The Rwanda genocide: there's more to the story. (From Readers).

While I can certainly appreciate the underlying conditions of population pressure and environmental degradation behind human conflict in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa as explored by James Gasana's article ("Remember Rwanda," September/October), the immediate [causes of] the Rwandan genocide are not really as "inexplicable" as readers may be led to believe.

For instance, the missile that shot down the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira in 1994 was of Iraqi origin, captured by U.S. forces during the Gulf War and then supplied by a covert Pentagon contractor to Rwandan strongman Paul Kagame. Kagame ordered the assassination of the two leaders because they were on the brink of brokering a multiethnic peace agreement that would have stood in the way of his own climb to power--and his subsequent ability to siphon off kickbacks from Western corporate mining interests. Testimony to this effect before the UN War Crimes prosecutor, Louise Arbour, in 1997 was suppressed until leaked to the international community in a March 1, 2000 expose by journalist Steven Edward in the Canadian National Post.

Kagame received his military education under the Pentagon's Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) at the Command and General Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, beginning in 1990. His sidekick, Lt. Col. Frank Rusagara, got his JCET schooling at the U.S. Naval Academy in Monterey, California. Both were dispatched to Rwanda in time to oversee the RPF's takeover in 1994. Far from being an innocent bystander, the Washington Post revealed on July 12, 1998 that the United States not only gave Kagame $75 million in military assistance, but also sent Green Berets to train Kagame's forces (as well as their Ugandan rebel allies) in low intensity conflict (LIC) tactics. Pentagon subcontractor Ronco, masquerading as a de-mining company, also smuggled more weapons to RPF fighters in flagrant violation of UN sanctions. All of this U.S. largesse was put to lethal effect in the ethnic bloodbath that is still going on.

Kagame went on in 1996 to handpick Laurent Kabila to lead the AFDL rebels in their successful overthrow of Zaire's dictator, Mobuto Sese Seko-- who had been originally installed by the CIA and propped up for years by U.S. aid. Unfortunately, Kabila proved less pliant than U.S. corporations had hoped, and he was eventually eliminated as Congo's new leader in favor of his son, Joseph Kabila. As described in Dollars and Sense (July/August 2001), unfettered extraction of natural resources--oil, diamonds, and coltan (an essential strategic mineral in night vision goggles, cellphones, play stations, and other high-tech gadgets)-- remains the major driving force behind U.S. geopolitical interest in the Great Lakes Region. By 1996, Kagame's RPF forces were being bankrolled to the tune of $20 million per month from U.S.-bound coltan exports. Remember Rwanda? I am reminded of who bears responsibility for the genocide every time I see an executive on a cell phone.

JOHN E. PECK

Association of Concerned African Scholars

Madison, Wisconsin

Editor's note: While this account is presented as matter-of-fact, our impression is that some of it is still a matter of contention. For example, Paul Kagame, who is now president of Rwanda, recently sued a Paris-based African journalist, Charles Onana, for defamation after Onana's recently published book, Les Secrets Du Genocide Rwandais-- Enquete Sur Les Mysteries D'un President, stated that Kagame is the leading suspect in the assassination of president Habyarimana. Kagame said he didn't do it. The French High Court rejected Kagame's suit. Kagame filed an appeal on July 25, 2002. Onana replied, regarding the appeal, "Kagame seeks to give the impression that he wants justice, but in fact he wants to continue to stifle the truth because he knows that Judge [Jean-Louis] Bruguiere is about to conclude his investigations on the plane crash."