Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda

[13788]

mindseye: In recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, PBS aired a special called Ghosts of Rwanda.

This documentary blew me away. I was busy finishing up grad school when these events first occurred and too caught up in my thesis to pay a lot of attention to the news. I knew there was something going on down there, but hadn't paid attention to the details. The footage is incredibly moving, and very very sad.

I don't know when this special is going to be rerun, but there's a website with over 20 minutes of excerpts from the broadcast at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/

 

[13788]

Javierdude22: It was a horrible period, which only showed that we have forgotten completely about the Second World war, or as someone said: Never again became just words.

800,000 Tutsis got slaughtered, and the world watched, nee, we indirectly encoraged it. Clinton pressed the UN to get the UN army stationed there and who was supposed to protect a part of the Tutsis, out because it was getting dangerous. Well Geez Lousie, maybe that was a sign to actually get involved.

But, as someone said on C'Span yesterday, Rwanda isnt in the interest of America, nor in the interest of any other country of the Western world or outside of the Lake Victoria area. Kofi Annan can whine all he want, he watched as well. It is horrible to see just how we have become as nations, our politics, and actions.  Is our ambassador out? Good, condemn the murders a few times ok? In the strongest words. Hmyeah..

Meanwhile Rwanda is trying to recover and bringing before court all the people who did wrong. They have to be very carefull though, as to not get this started again. They have  a special kinda law, I forgot how its called to judge these people. Its a very traditional form, where a bunch of wise men hear the cases of the people who accuse their neighbour of having raped and murdered their family, and the accused one. Someone in my university went to Rwanda for 6 months to do his research there on this type of law. He told me the country is still tense as ever, but that this type of law is working as its generally accepted by the entire population.

I wont even mention how much Rwanda qualifies to be a -developing country- on every criterium we can think of.

Detail: When I was in Kenya a few years back in Kisumu, which lies on Lake Victoria on the other side of Rwanda, we were given Nile Bass by our hosts almost daily. Nile Bass is a carnivore. Word was that the Nile Bass had fed itsself on the thousands of Tutsi bodies thrown into Lake Victoria. Sure the chances were slim that I was eating a Nile Bass of 5 years of age, but it did make me lose my apetite.

Lets see in a few years how much we have learned this time from the 800,00 lives lost. I think little...

 

[13788]

ORCABOMBER: It's ironic, people love to moan about "the war", like it was some great era for society, but are too cowardly to stop humans being converted into fish food.

After all, literally, "who cares"? It''s saddening and sobering to think that less people have died in "the greatest terrorist incident of all time", and governents have lept into action.

It goes to show that sadly, they have no value to us.

 

[jonb]

Welcome to the way politics works: Excuses for the war are made after they decide to fight.