Thursday, May 05, 2005

Rwandan Genocide

Last night, I happened to watch a documentary on the Rwandan Genocide. It doesnt feel good to see around 800,000 people massacred by their own country men and the whole world watching the horror in mute silence. I was totally horrified.
The entire episode of the genocide is a result of bitter hatred amongst Hutus and Tutsis, two prominent tribes in the nation. What instilled this hatred, I dont know. It all began in April 1994 with the killing of the then Rwandan president Habyarimana (a leader focused on ensuring peace between Hutu and Tutsis ). The Rwandan army and the Hutu Militia go on a killing spree and literally pull out Tutsis from their houses to be shot in masses. The killings continue in an unprecedented manner. The Rwandan Patriotic Forces, an army unit of the Tutsis though small in number tried their best to protect their sect/tribe. Refugee camps were used as safe havens by the killers, students were killed in schools, hospitals were set on fire and what not. The documentary depicts these killings as is, Hutus treating the Tutsis like roaches. Theres a scene in which around 200 girls are shot in a school and one of them happens to survive the slaughter, She wakes to find herself in a sea of dead bodies.
The most disturbing fact of the genocide is that the whole world watched this horror for 100 days and practically did nothing. The UN deployed 5000 troops and pulled back leaving only 270 at the peak of the genocide. The US, did not deploy any troops at all during the genocide. The worst part, every country airlifted their country men but left the Rwandans who worked for their corporations/embassies. After the genocide ended, all that the rest of the world had was 'apologies' and support on reforming the country.
Isnt that hysterical for a country like US which projects this image of 'policing the world' not to have done anything about the massacre and now, they are fiddling around with Iraq and North Korea. Nothing was done in Rwanda, why ? because there was no oil, no communism, they are just another 'African nation'. I just happen to correlate this to another African nation, Sudan has been literally brought down by the Oil czars who call themselves Exxon Mobil. It was no massacre that they did but the company has successfully ruined the Sudanese economy for its own benefit. In that regard, have absolutely no doubt in terming the present day US government a czarist regime of the Oil Barons (Chevron Texaco, Exxon Mobil, BP etc) whose only concern is amassing billions of dollars at the cost of less powerful nations, environment and of course common people. It all finally boils down to dirty politics :).

5 comments:

Green Grass said...

Ha I dont even need a diguise ehy....I am THAT ugly ;) Wait wait....i will have my revenge tu Pune mein aa to sahi phir dhikhati hoon!!

Unknown said...

Candy: yaar, atleast in this pretext u invited me 2 Pune :))

Pallavi said...

hellow.. there .. how have you been ?

Yep I had the same reaction when I watched the biography of Idiamin... SIGH..

Green Grass said...

Vote for anthony on me site...and hey Pallavi and her 32 teeth welcome!

Unknown said...

Pallavi: welcome bak..

Candy: Am not much into the reality shows.. n yes to vote for this dude Anthony everyday is a lot of askin :)).