Remembering genocide and global indifference

In Rwanda this week, the nation is remembering the most horrific and shameful chapter in its history. In a weeklong set of observances, it is remembering the ethnic strife that bred genocide of hundreds of thousands of its citizens in 1994. As it does, it also is remembering a world that turned its back on mass slaughter.
On April 7, 1994, a 100-day campaign led by Hutu extremists began. It resulted in the killing of more than 800,000 rival Tutsis and many moderate Hutus. Roadblocks were set up where Tutsis were hacked to pieces once their ethnic identification cards were checked. Hutus who disavowed the bloodbath were themselves maimed and dismembered in schools, churches and homes.
Ten years later, some of the nation's wounds have healed. Ethnic divisions no longer are part of national identification cards. The government has sponsored programs aimed at reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsis. The world community -- most notably former President Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- has apologized for its callous inaction.
But those apologies must ring hollow for many of the 90,000 people left orphaned by the genocide. One of those orphans, Jacqueline Murekatete, appeared before the United Nations in an observance to mark the 10th anniversary of the genocide.
'Cockroaches'
Days before the carnage began, she recalled listening to Hutu radio announcers denouce Tutsis as "cockroaches" and "snakes" and declare that the "final solution" was to kill them and their Hutu sympathizers. Within days, her parents, brothers and sisters all were slaughtered.
Murekatete made the following plea: "A world without genocide ... is not an unattainable dream but is a reality that can be brought about, provided, of course, that each of us be willing to work for it."
The world community, including the United States and the United Nations, must heed her plea.
To his credit, President Bush has pledged to assist Rwanda in bringing to justice leaders of the genocide. He has also vowed to help unify families, to provide scholarshiips, to battle HIV/AIDS and to promote the rule of law in Rwanda.
For its part, the United Nations must redouble efforts to salvage the unseemly reputation it received when it pulled back peacekeeprs from Rwanda just as the carnage intensified. It must commit itself to a vigilant strategy to intervene quickly and forcefully should such senseless mass killings re-emerge in Africa or anywhere in the world.
"We cannot afford to wait until the worst has happened, or is already happening, or end up with little more than futile hand-wringing or callous indifference," Annan told the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
To that end, Rwanda, Western nations and the world community must work to prosecute and punish those responsible for the massacre. They, too, must work cohesively to ensure that the sign at the entrance of the Rwanda genocide museum reverberates with true, lasting and widespread meaning.
It simply reads: Never again.