International
Genocide: Senegalese General on how he felt very uncomfortable about abandoning people in danger in 1994
On May 17, Brig Gen El Hadji Babacar Faye, a
retired Senegalese army officer who was in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi, gave a lecture to students of political science and
international law at l'Institut Supérieur de Management (ISM),
in Senegal’s capital, Dakar.
The 61-year-old gave the students a firsthand account of the
horrors Rwanda experienced, dismissed genocide deniers’ narratives and also
explained the complexity of international community systems. The next day, he
accorded The New Times’ James Karuhanga an interview in
which he shed light on, among other things, how the Senegalese contingent’s
daring missions rescued around 600 Tutsi against all odds.
Excerpts:
Please tell us about your first days in Rwanda; when did you
arrive and, what was the situation?
I am a former member of the military contingent deployed in Rwanda
from 1993 to 1994, as military observers. In fact, when I was coming to Rwanda
it was under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
We arrived in Rwanda as a contingent of 30 military observers
coming from Senegal. The first 20 arrived on the 27th of July, and I was
part of the second group which was 10. We arrived on the 4th of August,
the day the Arusha agreement was signed.
Before you arrived, what did you expect?
When I was told that I may be part of the military contingent that
was to be deployed in Rwanda; from the geography I knew Rwanda and Burundi as
small countries with a large population. From there, I went to the information
[desk] to gather more about where I was to deploy.
Looking at the population, I realised there was a conflict between two ethnic groups that live in harsh conditions. Then I tried to check on the sociology and tried to figure out the roots of the conflict but there was really not much. I really came to Rwanda to discover what is going on. We arrived by night, at around 1900 hours, got out of the plane and we were led to the buses and driven to Busogo.
Brig. Gen. El Hadji Babacar Faye,a retired Senegalese general gave
a lecture to students of political science and international law at l'Institut
Supérieur de Management (ISM), in Dakar.Courtesy
We arrived at Busogo at around midnight and we didn’t see much
because we travelled at night. I just noticed that the road was hilly and we
were going up and down. The following day, at breakfast, we started observing
what has happening around us. By afternoon we tried to go out around the camp
and we started seeing a lot of people walking on the road with some bananas and
it was the first time I saw big banana plantains because we don’t have them
here.
Two or three
weeks later, you surely understood what was going on in the country, then?
No. In fact, after we arrived, we got the first briefing the
following day: This is the situation on the field. There is some fighting going
on from time to time. We have a buffer zone around Byumba and, this is the red
zone. Beyond the line of the buffer zone, this is where the warring parties
are.
I arrived the day when the [peace] agreement was signed. I arrived
when it was raining. So, I said, ‘what a good sign! Maybe we could experience
peace.’ And then, some days later, we decide to move. The nearest town was
Gisenyi. We drove to Gisenyi and on the road I saw people walking on the road
and when we arrived at Gisenyi, you see the people very cautious or very
prudent and then we could see the level of confidence.
The retired Senegalese general who served in Rwanda during the
1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Brig. Gen. El Hadji Babacar poses for a group
photo with students and officials after giving a lesson.
In our group, there were some people from the Fulani ethnic group
who really looked like the Tutsi. When it comes to these people, we realised
that those [locals] who looked at them hated them immediately. We noted the
level of hatred [of the Tutsi] that existed there. It is when we started
understanding that any isolated Tutsi, wherever he or she is, may be in danger.
The way they [locals] were speaking to us, looking at us, even refusing to sell
you something at any market was telling.
How did you feel
after observing all that?
We started feeling how the situation is serious. It was in our
mind that we came for peace but when we saw that, we started understanding how
tough our mission could be. We then stayed for one week and started being
deployed. Some of us were sent to Kigali, and then we said we have to implement
the Arusha peace accord.
Therefore, we need to establish our headquarters in the buffer
zone where we can hold meetings to implement what needs to be done. We were
asked to deploy to Kigali and be ready to be redeployed. And I was part of the
team that was later deployed in Kinihira where you have fields of tea and
everything. From Kinihira we got a place where we were holding all meetings
between the [government] ministers and the RPF and then we got the airport and
we could bring people from CND [Conseil national de développement]
and we could do this and that.
We had a lot of meetings but any time we almost got an agreement
with the government that is not in line with the government, it was
systematically violated.
Any examples of
the agreements violated?
