I was not to know that the end of the genocide would actually be the beginning of my own nightmare. I use the word advisedly; my petty troubles were nowhere on the scale of Rwanda.

Rwanda, in the first weeks after the genocide, was a country devastated. Vast parts of it were totally empty. The reason was simple. After the fall of Kigali, faced with increasing military…

Though the Genocide officially ended on 18 July 1994, it was on July 4 that the RPF captured Kigali and the killings more or less stopped. By that date, more than eight hundred thousand Tutsi and fifty thousand moderate Hutu lives had been sacrificed to the genocide. 

Only remaining to be murdered were a few thousand Tutsis who had been hiding in the areas that fell under French control…

By now, more than eight hundred thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed. Another fifty thousand were still to die before the genocide was finally brought to a halt.

The United Nations expected to complete the first phase of the UN military operation in week one of July 1994. But the Security Council were informed by the Secretary General that a date couldn’t be set for…

As we walked into the undergrowth, Rwandan Rebel Lieutenant Fiacre asked me: “Why are you here?  Why didn’t you leave with all the others?” …

The others?I pointed out that a number of us had remained behind.

“But for what purpose?” Fiacre insisted. “So you can witness the results of your cowardice? So your conscience can be cleared simply by being present? At…

By day seventy of the Genocide seven hundred and fifty thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed.

In mid-June 1994, the Security Council adopted resolution 925, which endorsed the deployment of a UN military force under a mandate expanded and extended until December 1994. Member states were urged to respond promptly to a request for resources. The Council noted that the expanded…

By day sixty day of the Genocide more than seven hundred thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed.

In the very first days of June the Security Council was presented with the conclusions of the special mission that the Secretary General had sent to the region between 22 and 27 May, under the leadership of his Chief of Staff, Iqbal Riza. The report, the…

On the very last day of May, Captain Mbaye was driving back to UN headquarters, when a mortar shell landed behind his jeep. 

Shrapnel entered through the back window and hit Mbaye in the head, killing him instantly. The mortar had been one of the many fired by RPF forces at the Rwandan Army checkpoint.

Gromo made it to UN headquarters just as Captain Mbaye’s body arrived…

By day fifty of the Genocide some six hundred thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed, and many others were in hiding.

On returning from his mission to Rwanda, the High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a report to the Security Council.  He had travelled to Kigali and Byumba, and had spoken to representatives of both the interim government and…

By day forty, while the world body argued over semantics, close to half a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed. More than a million people had been made homeless.

The efforts to produce a Presidential Statement in April had highlighted the differing positions on Rwanda and the political interests behind them.  After the Presidency passed from New…

Florence was now sheltering eighteen people, and the conditions in her house had become intolerable. She made desperate telephone calls to the U.N. for help. And finally, in mid-May, Gromo Alex got the go-ahead from the UN to dispatch an armed personnel carrier to evacuate her. The operation was scheduled for the morning of 16 May. In total secrecy,…

By day thirty, approximately 300 thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus had already been murdered.

It is only towards the last days of April that the UN Security Council received from the UN Secretariat the much-anticipated report on options for the UN mission. Following the withdrawal of the Belgian contingent, the UN mission was down from its initial 2500 men to 1700…

By day twenty of the genocide more than one hundred thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus - men, women and children alike - had been murdered. 

Within the UN Security Council the mass killings were a continuing subject of discussion[1]. The picture was confused. The long-awaited report from the UN Secretariat had yet to appear. The only information provided by the UN Secretariat…

Working closely with Captain Mbaye, Gromo moved those Tutsi UN staff and their families who were located in the most isolated parts of the capital to the households of other UN staff. Florence took in a great many. Gromo was at pains to ensure that the houses were adequately supplied.

And then one morning, Gromo came to see Florence. He had trouble holding back his tears…

The days turned into weeks but the violence was far from dying down. The targeted political killings that dominated the first hours were supplemented by the frenzied involvement of the Hutu population in the murder of all Tutsis, whatever their politics. Day and night, there was the unrelenting sound of whistles, screams and shouts. It was now impossible…

Between day one and day ten of the Genocide more than thirty thousandpeople -Tutsis and moderate Hutus - had been killed.

In April 1994 the UN Security Council consisted of five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the UK and the US), five members who were starting their second year (Brazil, Djibouti, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Spain), and five new members…

In those early days of the genocide, it couldn’t have been a simple matter to induce individuals to kill. Those many involved in the killings in Kigali were city dwellers, who would have had few opportunities to participate in the preparatory phase of the genocide. Interahamwe militia leaders would have had to keep a close eye on their men to ensure…

The event that triggered the Rwandan Genocide occurred between 20h00 and 21h00 on the evening of 6 April 1994. A Dassault Falcon plane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was struck just as it was making its final approach onto the runway of Kigali airport. The first surface-to-air missile tore off a wing. The second missile hit the tail. The plane burst into…