Tragedy in Rwanda

As a Tutsi, I am troubled and shocked that the world stood by and watched almost 1 million of my people perish at the hands of Hutu troops and government-trained militias. For almost three months, the United Nations and the United States debated whether to characterize the killings in Rwanda as genocide, that way avoiding the responsibility imposed on the signatories of the 1951 Genocide Convention, which calls for the apprehension and prosecution of war criminals.

All of a sudden, now we see the United Nations, the United States and its European allies jump on the bandwagon to save the cholera-ridden Hutu refugees in Zaire and Tanzania. While I am not opposed to humanitarian aid, I am concerned that the donors, in attempting to redress their guilt for having not acted faster, thus saving millions of lives, are aiding the very people that planned and executed the genocide of my people. Yet, nobody talks of the millions of displaced people inside Rwanda who are suffering horrendous physical as well as psychological wounds. And let us not forget that these refugees fled Rwanda at the behest of their leaders who are seeking to establish a diaspora from which to recruit an army to fight their way back to power.

Ample evidence exists to apprehend former Rwanda government officials and military officers in the refugee camps who continue to spread messages of hate against the Tutsi. Action must be taken now before the evidence dissipates and memories fade.

Until justice is done, we Tutsi will neither forgive nor forget. And though small be our numbers, resolve will be our drive and justice our rallying cry.

WILLIS SHALITA

San Francisco

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Re “Rwanda Relief Groups to Help Fittest Survive,” July 31:

Shades of new-Malthusian darkness! So, in this day, is the fitness of a human being to be determined by an ability to walk 50 miles, over rough terrain, in illness and in need? Is suffering to become the new measure of the worthiness of a person? Then surely the Holocaust was good, AIDS is a boon and the Mother Teresas of this world are working against humanity.

ASHWANI VASISHTH

Los Angeles

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In his Aug. 1 commentary on Rwanda, Richard Walden, president of Operation USA, misportrays the massive and immediate response by the U.S. government to the grave humanitarian situation in Rwanda. Our government, reflecting the compassion of the American people, has dedicated more than $500 million of U.S. government funds and the expertise of military and emergency relief personnel to meeting the crisis.

The explosion of Rwandan refugees, their numbers greater than the city of San Francisco, occurred in six days. This is the largest and most rapid migration of people that the international relief community has faced in this generation. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has had its disaster assessment and response teams in the field--and they have been fully operational--since the earliest stages of the refugee crisis.

The U.S. government funded Red Cross efforts in Rwandan even after U.S. personnel were evacuated for security reasons following the coup. Any direct intervention in the Rwanda crisis at that point, other than through our support of private voluntary organizations, would have necessitated U.S. military involvement in an ongoing civil war. This kind of military intervention in a “hot” conflict would have placed the lives of American military personnel directly at risk. Wisely, neither the Clinton Administration, Congress or the American public supported such a move.

USAID, working with the World Food Program, has diverted emergency food relief to Rwanda from supplies held elsewhere in Africa. These supplies were taken from surplus stocks and not out of the hands of hungry people. The World Food Program will replace the African commodities shipped to Rwanda; not to have diverted these supplies to Rwanda would have meant starvation and death for untold numbers.

USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance remains the premier disaster relief organization in the world. Its extraordinary performance under the most difficult of circumstances at disasters sites throughout the developing world speaks for itself.

J. BRIAN ATWOOD, Administrator

USAID, Washington

The writer was President Clinton’s special envoy to Rwanda.

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As the mother of a young soldier being deployed to Rwanda, via Goma, Zaire, your article of Aug. 3 concerns me a great deal. I understand the Rwandan people need help, but to say security for our troops is a concern but not a problem is quite an understatement. When does it become a problem? Maybe when some of our troops are killed? Your article says we have 98 troops in Goma, living in tents near a crowded road with no protection other than a concertina wire and that most of our soldiers go unarmed and none wear flak vests. It doesn’t sound like anyone has much concern for their safety.

I don’t want to see any of our soldiers’ dead bodies dragged around like one was in Somalia.

PAT HISLAR

Los Angeles