by Mike Farrell

Ntarma

introduction

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2/1

coda

what now?

human rights

To be fully appreciated, I believe our responsibility with regard to the situation in Rwanda must be seen in two separate pieces:

1. The world community made a colossal and tragic blunder in closing its eyes to both the reality of the developing horror of the genocide in Rwanda and its responsibility in the face thereof.

2. Effectively, and for the wrong reasons, the world's primary response was precipitated by the second half of the human tragedy that occurred. In other words, we didn't come on stage until Act Two.

The humanitarian response was necessary, generous, extraordinarily well executed and effective. It saved the lives of perhaps a million people who might well have been lost without it. At the same time, because we stood for the large part mute while the war and the genocidal campaign that was an intrinsic part of it took place in Rwanda and only came to grips with the exodus that was its result, we now find ourselves in the position of having rescued and given humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of needy people, a significant portion of whom are the perpetrators, architects, engineers, theoreticians and executioners of genocide.

What now?

In the face of the immediate situation we should proceed on two fronts:

First, humanitarian assistance should be continued, perhaps for a specifically limited period of time, for women, children, the elderly and any other clearly qualified individuals, while encouraging and implementing their safe return to Rwanda.

Hand in hand with that process must be international support for and aid in the development of a justice system inside Rwanda which will both ensure fairness and safety to those returning and impose appropriate punishment on those responsible for the many criminal acts that occurred before and during the war.

At the same time, the army, officials of the former government and those who can be identified as Interahamwe (which, it should be noted, includes women and children as well as young men) should be separated out, disarmed and placed in temporary holding facilities for a clearly designated period, after which their assistance should be terminated. During this interim period they can be given the choice of returning to Rwanda or opting for third country resettlement with international assistance in this pursuit.

While the above is taking place, an international tribunal must see to it that justice is meted out, swiftly and surely, to those charged with or suspected of complicity in the genocide. As soon as is humanly possible, those who are clearly identified as the architects of this horror must be prosecuted and punished.

In this matter an international tribunal is the best vehicle because it can be put into action sooner than one inside the country, because it expresses the condemnation of the world community for what was done as it shows support for the rule of law on an international level, and because it allows the victims to see that their grievances are of significance to the rest of the world. At the same time, such a tribunal will remove much of the source of ongoing controversy and misery in Rwanda, thus allowing the new government to focus its energies on healing and rebuilding.

Furthermore, it is of no small consequence that re-stating the universal condemnation of genocide in such a pragmatic and visible manner can have the effect of deterring such behavior in this and other parts of the world in the future.

With an eye toward that same future, we must reconfirm our commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and do everything in our power to support, rather than undercut, that covenant.

The rights of individual human beings, as described in the Declaration and subscribed to by the nations of the world, should supersede national sovereignty.

We should affirm our support for the UN and the World Court as arbiters in these human emergencies and demand more dedication, sophistication and respect for those bodies' mandates from all responsible world leaders.

We should support the establishment of a UN Strike Force with a standing contingent of troops, committed and maintained by member nations, which will operate at the direction of the Secretary General and an expanded Security Council. This force should be ready to move in as needed to protect the rights of civilians and prevent the recurrence of outlawed behavior on the parts of governments or forces in authority anywhere in the world.

The United States, as the sole existing superpower, has an enormous responsibility to take the lead and see that these steps, or others on this order, are taken immediately so that the civilized world we all yearn for can be brought into being.

Mike Farrell Kigali, Rwanda Jan. 1995