We couldn t believe the UN was going to let us die
By Chris McGreal
Guardian Unlimited
Wednesday December 22, 1999
The last time Helena Nwitizina saw United Nations soldiers they were driving off to rescue white people.
She was
not among those Rwandans...
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We couldn t believe the UN was going to let us die
By Chris McGreal
Guardian Unlimited
Wednesday December 22, 1999
The last time Helena Nwitizina saw United Nations soldiers they were driving off to rescue white people.
She was
not among those Rwandans who begged the Belgian peacekeepers to administer a quick death rather than
abandon them to the men with machetes.
But the 30-year-old petrol pump attendant was no less terrified.
A few hours later Ms Nwitizina was one of the few survivors to crawl out of the first big massacre of the Rwandan
genocide.
"We could not believe that the United Nations was just going to let us die," she said.
"We were always
hearing on the radio how they were there to help us.
But when the killers were looking us in the eye and saying we
were going to die, what did the UN do? It saved white people.
"
Last week Kofi Annan expressed his "deep remorse" for the UN s shortcomings in Rwanda five years ago, after an
independent report offered a damning asses
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