Rwanda genoside 1994, Shake hands with the devil

nepalnepal Posts: 143
edited July 2008 in A Moving Train
While the everyone were watching the OJ Simpson trial, 800 000 people got slaughtered in Rwanda. The Italians knew what was going to happen, before it took place, so did the French, Belgians, Americans and the UN, and they did NOTHING! There was one man who cared, who was there to witness what was happening, Roméo Dallaire on a UN mission, but he couldn't stop the killing by himself because of the lack of troops. When wasn't given any help by the UN or ANY other country despite pleading many times, the only thing he could do, was to save as many people as he could, at the same time risking his own life.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424435/

Watched this documentary yesterday and it made me SO FUCKING MAD! The only time that foreign troops arrived to Rwanda, was when they came to rescue their own citizens, and NONE of them asked, could they help stop the killing! The did'nt care, because it was the Africans, the black people, killing each other. Mr Dallaire said, that if these troops had united, they could have stopped the killing.

This Documentary is something that EVERYONE should see. It really made me think that even the UN thinks that some peoples lifes are more valuable than others..
...the dreams ain't broken down here now,
they're walking with a limp
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • nepal wrote:
    It really made me think that even the UN thinks that some peoples lifes are more valuable than others..

    ESPECIALLY the UN.
    :(

    The United Nations is THE wolf in sheeps clothing of our time.
    If I was to smile and I held out my hand
    If I opened it now would you not understand?
  • Heineken HelenHeineken Helen Posts: 18,095
    nepal wrote:

    This Documentary is something that EVERYONE should see. It really made me think that even the UN thinks that some peoples lifes are more valuable than others..
    The book is something you should read... I'd a thread on this before. Very infuriating and frustrating.
    The Astoria??? Orgazmic!
    Verona??? it's all surmountable
    Dublin 23.08.06 "The beauty of Ireland, right there!"
    Wembley? We all believe!
    Copenhagen?? your light made us stars
    Chicago 07? And love
    What a different life
    Had I not found this love with you
  • mertmert Posts: 167
    Doco is amazing, book is even better. It took me most of last summer to get through, because it's not easy reading (obviously), but it's so worthwhile. Romeo Dallaire is a modern day hero, as is Brent Beardsley (his right hand man in Rwanda and coauthor of the book). Mr Beardsley actually helped my housemate track down some organizations to work with in Haiti!

    And I'm not trying too hard to defend the UN (they certainly aren't perfect and have helped much pain and suffering), but they do some good work too... The misson in Haiti alone is saving and improving countless lives.
  • KannKann Posts: 1,146
    mert wrote:
    And I'm not trying too hard to defend the UN (they certainly aren't perfect and have helped much pain and suffering), but they do some good work too... The misson in Haiti alone is saving and improving countless lives.
    There are many organisations inside the UN (WHO, UNHCR, FAO, UNICEF...) who, at the end of the day, did way more to relieve hunger, pain and suffering in the whole world than any of us. What happened in Rwanda was definitely a big fuck up, but the main culprits are european countries (especially France). The UN is always as shitty as it's shittiest security council member, it's the way it has been created, people should remember that.
  • my2handsmy2hands Posts: 17,117
    Darfur as well



    and there are some around here that say no one should militarily intervene in these situations. what a joke. they have zero concept of the real world beyond their computer screen
  • dmitrydmitry Posts: 136
    my2hands wrote:
    Darfur as well



    and there are some around here that say no one should militarily intervene in these situations. what a joke. they have zero concept of the real world beyond their computer screen

    did you sign up yet?
  • my2handsmy2hands Posts: 17,117
    dmitry wrote:
    did you sign up yet?


    i might have if the military was only used for just causes such as stopping the genocide of innocent people


    did you go to darfur and hold up signs?


    come back and talk to me when you get a little older and get a better grasp of the real world.
  • my2handsmy2hands Posts: 17,117
    funny thing is i asked someone from here what they thought should be done do to stop either genocide... the only answer they would give me is "i am anti war" and they then said "pressure them"... i guess they never have to really question their written in stone ideals when they live in america in a clean and safe neighborhood far from the evils of active genocide

    yeah, great answers, that is really helping the hundreds of thousand of victims being raped, murdered, and having their homes burned to the ground

    naive to an extreme
  • FiveB247xFiveB247x Posts: 2,330
    Not to turn this thread in a very different direction, but in regards to the UN. A buracratic organization like that is only as good as its members. If you have self interested, biased leaders in the UN, then you'll see results which are self-interested and similar types of decisions and agenda's. It's not a very hard concept to grasp.

    Also, my2hands. You may not completely agree with this, but for all intensive purposes, the only time we should absolutely see war and serious conflict in the world and where we're taking hardline steps to combat security and absolute wrong-doing is in this kind of instance. Genocide isn't something to be taken lightly or ignored or merely passed off. Seems like in the past few decades, the only wars that are deemed "necessary" revolve around our monetary interests and fullfilling some bs agenda which isn't absolute in its mission (war on drugs/terrorism) and has no realistic end or chance of succeeding in the long term. That's the real world for you.
    CONservative governMENt

    Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
  • mertmert Posts: 167
    Well, I know I wouldn't know any specifics for how to stop the Darfur violence because I don't know the specifics about the situation. I've read a lot about it, but not enough to determine what could be done to stop the violence. It's a tricky type of violence, much like fighting the Taliban in Afganistan is tricky.

    As for how they could have stopped the genocide in Rwanda, Dallaire clearly outlines how often he warned the UN that it was going to happen. He knew they were making lists of who was Tutsi months ahead, he knew they had a huge stockpile of weaponry, and he told the UN. The stockpiled weapons was completely against the peace treaty the UN was there to help enforce, but the UN decided to do nothing about it. Simply by removing those weapons would have helped - at the very least it would have told the masterminds behind the genocide that they knew what they were up to.

    Ultimately, we cannot force peace and acceptance upon unwilling people - but we need to walk a fine line, because morally we cannot stand by and let genocide happen. If you were on the street watching someone beat someone to death, do you think that you are morally obligated to help the victim? I do, as much as you can. I wouldn't expect anyone to sacrifice themselves, but they should do what they can. This is just a larger scale, in my opinion.
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