The Design of Absent Crisis: The Clinton Administration on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Despite the attempts that would later be made by the United States, and President Clinton during his remaining tenure to rectify the situation in Rwanda, by the time Tutsi Rebel forces, the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) would capture Kigali on July 4, 1994, the damage was already done. Estimates for those killed in the Rwandan genocide span from eight hundred thousand to one million lives lost. In the West, the figure is generally accepted to be approximately eight hundred thousand; either scope is staggering for the mere one hundred days the conflict lasted, and in a nation of just ten million people. As the slaughter carried on through the summer, the Clinton administration refused to budge from its predetermined position as an outlier to assist a country with little hope of saving itself before it was too late for hundreds of thousands of it citizens. As a result of earlier foreign policy struggles in Somalia, and Haiti, the Clinton administration’s policy toward Rwanda was rendered non-existent out of fear these prior mistakes would haunt them. Instead, however, the Clinton administration’s failure to stop the tragedies in Rwanda became the third, and arguably most lasting, foreign policy failure during his first term of office, and according to Clinton himself, “one of the greatest regrets” of his entire Presidency (Clinton, 2004,593).

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1.) There is strong debate among scholars as to whether the Hutu and the Tutsi actually constitute two distinct “ethnic groups” versus separate castes within the Rwandan class system. However, for the sake of simplicity and the limited focus within this piece on Rwanda’s history, the Hutu and the Tutsi will be referred to as separate “ethnic groups” throughout with the presumption that their identities as respective members of groups sharing a unique heritage and experience within Rwandan history is a sufficient qualifier.

2.) European scientists of the day put an exceptional emphasis on the size of noses. The measurement of a Rwandan’s “nasal index” was though to be one of the most accurate ways of determining whether one was Hutu or Tutsi. “The median Tutsi nose was found to be about two and a half millimeters loner and nearly five millimeters narrower than the median Hutu nose” (Gourevitch, 1998, 56).

3.) During the Rwandan Civil War, Uganda became a common destination for Tutsi refugees seeking political asylum, as well as the chance to organize with the National Resistance Movement in opposition to the “Hutu Power” ideology.

4.) For these purposes, interests may be understood to include economic stake in the success of a nation, or loyalty that stemmed from the ties of an official diplomatic alliance.

5.) The high illiteracy rate among Rwanda’s population makes radio a favored form of media to this day.