Washington, DC, June 2, 2014 – Newly-declassified reporting from 1994 by key members of the United Nations Security Council provides a previously unavailable day-by-day narrative of the international response to the Rwandan genocide, including the fateful decision to withdraw UN peacekeepers from the country at the height of the killing.
The National Security Archive at The George Washington University and the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are publishing a selection of the revealing cables on their Web sites today and tomorrow. The posting is the eighth in a series by the “#Rwanda20yrs” project, a partnership between the Archive and the Center to mark the twentieth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda.
The diplomatic cables, which supplement previously released United States and United Nations telegrams, show that non-aligned states led by Nigeria attempted to strengthen the UN peacekeeping force, known as UNAMIR, but failed to provide the required resources. The United States and other permanent members of the Security Council were scarred by the murders of UN peacekeepers in both Rwanda and Somalia, and unwilling to take any action that might prove unpopular domestically. FULL STORY