Kibeho Massacre

The Kibeho Massacre cite web | url = http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_15687.asp | title = United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) | work = Australian War Memorial Website | publisher = Australian War Memorial. | accessdate = 2008-09-25] occurred in a camp for internally displaced persons near Kibeho, in south-west Rwanda on April 22 1995. Australian soldiers serving as part of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda consistently estimated at least 4000 people in the camp were killed by soldiers of the military wing of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, known as the Rwandan Patriotic Army. The Rwandan Government's estimate of the number killed was about 330.

History

Following the Rwandan Genocide and the victory by the army of the Tutsi dominated Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), many ethnic Hutus, including an unknown number of those who had committed genocide, (Génocidaires) fled from the RPF controlled areas to zones controlled by the French as part of Opération Turquoise and into the neighbouring states of Burundi, Zaire, and Tanzania. When the French withdrew in August 1994, the administration of a number of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps was taken over by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) and a number of aid organizations. The new Rwandan government, dominated by the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), wished to identify those individuals and Interahamwe militia members in the camps who had committed genocide. [ Later Australian accounts confirm that former Interahamwe militia were armed and active within the camp. See Paul Jordan’s account for example ]

Kibeho Camp

By early 1995, the Kibeho IDP camp was the largest in Rwanda, sprawling for 9 square kilometers and containing between 80,000 and 100,000 people. cite web | url = http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/39/bravery.asp | title = Connor, John: Bravery Under Fire | work = Wartime, Issue 39 | publisher = Australian War Memorial. | accessdate = 2008-09-25] UNAMIR presence at the camp was maintained by a Zambian infantry company, with medical services provided by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The RPA maintained a tight cordon around the camp. Refugees wishing to leave the camp to return home had to pass through a checkpoint, where genocide survivors would point out individuals who had taken part in the 1994 killings. Efforts by UNAMIR to encourage the refugees to return home were generally unsuccessful, as Génocidaires within the camp also actively discouraged this.

In mid April 1995, the new Rwandan government decided to close the camp, with the aim of forcibly separating known Génocidaires from those who would be sent home via a staging camp in nearby Butare. Taken by surprise, UNAMIR hastily dispatched 32 Australian soldiers and medical officers to support its presence in Kibeho, on 18 April. Several days of mounting tension between those in the camp and the RPF soldiers followed, with the RPF firing (at people and into the air) to control and move the refugees into an increasingly smaller area as processing of IDP continued. cite web | url = http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/peacekeeping/anecdotes/kibeho.html | title = Jordan, Paul: Witness to genocide. A personal account of the 1995 Kibeho massacre | work = Website | publisher = ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee (Queensland), 1998, reprinted from Australian Army Journal | accessdate = 2008-09-25 ] One of the Australian medics, Major Carol Vaughan-Evans recalled "I remember getting there four days preceding the massacre and we certainly weren't wanted. The Government forces (RPA) made that very, very clear... They insisted we only treat people who had decided to leave the camp... The government forces were extremely aggressive indicating that if we didnt't empty the hospital they would...(by) killing people who remained" [ http://www.dva.gov.au/commemorations/documents/education/DVA_Women_in_War_part6.pdf ]

Massacre of 22 April

On the morning of 22 April the UNAMIR force discovered about 100 refugees had been wounded or killed in the night. About half of those injured had gunshot wounds, presumably from RPA soldiers, the remainder machete wounds, presumably from Génocidaires who were “trying to terrorise the refugees into remaining in the camp… so as to provide a human shield”

Not long after 10 am, in heavy rain, RPA forces began firing into the crowd in the hospital compound, causing a stampede of refugees against razor wire and barricades. RPA forces continued to fire at fleeing refugees for the next two hours. Corporal Paul Jordan wrote “we watched (and could do little more) as these people were hunted down and shot.” The MSF and Australian medical teams struggled to cope with the large numbers of wounded, many of whom were later evacuated to Kigali hospital. Despite this, the medical teams continued their work while the infantry sections brought in wounded to the clearing station and hospital, during breaks in the firing. During the morning the hospital was also moved, under fire, into the Zambian compound. Firing continued intermittently throughout the day. Jordan recalls seeing people being “killed all over the camp.” The RPA also directed automatic rounds, rocket propelled grenades and .50 calibre machine gun fire at another wave of IDP who tried to break out after 5.00 pm.

