Spring 1994- The Rwandan Intervention
New Flag of South Africa (1994-present)
NATO's future continued to look rather uncertain in its path. While the Cold War was over, there was a lot of hesitation in just dismantling NATO outright. That said, the move made in suspending Turkey from the organization did renew talks on how to move the organization forward and address the future of Central and Eastern Europe. While the European Union, the new project that was beginning to move forward, looked promising, it was unknown on their capabilities for military operations. For the more pragmatic, it was also just recoginizing the need for the US to project its influence as a superpower, especially since the Yugoslavic Wars have proven that intervention for larger events are needed. Meanwhile, the SUSR did address their concerns on Central and Eastern Europe joining NATO while said new nations expressed said interest to protect themselves. However, a third option was being proposed: that Central and Eastern Europe forming their version of NATO. The idea being that it would follow a similar structure and order like NATO though without American backing. Or rather direct American backing as a member of the organization. The plan being that this new organization could work hand in hand with NATO and be able to request NATO's assistance and thus affording them practically the same level of protection. This proposal began gathering more interest over for the various nations, especially Poland. However, questions remained on the phenomenon, including on if this would actually barr these nations from joining NATO in the first place.
Over in international news, there was news both good to celeberate and bad to prepare for. The people of Finland hold their referendum and vote to join the European Union, showing the growing popularity of the organization. Another referendum meanwhile would have the people of Moldova turn down the opportunity to reunite with Romania, at least for the time being. [1] A third referendum in Europe meanwhile would gather a bit more attention: Ukraine voting for federalization. With the first parliamentary elections in the independent Ukraine, constitutional questions regarding the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts would be proposed: On whether Russian should be declared an official language of Ukraine, whether Ukraine should federalise, and whether Ukraine should have closer ties over with the SUSR. Close to 90% of the people would vote in favor of these policies, but despite this, the Ukrainian government initially rejected following through on some of these policies, leading to general strikes in the region. [2] The SUSR condemned the Ukrainian government for ignoring the will of the people and the US would follow up on it, both for differing reasons. Ultimately, it would be through a combination of deals, political strongarming and the growing discontent in Ukraine in general that the government would cave on these policies. Ukraine would federalize as a nation and the Ukrainian government used this to deal with other questions. The status of Russian as an additional official language would be kicked down over to the oblast level. This process was made a bit easier by modifying what had been done with the Autonomous Oblast of Qirim and applying it across the nation. As for closer ties with the SUSR, deals were being arranged though in exchange, the Ukrainian government also planned additional talks with the United States along with some of their other neighbors, especially for investment opportunites.
However, while this would have a peaceful resolution, troubling news came over from Africa. Growing tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda would begin reaching an all-time high and attempts at reigning the peace have not been successful so far. The situation exploded when the airplane carrying Rwandan President
Juvénal Habyarimana and
Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of
Burundi would explode. An ongoing onslaught of violence would begin over against the Tutsis, with the scenes of shock and horror to the world. The question of intervention was raised and it seemed like none of Rwanda's neighbors would get involved, at least directly. However, this didn't mean other nations wouldn't get involved. The Ethiopian Empire and South Africa would push for further involvement along with President Askew. Ethiopia was a big help in this regard, especially in regards to their lending assistance to the Americans in handling the Somali Civil War. As such, with funding from Ethiopia and other parts of Africa and some assistance from the SUSR, the private military group Executive Outcomes would be hired and sent to assist in UN peacekeeping missions to stop the attempts of slaughter by the various forces, predominantly the the Impuzamugambi and the Interahamwe. [3] At the same time, concerns were being listed that leader of the RPF, Paul Kagame, was the one behind the assassination attempts, prompting further emergancy discussions on further involvement, especially France, given how it was a French crew that died in the crash. In the meanwhile, Executive Outcomes cooperating with UN forces and others got in and began their work in protecting people and preventing the attempts of genocide.
Despite all the chaos going on in Africa, good news remained in discussion. South Africa would adopt a new flag to replace the one used during the time of apartheid. After two years of development, the
Linux kernel version 1.0.0 would be released. It would end up booming in popularity over in Finland, primarily due to their software scene influenced by the GNU presence in Russia as well as how its creator, Linus Torvalds was Finnish-American. Though speaking of computers, the People's Republic of China would begin establishing their first major connections to the Internet. At the same time, China was also in growing talks over with Kim Il-Sung over Korean reunification plans, especially with concerns of his health and he was being pressured not just by the Chinese, but also by the SUSR to go and begin discussions on the matter, while pursuing renewable energy opportunities with the Askew administration. Kurt Cobain of
Nirvana would be found in critical condition from what was a suicide attempt, apparently from an attempt via shotgun, but unable to do so. He would be taken over to the hospital and the music scene watched with a growing concern over his health along with that of Courtney Love, his wife and a prominent musician of the second riot grrl scene. Meanwhile, the
Flavr Savr, a
genetically modified tomato, is deemed safe for consumption by the FDA, becoming the first commercially grown
genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption.[1]
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994
[2]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbas#In_independent_Ukraine_(1991–2014)
[3]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide
Would also like to thank this thread for a bit of help:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-intervention-in-rwanda.291283/
But yeah, no "Black Hawk Down" mess because butterfly effect and help from Ethiopia.