Sir, – It is heartening to hear from Trócaire of so much progress in Rwanda – "a country transformed" – 25 years after after the genocide and the acknowledgement of the role of Irish people in helping Rwandans move on with their lives (Letters, April 26th).
But while it is important to take stock of the progress made, in order to do justice to the memory of the approximately 800,000 victims of the genocide, we surely also need to still acknowledge the cause of their deaths – not due to a natural disaster but to genocide.
Tens of thousands were brutally slaughtered daily from April to July 1994 as political leaders looked away.
Many of the deaths could have been avoided, according to retired general Roméo Dallaire, former commander of the failed United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the genocide. “It seems inconceivable that one can watch thousands of people being massacred every day in the media and remain passive,” he said in 1998. He said the world simply has not learned the fundamental lesson from Rwanda: preventing the slaughter of innocents means taking hard political action, not standing idly by.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle was forged following the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica in the 1990s and unanimously adopted at UN World Summit in 2005. As Simon Adams, executive director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said:“The basis of R2P is that all humans have a right to be protected from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. If their own government fails them, the international community is obliged to act.”
There are echoes of Philip Gourevitch’s definitive book on the Rwandan genocide We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families in the extremely courageous daily reports from Fared, a Syrian citizen journalist in south Idlib: “Here in my country we are waiting for death. People are always in a state of panic and fear because of sudden bombardment. Children live in extreme fear because of sudden shelling. The streets are empty! Every day you see the remains of killed children and civilians in the cities and the towns in Idlib’s countryside due to the bombing of the Assad regime. Where are human rights?! Or are we just numbers?!”
A fitting way to honour the memory of the victims of the Rwandan genocide might be not only to continue our strong solidarity and support to Rwandans as they further develop their lives and their country but to also uphold our responsibility to protect other victims of war crimes and mass atrocities. – Yours, etc,
VALERIE HUGHES,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – No one could or should gainsay the enormous economic gains made in Rwanda since the genocide 25 years ago, but no one should completely ignore the serous allegations of rights abuses against Paul Kagame and the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Filip Reyntjens, former professor of African politics and law at Antwerp, has been highly critical of President Kagame’s regime, and questioned its long-term viability.
There have been persistent allegations that opponents of the regime have been targeted by assassination squads outside Rwanda.
Aid organisations desperately want a success story, but that should not blind them to what is actually happening. – Yours, etc,
EOIN DILLON,
Mount Brown, Dublin 8.