Debate Closing Statement

Katie Leginza
English 2

In conclusion, my country, France, wasn't the only one at fault for the Rwandan Genocide. Sure, we arrived too late with Operation Turquoise and trained the NRMD. At least our country did some good and set up a safe zone for refugees and we trained the NRMD so they could protect their citizens, but the NRMD trained the Interhamwe and told them "To kill or be killed,". The Interhamwe confirmed both of these things. The accusation by the NRMD saying that the French raped and killed Tutsis during our military intervention (by setting up a peace zone in southwest Rwanda) is false because the article where the information was found turned out to be made up by Paul Kagame to give France a bad name. We blame the UN and the US because they didn't intervene even though they were two major powers in the world and the UN didn't use the word "genocide" in their resolution condemning the killings passed on April 30, 1994 because if they did, then they would legally have to intervene. Belgium was also at fault because they favored the Tutsis in colonial times and set up a class system which led to the Hutus and Tutsis hating each other, which then led to the fights and the genocide.