Of Genocide and Worthless Mandates

Published November 28, 2008 @ 12:17PM PT

"As they were busting down the door and opening fire," he said, "we would literally hear people dying at the end of the phone as they were trying to get through to us and we had literally nothing to send them."

General Romeo Dallaire, former head of UN peacekeeping forces in Rwanda, recalls once again the frustration and despair of watching a genocide unfold before his eyes.

After being tipped off on the government's plans to exterminate Rwanda's Tutsi population, Dallaire requested permission to raid a weapons cache:

Kofi Annan, then head of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, was concerned about the safety of Dallaire's limited U.N. force. Annan's office told Dallaire: "We cannot agree to the operation contemplated ... as it clearly goes beyond the mandate."

A mandate that precludes peacekeeping forces from keeping the peace is a worthless mandate, indeed.

And while we've bemoaned time and time again the agony of Rwanda, criticized the international community--and particularly the West--for failing to intervene, cried through Hotel Rwanda (and felt ill after Sometimes in April), the renewed post-1994 call for "Never Again" has proven to be yet another worthless mandate.

Darfur, the DRC, and who knows what's about to go down in Zimbabwe...

...have we learned nothing?

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Author

Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.