Rwandan Refugee Camps In Zaire and Tanzania 1994-1995 By: Sidney McPhail, Brianne Clasen, and Laura Lang

What led to the Rwandan Genocide? Killing of Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 Left Rwanda in a vulnerable state Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) took advantage of the situation Between 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsi and Hutu killed As a result, the Hutu and some Tutsi fled towards the borders of Rwanda

What is MSF? Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is a Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organization Guided only by their interest for the rights of human beings and founding humanitarian principles Created in 1971 by a small group of French doctors who believed that everyone had the right to medical care regardless of discriminatory factors

How did MSF aid in the aftermath? MSF France, Belgium, Holland, and Spain came to the aid of the Rwandan Camps It became evident that the situation was far worse than previously expected due to the large amount of refugees under control of génocidaires The United Nations created Opération Turquoise a mission aimed at protecting displaced individuals in safe humanitarian areas MSF France created the Zone Turquoise within the Cyangugu-Kibuye-Gikongoro Triangle

Zone Turquoise

Zone Turquoise The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the Rwandan Government Multiple Hutu fled to Zone Turquoise due to fear of genocidal retaliation from Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Unfortunately, as Hutus fled to the safe haven refugee camps, many FAR officials also took sanctuary in these areas This lead to a moral dilemma for MSF because they could not effectively separate the genocidal FAR from the innocent refugees MSF also did not want to support the genocidal leaders with their supplies

MSF Ethical Decisions MSF did not want to support both the refugees and the génocidaires MSF made a plea to the United Nations to separate the civilian refugees from the extremists through a military force similar to that of a modern day police force, but this was denied The lack of action and the situation’s overall decline divided the different MSF sections The MSF sections became divided on whether or not to withdraw from the camps altogether

MSF France’s Withdrawal MSF France remained as long as their actions abided by their humanitarian principles In December 1994, the French officially pulled out from Zaire They believed that the withdrawal would pressure the international community and ultimately gain media attention to provide aid to the refugees in a more ethically acceptable manner However, once the French withdrew from Tanzania, the journalists started to run stories claiming that MSF France was leaving to spend the holidays with their families at home

MSF France Withdrawal Cont. In response to the bad publicity placed on MSF, Fiona Terry, the French Coordinator, spent January and February 1995 informing the public of the United States about the Rwandan Refugees The United States responded positively to the publicity This shed a positive light on the organization’s dedication to their founding principles

MSF Belgium and Holland MSF Belgium and Holland both decided to remain in the camps Felt that improvements were still necessary and feasible Also felt that they could better monitor the situation Decided to implement Humanitarian Resistance This meant resisting the génocidaires and trying to regain control of the camps without violent methods Supplies were rationed according to the population statistics, so that supplies were no longer going to the military leaders who originally carried out the genocide

MSF Belgium and Holland Unfortunately, the efforts to decrease the amount of supplies flowing into the génocidaires’ hands was unsuccessful The population statistics were greatly exaggerated in order to benefit certain militias and political leaders within the camp MSF Belgium and Holland decided to withdraw from the camps Believed that they were only sheltering and emboldening the perpetrators of genocide In 1995, once it was clear that conditions had not improved, both groups decided to formally withdraw from the camps

What would we have done? Security measures should have been taken by forcing the UNHCR to take responsibility and provide security forces protecting both refugees and MSF Workers Lack of communication within the infrastructure deunified the MSF groups, making their actions less drastic, especially once MSF France withdrew from the camps

What would we have done? Civilian Refugees needed to stay separated from the génocidaires when fleeing to the camps Although the MSF aided in saving lives, the MSF groups should have withdrawn earlier so that the transformation of the refugee camps into militia bases would have been hindered