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Bylandt
Jun 3, 2001
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This is a true story. It is the story of the tragic death of 10 Belgian paratroopers. I would like to tell it on this forum because I imagine few outside Rwanda or Belgium know it.

I will try to depict what happened as accurately as possible. My information dates from books on the subject and the findings of a Belgian parliamentary commission (which were published on the net). First I will very briefly depict the background of the story.

(to be continued)
 
Rwanda was colonised by Germany at the end of the 19th century. They found a country in which the majority Hutu-population was ruled by the minority Tutsi’s. After WW I Rwanda was given to Belgium as a mandate. After Rwandan independence, the Hutu’s took over power. Many Tutsi’s were killed or forced to flee the country. In Uganda they formed a small army which invaded Rwanda in 1990. After international, mostly Belgian, pressure, the Tutsi’s promised to stop the war and the Hutu’s promised to share power with the Tutsi minority. This “agreement of Arusha” was disliked by a large part of the Hutu’s, who didn’t want to share power, and by the Tutsi-leadership who still dreamt of restoring their former dominance. In 1993 the UN decided to send a mission, UNAMIR (United Nations Mission to Rwanda) to help implement the Arusha-agreement.

The UNAMIR troops were a motley crew of which a Belgian paratroopers-battalion was the backbone. Their exact mission was not clear. The rules of engagement were lousy. Their armament was poor because the UN had explicitly forbidden them to bring any heavy arms along, despite the protests of the soldiers.

Throughout the first months of 1994 the officers of the UNAMIR-mission sent warning after warning to the UN that the situation was rapidly deteriorating. Tutsi’s and Hutu-moderates were being killed. UN-soldiers were being attacked without them being given the permission to reply with force. Even plans for an impending genocide were unveiled. The UN did not react. No reinforcements, no changing of the mandate or the ROE. On the night of the 6th on the 7th of April the situation exploded, literally.


(To be continued)
 
On the night of April 6th 1994 the sky above Kigali is lit up when a SAM 16 missile hits home. The personal plane of president Habyarimana goes down in a ball of flame. Habyarimana was the president of the Hutu-controlled government of Rwanda. It is still not known who committed the assassination of the president but his death sets of a tragic chain of events.

On the morning of the 7th, a 10-man patrol of Belgian paratroopers sets out towards the residence of the Rwandan Prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana. She’s a moderate Hutu who wants to integrate the minority Tutsi’s into the government and so needs permanent protection from the UN-troops against the hard-line Hutu’s. The Belgian soldiers are to escort her to Radio Rwanda, where she shall make a speech to calm down the people after the murder of their president. This mission has been given to the Belgian contingent on the orders of the UN-representative in Rwanda, Booh-Booh, although the strong man of the Rwandan military, Kol. Bagasora has explicitly told Booh-Booh the night of the 6th, that he will depose the PM and prevent her from making a radio-address. Bagasora is about to make good on his word.


5.00 h: The platoon, under the command of Lt. Lotin, arrives at the Prime Minister’s house in the centre of Kigali. Upon arriving at the mansion, they are fired upon by members of the Rwandan Presidential Guard. Two of the four jeeps are immediately destroyed. The 10 paratroopers seek cover in the gardens around the house.
(They do not return fire. The UN-imposed rules of engagement state that authorisation to fire with rifles can only be given by Battalion HQ. For using a light machine gun, authorisation is required from Sector HQ. And only the CiC can give permission to fire a heavy machinegun.)




(to be continued)
 
5.15 h. Platoon to HQ: ”We are being shot upon from different sides”.

5.28 h: Platoon to HQ: “We’ve spotted two AML’s coming towards us.” AML ‘s are armoured vehicles the French sold to Rwanda. The Belgian platoon has no anti-tank weapons because the UN had forbidden the Belgian contingent to bring along their MILAN’s and LAW’s because “this would make them look too aggressive”. For the same reason the patrols were not allowed to bring heavy machineguns along.

5.30 h: Lt.Lotin makes contact with the Prime Minister.

5.37 h: Lt.Lotin informs sector HQ that it will be impossible to get the PM to Radio Ruanda. He orders his men to take up defensive positions.

5.49: Platoon to HQ: “There is now firing on the house of the PM”

6.30 h: The platoon informs HQ that it is still under fire.

6.44 h: Platoon to HQ: “Artillery fire in our direction”. The Belgian troops have no mortars or artillery to reply as the use of these weapons has been prohibited under the rules of engagement of the UN.

