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Kielce massacre remembered

While the US celebrated its day of Independence, a sad occasion was being memorialized in Poland. July 4th was the 60th anniversary of the Kielce massacre in which 43 Jews were killed after hearing a false report that Jews had kidnapped a Christian boy.

During the unveiling of a new monument to the victims of the massacre, President Lech Kaczynski said in a statement:

“As the president of Poland, I want to say it loud and clear: what happened in Kielce 60 years ago was a crime. This is a great shame and tragedy for the Poles and the Jews, so few of whom survived Hitler’s Holocaust.”

The massacre was known as Europe’s last pogrom and took place a year after the end of the war.

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Rwandan tribunal

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has come under increasing pressure lately for its lack of progress in trying the accused ringleaders of the Rwandan genocide. The court was established in 1994 and carried a prosecution docket of some 700 politicians, clergymen, media personalities, and government officials.

Yet, to date, only 72 people have been arrested with 25 being eventually convicted.

By the end of 2007 it will have cost UN member states, including Britain, roughly £20 million per prosecution if the remaining cases lead to convictions.

Currently there are 27 people standing trial with the ICTR and another 14 are waiting for their trials to begin.

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Holocaust lecture series

Yad Vashem is beginning a lecture series examining the Holocaust, which will be available as podcasts. The first lecture in the series is up now — The Allies and the Holocaust by David Silberklang — and examines the various factors that shaped the Allies’ response. Each of these podcasts comes with a set of relevant links to help researchers and teachers find addition information on that lecture’s topic.

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Iranian Holocaust conference

Iran is preparing to move forward with a Holocaust conference in October. After stirring up outrage from the international community for deny the Holocaust, Iran announced today that plans for the conference would move forward.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked international outrage last year by calling for the eradication of Israel, branding the Holocaust a ‘fairy tale’ and demanding a relocation of Israel to Europe or the United States.

Following international protests, Tehran decided to hold a conference discussing what it termed “clarification of the real dimensions of the Holocaust.”

Ironically enough, the Iranians moved the proposed dates for the conference so that they wouldn’t cause problems at the World Cup.

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Rusesabagina caught in politics

As the nation of Rwanda struggles with its future, Paul Rusesabagina is apparently becoming a political threat. The former hotel manager, whose story was told in the film Hotel Rwanda (and recently released his autobiography — An Ordinary Man), has been raising the ire of President Kagame and his followers, as he adds his voice to others who want to see more democratic freedoms in Rwanda.

As Shyaka Kanuma of the independent newspaper Focus stated:

“This is a dictatorship for sure. But that’s good for the moment. You can’t have a Western-style democracy in a country where 80 percent of people vote on ethnic lines.”

Even as Kagame and Rusesabagina take opposing sides in the political debate, many others are worried that this clash of idiologies might be driving the country toward more ethnic violence. Paul Mugiraneza of the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace, put it simply, “both sides are using the genocide as a tool of politics.”