UNAMIR's Commander, Roméo Dallaire, kept asking the United Nations for more troops. On May 15, the Security Council increased UNAMIR's allowed number of troops to 5,500. However, it took almost six months for UN member countries to volunteer this many troops. Meanwhile, the genocide continued.
France offered to lead a humanitarian mission in southwest Rwanda while UNAMIR was trying to gather more troops. The Security Council approved this mission on June 22, 1994. France called the mission "Operation Turquoise." During this operation, soldiers from France and other countries set up a "safe zone" in southwest Rwanda. This was meant to be an area where people could come to be protected from Hutu attacks. Historians think that Operation Turquoise saved 13,000 to 14,000 lives. However, France has been accused of letting war criminals escape Rwanda through the safe zone.
Because UNAMIR's troops were not allowed to use their weapons to protect civilians, the militias were able to massacre civilians even when UNAMIR troops were nearby.
For example, on April 7, 1994, Belgian soldiers were staying at a school outside Kigali. Thousands of Tutsis ran from Kigali to the school, hoping that the soldiers would protect them from the massacres that were happening in Kigali. Hutu militia surrounded the school, but they did not enter because they were afraid of the Belgian soldiers.
However, one day, the Belgian soldiers left. They had been ordered to leave so they could take European people to the airport to get them out of the country. Later, a Belgian colonel "said the young soldiers told him they saw the killers in their rearview mirrors" as they drove away. After the soldiers left, the Hutu militia killed thousands of Tutsis.
Another massacre happened in Murambi, a town in southern Rwanda. When the genocide reached Murambi, Tutsis tried to hide at a nearby church. However, the bishop and mayor tricked them by telling them to go to the Murambi Technical School. They said the French soldiers there would protect them. On April 16, 1994, about 65,000 Tutsis ran to the school. One survivor said: "They gave us four [French soldiers] for protection, but from 17 April we never saw them again."
After they got to the school, the Tutsis had no food. The school's water was also cut off, so the Tutsis would be too weak to fight back. The Tutsis were still able to fight back for a few days, using stones. However, on April 21, the school was attacked by the Interahamwe. They killed about 45,000 Tutsis at the school. The other 20,000 Tutsis ran to a nearby church to hide, but the militia found them there and killed almost all of them.
The school is now a genocide museum. The museum says that only 34 people out of 65,000 survived the massacre. It also says that after the massacre, the French soldiers came back and buried the bodies in mass graves. Then they put a volleyball court over the mass graves to hide what happened.
In 1999, Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, asked for an independent report about the Rwandan Genocide. He wanted to know why the United Nations and the world had "failed" to stop the Rwandan Genocide. The report said that the major failures were:
The Ugandan army joined the RPF in fighting the extremist Hutus. Bit by bit, they took control of more parts of Rwanda. Finally, on July 4, 1994, they took control of Kigali.
After this, about two million Hutus ran away from Rwanda to Zaire. This group included 1.4 million Hutu civilians who had nothing to do with the genocide, but had been told that the RPF would kill them just for being Hutus.
According to the BBC, "Human rights groups say the RPF killed thousands of Hutu civilians as they took power and more after they went into [Zaire] to [follow] the Interahamwe. The RPF denies this."
In 1994, Rwanda's population was 7.9 million. After the genocide:
Before the genocide, about 1.1 million of Rwandans were Tutsis. After the genocide, there were only about 300,000 Tutsis left in the country. Almost three out of every four Tutsis in Rwanda had been killed during the genocide.
In 1995, the United Nations Security Council set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Its goal was to prosecute people who took part in genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity, and punish the guilty ones. The ICTR had the power to prosecute anyone who broke international laws about human rights.
The ICTR was the first international court ever to:
Out of 93 people indicted by the ICTR, 61 were found guilty and sent to prison. Another ten cases were sent to Rwanda so their own courts could hear the cases. Three people indicted by the ICTR are still fugitives.
The ICTR closed on December 31, 2015.
The Rwandan government was not able to start trying genocide suspects until 1996. This was because so many judges had been killed in the genocide, and because so many court buildings and jails had been destroyed.
By 2000, there were over 100,000 suspects waiting for trials. The regular Rwandan courts could not handle this many cases. To help with this problem, the government set up a new and different system of courts to help the regular Rwandan courts.
By mid-2006, the Rwandan courts had tried over 10,000 genocide suspects.
In 2001, the Rwandan government began to create a system of Gacaca courts (pronounced "GA-CHA-CHA"). In these courts, Rwandans elect judges to hear genocide suspects' trials. Gacaca courts may hear cases about any crimes except planning genocide or rape. These cases must be heard by regular Rwandan courts.
If a suspect is found guilty, the Gacaca courts give less severe sentences if the person is truly sorry and asks for the community's forgiveness. The goal of the Gacaca courts is to get justice while also moving towards reconciliation. It also gives perpetrators the chance to admit what they did, which gives victims a chance to learn what happened to their loved ones.
Between 2001 and 2012, 12,000 Gacaca courts tried over 1.2 million cases all over Rwanda. These courts officially finished their work on May 4, 2012.
Vaquita
Vaquita ("Phocoena sinus") is a rare type of porpoise. It lives only in the Gulf of California.
Vaquita have a dark coloring around the eyes and mouth. The upper side of the body is medium to dark gray. The underside is off-white to light gray. It has a rather large fin on its back for its size.
The Vaquita is the smallest type of porpoise in the world, growing up to 5 feet long and weighing up to 120 pounds.
Vaquita feed on small, bottom-dwelling fish and squid.
They live alone or in small groups, usually of about three, but sometimes they live in groups of up to ten.
Zygote
A zygote is the fertilized cell that will grow into a new animal or plant. When a female's ovum and a male's sperm cell join, the cell that results is called the zygote. The zygote then multiplies, and grows into an embryo. So, a zygote is formed from the union of two gametes, and is the first stage in a human organism's development. Zygotes are produced by fertilization between two haploid cells, the ovum and the sperm cells, which make a diploid cell. Diploid cells have copies of both parents' chromosomes and DNA. At conception it has all the necessary properties to create a fully formed human being. Life until death is a series of many different stages of development.
Some animals keep the zygote in their bodies until it is a full-grown baby. The time between the forming of the zygote and the baby's birth is called pregnancy. Other animals do not keep the zygote in their bodies, but lay an egg. The zygote grows inside the egg until it is ready and a larva or baby animal hatches.
Dave Jauss
Dave Jauss (born January 16, 1957) is the bench coach for the New York Mets. He has also been the bench coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles.
Cardiac arrest