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Mercy Global Concern - 2004
The Perils of Indifference: Rwanda Ten years after
the Genocide.
Briefing paper Number 1 - April 2004
Recently, the Secretary General Kofi Annan, delivered
a message to commemorate
7th April as the International day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide
in Rwanda. He stressed the need for the international community
to remember the victims abandoned to systematic slaughter and abuse.
"The Untied Nations has now had ten years to reflect on
the bitter knowledge that genocide happened while United Nations
peacekeepers were on the ground in Rwanda," he said.
The Secretary-General pledged greater emphasis on ensuring that
the international community is ready to confront the threat of
genocide in a decisive and preemptive manner. In February this
year, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to recognize the
importance of combating impunity for all violations that constitute
the crime of genocide and to help countries tackle the root causes
of these problems.
"Genocide is a threat to peace requiring strong, united action.
There can be no more important issue, and no more binding obligation,
than the prevention of genocide".
Indeed, this may be considered one of the original purposes of
the United Nations. The 'untold sorrow' which the scourge
of war had brought to humanity, at the time when our organization
was established, included genocide on a horrific scale. The words
never again were on everyone's lips.
Three years later, in 1948, the General Assembly adopted the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It entered
into force in 1951, and over 130 States are now parties to it.
Under
article 1 of that Convention, the contracting parties confirm
that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or time of war,
is a crime under international law, which they undertake to prevent
and to punish.
And yet, genocide has happened again, in our time. The events
of the 1990s, in former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, are especially
shameful.
The international community clearly had the capacity to prevent
these events. But it lacked the will. Why?
"
These memories are especially painful for the United Nations and
painful and traumatic for me personally. In Rwanda in 1994, and
at Srebrenica in 1995, we had peacekeeping troops on the ground
at the very place and time where genocidal acts were being committed.
In Rwanda, some peacekeeping troops lost their lives in trying
to defend victims. All honour to them. But instead of reinforcing
our troops, we withdrew them. In both cases the gravest mistakes
were made by Member States, particularly in the way decisions
were
taken in the Security Council. But all of us failed. As we know,
there should have been no bystanders. Indeed, one of my constant
concerns as Secretary-General has been to move the Organization
from a
culture of reaction to one of prevention-in
particular, prevention of armed conflict. We must attack the roots
of violence and genocide. These are intolerance, racism, tyranny,
and the dehumanizing public discourse that denies whole groups
their dignity and rights. We must protect especially the rights
of minorities, since they are genocide's most frequent targets.
And at the United Nations there are still conspicuous gaps in our
capacity to give early warning signs of genocide or comparable
crimes, and to analyze and manage the information that we do receive."
The
gaps that the Secretary General spoke about were all to clear as
we listened to the testimony of Jacqueline Murekatete, an eighteen
year old survivor of the genocide. At age eight, Jacqueline lost
her mother, her father, her four brothers and two sisters.
In a dialogue with Elie Wiesel a holocaust survivor, we were told
that "indifference to evil IS EVIL". Whatever the answer
to the essential questions of why the international community and
the United Nations stood by as the genocide unfolded in Rwanda,
Wiesel reminded the audience that Indifference and Despair are
never the answer.
(Wiesel to Jacqueline)
"Nothing can replace testimony. Testimony of Truth is faith
in the autonomous reader to learn, to share to act. This century
has begun
in a terrible way. We thought that the twentieth century was the
end of the butchery and man's inhumanity to man. When the
world joined in celebrating on December 31, 1999, we thought we
had waved goodbye to evil. This new century, is just four years
old and we have had the War in Iraq, the killing of UN personnel
who were there to help. We have the Middle East. We have the Congo
and the situation in the Balkans remains uneasy. Whatever the answer,
despair is never an answer. Your despair is my question. General
Romero Dallaire, (Retired), former Commander of UNAMIR, spoke of
his personal recollections of, and reflections on, the
events of 1994. In a passionate reflection he asked many questions - "Why
did the European Conflict in Kosovo get more money than a small
poor nation in black Africa? Is one human being less than another
human being? Why were early signs not acted upon and why was the
Rwandan Genocide talked about as 'tribalism' while
the conflict in Yugoslavia was from its inception described as 'ethnic
cleansing'?"
"What of the genocide and the response of the International
community?
As the genocide was unfolding I encountered political stagnation.
As of April 6th 2004, I still did not have an operating budget.
Yes, they came in their thousands to evacuate thousands - thousands
of white expatriates and a few Rwandans. They came and they
were firm and committed to carrying out their mission, as effectively
as possible - to remove their people and by April 19th their
mission was complete. I for my part was told ' there is no
one coming to help - we are peace keepered out' and
so with no mandate, I stayed and I observed. We stayed and
managed to save about 30,000 people. By May of 2004 and under enormous
pressure from the international media (there had been 5 weeks of
frenzied killings) more troops were mandated by the Security Council.
These never materialized until August 8th, when the killing was
over."
"Are all humans human? Did this body (UN) consider the lives
of troops from Nation States more important than Rwandans? As a
member of one nation said, 'How many dead Rwandans are WORTH
one soldier from a developing nation?'"
" In commemorating the Genocide, the lesson we must remember is that,
it could have been prevented. Genocide is carefully planned. Words
that fuel hate become the guns and the machetes to maim and kill
the other. You cannot get large groups of people to take part in
such crimes without mentally preparing them. The media play a major
role here."
General Dallaire spoke of his attempts to get permission to jam
the radio station, which was spewing out hatred in all directions
on how to rape, mutilate, disembowel the 'other'.
"The
response I got was that a radio station is the responsibility of
the sovereign state. Permission was refused." The United
Nations borrows troops from Nation Countries. If a Nation State
gives an
order to its troops to revert to National Command
that order is followed. Records indicate that states gave this
order - they abandoned their troops and ultimately Rwandans. When
will never again mean - Never again? What lessons can the UN
failure to respond in Rwanda teach us for the future?
Deirdre Mullan rsm
New York
April 2004
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