a similar fate. They are
guarding 25,000 to 30,000 people in a stadium, a hospital and
other sites in Kigali. These people deliberately sought the
protection of the UN forces, yet the Security Council of the UN
has already withdrawn some soldiers, and is considering
withdrawing those troops who remain in Rwanda. To do so would
deliver these 25,000-30,000 people into the hands of the killers.
.,. I understand concerns about the safety of the.UNAMIR troops.
However, there have been no fatalities among them since the first
day of the violence, when ten Belgian soldiers were killed while
defending the Prime Minister. The RPF has specifically stated .
that it hopes the UNAMIR will stay and that it would not
intentionally fire on them. While attacks by Rwandan any troops
can not be excluded, such an attack is only a possibility; this
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REVIEW AUTHORITY: CHARLES L DARTS
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DATE/CASE ID: 08 OCT 2003 200203643
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possibility must be weighed against the near certainty that the
tens of thousands of Rwandans now in their care will be
slaughtered if they leave.
Withdrawal or reduction of UN forces in Rwanda would also
seriously weaken any effort by the international community to
persuade those who are carrying out these massacres that their
strategy for taking power will fail.
The extremists from President Habyarimana's circle know they
must - depend upon international assistance in the future if they
are to survive as a government. All international donors must
therefore forcefully and unanimously convince them that any hope
for such aid is futile. But these declarations will not be
credible if at the same time the UN withdraws or reduces its
troops. Such a withdrawal or reduction will only show that the
international community is willing to turn its back on these
horrendous crimes against humanity and will suggest to the
killers that at some time in the future the killers will be
accepted into that community.
If the UN lacks the will or the courage to maintain its
concrete -resistance against these killers, what is to stop them
from destroying every single person who has ever opposed them and
every single Tutsi in the country. Their campaign is genocide
against the Tutsis. The US, like many other countries, has a
moral and legal treaty obligation to "suppress and prevent"
genocide.
Mr President, I appeal to you to act immediately to ensure a
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continued and effective peacekeeping force in Rwanda
Sincerely,
Monique Mujawamariya
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