Embassy Magazine, Canada
April 13 2005
A Prayer for Rwanda – Hope for Darfur
As the world remembers, a genocide in slow-motion continues to unfold
As the ice-cold rain hammered down on the small crowd of about
hundred people, I couldn’t help but feel that we have largely
forgotten. We easily forget most tragedies that happen in Africa. We
forget that one million men, women and children were butchered in
Rwanda just eleven years ago, we forget that over three million
people have died in the complicated wars in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) in the last five years, and every passing day, we try
forget about the 300,000 people that have already died in Darfur.
Having come from the National Prayer Breakfast earlier that
morning–where hundreds of people, including dozens of ambassadors
and parliamentarians, gathered in the West Block to share their
prayer life–the small group I stood with outside in the rain, under
the shadow of the Peace Tower, seemed even smaller. They too were in
need of prayers, prayers for the million souls that lost their lives
in Rwanda eleven years ago, prayers for the struggling survivors and
prayers for victims of genocide in today’s Darfur.
Though, as Rwandans struggle every day to put their lives back
together, to maintain peace, to achieve community and national
reconciliation and to eradicate the ideology of genocide, they
require more than prayers. Despite a massive surge in humanitarian
aid after the genocide, what many saw as “guilt aid,” we have in fact
done little to support efforts to ensure that this does not happen
again in the area. Primarily, by demobilizing the ad-hoc armies that
have brutalized the Eastern DRC, some of which are made up of and run
by the thousands of Interhamwe that fled Rwanda after the genocide.
But perhaps our greatest failure–as one of many nations that
promised eleven years ago to never allow this to happen again–is our
lack of political will to do more to stop the ongoing genocide in
Darfur. A crisis our own newly-named Senator Romeo Dallaire has
called a “Rwanda in slow motion.”
Consider this BBC report, with statements from Jan Egeland, UN
Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs:
There is no crisis in the world comparable to the one now building in
Darfur. Tens of thousands of people will perish unless we get food
supplies, medical supplies, water and sanitation facilities there,
within weeks. Nearly a million people have been displaced by the
fighting.
I was to have led the humanitarian mission to Darfur this week, but
repeated delays by the Sudanese government made the timing
impossible. Researchers from various human rights organizations say
the government is responsible for atrocities in Darfur.
Human Rights Watch investigator Julie Flint interviewed a witness to
a recent massacre:
‘He said that government troops and Janjawid…the mounted militia
that is virtually an arm of the government now, surrounded a large
area before daybreak, went into the villages inside that area where
there were many displaced… and took away men who had been
displaced. 136 of those were trucked by army truck to nearby valleys,
made to kneel and summarily executed that night.’
Human Rights Watch says the atrocities in Darfur constitute crimes
against humanity.
Anyone following the devastating situation in Darfur today would find
nothing new or striking about this report–until they saw the date
the report was filed–April, 2003. Two years ago, the world knew
exactly what was going on in Darfur and we did nothing.
One year ago, in April, leaders from all over the world commemorated
the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Kigali. Many of these leaders
would have known what had been going on in Darfur for over a year.
Voicing the words, “never again,” while joining in the tacit
complicity of again, and again.
When I asked some of the diplomats and media that I had met in Rwanda
last year during the 10th year commemoration if they were returning
to Rwanda to mark the occasion of the 11th year, I was met with
quizzical
responses…why would we go this year? Apparently genocides are only
to be recognized on 10th year anniversaries, centennials, etc. This
might not be a problem if we were meeting our obligations for peace
and reconciliation in Rwanda and ending the genocide in Darfur. But
we are not.
Diplomatic complacency, the snail’s pace at which UN resolutions are
made, and the indifference that much of the Western world shows
towards Africa, do not have to undermine the efforts. Canadians, of
all backgrounds, can and must continue to acknowledge and raise
awareness about genocide in its past, present and future forms. In
working with a number of NGOs committed to raising awareness about
Darfur, I’ve noticed that many of them are made up of or supported by
Jewish groups, Rwandan genocide survivors, and of course, Sudanese
refugees. Clearly, despite the international community and the UN’s
reluctance to call it what it is, mass killing, torture and rape
based on one’s ethnic, racial and/or religious identity is genocide,
regardless of where it takes place.
One of the most striking features about the Kigali Memorial Centre at
Gisozi, Rwanda is that it also devotes one room to every major
genocide that has taken place in recent history: the Jewish
Holocaust, the Armenian and Cambodian genocides and those that took
place in the former Yugoslavia. The museum recognizes the basic fact
that the experience and memory of genocide plagues millions around
the world and that contrary to popular Western belief, Europeans can
be just as barbaric in the slaughter of their own people as “tribal”
Africans. The memorial succeeds in humanizing the victims, restoring
their dignity and the dignity of the survivors, emphasizing the value
of each life and, most importantly, promoting post-genocide
reconstruction and prevention through education.
The UN has designated April 7th as International Day of Reflection on
the Genocide in Rwanda. I’d like too see more than reflection– I’d
like to see remembrance and action on a scale commensurate with the
loss of life the world has seen recently through preventable
genocides.
Canada–a country that still boasts of it’s role as a peacekeeper,
riding on the history of decades past, when we were meaningfully
engaged internationally in human rights and development–ought to
invest more in commemoration, education, and most importantly,
prevention of genocide.
If we wish to try to re-establish our reputation in the international
community, Canadians can simply not accept the status quo when it
comes to genocide. We can engage in a massive initiative; from
acknowledging our own colonial-era genocide of the First Nations, to
taking the lead in stopping the slaughter in Darfur. Canada can
become a peacekeeper once again.
— Magdalene Creskey is a research assistant to MP David Kilgour and
has worked in community and educational development projects in
conflict areas in southern Africa.