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Mercy Global Concern - 2004
Next Steps Toward Genocide Prevention
Plenary Panel, Wednesday, 28 January 2004
The Stockholm International Forum 2004
Dr. Carol Rittner RSM (Chairperson, Track 4)
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (USA)
Your Highness, Mr. Prime Minister, Honorable Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen: I, too, would like to thank Prime Minister
Person and the Swedish government for convening the 2004 Forum,
"Preventing Genocide: Threats and Responsibilities."
The speeches and statements have been impressive; the input from
scholars and practitioners, thoughtful; and, the discussion during
the various workshop sessions provocative, but speeches and statements,
papers, and discussion about genocide prevention are not enough.
We must move from words to deeds.
Based on the presentations and discussions in Track
4, "Creating Awareness: Education, Media, Memory," the
following are my suggestions regarding "Next Steps Toward
Genocide Prevention." Allow me, however, to begin with a statement:
Action on behalf of potential victims of genocide, mass killings,
and ethnic cleansing, and action on behalf of survivors of genocide,
mass killings, and ethnic cleansing are constituent dimensions of
genocide prevention.
Genocide, mass death, and ethnic cleansing are not on the decline,
either in incidence or scale. In more ways than one, genocide's
perpetrators have the upper hand: Tribunals prosecute perpetrators
of genocide after the fact, if at all. If the courts are to be a
credible deterrent, they have to act swiftly, thoroughly, and decisively.
Such things are easier said than done.
Early warning systems and other preventative measures try to anticipate
the worst before it happens, but their effectiveness thus far has
been more in the realm of hope than fact.
Standing between prevention and prosecution is intervention,
but the genocidal debacles in the Balkans and Rwanda, not to mention
the continuing mass killings in Nigeria, Sudan, and Congo, are scarcely
causes for optimism where intervention is concerned. Today we know
that forceful intervention in Bosnia and Rwanda could have prevented
the worst offenses in those regions. Of course regrets have been
expressed about the failure to intervene - everyone from former
American President Bill Clinton to current United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Anan, and others, I'm sure, have expressed such
regrets - but such apologetic hindsight does nothing for the
murdered and relatively little to encourage confidence in survivors,
or, if I may say so, in those who are potential victims of genocide,
mass killings, and ethnic cleansing that the world's response
to genocidal threats will be better "next time." What,
then, could inspire confidence in such people? Perhaps the following:
First suggestion: If you want to prevent
genocide, protect women and children.
Governments must recognize that "When the killing
stops, the genocide is not over." The consequences of genocide
"are severe, long term and complex." It is when the
killing stops that the most important phrase of prevention begins
- that is, the rehabilitation of victims and their societies.
In this phase of prevention - and make no mistake about it,
it is a phase of prevention - action on behalf of the rehabilitation
of victims and their societies is more than important; it is crucial,
for if we do not care for the victims, in both the short term and
in the long term, we risk the explosion of potentially negative
consequences for society. As Dr. James Smith of The Aegis Trust
in the United Kingdom pointed, there is a very real danger "that
the roles of perpetrators and victims [will] become reversed in
the struggle for new identity and personal security."
Esther Mujavajo, herself a survivor of the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda, movingly, poignantly, and angrily told us how, at the
height of the killings, the French and the Belgians evacuated their
nationals, including their nationals' dogs and cats, but would
not evacuate her three children, although she begged them to do
so. Today, Ms. Mugavajo, one of the founders of AVEGA, the Widows'
organization in Rwanda, works with women and children in Rwanda,
and in the diaspora, including women and children who were infected
with AIDS, and she told us how she is unable to obtain financial
help - as little as US$30 per person per month - to
obtain drugs for these women to help keep them alive, but how some
of the major donor nations, including, no doubt, France and Belgium,
and I am sure, my own United States, help to "support the
care" of the suspected genocidaires awaiting trial by the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and who are being
held in the over-crowded Rwandan prisons.
Aside from the moral issue, this kind of long-term post-genocide
neglect of survivors of the genocide fosters resentment in them
and surely does not contribute either to their rehabilitation, their
re-humanization, or their re-conciliation with members of the Hutu
community in Rwanda. I suspect the same thing is true in former
Yugoslavia: long-term, practical neglect of so many thousands of
women who were raped, forcibly impregnated, and, in many instances,
infected with AIDS and are now dying by inches because they cannot
afford the drugs to fight their disease, and no one seems to care.
Second Suggestion: If the men of this world
want to prevent genocide, I suggest some men organize a high-level,
high profile conference for men about why men use rape as a weapon
of genocide.
As Professor Melissa Raphael pointed out in her option
paper prepared for Track IV, ". . . it is now recognized that
rape is not 'merely' the private 'off-duty'
crime of soldiers relieving their sexual frustration (as was assumed
during the Nuremberg trials and until the late 20th century mass
rape of Muslim women in former Yugoslavia and Tutsi women in Rwanda)."
Rape is not a woman's problem, it is a man's
problem, and it is men who should ask Why? What can be done to
stop such violent behavior of men against women? and, How can we
[men] change?
The 2004 Stockholm Forum should lead to action by
men to stop other men from such behavior at any time but most especially
in a time of conflict, war, and genocide. It is men who should be
in the forefront of advocating for long-term, post-genocide care
for the victims of such male behavior.
Suggestion number three: regarding next steps
for the prevention of genocide picks up on the statement made by
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's Permanent Observer
at the United Nations. He said, ". . . my delegation
wishes to underscore . . . our duty to educate individuals and communities
not only on the horrors of genocide, not only to oppose it, but
above all, to prevent it from occurring again. A lot has already
been learned about genocide. But educating all about its evil is
a perennial and ever-timely duty incumbent upon us all. It was in
this sense, for example, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted
resolution 58/234, on 23 December 2003, designating 7 of April this
year as the International Day of Reflection to commemorate the victims
of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda."
My strong suggestion is that if the Holy See wants
to prevent genocide, this recommendation be shared with every Catholic
Church in communion with the Holy See and that the Pope, John Paul
II, put the full weight of his moral authority behind encouraging
every bishop in every diocese in every country throughout the world
to encourage the Catholic people in his diocese to do exactly what
is stated in the United Nation's resolution and in Archbishop
Migliore's statement: "to educate individuals
and communities, not only on the horrors of genocide, not only to
oppose it, but above all, to prevent it from occurring again."
As we know, religion can be a powerful and persuasive
force in genocide prevention. The negative examples of Rwanda, former
Yugoslavia, and the Holocaust bear witness to this claim, for virtually
all analysts of those genocides are convinced that they could have
been prevented, or stopped, or at least ameliorated, if strong religious
protests against the genocides had been raised. Religion can separate
people; it can legitimate violence that is genocidal. But, if the
quality of religious life improves by becoming less exclusive and
more inclusive, so will the odds in favor of genocide prevention.
I applaud Archbishop Migliore and his statement, which I am sure
was made with the full knowledge and support of the Vatican, but
like all of our resolutions, statements, discussions and suggestions,
it must move from words to actions.
These then are my suggestions regarding Next Steps
to the Prevention of Genocide:
- If you want to prevent genocide, protect women and children;
- If men want to prevent genocide, they should organize and convene
a high level, high profile conference about why they use rape
as a weapon of genocide and how they can stop it; and,
- If the Vatican wants to prevent genocide, the Pope, John Paul
II, should immediately move to support a day of reflection to
commemorate the victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and encourage
every Roman Catholic bishop in every Catholic diocese in the world
to do likewise.
Thank you.
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