UNIVERSITY OF CALIF WAR CRIMES STUDIES CENTER SC Report on Rwanda Radha Webley Researcher L Introduction The crises that followed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda captured the world's attention, generating a morbid display of belated concern from around the globe. United Nations(UN) agencies, governmental bodies and nongovernmental organizations(NGos) from around the world rushed in to this tiny central African country with their humanitarian toolboxes ready for action, their sudden interest in helping Rwanda fueled by a potent cocktail of collective guilt mixed with much belated human empathy As nearly two million Rwandans fled their homes in the days, weeks and months following the genocide, approximately 2. 5 billion international aid dollars were funneled into the refugee camps that framed Rwanda's borders. In the years that followed, billions more dollars were spent by international donors toward the project of post-genocide humanitarian intervention and reconstruction in Rwanda. These dollars were critical in alleviating the surface level of the human catastrophe that faced Rwanda in July 1994. They helped to clean up the nearly one million bodies that were rotting in outhouses, roads, rivers and mass graves across the country. They provided basic healthcare services and food aid for thousands of Rwandan citizens. They assisted in the rebuilding of the many houses and buildings that had been destroyed during the months of killing. Finally, they helped to address the economic and political vacuum that was Rwanda in the months following the genocide, a project for which many international governments, agencies and organizations remain in Rwanda up to the present day Yet all of these dollars did not mask the fact that approximately 800,000 individuals had been brutally slaughtered in the space of three months, that Rwanda's pre-genocide population of approximately 8 million people had been quite literally decimated in the fastest mass killing in recorded history. They did not mask the fact that all of this had taken place while the Elizabeth Neuffer, The Key to My Neighbor's House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda(New York 001),2491 War Crimes Studies Center University of California at Berkeley Report on Rwanda Radha Webley Researcher I. Introduction The crises that followed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda captured the world’s attention, generating a morbid display of belated concern from around the globe. United Nations (UN) agencies, governmental bodies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world rushed in to this tiny central African country with their humanitarian toolboxes ready for action, their sudden interest in helping Rwanda fueled by a potent cocktail of collective guilt mixed with much￾belated human empathy. As nearly two million Rwandans fled their homes in the days, weeks and months following the genocide, approximately 2.5 billion international aid dollars were funneled into the refugee camps that framed Rwanda’s borders.1 In the years that followed, billions more dollars were spent by international donors toward the project of post-genocide humanitarian intervention and reconstruction in Rwanda. These dollars were critical in alleviating the surface level of the human catastrophe that faced Rwanda in July 1994. They helped to clean up the nearly one million bodies that were rotting in outhouses, roads, rivers and mass graves across the country. They provided basic healthcare services and food aid for thousands of Rwandan citizens. They assisted in the rebuilding of the many houses and buildings that had been destroyed during the months of killing. Finally, they helped to address the economic and political vacuum that was Rwanda in the months following the genocide, a project for which many international governments, agencies and organizations remain in Rwanda up to the present day. Yet all of these dollars did not mask the fact that approximately 800,000 individuals had been brutally slaughtered in the space of three months, that Rwanda’s pre-genocide population of approximately 8 million people had been quite literally decimated in the fastest mass killing in recorded history. They did not mask the fact that all of this had taken place while the 1 Elizabeth Neuffer, The Key to My Neighbor’s House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda (New York: Picador Books, 2001), 249