Evacuating Rwanda in the Midst of Genocide
The Foreign Service took Arlene Render from a segregated neighborhood in Cleveland to ambassadorships in the Gambia, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire. While working in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs in the mid-1990s, she worked to protect American civilians during the Rwandan genocide.
As officer director of Central African Affairs for the Bureau, Render paid particular attention to Rwanda, pushing for creation of a UN peacekeeping force as fighting broke out. In early 1994, she and Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Prudence Bushnell traveled to Rwanda to support peace talks between the government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
When the Rwandan genocide erupted several weeks later, Render acted swiftly to protect American citizens. “I called the Ambassador [David Rawson] and told him to start moving,” she recalled. “He told me that going to Burundi by road would be the easiest.” While the U.S. military had already begun talking about sending aircraft into Rwanda for an evacuation, Render knew this could take days, while Burundi was only an hour away by car. Americans would be safe there until military aircraft could pick them up. So she pushed for the ambassador’s recommended overland evacuation directly with the Secretary of State. “Against the odds,” Render said, “we won out…We began the evacuation of Americans the same day.”
While the convoys of Americans and other foreigners left for Burundi, Render helped manage the logistics of the evacuation, smoothing over issues with the Burundian government and dealing with Washingtonian bureaucracy. She described how she overcame obstacles: “I had the RSO (Regional Security Officer) in Burundi travel to the border…to handle any border crossing issues, since some individuals were from other countries and would not be in possession of visas for Burundi.
“Looking back, if we had waited…we could have lost people. We were out before the weekend was over.”
Arlene Render
“…Evacuations on our end require paperwork. I got many Washington bureaucrats to waive/postpone most of it in the interest of time. I [also] asked our Embassy in Burundi to inform the government [that] the U.S. military was on the way to pick up our citizens and to request landing permission…I told the [embassy] officer to tell them the U.S. military planes would be landing and I expected them to move quickly on granting landing permission. Within a few minutes, Burundi gave the green light and everything worked out smoothly.”
“In looking back,” Render recalled, “if we had waited to develop trip wires and hold more meetings, we could have lost people. We were out before the weekend was over.” The efficiency of the evacuation received plaudits from the Secretary of State, Congressional staff, the President, and various foreign governments.
But Render was haunted by those who were left behind. “So, you might say, ‘Well yes, but you left the Rwandan citizens.’ Yes, we did,” she said. “My heart was broken at the time and remains to be. I wished I could have evacuated all at risk. Of course, it was not possible.”
