Monday marked the 20th anniversary of one of the world’s most horrific tragedies after World War II—the Rwandan Genocide.
On April 7 two decades ago, amid a civil war ravaging the country, the Hutu ethnic majority began its senseless, merciless slaughter of the defenseless Tutsi minority. Though the calamity lasted a mere 100 days, its effects were immediately indelible with over 800,000 innocents executed, completely erased from the face of the earth. Those who were able to outlive the massacre were equally tortured in life. Many women survivors who had been raped during the violence had to endure inevitable deaths after contracting HIV, and many more had to continue living with their friends, family and communities completely eradicated.
Certainly, the extremist perpetrators hold the highest culpability for this crime against humanity, and in appropriate response, countries around the world in conjunction with the United Nations constructed the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to seek justice for the victims. However, the international community’s inexplicable inaction during the crisis is almost equally to blame. Indeed, members of the UN Security Council failed to summon the political will for intervention that would have surely alleviated the extremity of the one-sided violence. While insurgents murdered thousands of people at identification checkpoints and systematically destroyed Tutsi communities across the country, world leaders like the United States, quietly evacuated their citizens from the region, ignoring the violence and leaving Rwanda to its fate. Though deploying substantial military would have been difficult and costly, the United States failed to take simple actions, such as jam radio programs inciting more carnage. It wasn’t until mid-May of that year that American officials were even authorized to use the term “genocide” to describe the conflict.
But this week—as Rwandans, Americans and citizens of every nation, religion, and ethnicity alike mourn this intense human loss—events unfolding in another African nation, the Central African Republic, indicate we may again be on the verge of witnessing another mass murder similar the Rwandan tragedy 20 years ago. For several months, sectarian violence and civil war have been on the rise between the country’s Muslim and Christian populations. Thousands of bystanders have already been killed, and according to some accounts, nearly one million have been displaced due to the uprising. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a trip to the nation Saturday to urge the Security Council to intervene. “The international community failed the people of Rwanda 20 years ago,” he said. “And we are at risk of not doing enough for the people of the C.A.R. today.”
Mr. Ban is right. The international community needs to take steps toward intervention, and the United States should be leading it. Too often, rationality and self-interest dominate foreign policy while we give little weight to humanity and benevolence, two seemingly irrational concepts, in the decision-making process. The United States seeks regional stability chiefly to protect its economic and energy interests in the region. Similarly, the United States has taken action against Russia for its incursions in the Ukraine not to restore power to Crimea’s rightful government, but to keep its greatest rival from gaining further political power in the international system. However, the United States has little stake in the conflict in the C.A.R. Little strategic interest exists to intervene.
Perhaps this is true—the United States doesn’t have much to gain from taking action against this sort of violence in this small country, yet certainly the United States does have something less tangible to gain from supporting intervention. Inscribed in the centuries-old calligraphy of one of our found documents is that all people have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the fundamental value that everyone from whatever creed or walk of life deserve a basic, equal starting point upon which they can build their lives. Certainly aimless, untenable killing of thousands of people is a direct violation of that basic principle Americans cherish. As Americans, we have to seek to prevent those abuses at home and abroad. How can we know our own rights will always remain in place unless we know they’re guaranteed to everyone?
This week, the Security Council, of which the United States is a member, will take up a resolution to send 12,000 peacekeepers to the C.A.R. to prevent the further spread of violence. American officials, like UN Ambassador Samantha Power, should voice their utmost support for the action to ensure all world citizens can have those sacred, inalienable rights.
Do you have any insight on the genocide in the Central African Republic? Do you agree with Sean? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