For example, when we said we bring the RPF to CND, we had a
calendar. We met and said this, and then the agreement was that we go, escort
them and bring them to CND. But even for our escort to go there they were
blocked. They had to delay for some days and come back. At some point, the
people we were escorting were in jeopardy. We had to be very strong and
determined to succeed.
Finally, we said, it was too dangerous to deal with because if
they [interahamwe and
government forces] come they were strong enough to be able to kill the people
we were supposed to protect. While we were working on this, a decision was
ongoing for the UN to take over the mission.
So, we worked like this until the UN took over on the 1st of
December 1993. We went to Kinihira and changed our
white hats to the blue hats and it was the first mission of UNAMIR [United
Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda].
From you
observations, do you think the Genocide could have been avoided? Did you see
any warning signs of what was about to happen?
When we were with the AU, there was really no force. We were in
fact just a group of military observers but even during this time, there had
been concerning signs that something is happening. There were signs because
almost one week after we came to Kigali, I had been to three missions where
there had seen ceasefire violations.
I went to do the inquiry on who violated the ceasefire in the
region of Byumba. The second one, we had another team which went to inquire
about a killing in a village around Rwamagana. Almost the whole village had
been killed and people dispersed in the countryside; those who were able to
hide. This was the very first sad experience, knowing that if these people are
able to do this, not only is it scaring but it is concerning.
And then we went, under the blue hat, we reported this incident.
At this time we had a strong force comprising very equipped Belgians, and the
Ghanaians, and a company from Tunisia that could guard places like Amahoro
stadium, Hôtel des Mille Collines, some other key places and the headquarters.
The Ghanaian battalion deployed on the buffer zone was able to
control the traffic and people. The Belgian battalion was deployed in Kigali as
a reserve force, ever ready to make the difference on the field. I don’t know
if we could stop [genocide] but the signs that we were experiencing if it could
have made pressure to the government to say that I think we could avoid
something.
But there is something that you should understand; the leadership
of the Interahamwe was
stronger than the governance of the state. It means that at the diplomatic
level, the state could decide something and then the interahamwe chief say
the opposite and it is what he said that would be done.
We lost time before we understood that. We made many mistakes in
the management of the genocide because if we wanted to stop the genocide we
could have talked to the Interahamwe leaders.
It is where we would have put enough pressure; identify who is the leader and
put enough pressure instead of discussing with the government which cannot give
orders to the Interahamwe.
Did you ever
personally interact with some of the interahamwe? How did that happen?
The Senegalese contingent was deployed in very key positions. We
had one intelligence officer and the chief intelligence officer was Senegalese.
He had been able, from time to time, to get in touch with the Interahamwe until
he understood their structure.
One day, my friend who was in [Hôtel des] Mille Collines, Capt.
Mbaye Diagne, planned to take all the Tutsi in Mille Collines to Amahoro
stadium where we were going to hand them over to RPF, and then take all the
dignitaries of the Hutu who were in Amahoro stadium to Mille Collines, the
government side. We got an agreement on that and then we loaded the trucks from
Mille Collines with everyone and then stopped at the gas station down the hill
before you turn to go to the road to CND (currently commonly known as
Sopetrad), the road where Mbaye Diagne was, later, killed.
They were blocked by the Interahamwe who
unloaded the trucks and grouped people in different locations around, ready to
kill them. I was in Meridien hotel where I had taken the laundry for the
General [Roméo Dallaire, Canadian army officer who led the ill-fated UN
peacekeeping mission (1993–94) in Rwanda].
I was his ADC. And I heard Mbaye Diagne calling [on satellite
phone] and say, ‘we are surrounded by the Interahamwe and they
want to kill the people we are transporting.’ I said to my friend, let’s go. We
drove from Meridien (Hotel). I saw a group of Interahamwe on the
road and, they blocked us and asked, ‘what are you going to do there?’ and I
said our friend called us and said he is blocked by Interahamwe.
They [taunted me and] said, ‘what can you do?’ I said, ‘you know
what, instead of killing one Senegalese, I want to give you the opportunity to
have three Senegalese that you can kill.’ They said, ‘ah, it is what you want?
So, go ahead’. I said yes, please, let us go ahead. When I arrived I found two Interahamwe surrounding
Mbaye Diagne, putting a gun on his neck. And he was telling them, ‘vous
êtes des lâches, vous ne jamais tirer’ [you are cowards, you
never shoot]. I just pushed them all. I said, Mbaye Diagne, they are going to
kill you! They are going to shoot you because they are drunk and don’t know
what they are doing.
