In April 1994, 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered by their fellow countrymen, most for no other reason than that they were Tutsi and hence a “cockroach”. The killings began on 7 April 1994, the day after a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot out of the sky with a missile as it landed in Kigali. The systematic slaughter of men, women and children, which took place over the course of about 100 days between April and July of 1994, was perpetrated in full view of the international community.
Appalling atrocities were committed, by militia, the armed forces, and also by civilians against other civilians. The genocide was highly organized, with top government and ruling party officials playing a role. Leaders had drawn up lists of Tutsi and opposition leaders earmarked for assassination before the genocide itself actually began. Crates of cheap machetes were imported from China to arm the civilian Hutus, months in advance.
The radio filled the airwaves with hate and played a role in mobilizing support for and participation in the killings. At U.N protected points of departure, panicked crowds of Rwandans and foreign nationals gathered desperate to be on the last transport out of hell. Rwandans got Auschwitz reversed, as the lines became two – Europeans to the transports, while those that stayed behind, to the inevitable machetes. Then the U.N. soldiers were the last to leave, for no one’s “national interest” was at stake.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part…… (Snip.)
A report assessing United Nations involvement in Rwanda said that the UN and its member states failed Rwanda in deplorable ways in 1994,
- Ignoring evidence that a genocide was planned.
- Refusing to act once it was under way.
- Finally abandoning the Rwandan people when they most needed protection.
Darfur is a region in Sudan the size of France. It is home to about 6 million people from nearly 100 tribes. Some nomads. Some farmers. All Muslims. In 1989, General Omar Bashir took control of Sudan by military coup, which then allowed The National Islāmic Front government to inflame regional tensions. The government of Sudan unleashed Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militia attacked hundreds of villages throughout Darfur. Over 400 villages were destroyed and millions of civilians were forced to flee their homes. In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed.
The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. According to UN estimates, 2.7 million Darfuris remain in internally displaced persons camps and over 4.7 million rely on daily humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, we pour trillions of dollars into pacifying Afghanistan and Iraq, build 50,000 specially designed I.E.D. resistant vehicles, kill over 100,000 civilians in two wars, perfect drone strikes, enforce sanctions, and marshal billions of dollars into un-used “development projects” that pertain to “our national security.” Starving, African, poor, illiterate and black not just not a raison d’État. (Reason of the State).
The United Nations was our last chance for peace and the forum to resolve man’s conflicts. It has failed by all measures.
It is time we look to the promises of our King in waiting. He will bring peace and life to the all earth, including the poor the black and the African. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called: ….Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end,….. and on His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even for ever. Is 9 v 6-7.