silent_jay

It's about time this bastard was convicted for his crimes, Life hardly seems appropriate though for someone with the blood of 800,000+ Rwandans on his hands. Oddly enough CTV news in my own country wasn't using the word genocide while covering Bagosora's sentencing, they were using the word massacre, pretty bad when 14 years after the fact they still can't call it what it was a fuckin genocide. Gen. Dallaire must be happy these pitiful excuses for human beings are fially going to get their punishment.

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

roachboy

i am pleased to see that this asshole was sentenced.

but it's not as though the genocide sprang full blown from his individual head and then just happened--there was an extensive apparatus--particularly radio---that was fully complicit in shaping, setting into motion, encouraging and directing this. are they all innocent now that this guy's been convicted?

from this two things: first that fascism has relied on modern mass communications to provide a sense of real-time co-ordination of opinion, collectivity, motivation, etc.---in the 30s it was radio---over the past 7 years of fascism-lite in the states, it was television. you'd think that rwanda would be a horrific stark reminder of just how dangerous these communication systems can be once frames of reference are collapsed and total mobilization becomes a comprehensible goal. so there are things to be learned from rwanda in the early 1990s---it's a kind of limit-condition that highlights possibilities which are continually available. the need for critical distance as a fundamental element in education follows from this.

second, on the weasel-y use of the word genocide--if you saw hotel rwanda, or if you've followed parallel contortions relative to darfur or, more recently, the massacres which are happening in eastern congo, you already know that once genocide is used to describe a massacre or pattern of massacre, the international community is bound to intervene. so there's tons of mealy-mouthed nonsense, dancing around--because we all now know that human rights are not universal, that some lives matter more than others. just as some are more equal than others.
it's disgusting.
it really is.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

mixedmedia

I am very happy to hear of this today, but it is tempered by the fact that many organizers and murderers (including clergy) are still at large. Including the thousands (estimated 15,000) who still live in the DRC.

Like roachboy says, this was not the doing of one man. This was the act of thousands who decided to pick up weapons and murder their neighbors before fleeing to the Congo to be fed, clothed and housed for years under the auspices of international aid organizations while they plotted further attacks on the Tutsis of Rwanda. Attacks that have never really stopped and are in fact escalating this year.

The scope of the madness that took place in Rwanda in 1994 and beyond is almost beyond conception. It is certainly beyond credence to expect that justice will ever be reached.

Yet it is something.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

silent_jay

Yes, we mustn't forget the contribution that the international community made to help continue the genocide by providing arms shipments to the RGF, even though it was against the Arusha Accords. France, Belgium, UK, good job providing arms to the Genocidaires. The United States for sitting on the fence and being too scared of getting involved like they did in Somalia, even President Clinton recognizes the mistake he made. Finally the UN as a whole for not giving Gen. Dallaire the resources and support he needed to stop the genocide.

So yes it wasn't the act of this one man, even though he was the mastermind and was apparently planning the genocide since 1990, it wasn't even the act of just Rwandans inside Rwanda who picked up weapons to kill their neighbours, the international community as a whole had a part to play in this genocide, they failed Rwanda and the genocide was the result of that failure.

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

mixedmedia

Agreed. It was a massive failure on the part of the international community - particularly France, the UN and the US - before, during and after the genocide. The realization of how self-serving and elitist politics played into this makes me sick. And angry. And frankly, I will never forgive Bill Clinton for his appalling lack of leadership during the genocide. I don't know how he sleeps at night.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Baraka_Guru

The reaction to this must be bittersweet. I followed Sen. Dallaire's story in a video documentary, and it was both frustrating and sad to learn about this haunting chapter of our history.

Both the title and subtitle to Dallarie's book and documentary are very fitting for the event from a world-wide perspective:

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rawanda

Failure, indeed.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

silent_jay

They just interviewed a survivor of the genocide now living in Canada, and he said the word he uses to describe the way he feels is relief.

The title of the book came from Gen. Dallarie's meeting Bagosora, and then after saying it was like shaking hands with the devil. The devil indeed.

The book is an incredibly sad yet eye opening read, have you managed to read it yet Baraka?

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Baraka_Guru

No, but it sits on my bookshelf. My SO bought it for school I think. It's certainly on my list. Perhaps I'll be inspired to read it after this sentencing. I've been reluctant to read it because I've only read one other book like it. It was written by a couple of Médecins Sans Frontières. They documented their experience of working for about a year in Angola near the tail end of the civil war. It was emotionally draining to read it. I can't imagine the amount of energy and courage it would take to endure such experiences.

I will certainly read Dallaire's book soon.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot