Joyce Leader, who served as U.S. ambassador to Guinea and deputy chief of mission in Rwanda, discussed the 1994 Rwandan genocide during a presentation Nov. 2 in Whitley Auditorium. Details...
Leader served three years as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Rwanda just before the genocide of 1994. She discussed the political and social climate in Rwanda that led to the genocide, which resulted in the deaths of 800,000-1 million people.
“It’s not, as people like to portray it, African tribes simply killing each other,” Leader said, noting years of distrust between the Hutu and Tutsi people. “The Hutu always believed that the Tutsi were better than they were, and they used the media to foster a distrust of the Tutsi.”
Leader said she and other diplomats served as facilitators for the 1993 peace process that preceded the genocide, but that Rwanda “wasn’t high on the radar screen of officials in Washington….They had bigger fish to fry. The lack of interest meant a lack of funding and a lack of personnel.”
Leader said Western diplomats incorrectly believed that the two sides were negotiating in good faith. Instead, the Hutus were working behind the scenes to plan the genocide.
“We in the diplomatic community were so intent on seeing this peace process succeed that we didn’t see that it wasn’t really leading to peace,” Leader said. “We believed that once the two sides agreed to go to negotiation, they would agree to live with the consequences.”
Leader witnessed firsthand some of the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide. “I can get very, very drained by just talking about it,” Leader said in an interview with American RadioWorks. “When I think back to Rwanda and my days there…it’s something that’s etched in my memory and I don’t think that I will ever forget.”
Earlier in the day, Leader met with students in professor Brian Digre’s International Studies senior seminar class to talk about careers in the foreign service and the Peace Corps.
Leader’s visit to Elon was sponsored by International Studies, General Studies and African/African American Studies.