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Genocide is still a problem ‘from hell’
There are things we all can do to stop it, but we have to acknowledge it first
After the American military liberated Nazi concentration camps after World War II, we proclaimed, “Never Again.” The world had sat by as Adolph Hitler killed more than six million people. We knew we were culpable in those deaths so we vowed to not be so complacent the next time.
Until Pol Pot killed two million people in Cambodia in the 1970s. Or Slobodan Milošević orchestrated a war between the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims that killed 200,000 between 1992–1995. Or in 1994 when nearly one million Rwandans were butchered in 100 days. I remain haunted by then-White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers’ comment about the Rwandan genocide, “Acts of genocide have been reported.” When do “acts of genocide” become just “genocide?”
This isn’t an issue of semantics. Once a “genocide” has been declared by a group such as the United Nations (UN), member states that have signed onto the Genocide Convention have to do something. Myers couldn’t answer the question of when “acts of genocide” become just “genocide” because the Clinton Administration didn’t want to intervene. No one did. When asked what his main regret from his presidency was, Bill Clinton answered that it was the failure to act in Rwanda. Kofi…