Its an interesting theory to pose. Would Executive Outcomes have been able to turn around the end result of the Rwandan Civil War? If so, would the Rwandan Genocide have been completed to a much larger degree?
The Habyarimana government was on shaky ground and only repelled the two previous invasions of Rwanda by the RPF with some luck (the first one because the RPF lost its leader early on in combat and had command disarray, while the second one mostly just because the prospects for further RPF advance were limited even though they had won the border skirmishes decisively, and FAR could not assail the RPF's mountainous strongholds).
The expansion of the army in response to the war was somewhat disastrous, as their officer corps could not handle the large number of new recruits, and the aid that the French provided only went so far. In the runup to the final phase of the Rwandan Civil War, FAR was in a weak state, with the growing extremism of Hutu politics causing further issues in diverting attention away from the task at hand.
So my question is whether the Rwandan Government could have hired Executive Outcomes to put some specialized experience in their attempted defense, and whether that would have made a difference after the shootdown of the President's plane. Its not clear how much EO could do in terms of the ground combat issues that FAR faced, but having helicopter gunships could have squashed much of the RPF's initial advances, I think.
And if they were able to stop the RPF advance, what would happen once it was clear that EO would be on the same side as the Genocidaires? Would they terminate the contract, or would the UN try to work through them, as they did with the Belgian relief force that briefly came into the country?
The Habyarimana government was on shaky ground and only repelled the two previous invasions of Rwanda by the RPF with some luck (the first one because the RPF lost its leader early on in combat and had command disarray, while the second one mostly just because the prospects for further RPF advance were limited even though they had won the border skirmishes decisively, and FAR could not assail the RPF's mountainous strongholds).
The expansion of the army in response to the war was somewhat disastrous, as their officer corps could not handle the large number of new recruits, and the aid that the French provided only went so far. In the runup to the final phase of the Rwandan Civil War, FAR was in a weak state, with the growing extremism of Hutu politics causing further issues in diverting attention away from the task at hand.
So my question is whether the Rwandan Government could have hired Executive Outcomes to put some specialized experience in their attempted defense, and whether that would have made a difference after the shootdown of the President's plane. Its not clear how much EO could do in terms of the ground combat issues that FAR faced, but having helicopter gunships could have squashed much of the RPF's initial advances, I think.
And if they were able to stop the RPF advance, what would happen once it was clear that EO would be on the same side as the Genocidaires? Would they terminate the contract, or would the UN try to work through them, as they did with the Belgian relief force that briefly came into the country?
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