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April 21
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A Rwandan human rights activist traveled to Washington.
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She'd been smuggled out of Kigali after a harrowing ordeal.
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Monique Mujawamariya came to tell American officials what was happening in her country
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and ask for stronger U.S. action.
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MONIQUE MUJAWAMARIYA, Human Rights Activist:
The first person who I met when I arrived in the United States was Anthony Lake,
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who at the time was national security adviser.
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I will always remember him.
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He was very pleased to see me.
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ANTHONY LAKE:
Well, I met with Monique and was moved
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and terrified for her by her story of barely escaping, hiding in the attack for a while and then getting out.
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MONIQUE MUJAWAMARIYA:
I think he was partly affected by what was happening in Rwanda.
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But as a government official, he was not ready to take action.
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He didn't want to.
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ANTHONY LAKE:
And it's not that I didn't care,
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it's that any caring wasn't translated into any focus, any attention really. On something like this, it would have taken quite a push.
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And there's no question in my mind that, in the end, the president would have had to push it.
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MONIQUE MUJAWAMARIYA:
A congressional official responsible for Africa gave me an explanation which was discouraging but also enlightening.
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He said, "Listen, Monique, the United States has no friends.
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The United States has interests. And in the United States, there is no interest in Rwanda.
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And we are not interested in sending young American Marines to bring them back in coffins.
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We have no incentive."
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As Monique lobbied Washington, America and the entire U.N. Security Council voted to withdraw 90 percent of the peacekeepers in Rwanda.
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This was the compromise Madeleine Albright had argued for.
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At least a token force was allowed to remain.
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MADELEINE ALBRIGHT:
It was... it was a very difficult time, and the situation was unclear.
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You know, in retrospect, it all looks very clear.
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But when you were at the time, when it was unclear about what was happening in Rwanda,
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it was very clear that Congress was not supportive of additional peacekeepers,
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very clear that the Pentagon was not interested in getting deeply involved.
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INTERVIEWER:
What was your gut feeling about the effectiveness of that force that was being left behind?
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MADELEINE ALBRIGHT:
Well, I think that my gut feeling was that it couldn't do what it had to do.
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Maj. BRENT BEARDSLEY :
It was like the world had disappeared out there.
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The world just didn't care.
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And it made no difference what you said or how you said it.
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We could have packed up dead bodies, put them on-- flown to New York, walked into the Security Council and dumped them on the floor
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in front of the Security Council, and all that would have happened was we would have been charged for illegally using a U.N. aircraft.
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They just didn't want to do anything.
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Gen. ROMEO DALLAIRE:
"Forget any idea that somebody's going to come and help you, Dallaire,"
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"or your forces, and that we're going to actually do something positive."
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"We're just going to continue the movement that the Belgians have started of withdrawing and withdrawing and pulling out."
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That scenario brought an enormous gloom
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because there's no cavalry coming over the hill.
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General Dallaire was left in Kigali with only 450 ill-equipped troops from developing countries.
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Now he faced the moral burden of bearing witness to a genocide without the means to stop it.
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PHILIPPE GAILLARD:
He was abandoned by his own organization.
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This is terrible.
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To be abandoned by his own organization, it's terrible.
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I was always supported.
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It's a big difference, a huge difference.