For my International Politics class I am researching Rwanda's genocide in the early 90s, and honestly, it is unfathomable of the deeds committed. The atrocity, the hatred, the killings- how, HOW, can humanity be capable of that? What's striking, is that the Clinton administration knew what was going on, neighboring African countries knew what was happening, even European countries were evacuating their own people out of Rwanda, and yet nobody did anything. Absolutely nothing. They would not contribute even 2,000 troops to protect these helpless Tutsi people, who were being killed with Machetes by the Hutus. America's prime refusal in helping Rwanda was because it feared that if they came out and said that a genocide was actually happening then they would have to do something about it. It's just disgusting how countries are more worried about their sovereignty and the balance of power then helping people who are dying. Here is one gripping excerpt:" When we arrived, I looked at the school across the street, and there were children, I don't know how many, forty, sixty, eighty children stacked up outside who had all been chopped up with machetes. Some of their mothers had heard them screaming and had come running, and the militia had killed them, too. We got out of the vehicle and entered the church. There we found 150 people, dead mostly, though some were still groaning, who had been attacked the night before. The Polish priests told us it had been incredibly well organized. The Rwandan army had cleared out the area, the gendarmerie had rounded up all the Tutsi, and the militia had hacked them to death. The polish priests, who had been pinned up to the wall with a barrel of the gun, were broken-hearted. They kept repeating, over and over, ' These were our parishioners."
Or what about this exercept that baffles me how the Kenyan government could respond in this way:
"In one instance Dallaire's forces succeeded in evacuating a group of Rwandans by plane to Kenya. The Nairobi authorities allowed the plane to land, sequestered it in a hangar, and echoing the American decision to turn back the USS St. Louis during the Holocaust, then forced the plane to return to Rwanda. The fate of the passengers is unknown."
Those who did nothing to stop this are just as barbarious as the Hutu miltia. Just reading this turns my heart to anguish. You just want to cry for humanity, for these atrocities, for these children who did nothing to deserve death. All they wanted was to live a peaceful life with their mother and father. And yet, just because they were Tutsi they were hacked to death. There aren't words to describe these ruthless, viscious acts. And yet genocide is happening as we speak. It's happening right now. As you read this people in Sudan are being killed by their OWN government. Millions are sent to their death, and we just try to avoid it- prefering it to be a faceless killing. How can humans be capable of this? What lies in the depths of our souls that we can be capable of allowing such brutality to persist? How can we turn our heads, more so our hearts? How can you not break down after seeing a picture of a boy holding his hand to his head covering a knife wound, with his face marred by knife cuts, looking at you, wondering what he has done to deserve this? What could possibly be placed above the human life? Why is it that we are so reluctant to help those in need; we would rather turn away, and hope that the problem solve itself. Nobody ever wants to take the responsibility, the risk of failure, or the possibility of loss. Just because we live in America, the land of the free, why do we think our lives are more important than those struggling in Africa, or third world countries? If we have been privileged to live with such resources around us, shouldn't we help those who have less than us? HOW CAN WE SIT CONTENTLY AND SAY IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM. whatever that problem may be- whether it be helping a person in need that you don't really know, doing something that requires you to give of yourself, of your money, of your time, forcing you to deny your self absorbed ego for once. I know that I can't necessarily fly over to the Sudan and change anything; but it's in these stories, these articles that we can personally change. That we can say I will help someone in my environment, however small that assistance may be. That something within us will change, and passionately burn to not let wrongdoings go by and be faceless happenings that we accept as a part of life.11:42 PM 2 Falling Stars
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