Rwanda: WI Bill Clinton listened

MacCaulay

Banned
I heard a story once told by a French Legionary who was in Rwanda that his unit (I think it was a company of airborne infantry acting as advisors) wanted to go out and put a stop to the genocide once the balloon went up, but the UN wouldn't let them and the French government wouldn't override the UN. Afterwards the man walked through one of the killing fields, knee high in body parts and blood.

I can't blame him for following orders, but I really wish the unit had gone out and done the job anyway. It would've prevented one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century.

The French were there for rather different reasons than the UN. Where Belgian, Ghanaian, Bangladeshi, and (small amounts of) Canadian soldiers were there under UNAMIR auspices as peacekeepers, the French were there as military advisors to one of the regimes in place.

That was one large reason the French weren't ever looked at as the anchor force: had the UN selected as it's main peacekeepers the same group that was arming and training one of the parties to the conflict then the Arusha Accords might as well have not been signed.

Also...Namaste, don't be douchey.
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
I heard a story once told by a French Legionary who was in Rwanda that his unit (I think it was a company of airborne infantry acting as advisors) wanted to go out and put a stop to the genocide once the balloon went up, but the UN wouldn't let them and the French government wouldn't override the UN. Afterwards the man walked through one of the killing fields, knee high in body parts and blood.

I can't blame him for following orders, but I really wish the unit had gone out and done the job anyway. It would've prevented one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century.

Let's not forget that AFTER the genocide France swooped in to cover the retreat of the Genocidaires and the Interahamwe prompting the start of the Congo Wars.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Let's just let this thread die. Please...

...if someone knew wanders in here: just look at the other pages. I think we covered everything already.
 

burmafrd

Banned
This is one of those tragedies that because of when and where it happened was going to happen no matter what UNLESS there are LARGE timeline changes.
 
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