Many of us have recently had an opportunity to view Hotel Rwanda, the outstanding full-length feature film that is now making the rounds in US theaters. In graphic detail, this film tells the story of how in 1994, the US, France, the UK, Belgium, and other Security Council members abandoned Rwanda's "Tutsi" minority to a genocide campaign that was led by the country's "Hutu" majority. (The Haitian musician and song writer Wyclef Jean also has a great new song that was featured in film. Here's a short clip from his "Million_Voices.")
The resulting violence cost nearly 1 million lives, and left more than 2 million refugees. The massacre went on from April 1994 to July 1994, and only ended went the Tutsi rebel army defeated the Hutus.
This was not the largest genocide in history, but it was certainly one of the most intensive. During World War II, it had taken Nazi Germany 5.5 years to kill 6 million victims -- an average of about 3000 per day. The Rwandan genocide proceeded at a rate more than twice that high. In addition, in Rwanda' case, mass rape was also used as a systematic weapon of group extermination against the Tutsis.
Those who are quick to attribute the resulting violence simply to "African tribalism'' may be interested in taking a closer look at the history of tribalism and ethnic divisions in Rwanda, which were reinforced and manipulated by the main colonial power, Belgium.
In any case, the Clinton Administration and the entire rest of the world literally watched the massacre from surveillance satellites, the UN withdrew nearly all its forces, and France and China even provided arms and machetes to the killers.
To this day, after more than 10 years, the UN International Criminal Tribunal charged with prosecuting the organizers of the genocide is far behind in its work. Its trials began in 1996, but as of 2005, only 11 defendants have been charged, tried, sentenced and completed their appeals, 9 have been convicted and awaiting appeals, 25 are currently on trial, 18 have been detained and are waiting for their trials to begin, 10 have fled prosecution, 1 has died, 5 have been released, and 16 are still under investigation. At this rate the UN ICT will have a very hard time completing its work by the 2010 deadline for all appeals.
In contrast, in the case of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal that followed World War II, from October 1945 to 1951, the tribunal convicted, sentenced, and processed the appeals of more than 257 defendants.
Many of those senior officials who were on duty at the time, like
former President Bill Clinton, former US
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security advisor
Anthony Lake, former UN Secretary General Boutrous Boutrous Ghali, and
former head of the UN Peacekeepers Kofi Annan, have since
had second thoughts about their conduct. They have all visited Rwanda and expressed their condolences.
Unfortunately, under international law, there is as yet no recognition for the crimes of gross negligence, involuntary manslaughter, or corporate negligence with respect to genocide -- no punishment for the "liberal leaders" of the world community who chose to stand by with their hands folded, watching hundreds of thousands of innocent people die -- simply because it was politically expedient.
If there is not a special place in Hell reserved for such people, we should all demand a new eschatology.
On April 7, 2004, people around the world did observe a minute of silence to commemorate the "Rwandan holocaust" victims. (See our April 2004 post on the subject.)
For those who are interested in the aftermath of this story, the following video reports by UNICEF and by Oxfam describes the aftermath of the genocide, including the continuing humanitarian crisis faced by the refugees.
For the history of the Rwandan debacle, see the following excerpts from the excellent PBS Frontline series: Part 1: The Warning. Part 2: Confronting Evil. Part 3: Heroes and Bystanders, and Part 4: Epilogue. Also especially powerful is BBC Journalist Fergal Keane's Eyewitness Account, a home video of the massacres shot by heroic Senegalese Capt. Mbaye Diagne, and the home video shot by Adventist missionary Carl Wilkens, the last American left in Rwanda after the US withdrew all its staff in April 1994.
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