6.55 h. Lt. Lotin informs HQ that his men are under attack from around 20 members of the presidential guard who are asking him to give up his arms. Colonel Dewez, battalion commander, responds: “do not give up arms, do not return fire, negotiate.”




(to be continued)
 
6.57 h: Platoon to HQ: “We are surrounded”

7.00 h:: Platoon to HQ: “Members of the presidential guard are on the roof of the house. It’s impossible for us to take cover.”

7.20 h: Platoon to HQ: “We are now in the house. Automatic fire in our direction.” (HQ is still not ordering them to return, fire)

7.40 h. The PM feels she is no longer safe. She slips away and goes and hide in the house of a neighbour. (The presidential guard will find her there at 11.45 and kill her.)

8.17: Platoon to HQ: “They have weapons superior to ours. They are now using grenade-launchers and the guns of the AML’s against us”.

8.32 h: Battalion HQ asks Sector HQ for instructions. Sector HQ promises to contact the Rwandan military.

8.34 h: Battalion HQ informs Lotin that he is discharged of his mission to escort the PM

8.39 h: Three armoured vehicles of the Bangladeshi UN-contingent move out from their barracks to make contact with Lotin’s platoon.

(The Bangladeshi contingent had been assigned the mission by the UN to form a quick reaction force (QRF) to intervene in hot spots. When their soldiers arrived it was soon clear that Bangladesh had sent raw recruits with no armoured vehicles nor the training to handle them. The UN flew over 8 Russian BTR’s they had found abandoned after an earlier mission in Mozambique. They were painted white but couldn’t ride or shoot. After repairs and training of the Bangladeshi recruits, only three were available on the fateful 7th of April.)



(to be continued)
 
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8.44 h: Lotin once again informs HQ of the growing aggressiveness of the Rwandan soldiers who are demanding the platoon to give up its arms. The Rwandans promise that they will be returned to UN HQ.

8.49 h: Battalion HQ to Platoon: “Do not give up your arms. Negotiate.”

8.50 h: Lotin to HQ: “Too late. Two of my men are already on the ground and disarmed.”

8.51 h: Battalion HQ to Lotin: “You can give up your arms if you judge it necessary.”

8.51 h: Sector HQ to Lotin: “You are the man on the ground. It’s your call.”

8.52 h: The Bangladeshi “QRF” meets a roadblock in the streets of Kigali and turns back.

8.54 h: The 10 paratroopers of Lotin’s platoon give up their arms. They are made to board a VW-mini-van, hands over their heads. They are, however, not taken to the UN HQ but to the barracks of the presidential guard. There they are greeted with great hostility. A rumour is spreading amongst the Rwandan soldiers that it was Belgian soldiers who had shot down the plane of their president Habyarimana. The unarmed Belgian paratroopers are kicked and beaten.

9.06 h: Lt. Lotin manages to contact a Togolese UN-observer inside the Rwandan barracks. He uses his radio to contact his battalion commander, Col. Dewez: “We have been taken to the army barracks. They are beating my men. They are going to lynch us.”
Col. Dewez responds: “Don’t you think you are exaggerating? ”.




(to be continued)
 
This was the last contact with the 10 paratroopers.

Between 9 h and 10 h: The paratroopers are hit with clubs and stones and stabbed with bayonets by the Rwandan soldiers. Four of them finally succumb from their wounds. The other five succeed in joining Lt. Lotin in the office of the UN-observer. One of them has managed to take a revolver from the assailants. They put up a defence in the small office.

9.30 h: Belgian Captain Theunissen, who has been listening in on the communications, asks for permission to move his company out to mount a rescue-mission. Permission denied.

11 h: The Canadian general Dallaire, CIC of the UN-mission, on his way to a meeting with the Rwandan military, passes by the barracks. In passing, he sees the bloodied bodies of a few of the Belgian soldiers in the courtyard. He wants to get out of his car but a Ruandan gendarme accompanying tells him this will endanger his life.

11.05 h: The meeting of the Rwandan military has already started. The participants can hear gunfire from the nearby barracks.

11.15 h: General Dallaire joins the meeting. For reasons still unclear he waits one hour before bringing up what he saw in the barracks. The Rwandan officers respond that the situation in the barracks is beyond their control.

12 h – 14 h: Somewhere between 12 and 14 h the resistance of the paratroopers ends.

23.15 h: A UN-observer finds the bodies of the paratroopers. Because of the condition of their bodies, he is at first unable to make out if there are 10 or 11 of them.



