Open eyes on Africa

As Rwanda this month commemorated the tenth anniversary of its genocide, the international community rightly expressed much contrition over its failure to intervene in the Holocaust, which in 100 merciless days killed hundreds of thousands.

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki acknowledged that his country was too caught up in its nascent democracy to take note of the events in Rwanda. United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan–then head of the UN’s peacekeeping arm–took personal and institutional responsibility for failing to intercede in the conflict.

Indeed, few can take refuge in excuses. The genocide was preventable. When it erupted, the world prevaricated, hesitated and disregarded until more than half a million civilians had been shot and hacked to death.

As this month the world’s attention was drawn to the commemoration of the Rwandan tragedy, the familiar theme of “never again” resounded. Rwanda, we were told, is a lesson the world dare not forget.

In this spirit, one may wish to remind the world of on-going conflicts in Africa, some of which threaten to produce another Holocaust.

The protracted series of wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in 3 million dead–another conflict the world ignored until it was too late. More recently, UN peacekeeping forces in the north-east of the country have contained a human disaster.

In northern Uganda, the brutish Lord’s Resistance Army has fought an 18-year civil war with the government. Churches and missionaries, especially the Comboni Fathers, have long called for intervention. The insurgents have killed thousands, displaced 1,5 million people, while 20000 children have been abducted for use as soldiers and sex slaves.

Only recently has the British government offered to mediate between the rebels and the government.

In Sudan, the Islamic regime in the north has engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the mineral rich (and non-Muslim) south. Mr Annan has warned of a looming genocide. Several peace protocols and ceasefires have proved futile in the past. The international community has become involved–after more than two decades of civil war.

In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe’s regime has relinquished any pretence of a normal society as its militias torture, rape, starve and (allegedly) kill political opponents. South Africa’s government has taken no tangible action.

Other recent conflicts–such as those in the Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia–have been or are being settled only after human devastation brought these to the world’s mind.

Would the world respond quicker to an imminent genocide ten years after Rwanda?

Although world attention is focused on the conflicts in the Middle East (and the whims of US foreign policy, which tends to neglect Africa), there are encouraging signs.

The African Union has a stand-by force of 15000 to intervene in armed conflicts as they arise. Likewise, the European Union is considering a proposal to set up a similar troubleshooting force.

While a system facilitating quick reaction is to be welcomed, the accent must be on prevention. This would require efforts at economic upliftment to forestall competition for scarce resources between ethnic groups, and reconciliation between historically antagonistic groups.

In this, we are well advised to bear in mind the words of the director of Caritas Australia, Jack de Groot, who spoke at a commemorative function for the victims of the Rwanda genocide: “Today is the day not just to ask ourselves about what we have achieved, but what more will we commit to in order to bring peace, reconciliation and healing to communities driven apart by shocking violence.”