West 'guilty' over Rwanda genocide

CNN ^ | 4/6/4

[presidio9]

KIGALI, Rwanda -- Western powers bear "criminal responsibility" for Rwanda's 1994 genocide because they did not attempt to stop it, the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country at the time has said.

"The international community didn't give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance," General Romeo Dallaire told a conference in Kigali marking the 10th anniversary of the slaughter.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Dallaire's credentials, granted by the UN...

[AdamSelene235]

"It's up to Rwanda not to let others forget they are criminally responsible for the genocide,"

Egads, I thought it was the fault of the Hutu's swinging the pangas.

I'll just assume everything is my fault until further notice.

[Maceman]

"The international community didn't give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance," General Romeo Dallaire told a conference in Kigali marking the 10th anniversary of the slaughter. "It's up to Rwanda not to let others forget they are criminally responsible for the genocide," he said, singling out France, Britain and the United States.

I see. Since we had no national interest in Rwanda, we were criminally responbsible for not invading the country to stop the gencoide and mass murder. But since we DID have a strategivc interest in Iraq, we were criminally responsible because we DID invade the country to stop genocide and mass murder.

Clear as mud.

P.S. Everyone associated with the UN makes me sick.

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[Steve_Seattle]

"It's up to Rwanda not to let others forget they are criminally responsible for the genocide," he said, singling out France, Britain and the United States

USA, 1994 - I guess that would be Bill Clinton, then. But seriously, why can't we hold responsible the people who actually committed the genocide - the Hutus? Are not Black Africans morally culpable for their own crimes? Is this a new version of the White Man's Burden, to take the blame for the murderous actions of Blacks?

[Maceman]

Sorry about the typos in my previous post. Every time I think about the UN, I have a "slowly I turn" moment and lose my ability to type coherently.

[Zack Nguyen]

Why are liberals going into paroxyms of grief over our failure to act in Rwanda, yet none of them seem to care that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Hussein?

[IronJack]

I would have thought the Rwandans might share some of the blame ...

[marron]

Dallaire was the Westerner on the scene with the loaded gun. He stood by and watched it happen. He did so because Kofi Annan told him to stand down.

So while I agree that the West bears responsibility, I would say that first responsibility goes to the Hutus with the machetes, and a distant second responsibility goes to Dallaire and Annan. Third responsibility goes to other Western leaders who pretended it wasn't happening.

UN responsibility is significant because of the insane desire so many have to place Iraq back under UN auspices. I guess they forget Rwanda, and Bosnia, and the present situation in the Congo.

[Sacajaweau]

There was an excellent program on the other day. A Rwandan spoke. He said...All Clinton had to do was pick up the phone and tell them "don't you dare". In the meantime, Kofi is taking the hit. My, isn't that interesting. Reminds me of Janet Reno and Waco.

[presidio9]

I'll just assume everything is my fault until further notice.

Wrong. It is actually George Bush's fault.

Did you notice how CNN sort of forgot to mention who was President of the United States while this "tragedy that we did nothing about" was going on?

[glorgau]

Are not Black Africans morally culpable for their own crimes?

Duh! You have to be a WASP to be culpable of anything reprehensible.

[The_Media_never_lie]

I remember watching a PBS documentary on the situation in Ruwanda. There was a one group of Africans, about 1800 that were under the protection of a U.N. (Belgian) peacekeeping force and were being attacked by a militant tribe. These Africans were begging and pleading for the Belgians not to leave them at the mercy of the homicidal tribesmen. They then begged the Belgians to leave them weapons to defend themselves so they would not be massacred.

The Belgians, under whose orders I don't recall, left. The tribesmen then murdered all 1800, little recognizable but the bright clothes among the remains.

I like to think, in fact I believe that had the troops been American they would not have allowed this to take place. After all, these were men, women and children. I am not for U.S. intervention in other's troubles, but this was horrendous.

Did anyone else see this Frontline program?

[The_Media_never_lie]

As I recall the Belgians were not under attack and faced no immediate physical threat.

[joan]

I remember watching a PBS documentary on the situation in Ruwanda. There was a one group of Africans, about 1800 that were under the protection of a U.N. (Belgian) peacekeeping force and were being attacked by a militant tribe. These Africans were begging and pleading for the Belgians not to leave them at the mercy of the homicidal tribesmen. They then begged the Belgians to leave them weapons to defend themselves so they would not be massacred.

And didn't these, Tutsi Rwandans, once they realized the UN was going to leave them defenseless, didn't they beg the UN to shoot them, as they preferred dying that way than being macheted to death. Of course, their pleas weren't headed and were macheted to death shortly after the Belgians cleared out.

[joan]

On April 11, with no active mandate, the UN started ordering troop withdrawals. Belgian soldiers leaving a school where 2,000 Tutsis had taken refuge were asked by a representative to please shoot them before they went so they wouldn't be butchered by the Hutus. The Belgians declined, withdrew, and the Tutsis were carved up by the Hutus waiting outside.
Source: Big shrug again makes genocide possible

Shortly after 1 p.m., they saw the Belgian soldiers line up their jeeps, preparing to move out, but they could not believe that they were being deserted before arrangements had been made for their protection. At the order to depart, the soldiers jumped into their jeeps and rapidly pulled out of the gate. Some of the Rwandans hurried to lie down in the road to block the departure, but they were too slow to stop the convoy. As some ran after the departing jeeps, shouting “Do not abandon us!” they were driven back by the UNAMIR soldiers firing over their heads. Lemaire had advised the displaced persons to try to leave in small groupsunder cover of night, but there was no question of that. As the Belgian troops left, the militia and Rwandan soldiers rushed through one gate and the displaced began fleeing out another.

...The Rwandans who escaped immediate slaughter on the school grounds tried to flee to the nearest major UNAMIR outpost, the Amahoro stadium. En route they encountered Rwandan soldiers who at first reassured them and said they would escort them to the stadium when a number of the group had congregated. But when a large group had gathered, soldiers and militia herded them up a hill to a ridge called Nyanza-Rebero. As they were being forced to move along by soldiers and armed civilians, a group of Ghanaian UNAMIR soldiers passed by but did not respond to their enreaties to stop. On the ridge, soldiers and militia ordered the people to sit down and they began firing and throwing grenades at them and attacking them with machetes. Most of the two thousand people were killed that afternoon, within hours of the departure of the peacekeepers. When one of the survivors of the massacre took a Human Rights Watch researcher to Nyanza-Rebero in August 1994, the ridge was still littered with skulls, bones, clothing, and belongings of the people who had been slaughtered there. Most of the flesh had been eaten from the bones by dogs or other scavengers.
Source: IGNORING GENOCIDE

[Alberta's Child]

Interesting perspective.

I was once dumped off a talk radio show when I called up the host and suggested that the Clinton administration was more interested in the Balkans than Rwanda because it had such high expectations of white European nations and such low expectations of black African nations. LOL.

[marron]

"click"

Thats funny.

[RJL]

Western powers bear "criminal responsibility" for Rwanda's 1994 genocide because they did not attempt to stop it, the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country at the time has said.

Doesn’t General Romeo Dallaire mean that he and the UN bear "criminal responsibility"?

He and the UN were there and could have stopped it, but he was following orders to do nothing. The “following orders” defense was dismissed during the WWII Nuremberg Trials.