(to be continued)
 
THE AFTERMATH

From the 7th onwards, large-scale massacres against the Tutsi-population are perpetrated. The Belgian soldiers on the ground ask for permission to try and stop the massacres, but they have neither the weapons, nor the mandate. Stunned by the death of the 10 paratroopers and afraid of Belgian public opinion, the Belgian government decides to withdraw the troops. On April 15th, the last of the Belgian troops pull out, soon to be followed by the other UN-contingents. When the paratroopers descend from the plane unto the Belgian military airfield, some of them take out their knife, ritually cut their blue UN-caps to pieces and vow never to fight under the UN-flag again.

The massacres continue until the French mount “operation Turquoise” in the south of the country and the army of Tutsi-exiles takes Kigali. Between 500.000 and 1.000.000 people, mostly Tutsi have been killed.
The Hutu Interahawmwe militia-members, who are the main perpetrators of the genocide, flee to Congo (then still called Zaire). They are pursued by the Tutsi’s and set upon by other Tutsi’s living in the east of Congo. Mobutu, ally of the former Hutu-regime, orders the Tutsi-population to leave his country. The measure backfires and Mobutu’s regime is brought down by a coalition of Tutsi’s and Congolese rebels, who bring Kabila to power. The coalition soon looses its cohesion and Kabila falls out with his former Tutsi and Ugandese allies. Today the civil war in Congo still rages.
 
Originally posted by Maur13
If i were walking in Lotin shoes, i would refurn fire:mad:
Click to expand...

So would I. And so should Lotin. But these men had participated in the previous, violent, UN-mission in Somalia. They were indoctrinated, conditioned and told time after time by the Belgian and UN-authorities: "This is not Somalia. This is peace-keeping. Be friendly. Never do the sligthest thing that might provoke anger." They were told to act as the local policemen, not as paratroopers. And the UN ROE were just absurd.
 
It seems that UN is incapable of using force altogether. And it's another thing, military insist not on self-reliance, but obedience to authority, and when authority is like this, effects are like this.
I wonder why they resisted that late?They were elite soldiers (were they?) but despite situation was very clear, they followed insane orders.
 
Originally posted by Maur13
It seems that UN is incapable of using force altogether. And it's another thing, military insist not on self-reliance, but obedience to authority, and when authority is like this, effects are like this.
I wonder why they resisted that late?They were elite soldiers (were they?) but despite situation was very clear, they followed insane orders.
Click to expand...

They were indeed elite soldiers. The paratroopers are the cream of the Belgian army. And not returning fire must have gone against everything they were trained to do. But they followed orders and the ROE to the extreme and started fighting back only when they knew they were going to die.

Another platoon was cornered and threatened at about the same time and in about the same way. They opened fire without waiting for permission and were unharmed (as were the persons they were escorting).
 
Good to hear that.
So it depend's on people too. I have a strange feeling that approximatly one-third would open fire and two-thirds would follow orders.
It doesn't matter which country, though to be individualist America or authoritarian Germany.
But it also depends hevily on situation, AFAIK
 
I'm infuriated by reading this. The stupidity was running pretty thick. Why would intelligent soldiers except such blatantly dangerous restrictions? Why would the UN(who is most obviously to blame for this) take away all authority from the commander on the scene? Why would Lotin's commanders not give him authorisation to preserve his force?
I've never been much a fan of the UN, now I'm even less of a fan. They are a bunch of diplomats trying to run military missions. This violates all the previous rules of war. They are obviously people who are too smart by half.
 
When I saw you log in, Dudmont, I knew you would read this thread. And I knew how you would react - you get to know the people on this board. Frankly, I feel exactly the same. That's why I posted it. But my own governement is as much to blame as the UN.
 
I migrate to these things. I agree with your assessment as well. If no gov. played along with these ridiculous UN missions, the UN would have to change. Sadly, people are blinded by their utopian visions. Until the word, about these types of events, gets out, nations will continue to ignore the problems, that these missions inebitably run into, and will continue sending men into harms way, who aren't allowed to defend themselves.
 
This kind of action by the UN makes me absolutely crazy! By their steadfast refusal to properly assess the situation; or by their refusal to face the dangerous situation as it was, they sent far too few lightly armed soldiers on a dangerous mission, into a combat zone. Not for the first time either! This has happened numerous times.

Some of these so-called peace keeping missions are anything but; failure to understand that leads to failed policy, actions and good people killed.

Whatever the political noise between the US and UN, not paying our dues, etc., this kind of story is one reason that the US govt. and UN are at odds at times. I want to rtain the UN, but some things need serious change.

I am sorry for the Belgian soldiers and their families. The soldiers were obviously brave, dedicated professionals.
 
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