Posts Tagged ‘humanitarian intervention’
15 Years ago today
Author’s Note: This diary is dedicated to the memory of Alison Des Forges, of Human Rights Watch, and author, or principle author, of “Leave None to Tell the Story,” Human Rights Watch’s narrative of the events of the Rwandan Genocide. It surpasses excellence. It’s not that I knew or ever met her, but I’m sure she felt personally compelled, as I have, to write about Rwanda, and certainly found it even more difficult. In her memory, in the memory of those both living and dead who have been touched by this, I have done my level best here. And like General Romeo Dallaire, head of the failed UN peacekeeping mission for Rwanda, I find I can take no consolation from that fact.
Virtually the entire world ignored this genocide, and why that happened is what I try to answer here.
We had a couple of friends over, and you know, I just–we just sat down to dinner, and all of a sudden, there was this huge explosion. And I–I–didn’t naturally, you know, come to me what that was because I wasn’t used to hearing those kinds of sounds.” –Laura Lane, U.S. Embassy, Kigali, Rwanda[1]
“And it went from “There’s been an explosion at the airport” to “We think it’s the ammunition dump at Kinumbi that’s blown up” to “It’s a plane that’s crashed” to “It’s the presidential plane that crashed.” –Brent Beardsley, Military Assistant to General Dallaire[2]
On the evening of 6 April 1994, the presidential airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana as well as Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi was shot down as it slowed and descended on approach to the airport in Kigali, Rwanda. Two shoulder mounted surface-to-air missiles struck the aircraft, the first hitting a wing, and the second impacting the tail. A pair of empty SA-16 missile tubes were later found, their serial numbers indicating that they had once been part of the Iraqi arsenal. Even today, it’s not known who was responsible, but what is known is that within hours, maybe within minutes, certain neighborhoods in Kigali were being patrolled by units of the elite Rwandan Presidential Guard and by the National Police. By daybreak the killing had begun.
The bloodshed continued and spread for eleven weeks, and by the time it was over, an estimated 657,000 men, women and children had perished.
A comment deserving more than a reply…
Inspired by a comment, “Regarding Sudan…” made by citizen53 in the DailyKos Midday Open Thread of Sunday, 8 March.
“There is an argument in HR circles that the indictment was for show and in the end has little to do with the real problem of protecting people.
Like was done with the formation of the ICTY regarding Yugoslavia, it makes people think something is being done because not much, in reality, is.
We often are pacified by perception.
Humanitarian intervention may makes more sense, even if it ends up being illegal in international law, like Kosovo. Not many really complained about the violation that saved lives.
Sadly, this is the state of international law, where an antiquated UN Charter does not afford the world a way to address internal problems as the issue of sovereignty is abused by bad leaders who commit war crimes against their own people.”
Two points I’d like to address here. More beneath the fold
