Word: rwanda
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...Rwanda is an almost perfect example of the problem Clinton's directive addresses. The horrifying slaughter is another explosion in a mainly ethnically based civil war that outsiders understand imperfectly if at all -- and therefore do not know how to solve. No one is even certain what sort of diplomatic efforts might persuade the Rwandan factions to halt the bloodletting. The only obvious alternative to traditional diplomacy would be for a well-equipped army to move into Rwanda -- shooting if necessary -- and force a cease-fire. But no one is volunteering for such an army...
...peacekeeping force already in Rwanda to police an agreement last August for power sharing with Tutsi rebels in the Hutu-led government was hastily reduced from 2,600 to 470 when the massacres began and 10 Belgian blue helmets were killed. The signal sent, says a senior African diplomat, "was, Look, you are on your own. You may do whatever you want...
Sanctions, the response of choice at the U.N., are widely regarded as useless in this case: Rwanda's economy is already destitute, and people are fighting just to stay alive. As the situation worsens, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is looking for about 8,000 troops to send into the country to stop the killing. He has asked the Organization of African Unity to take on the responsibility, but has had no response...
Special envoys are in motion, and humanitarian organizations are pleading for the creation of safe havens for refugees inside Rwanda. But the example of Bosnia's safe areas encourages no one, and the only aid being delivered is to the vast new camps across Rwanda's borders in Tanzania and Burundi. At the U.N., there is only a vague hope for a cease-fire. "We are at a loss to know what to do," says an Asian delegate. The butchery is "inhuman, ghastly," says U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda David Rawson. Still, says another State Department official, "it's not that...
...unspeakable savagery triggered by the death of Rwanda's President ((RWANDA, April 25)) has a cause even more basic than the long-simmering tribal hostility between the Tutsi and Hutu. Rwanda, with low life expectancy, education and GNP, measures high on the index of human suffering. Deprivation, environmental degradation and desperation have exacerbated tribal rivalries and exploded into mass murder. What Rwanda really needs is family-planning educators and providers, along with equal rights for Rwandan women, because when women make the reproductive decision, family size declines. The influence in Rwanda of another male-dominated hierarchy, and an anti-choice...