Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial
Belgian peacekeepers memorial
Also known as camp Kigali, the Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial is one of the memorial sites one can go for dark tourism. This is a camp where 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers under the umbrella United nations mission assistance for Rwanda (UNAMIR) were brutally tortured and eventually killed.
In 1993 the united nations mission assistance for Rwanda was set, all other developed countries kept a deaf ear to send their troops to Rwanda. Belgium being a former colonial master of Rwanda decided to send her soldiers to Rwanda to participate in the UN mission. Other countries that sent troops are Ghana, Tunisia, Bangladesh, and soldiers from other developing countries.
The Hutu extremists saw this as sabotage of their mission because the UN would not allow them to continue with their hidden agenda of the genocide if the UN stayed in Rwanda.so the calculation of killing the Belgian Peacekeepers was based on an earlier incident that had happened in Somalia where USA soldiers were brutally murdered and dragged in the streets of Mogadishu. This forced the USA to pull out its soldiers from Somalia. Belgian peacekeepers memorial
The Hutu extremists used that technique also by killing the Belgian Peacekeepers and it indeed worked because, after the brutal murder of the Belgian soldiers, Belgium and all other countries pulled out of Rwanda leaving the country in the hands of the perpetrators. This accelerated the Rwanda genocide of 1994 that left almost a million people dead mainly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus.
On 7th April 1994, 10 Belgian UN Peacekeepers under the command of General Romeo Dallaire were deployed at the home of the prime minister to give her security. Agathe Uwiringiyimana was a Hutu prime minister of Rwanda but she had always denied the Hutu government against torture and killing of Tutsis.
On the same day the Forces Ames Rwandese(FAR), attached the home of the prime minister. At the home of the prime minister, the Belgian soldiers were disarmed and ordered to surrender as they were convinced to be taken back to the UN military camp. On their way, they were diverted and taken to camp Kigali where they were killed. Four of them were killed immediately on arrival at the camp while the 6 others fought for several hours until they were defeated and killed. The prime minister was also killed on that day. The bodies of the soldiers were dumped at a nearby hospital mortuary.
Camp Kigali was officially opened 0n 7th April 2000 by the Belgian government in commemoration of the 10 Belgian soldiers. inside the camp, there are 10 grey granite columns built for each of the soldiers. They have horizontal cuts around them representing each of the soldiers’ age. The tops of the pillars are broken showing the brutal killing of the soldiers.
The pillars have the initials of each soldier. At the camp, there is a small house with three rooms spread with bullet holes all around. This is a house where the rest of the soldiers took shelter before they were eventually murdered after running out of ammunition. Inside the house, there are two more rooms with information written in three languages (French, Dutch, and English) explaining about genocide history that has happened in other parts of the world.
Other memorial sites for dark tourism in Rwanda Include; Kigali genocide memorial, Nyamata genocide memorial, Ntarama genocide memorial, Murambi genocide memorial, Nyanza genocide memorial among others.
Besides dark tourism in Rwanda, there are other places one can go adventure tourism for example Volcanoes national park for mountain gorilla tracking and golden monkeys, Akagera national park for game viewing, and Nyungwe forest national park for chimpanzee tracking.
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