Remembers the victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and pledges to work to ensure that such an atrocity does not take place again.
Acknowledges: (1) that the international community, including the United States, failed the people of Rwanda while hundreds of thousands of civilians were being killed; and (2) the heroic work of many individuals and human rights organizations for their campaign to help stop the genocide.
Supports assistance to the survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
Urges political and financial support for the Gacaca courts.
Expresses deep appreciation to General Romeo Dallaire for his efforts to stop the genocide and for helping many Rwandese civilians.
Urges the creation of a bi-partisan Commission of Inquiry for Rwanda to investigate the role of the United States prior to and during the Rwandan genocide.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 88 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 88
Remembering the victims of the genocide that occurred in 1994 in Rwanda
and pledging to work to ensure that such an atrocity does not take
place again.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 9, 2005
Mr. Payne (for himself, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr.
Grijalva, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Brady of
Pennsylvania, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Ms. Carson, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Jackson
of Illinois, Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, Ms. Millender-McDonald, Ms.
Norton, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Owens, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Ms.
Watson, Mr. Lantos, Ms. Lee, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. McCollum of Minnesota,
Mr. Meeks of New York, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Evans,
Mr. Tancredo, Mr. Faleomavaega, and Mr. Brown of Ohio) submitted the
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Remembering the victims of the genocide that occurred in 1994 in Rwanda
and pledging to work to ensure that such an atrocity does not take
place again.
Whereas in August 1993, the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana and the
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) signed a peace agreement, paving the way
for a power-sharing arrangement and the return of Rwandan refugees to
their country;
Whereas shortly after signing the peace agreement, President Habyarimana
deliberately and systematically delayed the setting up of the coalition
government as agreed to by the parties, expanded the training of
extremist groups, and intensified hate radio through Radio Mille
Collines;
Whereas as part of the Arusha Accords the United Nations agreed to deploy 2,500
peacekeeping troops, known as the United Nations Mission in Rwanda
(UNAMIR);
Whereas according to a UNAMIR report, on November 5, 1993, at a meeting chaired
by President Habyarimana, the government decided to provide the
Interhamwe and other youth militia weapons, including grenades and
machetes with a directive to kill Tutsis, and according to the same
report, distribution of the weapons began that same month;
Whereas on December 3, 1993, senior officers in the Rwandan Armed Forces warned
General Romeo Dallaire, commander of United Nations forces in Rwanda, of
increasing and systematic killings of civilians by the militia, and
planned assassinations of senior officials in the coalition government,
including the fact that President Habyarimana himself had authorized
this bloody campaign;
Whereas throughout December 1993, a number of reports, including reports from
the Ambassador of Belgium in Rwanda, UNAMIR officials, and human rights
groups, confirmed widespread killings of civilians by pro-government
militia and confirmed training of pro-government militia in government-
run camps;
Whereas on January 6, 1994, General Dallaire reported to the United Nations that
the killings of civilians by militia groups were well-organized and
indicated that these killings would continue for the foreseeable future;
Whereas on January 10, 1994, UNAMIR officers met with an informant named Jean-
Pierre, a commander in the Interhamwe militia, who told them of a large
weapons cache intended for members of the Interhamwe militia;
Whereas on January 11, 1994, General Dallaire sent a confidential cable to
United Nations headquarters informing United Nations officials about
militia training and arms cache;
Whereas General Dallaire wrote to his superiors that the militias intended to
kill a large number of Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians, and he
informed the United Nations peacekeeping department that he intended to
seize the arms and asked for United Nations protection for the informant
who provided the information;
Whereas on January 12, 1994, General Dallaire was told by United Nations
headquarters that the United Nations mandate did not give him the
authority to seize the arms cache and the United Nations would not
provide protection to the informant, and instead, General Dallaire was
ordered to provide the information to President Habyarimana and the
ambassadors of Belgium, France, and the United States;
Whereas on February 21, 1994, extremists assassinated the Minister of Public
Works, Felicien Gatabazi, and on February 20, 1994, Prime Minister-
designate Twagiramungu escaped an assassination attempt;
Whereas the security situation in Rwanda deteriorated rapidly in late February
1994, with the slaughter of 70 civilians in Kigali, the capital of
Rwanda;
Whereas on March 10, 1994, the National Republican Movement for Democracy (MRND)
party leaders expressed frustration and anger that President Habyarimana
did not consult them before he left for a meeting with President Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda and described his decision to go as ``a serious
political error'';
Whereas on April 6, 1994, the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, along with
several senior government officials, were killed when their plane was
shot down as it approached the capital of Rwanda;
Whereas on April 7, 1994, the Rwandan Armed Forces and the Interhamwe militia
unleashed genocide against Tutsi civilians and moderate Hutu politicians
when tens of thousands of innocent civilians, including women and
children, were massacred;
Whereas ten Belgian peacekeeping troops assigned to protect the Rwandan Hutu
Prime Minister were brutally murdered along with the Prime Minister;
Whereas on April 8, 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front launched an offensive to
stop the ongoing genocide and to rescue 600 RPF troops trapped in
Kigali, who were sent to protect RPF officials as agreed to in the
Arusha Accords;
Whereas on April 8, 1994, France, Belgium, and the United States evacuated their
citizens from Rwanda;
Whereas on April 11, 1994, an estimated 2,000 civilians were slaughtered at the
Don Bosco school in Kigali where they sought shelter and briefly were
protected by UNAMIR troops;
