are available online. The key documents of the period have been collected in the United Nations and Rwanda: 1993–1996.16 Internal UN documents are not available. For what was happening within UN institutions, within the OAU, or in African capitals, this study has relied largely on the reports of the US Mission to the United Nations in New York and the US embassies in Addis Ababa, Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Kigali, Kinshasa, and Nairobi. I also drew information from conversations with key actors and from my own experiences at the time.17
Drawing from the documentary record, this study looks at international efforts at conflict resolution in Rwanda from 1990 to 1996, with an emphasis on international engagement within the Arusha political negotiations of 1992–1994. As background to that narrative, I first review the historic roots of the Rwandan conflict, look at structures of international intervention that sought to mitigate that conflict, and anticipate the effect of international humanitarian intervention.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I must thank those who made this study possible. The United States Institute of Peace and Spring Arbor University gave grants of money and of time to pursue the initial research. Diplomats on three continents offered their time and insight in interviews. William Ferroggiaro graciously shared his documents to help kick-start my own research.
Honor is due the “Life Cycle” staff of the State Department’s Office of Information Programs and Services, who worked my many requests for declassification through the complicated process that turns classified documents into public record. Those stalwarts included Behar Godaine, Connie Cook, Jane Diedrich, Alden Fahy, Margaret Hardrick, Erin McClinn, Sayo Obayomi, Omolola Oyegbota, Rosemary Reid, Alice Ritchie, and Margaret Scholl.
I pay tribute as well to the distinguished diplomats Charles Daris, Harmon Kirby, John Mills, and Norman Shaft, who read through these documents, appropriately releasing what the law allowed and excising what was still not open to public purview.
My dear wife, Sandra, brought to this lengthy exercise patience with my dithering, critical assessment of the text, and an eagle eye for gratuitous errors.
Margery Boichel Thompson, publishing director and series editor of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), has shown patience and perseverance in finding an appropriate publishing house for this study. My thanks also go to ADST for adopting my book for its Diplomats and Diplomacy Series.
At Ohio University Press, Gillian Berchowitz, director and editor in chief, and Ricky Huard, acquisitions editor, had the courage to take on this project. Nancy Basmajian led the editorial staff in the difficult task of turning a belabored manuscript into a readable book.
Finally, I should recognize the unknown peer reviewers for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and Ohio University Press for their encouraging praise and keen suggestions, which added depth and clarity to my efforts in telling the story of the Rwandan political negotiations, a prelude to genocide.
ABBREVIATIONS
| APROSOMA | Association for the Social Promotion of the Masses |
| ARDHO | Rwandan Association for the Defense of Human Rights |
| CDR | Coalition for the Defense of the Republic |
| CEPGL | Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries |
| CND | National Development Council (the Rwandan parliament, 1976–1993) |
| FAR | Rwandan Armed Forces |
| FDC | Democratic Forces for Change |
| GOR | Government of Rwanda |
| ICTR | International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda |
| MDR | Democratic Republican Movement |
| MRND | Revolutionary National Movement for Development |
| OAU | Organization of African Unity |
| PADER | Rwandan Democratic Party |
| PARERWA | Rwandan Republican Party |
| Parmehutu | Party of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Hutu |
| PDC | Christian Democratic Party |
| PDI | Islamic Democratic Party |
| PECO | Green Party |
| PL | Liberal Party |
| PSD | Democratic Social Party |
| PSR | Rwandan Socialist Party |
| RADER | Rwandan Democratic Rally |
| RPA | Rwandese Patriotic Army |
| RPF | Rwandese Patriotic Front |
| RTLM | Free Radio-Television of the Thousand Hills |
| SRSG | Special Representative of the Secretary General |
| UNAMIR | United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda |
| UNAR | Rwandan National Union |
| UNOMUR | United Nations Observer Mission Uganda/Rwanda |
PRELUDE TO GENOCIDE
Rwanda, prior to 2006 change in subdivisions. Based on map by United Nations Geospatial Information Section, no. 3717 Rev. 7 December 1997
INTRODUCTION
Like most conflicts, the Rwandan civil war and attendant genocide are not easily confined within brackets of time. This study looks at the period of conflict in Rwanda from the incursion of the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) on October 1, 1990, until the April 6, 1994 downing of President Habyarimana’s plane. This event relaunched the civil war and opened the door to genocide, bringing the Arusha peace process to an untimely end. An epilogue brings forward the implications of this period for the genocide and subsequent events in Rwanda.
In this introduction, I review perspectives on the Arusha negotiations found in current literature, recount the antecedents of the Rwandan conflict, and pose the question of why humanitarian intervention failed. Subsequent chapters seek the answers to that question in a story that follows the international intervention against the backdrop of political negotiations in Arusha and political wrangling in Kigali. In that narrative, the arc of humanitarian intervention confronts questions that are customarily faced in international interventions as well as questions that reflect the peculiarities of the Rwandan context. A notation of conflict-resolution issues at stake and an inventory of lessons learned thus bookend each chapter.