From the previous interaction one of our officers had with the Interahamwe, he
had been able to reach the chief of the Interahamwe immediately.
I told him ‘you have to come because this [the transfer of people to CND] was
by an agreement with the UN. I said we must get the escort which is the three
APCs with a machine gun.
The préfet also came, on the site,
because we called him along with the member of the government. At the time, our
whole team was led by a Colonel from logistics and not a Colonel from combat.
My specialty was in cavalry. I am a tanker. I told him, ‘Sir, give me
permission for manning our three tanks otherwise we are all going to be
killed.’ I was a Captain. He looked at me and said, ‘please.’
He gave me permission. I communicated on radio to the three
tankers, and told them I am in charge. I said ‘move!’ [gestures showing how he
positioned the tankers to a defensive position]. I said, ‘if these people [Interahamwe]
kill one person, kill every one of them! If we are going to lose the prisoners,
we are going to lose the prisoners and those detaining the prisoners.’ They
were very happy for the order.
They pulled down [gestures showing how the soldiers in each tank
readied for battle] in their tanks, locked the guns and aimed at the Interahamwe.
I said, to the Colonel, we are ready! If they shoot, we are all going to die,
so let’s get ready! There is no chance that we get out of here. And then we
called our colleagues.
And finally we discussed and decided to cancel the operation and resume
another day. Everybody was brought back to the hotel safely. But some of the
people had already been beaten and were bleeding; all to show you the
determination the Interahamwe had. They
would have killed these people. And this is when we really started
understanding the strength of the Interahamwe.
After what you
went through, at some point an order was given for the UN force to pull out.
How did you feel?
In fact, what I was saying; that incident was after those events.
It is why we were not many [peacekeepers] there. On the 7th [of April
1994] there were a lot of signs; weapons were circulating. We could not think
about Genocide. We were thinking about a mass killing but not at the level we
experienced.
And then, on the 7th they killed the Prime Minister Agathe
[Uwilingiyimana]. On the same day they killed 10 Belgian soldiers. Their
commander could not bear this and faced the public opinion of Belgium.
They put pressure on the UN and then they were pulling out.
Belgium was supposed to protect everyone, all the UN agencies in Rwanda,
because the protection force’s mission is to protect UN property and personnel.
When they said that they are pulling out, the UN department of security made an
assessment and said, ‘no, we can no longer stay because the protection force is
not here and everyone who is staying here is under a threat and can be killed.
So, from that perspective, everybody should pull out. We are going to have an
agreement with the government and we will maintain only the necessary people.’
Necessary people
to do what?
Just to monitor and report what is happening.
Meaning you
become observers again?
We become observers but at least we could be able to escort the
journalists and some stakeholders from around the world to show them what is
happening. And to get the necessary pressure at international level to see what
they can do. And then, in the meantime, when they said we pull out, we
decreased from 2,500 to 250 [peacekeepers].
So, how did you
feel about this order to pull out?
When they said they are pulling out, I felt really very
uncomfortable that they are abandoning people in danger. I could not bear the
betrayal. I really felt that we were betraying the people that felt confident
when we arrived, felt confident when we started deploying, felt confident when
we were patrolling and that felt confident when we investigated about some
killings.
They felt that at least justice will be served. That’s where we
were, and then they [UN bosses] said that those who want to stay, it will be on
a voluntary initiative because ‘the UN can no longer protect you. You can be
under UN as long as you are here but if something happens to you, it won’t be
the fault of the UN. You can be compensated and
given everything but the UN wont bear the responsibility for maintaining you in
an environment where it cannot protect you.’
Then the Senegalese contingent lost one member by accident during
the move from Busogo to Kinihira and we were 29. Out of these 29, 25 stayed.
This is why, when you look at what happened, in all the escort missions and
everything, almost all Senegalese were there; the only contingent present in
Rwanda during this period.
And then after that, when we resolved to stay, other Africans also
stayed; the Togolese stayed, the Congolese from Brazzaville stayed, and the
Ghanaian contingent was there also but they pulled back to Kigali to protect
Amahoro stadium and also to be able to reinforce the Tunisians who were
guarding Meridien and Mille Collines hotels. This is what happened. And it is
why the Senegalese contingent saw a lot.
How many of your
Senegalese colleagues are still alive today?
We lost many. In the meantime we are at least 15. During the last
commemoration, two of them were present [in Kigali] and they are still
following what is happening. Another one contacted me recently to say that if
there is any movement to Kigali ‘I would like to go there.’
