Author: Tim

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Rwamakuba innocent

Reuters reported this morning that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has acquitted former Rwandan education minister Andre Rwamakuba on charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination and murder. The court voted unanimously after hearing insufficient evidence of Rwamakuba’s guilt.

Rwamakuba was a former doctor at the Butare University Hospital and was accused of using an axe to kill Tutsis. He took a position as an interim spokesman when President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down in 1994.

Since the ICTR began trials in 1997, twenty-six people have been found guilty and five have been acquitted. It has indicted some 80 people for genocide and related crimes.

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Our history of genocide

Today, we stand in the middle of what history will record as the first genocide of the 21st Century. The African Union, who have been providing a tenuous string of peacekeeping forces to the border area of Darfur, are preparing to leave the country after the Sudanese government announced that they would not allow United Nations forces to replace their mission.

Even as President Bush addressed the nation about the memory of 9/11 and claimed that “we must put aside our differences, and work together to meet the test that history has given us,” he once again shows that his focus lies in ideological struggles and not humanitarian ones. Clearly, this administration like others before it, are blind to the implications that yet another genocide will have on the global community.

As Romeo Dallaire (Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) wrote in a letter to the CBC:

This nation, without any hesitation nor doubt, is capable and even expected by the less fortunate of this globe to lead the developed countries beyond self-interest, strategic advantages, and isolationism, and raise their sights to the realm of the pre-eminence of humanism and freedom.

The nation he was referring to was his own – Canada – but his words are even more apropos for the United States. Not only do we have the strength and finances to intervene in times of crises, we have the humanitarian services to aid those who need it. The only thing we lack is a will of leadership.

Wilson — The Armenian Genocide (1.5 million)
Roosevelt — The Holocaust (11 million)
Nixon — The Burundi Genocide (150,000)
Ford/Carter — The Cambodian Genocide (1.7 million)
Reagan — The Kurdish Genocide (50,000)
Bush/Clinton — Bosnian Genocide (8000 +)
Clinton — Rwandan Genocide (937,000)

In a memo detailing Clinton’s lack of response to the genocide in Rwanda, President Bush wrote a (now famous) message in the margins that said: “NOT ON MY WATCH.” To which I feel compelled to reply, “Welcome to the club, Mr. President.”

Bush — Darfur (400,000 and climbing)

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Toothless resolution

The United Nations has passed a resolution to send peacekeeping troops — amounting to 20,500 men — to the devastated Darfur region of western Sudan. Twelve Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution, while China, Russia and Qatar abstained from the vote, and Sudan boycotted the session entirely.

Even though activists and human rights groups have been pleading with the United Nations or NATO to intervene in the on-going violence, there is little cause to celebrate this resolution, as it requires the cooperation of the Sudan government. Khartoum has continuously resisted outside efforts of intervention.

Meanwhile, the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate as the African Union is reporting that they have insufficient funds to pay the 7,000 troops currently in place. As they attempt to patrol an area roughly the size of France, rebel groups continue to kill aid workers as the violence begins to encroach on Chad and the Central African Republic.

As Kingsley Amaning, the UN representative in Chad stated:

[The Darfur conflict] is creating armed groups that are destabilising entire populations in the east, and now it is moving towards the south, towards Central Africa.

[Ongoing attacks] may continue to weaken government institutions and apparatus and certainly make the life of ordinary citizens almost impossible, creating vulnerability all round.

With the restrictions placed on the United Nations resolution, it’s doubtful that any progress will be seen in the near future.

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Sudan rejects UN, violence continues

Not surprisingly, the Sudanese government has rejected the latest UN proposal for peacekeeping forces. Representatives issued a harsh warning to the sponsors of this resolution — the United States and Britain — asserting that it was an attempt at re-colonization.

“The draft resolution is worse than previous ones as it is an attempt to impose complete tutelage on the Sudan,” National Congress Party chairperson Ghazi Salah Eldin Atabani was quoted as saying after a meeting on Wednesday.

“Any state that sponsors this draft resolution will be regarded as assuming a hostile attitude against the Sudan,” said the official, describing the draft as “unacceptable and not negotiable under any sort of pressure”.

Meanwhile, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned that 200 of the refugees living in camps have been raped in the last five weeks.

In Kalma – Darfur’s biggest camp for internally displaced people – there used to be two to three reports of sexual violence a month, the IRC says.

But in the past five weeks, the figures has spiralled to 200 women and young girls, some as young as 13.

It is yet further evidence, relief workers say, that security is worsening in one of the most troubled regions of the world.

There has also been an escalation of attacks against humanitarian aid workers, some of whom have had to cease operations.

At the beginning of August, it was reported that at least seven humanitarian workers had been slain in the region after the African Union peacekeeping force was reduced because of a lack of funding. The Sudanese government continues to say that all of these reports of violence are old, and that there’s no longer bloodshed happening in Darfur.