Western Leaders Absent as Rwanda Marks Genocide

[maddezmom]

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda marked the 10th anniversary of the start of its genocide on Wednesday torn between grief for the 800,000 people massacred and anger at the world's failure to stop the killing.

In what many Rwandans see as a sign of continuing Western indifference to Africa's turbulent Great Lakes region, only a handful of leaders from beyond the continent were due to attend a memorial service in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has repeatedly criticized the outside world for failing to intervene to stop the 100-day slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates despite warnings that ethnic Hutu extremists were planning the massacres.

Human rights groups say it will be impossible to ensure such genocides never recur as long as powerful nations remain apathetic about impoverished countries in turmoil.

~snip~
more: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4770282

[aquart]

1. Well, it would be stupid to show up now.

What exactly do the Africans think we can do for them? Stand guard at their houses?

When the newspapers told my neighbors what we already knew, that there were more rapes on our block than anywhere in our city, we didn't call for anyone to help us. We organized block patrols. We ran a street fair to raise money to get voice and buzzer systems for the buildings that didn't have them. We changed the neighborhood where I had been mugged three times in two years.

When Africa decides massacre is not an acceptable solution, it will end. Not one day before.

[aquart]

2. Why would the Rwandans want guests, anyway?

Why would they make a party of such an overwhelmingly shameful event?

As a nation, they achieved total humiliation. Where were the Rwandans who beat back the maddened Hutus? They blame the west?

My sister once came running, out of breath, to my mother, exclaiming that a bunch of older girls were beating up a classmate of hers. My mother did what she had never done in all my sister's life: she slapped her, and said, "Don't you ever tell me a thing like that without a mark on you."

I've seen the marks on the victims. Where are the marks on their defenders? Can Africa answer? Can Rwanda?