South Africa's 1994 elections were overshadowed by the Rwandan genocide. (Gallo Images/Misha Jordaan)
- South Africa's 1994 elections coincided with the Rwandan genocide.
- The world was eager to hear this heartwarming story about Africa, which at the time was suffering from famine and war.
- It was not just the media that failed Rwanda, but one of those failures shaped Rwanda's own approach to peacekeeping.
Between April 7, 1994 and July 15, 1994, at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in Rwanda.
However, even as the massacres continued, much of the world's attention focused on South Africa, which was undergoing a historic transition from apartheid. In some ways, some say the events in South Africa contributed to the underreporting of events in Rwanda.
South Africa's elections are just around the corner at the end of April, and the preparations have been tense, as has the process of counting votes and forming the country's first democratic government.
On May 10, at the height of the genocide in Rwanda, Nelson Mandela, who attracted worldwide attention, took the oath of office in South Africa.
At the time, Dele Olohede, a now-retired Nigerian journalist, said Africa was starved for good news. Mr Dele Olohede was based in Johannesburg at the time as a correspondent for the US publication Newsday. Therefore, we could not reverse what was happening in South Africa.
Of course, this is not just a piecemeal report from Rwanda.
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“With less than three weeks to go before the South African elections, we started hearing news about a genocide in Rwanda. Well, a genocide of sorts. At the time, no one knew it was a genocide. So our instinct at the time was to focus on 'South Africa because we had a winning story,' he said.
“Most of our stories were about disasters, famine in Somalia, war, and now, finally, what all of us, a certain generation, wanted was white minority rule in every corner of the continent. It seemed like there was a big shift to end it.''For us, it's a much bigger story than what's happening in Rwanda. ”
Mr. Olohede said there were several articles from news agencies, mainly reporting on the situation in Rwanda, such as Reuters, that eventually came to his attention.
He said:
As the scale of the killing became clearer, it became clear that this was no ordinary genocide, but an attempt to exterminate an entire nation. So I switched gears.
Although international media did not pay sufficient attention, some local Rwandan media actively promoted the killings.
Newspapers such as the now-defunct Kangra newspaper spread attacks against the Tutsis, and radio also joined the campaign.
After Mr Mandela took office in South Africa, the focus on Mr Olohede, like others, suddenly changed and he boarded the next plane to Kigali.
But most of the killing had been done by that point.
The general failure wasn't just the media. France acknowledged that it could have stopped the genocide if it had wanted to, and the United States admitted that it had failed to act appropriately. There is still much anger in Rwanda over the dismal failures of the United Nations, with the UN being squarely blamed for allowing the situation to escalate. 1994.
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Brigadier General Patrick Karletwa, head of the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) International Cooperation Force, says Rwanda is determined to do better when it comes to peacekeeping missions anywhere in the world, thanks to its painful experience of being ignored by the United Nations. Ta.
“Today, when you go to theaters with peacekeepers, you never see us hiding behind big walls and barbed wire like in regular UN barracks. Instead, you see us on the brink of extinction.” “You'll see us patrolling routes along villages that are on the verge of destruction. You'll see us escorting women 'to fetch food and water,'” he said. .
“You will see us securing schools and churches. You will not see us hiding. Never.
“So when the people we are supposed to protect are directly threatened, we fight, and when we fight, we fight with real fire.
“It was therefore the inspiration for what became known as the Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians.”
The Principles are a set of 18 non-binding commitments to ensure the effective and thorough protection of civilians in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hans Seidel Foundation. Articles produced through Africa Desk, and the opinions and statements contained herein, do not reflect the opinions and statements of the Hans His Seidel Foundation.