Whereas the civilians at the school were killed after the United Nations ordered
UNAMIR troops to abandon the civilians and withdraw to the airport;
Whereas on April 14, 1994, Belgium withdrew its troops from Rwanda and a week
later the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to withdraw
UNAMIR troops at the height of the Rwandan genocide;
Whereas almost a month into the Rwandan genocide, the Clinton Administration
refused to use the word genocide with respect to the situation in Rwanda
and on April 28, 1994, the United Nations Security Council deliberately
omitted the word genocide from a Council resolution in order to avoid
its legal and international obligations to intervene;
Whereas on May 13, 1994, the United Nations Security Council began deliberation
on a resolution to authorize a robust peacekeeping force for Rwanda;
Whereas the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador Madeleine
Albright, forced a delay on the United Nations Security Council vote
because of funding issues;
Whereas on May 17, 1994, Ambassador Albright defended her position by saying
``sending a U.N. force into a maelstrom in Rwanda without a sound plan
of operations would be folly'';
Whereas on May 17, 1994, five weeks after the Rwandan genocide began, the United
Nations Security Council authorized the deployment of 6,800 United
Nations peacekeeping troops with a mandate to protect civilians;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing such
deployment stated that ``acts of genocide may have been committed'';
Whereas on June 22, 1994, the United Nations Security Council authorized the
deployment of French forces to south-west Rwanda to create a ``safe
area'' for fleeing civilians and subsequently fleeing militia and
government leaders were given safe haven and protection by the French
forces most of whom eventually fled to Zaire;
Whereas on July 4, 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front captured Kigali, the Hutu-
led government fled to Zaire, the French ended their mission and were
replaced by a United Nations peacekeeping force from Ethiopia, and the
RPF formed an interim national unity government;
Whereas on August 17, 1994, Rwandan Defense Minister, Paul Kagame, warned the
Government of Zaire not to allow members of the former Rwandan Armed
Forces and the Interhamwe militia to train and launch attacks from
Zaire;
Whereas in August 1994, the United States deployed troops to the Central Africa
region to assist in the relief operation;
Whereas an estimated 2,000 United States troops participated in Operation
Support Hope, however, the United States was criticized by some
observers for not responding quickly to the Rwandan crisis and for its
role in the United Nations Security Council;
Whereas, Rwanda having joined the United Nations Security Council in early 1994,
the United Nations representative of the new Rwandan Government took his
seat at the Security Council on September 1, 1994, after months of
debate as to who should represent Rwanda in the United Nations;
Whereas on September 4, 1994, the commander of Ethiopia's United Nations
peacekeeping force in Rwanda stated that French troops provided
protection and allowed former soldiers of the Rwandan Government to flee
to Zaire;
Whereas in a newspaper interview, the commander stated that he saw French troops
transporting former soldiers to Zaire, although French officials had
said earlier that officials of the former Rwandan government would not
be allowed to enter the safety zone;
Whereas in 1996 most of the refugees who fled to Zaire returned home;
Whereas in November 1994, the United Nations Security Council established an
international tribunal to prosecute major suspects in the Rwanda
genocide;
Whereas the new Government of Rwanda voted against the resolution because the
resolution did not allow the death penalty;
Whereas, despite Rwanda's objections to the exclusion of the death penalty, the
international tribunal was established in Arusha, Tanzania, and took its
first case against a genocide suspect on January 10, 1997, in which it
prosecuted Jean Paul Akayesu, a local government official;
Whereas the Gacaca courts, a community-based system of participatory justice,
were created in Rwanda to address lower level offenders who remained in
custody in Rwandan jails without trial, and to alleviate the burden that
was placed on the judiciary system in Rwanda as a result of the sheer
number of persons accused of participating in the genocide;
Whereas in March 1998, during his first visit to Africa, President Clinton
stated in Kigali that ``the international community must bear its share
of responsibility for this tragedy'', and in a speech at the Kigali
airport, President Clinton stated that ``[a]ll over the world there were
people like me sitting in offices who did not fully appreciate the depth
and the speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable
terror''; and
Whereas as of January 2004, 23 genocide suspects were on trial, eighteen senior
officials were convicted, twenty suspects were awaiting trial, and six
convicted officials were serving their sentences in Mali: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) remembers the victims of the genocide that occurred in
1994 in Rwanda and pledges to work to ensure that such an
atrocity does not take place again;
(2) acknowledges that the international community,
including the United States Government, failed the people of
Rwanda and watched with indifference while hundreds of
thousands of innocent civilians were being killed;
(3) strongly supports assistance to the survivors of the
Rwandan genocide;
(4) urges political and financial support for the Gacaca
courts;
(5) acknowledges the heroic work of many individuals and
human rights organizations for their campaign to help stop the
genocide of Rwanda;
(6) expresses deep appreciation to General Romeo Dallaire
for his tireless efforts to stop the genocide from occurring
and for helping many Rwandese civilians in their time of need;
(7) accepts the fact that General Dallaire warned the
United Nations on a number of occasions of an impending
genocide and was ordered by his superiors not to take action;
(8) calls for an investigation of the role played by the
United States Government prior to and during the Rwandan
genocide, noting that the parliaments of Belgium and France
both created commissions of inquiry to investigate the roles
played by their respective governments and issued their
findings; and
(9) strongly urges the creation of a bi-partisan Commission
of Inquiry for Rwanda to investigate all aspects of the role
played by the United States Government prior to and during the
Rwandan genocide, with a strong mandate and subpoena power to
access relevant documents and witnesses, a definite end date
for completion of its work, and sufficient funding to cover
necessary expenses.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Relations.
Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee (Amended).
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