We still have strong ties with the Rwandan people because we also
have a lot of friends. We have this closeness, and even when I was working
there [in Rwanda] I was almost killed because they [Interahamwe] thought that
I was Tutsi.
How did it
happen?
I had escorted one sister, a nun, to a house of nuns. I was
parking the car at the gate of the sisters in Kacyiru. When I was disembarking,
there were three people standing at the gate. One held a stick and one had a
machete. When I was disembarking with the sister I heard them yell, ‘inyenzi!’
[Kinyarwanda for cockroach. The term was used to dehumanise members of the
Tutsi ethnicity].
I did not say anything. Suddenly the group grew to eight. There
was one with a gun, one with a pistol, three with a machete, three with sticks.
Instead of going to my car, I went to them. I said I am not inyenzi. I am a
Senegalese. You can notice that I am a Senegalese. Maybe you are about to make
a big mistake.
I don’t know what is your plan or what you intend to do but it
should be clear! They said, ‘but we know that RPF infiltrated all of you … they
are among you and they can wear the blue hats …but at least now we can see you
now that you are speaking.’ I said, ‘now that I am speaking and you know can I
go?’ They said I can go, and I said, ‘thank you very much’.
What do you make
of one of the biggest challenges Rwanda faces today; genocide denial and
genocide ideology?
A lot of things happened. There is a narrative but as a military
man I talk by facts. When I was in Rwanda, all those that I saw that were
killed, and they are very many, had all one identity. They were Tutsi. At the
beginning I could not talk about genocide but when we went up to the definition
of it, we experienced genocide.
At some point we were in Kigali and we requested the municipality
to remove all the dead bodies lying on the street during days and months,
because they had killed so many people that they couldn’t remove the bodies. At
one road, we got them to remove dead bodies with huge dump trucks and then we
got the municipality to open a mass grave on the road to Gitarama, from Kigali.
Every day, many trucks offloaded dead bodies. It happened for more
than one week. This, I saw myself. And there is no way you can tell me no
genocide was going on. And then also seeing people on these trucks sitting on the
dead bodies and drinking beer while they are transporting dead bodies, I get
very depressed to say these kinds of things because it was very sad to see this
image. You cannot say this did not happen. I was the ADC of Gen [Roméo]
Dallaire.
We went across the country. At some village, we saw cows and goats
and nobody. I said, no, it was not possible how people cannot be here. And then
we stopped, for curiosity, to look around. And then we saw one building which
looked like a church. The church was full of bodies. They exterminated all [the
people in] the village and put them in the church. Nothing to compare with
happened in Gitarama or Gitega but the same scene, all in one church in a
remote village.
Remember where
that village is located?
Coming from Mulindi, it was really not far from Kigali. And the
Senegalese contingent was [there] up to the 18th of June when France
launched [Operation] Turquoise and we were forced to pull out and go back
because Senegal was part of Turquoise just as Congo, Togo, and others.
So, we had to pull out because we could not be part of Turquoise
and also be part of UNAMIR. When the killings started, Gen. Dallaire had hoped
that maybe with a strong contingent [after the Belgians left] we could stop the
killings. He approached Senegal for it to designate a battalion. I told
Dallaire it was possible we can have a battalion here and they can stop this
thing. And then we contacted the United States which was ready to provide
equipment.
The battalion was to be equipped with the M113, an armored
personnel carrier armed with a very heavy machine gun. I said, with this
battalion, we can stop this. I told Dallaire I am ready to go as squadron
commander with this battalion. But when we came to this decision we were
already in mid-May. We started working on this and, really, I think it was
advancing but sometimes we discussed with people who had another plan. France
was planning to have Turquoise with Senegal, with Togo and others…
France wanted
Senegal to be part of Turquoise? How would that fit in your plan?
Yes! Turquoise was launched by France! But they did not want to go
alone. They took African countries like Senegal, Togo, and Guinea Bissau, to go
with them. But how could Senegal send a battalion to stop the genocide while it
is part of Turquoise? France was very strong in Africa and they had been able
to reverse the decision. So, there was no way for us to succeed. Our plan was
killed. And then we left on the 18th of June. And then Kigali was
liberated on the 4th of July almost.
What do you
think about the Hotel Rwanda film? Do you know what exactly happened at
the hotel in 1994?