On 23 April, Australian military teams were tasked to count the dead. Over 4000 dead were counted in the areas to which they had access, and they noted evidence that unseen bodies had already been removed Terry Pickard's account states the RPA forced Australians to stop counting bodies "when they realised what was going on". [ Pickard, T. (2008) "Combat Medic: An Australian Eyewitness Account of the Kibeho Massacre" Big Sky Publishing, Australia. ISBN 9780 9803251 26 ]

Possible causes of the massacre

British writer Linda Melvern recently observed that after the victory of the RPF, “there were revenge killings and executions. The ranks of the RPF, some of whose entire families had been wiped out, had been swollen by new recruits who were less disciplined”. Melvern, L. (2006) "Conspiracy to Murder; The Rwandan Genocide".p.250. Verso, London. ISBN 1844675424 ] Melvern also suggests that one of the immediate security priorities of the new RPF-dominated Rwandan Government was to address the threat posed by extremists and former militia who were in the IDP camps. “Extremists among the exiled local officials and militia quickly established their authority and controlled the camps’ populations.” One Australian account has described the cause of the massacre on 22 April in a similar context;

cquote| As the processing slowly continued, people became very weary and restless. One casualty we received later told us they had been so crowded in by the RPA, without food or water, that they had been barely able to sit. The Interahamwe leaders in particular began to become concerned… as imprisonment or execution were very real possibilities for them. As a result, they began to harass the people and then to attack the crowd with machetes. Their reasons were probably two-fold - to create a diversion in order to escape and to silence potential informers. Whatever the reason, this resulted in panic amongst the crowd which began pushing against the RPA cordon. The RPA soldiers, fearing a riot, began to shoot into the crowd and soon most joined in, firing indiscriminately.Their motive soon became less crowd control and more revenge [ http://warriordoc.com/rwanda/kibeho.htm ]

An account by US Defence Attache Lieutenant Colonel Thomas P. Odom, also described the cause in the same way; "Hard-liners (in the camp) drove other IDPs like cattle to try and break through RPA lines and the RPA commander lost control of the situation. His report adds; "the camp was heavily populated by people "involved in the 1994 genocide... and ... was an active insurgent base." Odom uses the UN estimate of 2000 killed. [ http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/swjmag/v5/odom.htm ]

Consequences of the massacre

Both Rwandan government and UN officials minimized the numbers killed, giving public estimates of 330 and 2000 killed respectively. However, a series of photos taken by UN Provost Marshal Mark Cuthbert-Brown show some of the extent of the massacre on the morning of 23 April, as Zambian troops commenced moving bodies. [ http://www.pbase.com/kleine/image/50507519 ] Human Rights Watch reports the Rwandan government called for "an investigation by an international commission, but they have not published the results of their own investigations." [ http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/WR96/Africa-08.htm] The event was subsequently portrayed by some as a deliberate act by the RPF dominated Rwandan government, or as a massacre carried out at the orders of Rwanda's then Minister for Defence Paul Kagame. [See http://arnaudemmanuel.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/rwanda-rpf-crimes/ for example] There is however, no evidence of this.

Four Australians were awarded the Medal for Gallantry for their distinguished service at Kibeho, the first awarded to Australians since the Vietnam War; Corporal Andrew Miller, Warrant Officer Rod Scott, Lieutenant Thomas Tilbrook and Major Carol Vaughan-Evans [ http://wopared.parl.net/house/info/votes/38/RVPF110.pdf ] . All available accounts indicate that the small Australian team found the event deeply distressing, and were frustrated both by being unable to encourage many of the IDP to return home before the massacre and being helpless to prevent it once it was underway. However, most commentaries show a strong sense of awareness that the Australian actions helped reduce the numbers killed and wounded. Writing in the Australian Army Journal, Paul Jordan, has said that: “While there was little that we could have done to stop the killings, I believe that, if Australians had not been there as witnesses to the massacre, the RPA would have killed every single person in the camp.”

References

External Links

*http://www.pbase.com/kleine/cuthbertbrown_kibeho Photos of Kibeho IDP camp, Rwanda, April-May 1995 through the lens of Mark Cuthbert-Brown, Provost Marshal of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda. Pbase.com - Warning - very shocking images

*http://www.defence.gov.au/news/armynews/editions/1105/features/feature02.htm Includes short clip of Kibeho IDP camp.

*http://www.doctorswithoutborders-usa.org/publications/reports/before1999/deadlock_1995.cfm Deadlock in the Rwandan Refugee Crisis: Repatriation Virtually at a Standstill, Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), July 1995

*http://www.artequity.com.au/newsletter/Exhibitions/Exhibitions%202006/GeorgeGittoesThePreacher.htm Official Australian War Artist George Gittoes’ artwork from Rwanda.

*http://www.australiansatwar.gov.au/throughmyeyes/pk_cuf.asp Major Carol Vaughan-Evans short interview on the massacre

*http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_1869.asp Australian veterans remember Rwanda