Rwanda Genocide Revisited: UN Failing in Darfur

"Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it."

It's happening.

Rwanda 1994: Rwandan soldiers and Hutu gangs slaughtered an estimated 800,000-1,000,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The U.N. tucked tail and ran out of Rwanda, leaving the gangs to slaughter who they wanted when they wanted for whatever reason they wanted. Combat troops from Europe were sent in to evacuate Westerners from Rwanda and then left. While they were there, U.N. peacekeepers were armed, but not allowed to shoot; at least eighteen peacekeepers were killed by the militias. The events of that genocide were portrayed in the 2005 film "Hotel Rwanda."

Darfur 2005: The body count there is 200,000 and still rising. The U.N. is again preparing to evacuate from the region after being threatened by the gangs, militias and government soldiers who are more interested in slaughtering members of different tribes than listening to the U.N. men who have guns but won't intervene. The U.N. Security Council has threatened sanctions against Sudan, but they pull back when the metal meets the meat.

Instead of tucking tail and running again, the U.N. ought to send in reinforcements who can intervene and arrest the Janjaweed butchers and government people who are participating in the genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Instead of watching news reports of what's happening, saying "that's terrible" and then turning the channel, all Westerners should go see "Hotel Rwanda" and then tell their leaders to pressure the U.N. to do much more. The U.N. is falling down on the job. Again.

Most Americans cannot imagine how slaughters like what happened in Rwanda can take place. It's inconceivable to most.

The closest approximation to something like that taking place in America would be an all-out collapse of authority nationwide and the emergence of a dominant group that had all the weapons, and sent their thugs into the streets to drag people out of their homes and murder them only because of their skin color or because a military warlord wanted a section of town cleared out for their own purposes.

That's what happened in Rwanda in 1994, and what has happened for the last year in Darfur.

And all that most Westerners are willing to do is say "that's terrible" and then flip the channel. Talk about a major disconnect.