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Never Again: Again and Again

In her 2001 article Bystanders to
Genocide, Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power recounts
how President Clinton was shocked and outraged by an article written
by Philip Gourevitch recounting the horrors of the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda, prompting him to send the article to his national security
advisor Sandy Berger with a note scrawled in the margin reading "Is
what he's saying true? How did this happen?"

After taking office, President Bush href="http://www.policyreview.org/AUG02/chollet.html">reportedly
read Power's article on the Clinton administration's failure to
intervene during the genocide. He too scrawled a message in the
margin - "NOT ON MY WATCH."

Yet we are now faced with another African genocide, this time in
Darfur, and the United States and the rest of the world are responding
exactly as they did during Rwanda - with paralyzed inaction.

Though there are many key differences between what is taking place in
Darfur and what occurred in Rwanda a decade ago, there are also many
similarities.

In 1993, the world watched "Schindler's List" and wondered how such
horrors could unfold and why they were not stopped. In 2004, it
watched "Hotel Rwanda" and asked the same questions. In each case,
those questions went unanswered.

Just as in Rwanda, the international military force on the ground in
Darfur is far too small, poorly equipped and operating under an
extremely limited mandate that does not allow them to protect
civilians at risk.

Just as in Rwanda, the genocide is taking place against a backdrop of
"civil war," leading the international community to focus more on
establishing a cease-fire than protecting those being killed.

Just as in Rwanda, the death toll is nearly impossible to determine.

Just as in Rwanda, the United Nations is more or less paralyzed as
individual nations seek to protect their own national interests rather
than helpless men, women and children.

Just as in Rwanda, media coverage is almost nonexistent, Congress is
all but silent, and the human rights community is having difficulty
get the nation to pay attention to a genocide in progress.

Just as in Rwanda, a genocide is unfolding - but this time it is
happening on our watch.

We ask you to join the href="http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/">Coalition for
Darfur as we attempt to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur
and raise money for the live saving work Save the Children is doing
there.

Posted by tim at March 30, 2005 1:08 PM

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