BLUF:[The Federalist] After the genocide, many blamed the Western powers such as the United States, United Kingdom, and France for doing too little to stop the genocide. Yet ethnic conflicts are always so complex. Many times it is hard for outsiders to tell the villains from the innocents. And the West, including the United States, has a very mixed record of interventions in the past. Not all lead to success.
It seems that since the Rwandan genocide, the West has been trying to correct its wrongs with money. Not surprisingly, 40 percent of the Rwandan government’s budget depends on foreign aid, with the United States and United Kingdom the two biggest donors. Despite the troubling human rights reports about Rwanda, the money keeps coming. Kagame can often be seen easily mingling with Western politicians and business people, even getting former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair to advise him.
Michela Wrong, a journalist for The Spectator, wrote a piece on Rwanada with an alarming title, “Rwanda is sliding into a new tragedy. And this time we’re funding it.”
I asked Coleman if she thought the West has learned its lesson. She shook her head. In her opinion, Kagame is able to manipulate the international message about Rwanda. “People in the west need to learn the truth about Rwanda,” she says. “The West needs to learn the truth of whom they are dealing with before lending their support. ” Otherwise, all the West is doing is spending taxpayers’ money to prop up one ruthless authoritarian after another.
I asked her if she thought the genocide could happen again. She said yes. The ethnic tension still exists—it’s only being suppressed by a strongman.