Thirty years ago, the world watched as Rwanda was ripped apart by geno- cide. In a 100-day spell of violence, an estimated 800 000 people from the minority Tutsi ethnic group were butchered by armed Hutu militias.
It is estimated that more than one million lives were lost in what can be described as some of the darkest days of post-independent Africa.
No one came to the rescue of the Tutsis in Rwanda. Not Africa. Not the international community. If Rwanda had been a richer, more geopolitically significant territory, the response may well have