CNN: Can Democracy Thrive in Africa?

[Pete]

When Rwanda boiled over in '94 I was working as a contractor for the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency at Fort Detrick, Md. We had some Cipro stored in a U.S. Army warehouse in the Persian Gulf region shipped to CONUS for potential trans-shipment to Rwanda to treat the diarrheal diseases breaking out there. If I recall correctly the U.S. part of the humanitarian assistance effort there never materialized.

[Tom Odom]

When Rwanda boiled over in '94 I was working as a contractor for the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency at Fort Detrick, Md. We had some Cipro stored in a U.S. Army warehouse in the Persian Gulf region shipped to CONUS for potential trans-shipment to Rwanda to treat the diarrheal diseases breaking out there. If I recall correctly the U.S. part of the humanitarian assistance effort there never materialized.

I was on the ground in Goma for the refugee crisis in which some 70K died from cholera. The US effort was substantial including airlift and supplies. The focus on the effort was water distribution with purification a secondary. The counter-diarrheal effort was not the priority as the deaths were quick--most efforts were to provide rehydration salts and again safe water to prevent further spread. The JTF itself spread out from JTF-A with me in Goma, to Entebbe, and Kigali. Goma with Bukavu as a secondary was the focus for the humanitarian effort. That had its costs politically and strategically in the following years as those efforts did little for victims of the genocide even as we helped those responsible for the genocide.

Tom

Tom