For the film, there are two untruths that I note; One; the
evacuation of Mille Collines took place in May whereas the Belgians had left on
April 14. It was made with the support of the Ghanaian battalion. Two; when the
UN asked for the evacuation of the mission all who were mzungus had
left except the staff of General Dallaire and the people who were not Europeans
like the Bangladeshis and the Uruguayans, but especially the Africans: Senegal,
Togo, Congo, Ghana and Tunisia.
The movie has some scenes that are true. And the killings were
almost organized that way. The problem is: who was, in this period, the savior
and who was the saved? At one moment, all those who were mzungu were
supposed to leave and it was very dangerous for them to stay.
And all mzungu was considered
as Belgian because Belgium was considered to be behind the shooting of the
plane. So, when we came to Mille Collines we had some agreement just as we did
with Meridien, and Stade Amahoro, to raise
the flag of the UN and make it a safe place for everyone.
Those we had been able to bring to safety were saved individually
either by Capt Mbaye Diagne or saved by an accord we got by some friends to
bring them in clandestinely or had been wise to run and get there.
The situation was so tense that if you left your house you could
be killed because there was exchange of fire at any moment. In this situation,
you cannot say somebody was heroic and able to go and save people without any
cover. The one who got good cover was Capt Diagne because he was a member of
the UN mission. He could move around with the UN car but even then, to take
people and hide them at Hôtel des Mille Collines, he had to act wise.
It had to be a concealment operation because if it was discovered,
these people would be killed. I was at headquarters with the Force Commander
and I had the only working satellite telephone because I was his ADC.
AS liaison officer, Capt Diagne had a good sense of understanding and
trust with many in the government because of the way he was behaving. He also
had a good rapport with the Interahamwe because
he understood that they were holding the power. So, he was driving in peace
time and come and greets them at the check points and between two check points
he would be asking ‘where is the chief?’ And sometimes he was interacting with
the chief. What Mbaye did was load beer on his car, sometimes whisky,
cigarettes, and sometimes, to some boys, he gave money. They got used to him.
Then they bacame less suspicious when he was driving around. But
when he would drive [around], he was going for reconnaissance most of the time
and it was where he was able to get people, from time to time, to say ‘hello,
how are you? Don’t worry; I am coming this day, this time, to pick you’. And
when they saw him driving around again, at night also, they [interahamwe and
government troops] did not check his car. He was putting people on the car’s
floor and taking them to safety. It was the way he was operating until he was
able to save around 600 people.
And, all his
colleagues knew what he was doing. Right?
I was at headquarters. Every time he succeeded with an operation
he told me. ‘The target is safe’. Until one day he said ‘target is dead.’ And
he was crying. What happened was that there was a lady and her daughter, and he
was signaled that they are somewhere in Nyamirambo. They had been in hiding for
a long time.
Mbaye managed to get through to them and assured them he would
come back for them. Unfortunately, that day, he was followed by an interahamwe
and when he left, they went back and decapitated the lady. When he came back he
found the body in blood. And that night it was very hard to console him.
Another thing is, remember we had Senegalese at the intelligence
liaison office for air regulation. The one who knew about planes coming in and
going out was Senegalese. So, any time we had a group, or sensitive target, we
coordinated with him. He could say ‘I have a plane coming this time tomorrow’
and Mbaye would drive ‘the target’ to the airport to make sure he can fly the
target out of the country to Nairobi. This is how we operated most times.
Have you ever
got in touch with some of the people you rescued?
No. I didn’t until I got this testimony from a lady called
Leatitita. I think it is Leatitia Murekatete. I got her testimony two weeks
before the commemoration on April 7 and I was so surprised that she made this
testimony because since 1994 I did not get in touch with her. She is part of
the 49 people we saved the day of 7th April 1994. Leatitia was my
neighbour. Her son would always come to my house through the metal fence in our
wall partition and he was always crying.
We used to let the boy come by holding him over the fence but one
day I said let’s make a door for him in the fence so he doesn’t need to go over
the fence. This is how the idea of a ‘door’ in the fence started. When we came
in January 1994, there was the African Cup of Nations and we were passionate
football fans.
Her husband was a very good person and he had a parabolic antenna
and then we could catch canal. They opened their living room and told
neighbours to come watch the matches. And then, I said, instead of going out, I
will cut a fence for us at the back of the house and from there we are going
see the match and return home.
And I said to the lady that I think this back door will be good
for us, you never know. Three months later, when Interahamwe came to kill them,
we opened the door in the fence and got all of the family in our house.
Source:
www.newtimes.co.rw