Thirty years ago, Rwanda’s government began a campaign to eradicate the country’s largest minority group. In just one hundred days in 1994, roving militias killed around eight hundred thousand people. Would-be killers were incited to violence by the radio, which encouraged extremists to take to the streets with machetes. The United Nations stood by amid the bloodshed, and many foreign governments, including the United States, declined to intervene before it was too late. What got in the way of humanitarian intervention? And as violent conflict now rages at a clip unseen since then, can the international community learn from the mistakes of its past?
Featured Guests:
Claude Gatebuke (Executive Director, African Great Lakes Action Network)
David Scheffer (Senior Fellow for International Law and Criminal Justice, CFR)
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/remembering-rwandan-genocide