SECURITY COUNCIL INDEED:

The Lesson Of Rwanda (Richard Sezibera, March 19, 2003, Washington Post)

In 1994 genocide occurred in Rwanda. Within the space of 100 days, 1 million people perished. At the time, the United Nations had a sizable presence in the country, but it did not stop the genocide. The world still debates whether the international community could have stopped the horror. It is a debate Rwandans do not understand and cannot relate to.

Maybe the risk of failure in Rwanda in 1994 was high; maybe substantial numbers of the members of an intervening force would have come home in body bags. That is no justification for the inaction that cost Rwanda its best and brightest. [...]

Rwandans believe that the international community needs to learn from its mistakes. Sadly, that seems not to be happening. We are not members of the Security Council, and we do not know whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction and is therefore a danger to international peace and security, as Resolution 1441 says. What we do know is that the international community cannot shirk its responsibility. Either Hussein is and he should be disarmed, or he is not.

International politics is, in many ways, about dealing with shades of gray. Where genocide, international terrorism and the survival of the human race are concerned, however, hard choices need to be made. Simply waiting is not a choice, it is an abdication of responsibility.

Has the international community, including the United States, ever intervened purposely to stop an ongoing genocide? I fear not. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 19, 2003 7:42 PM