Left Behind: Rwandan Genocide April 9 to 10th 1994

Between April 9th and 10th foreign nationals were evacuated from Rwanda. It was not in their best interests to stay in what was quickly descending into a war. Peace at Arusha now meant nothing, the world left the Rwandans to face the music. The picture above shows a scene in the movie "Hotel Rwanda" starring Don Cheadle as Paul Resesebagina, a hotel manager who manged to save lives by housing them in his hotel.

Here is an excerpt of the transcript from the documentary Ghosts of Rwanda produced by PBS:

"Overnight, 1,000 French and Belgian paratroopers had arrived without warning, seizing Kigali airport. These troops were not under U.N. command. Their mission was solely to get the expatriates out. Dozens of journalists had arrived with the new troops. They traveled with Belgian soldiers to Kigali's psychiatric hospital, where the Western staff was trapped. On the way in, they drove past the Interahamwe waiting outside.

Tutsis emerged from the hospital building, where they'd been hiding for three days. They said they were surrounded by the militias, that some of them had already been killed. When it was clear the soldiers weren't going to help, the refugees appealed to the journalists.

KATELIJNE HERMANS, Belgian Television: There was a whole group of people, but in the whole group, one woman started to speak and started to explain why they were afraid and what was happening to them. And she started begging us to take her and the others with us. She was speaking to me, a woman to a woman, saying, "I'm afraid. Please help me!" And we were just listening to her, and we couldn't do anything. At that moment, we thought we couldn't do anything, just listen and say "Yes."

So we left. For the white people, it's over, but we knew the hundreds that stayed. And we heard the shooting at the moment we left. So it was clear for me that hell starts for them.

NARRATOR: All Western troops and U.N. peacekeepers were under orders not to evacuate ordinary Rwandans."




So seizing the airport was easy enough. There was a chance that these paratroopers could have played a part in stopping the crimes that would follow. The murderers saw the last hope for their targets abandon them, and so they were further emboldened.