After the documentary 'Ghosts of Rwanda' yesterday (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide), i was left aghast to wonder how simple racism and hatred has the potential to escalate into a genocide of 800,000 people while the world stands by. I was furious with America (and the UN) for their refusal to acknowledge the situation in Rwanda, and to blatantly state that they wouldnt help if it wasnt in their best interest (you would think it was more about basic human rights, justice and values!). The USA barely paused before they invaded Iraq to stop the terrible injustice that was taking place there... but then again, maybe such a move was politically and economically in their best interest....? Anyway these are only my opinions, and as i researched the causes of Genocide i found a table and article on the development and preventative measures that i thought other people would find useful also.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/eightstages.htm
Definition: Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic or national group. While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, the most prominent definition in international law is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of the CPPCG defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." (www.wikipedia.com)
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Hi Mrs Freud,
I appreciate your comments on several fronts: for sharing your emotional reactions, for raising the issue of why "international help" has been given e.g., in the case of Iraq, but not in the case of Rwanda (a point also raised by Carla), and for the valuable resource around stages of genocide. On that same website(genocide watch) they are highlighting similar inactivity which has been occurring with regard to Darfur.
Good point about Iraq, strong enconomic motivation there I suspect.
surely the fact that hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were being killed should have been motivation enough to help and step in??? and personally i don't buy the argument of Western countries/US not knowing what was going on.
I don't think there's any doubt that Western nations knew what was going on in Rwanda - but perhaps there was the disbelief that it was really happening on the scale that it was. Even seeing the evidence of what happened, it is still hard to comprehend the enormity of the atrocity - and distance assists that feeling of separation, and cultural differences assist the excuse of ignorance.
Oh, and I meant to say, thanks for the link on the 8 stages of genocide which I found interesting and horrifying all at the same time. It does make me wonder if genocide will ever cease - I'm sorry to say, I don't think it ever will.
Hi Mrs Freud,
I agree with your reaction to the DVD on the genocide in Rwanda, and I have to say a week on I’m still in a little disbelief as to how it was allowed to happen. I agree with Karen that there was never any doubt that the Western nations knew what was going on. I also think the American government’s excuse that they didn't realise the extent of the genocide was a bit convenient so they can excuse themselves from doing nothing to help. I think it was a very moving DVD, I feel very naive in not knowing the extent of Rwanda until now as it was quite recent in our history. When I was younger and learnt of the genocide of the Jews in Nazi Germany I foolishly believed that something as devastating as that could never happen again.....
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