Look Squarely at Genocide

Samantha Power (“Remember the Blood Frenzy of Rwanda,” Opinion, April 4) and many other commentators who address this tragedy seem to spend all their time blaming the U.S. and analyzing what went wrong in the State Department. Please, not one person in the U.S. took up a machete. After what our country had just gone through in Somalia, how can anyone blame the government for a failure to act in Rwanda?

The State Department had been warned for years that something “might” happen in Rwanda, and by the time the killing started in earnest and the scope of it was understood, it is not at all clear that the U.S. could have done anything to stop it, even if the powers that be had had the information necessary to make such a decision.

Let’s put the blame where it belongs: on the brutal Belgian colonialism that not only created the animosity between the two groups but created the dubious distinctions of Hutu and Tutsi in the first place; on the United Nations for failing to this day to “make genocide prevention and suppression a priority”; and last, but certainly not least, on the murderous people who held the machetes in their hands.

Jennifer Horsman

Laguna Beach

I would like to thank Power for the clarity of her piece. This is what William Greider (“The Soul of Capitalism”) meant when he described our nation as being “spiritually impoverished.” Tens of millions of dollars are spent on Holocaust memorials and education and yet we are deaf to the message. We should, as a nation, feel a deep sense of shame.

Peter Bloch

Los Angeles

I am disappointed by your failure to provide more coverage of the unfolding crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. U.N. officials and members of Human Rights Watch have witnessed and documented numerous atrocities by government-backed militias. The numbers of civilians raped, killed and mutilated is not known, but nearly a million people have fled their homes.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said last week that he did not believe the situation had risen to the level of genocide. However, he did call it ethnic cleansing and one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. I’m not sure where the line is between “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide,” but I’d rather not find out.

Globally, we have spent the last 10 years contemplating our collective failure to act in Rwanda to stop the deaths of 800,000 people. It is not too late to act in western Sudan. International pressure on the Sudanese government may yet bring the militias in line. This can only happen if people are aware of this situation and call on our leaders to act.

Peter Huffaker

Venice

April is a month of genocide remembrances. April 7 was the 10th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked for a minute of silence at noon in each time zone to show we have not forgotten so soon.

April 17 marks the starting date of the Cambodian killing fields. April 18 is the date to remember the Nazi Holocaust. April 24 is the date to remember the Armenian genocide.

Even after Rwanda, widespread mass murder continues. Between 1997 and 2002, an estimated 3 million were killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mostly for ethnic or tribal differences. The International Criminal Court is the hope of humankind to hold those responsible for genocide accountable, but more important, to deter future genocides by showing that there is international resolve to enforce the rule of law. In the past, the U.S. has waited too long, and then regretted the delay.

Sometimes small sacrifices must be made for a larger good. The United States should join with the international community in supporting the International Criminal Court to show our resolve to apply the rule of law and hold accountable those who would continue to commit genocide.

Sean Butler

Co-Chair, International Criminal Court Alliance

Los Angeles