When Humanity Fails: The Responsibility to Protect

by Ali Cahill

Drexel University recently hosted a renowned international figure who was directly connected to the tragic conflict in Rwanda. Lt. General (Ret.) Romeo Dallaire, commander of UN forces in Rwanda and now a Canadian Senator, spoke of these experiences during his lecture titled "When Humanity Fails: The Responsibility to Protect." The event was co-sponsored by Drexel University and International House (http://www.ihousephilly.org), and was made possible with the support of the Consulate of Canada in Philadelphia.

This lecture was the first in a series of three Community Conversations concerning human rights and global conflicts, and was held in the A. J. Drexel Picture Gallery. The event was extremely well-attended, with about 120 people crowding into the gallery, sitting on the floor, and finding room in the aisles.

Oliver Franklin of International House opened the event and expressed how delighted he was with the turnout. He thanked the sponsors of the event and then introduced the speaker.

Dallaire, an animated, expressive man, spoke passionately about the failure of humanity to prevent genocide in Rwanda. He began by briefly summarizing the conflict in Rwanda and the motivations behind such atrocities. According to Dallaire, those who were in power thought that their only option for maintaining that power was to "eradicate and eliminate those who might someday want it."

Rwanda serves as an example of a humanitarian failure because no member of the international community stepped in to stop the Hutus and Tutsis from slaughtering each other.

"Rwandans killed, mutilated, and raped Rwandans," Dallaire said. And other countries stood by and watched as 700,000 Rwandans were killed.

Dallaire asserted that humanity abandoned Rwanda by pouring money into the former Yugoslavia, where a similar ethnic cleansing was taking place, and by pulling troops out of Rwanda.

"What made Yugoslavia so important and Rwanda so unimportant to abandon?" he asked the audience. "Was it that the Yugoslavians were European?"

In Rwanda, Dallaire tried to maintain the peace between the Hutus and Tutsis. His troops faced smart, educated people and low-tech militiamen who were responsible for mass destruction. They had to face nine- to twelve-year-old children who had been ripped from their families and were used by the militiamen to fire guns or to test mine fields.

Dallaire described churches filled with people seeking refuge who were murdered by militiamen. He also saw boys shooting AK-47s while the other side used girls, some pregnant, as human shields.

"This is a weapon system," he said, speaking of the children with AK-47s, while his slideshow presentation flashed a picture of a young boy, perhaps nine, perhaps younger, holding an AK-47. "They were not high-tech, but they were weapons of mass destruction."

Dallaire let the slideshow linger on the image to engross the audience while he continued to talk.

"What do you do, faced with children who kill each other? Do you kill children who kill? Do you kill children who, half-drugged, afraid, under duress, kill?" he asked. "What’s ethical? How does a person live with shooting or not shooting a pregnant girl who might be a suicide bomber? How did we end up in a situation where children are weapons, and no one stepped in to stop this?"

The lecturer also addressed the 3.9 million displaced persons and refugees and their safety in the future. "How do we feed them? How do we protect them? There are no kitchens, there is no wood; there’s nothing."

There was no aid, and there was no militia coming to support Dallaire and his troops. Dallaire asked for 5,000 troops, but not one developed country provided troops because it just "wasn’t worth it," according to Dallaire, "because there was nothing in it" for the US or for any other country. Rwanda was abandoned while military support was continued in Yugoslavia. This situation reflects current crises, as there is an effort in Iraq, but not in the Congo or Darfur.

"There has to be humanitarian intervention," Dallaire said. "We have a responsibility to go in and help people being killed or abused."

Dallaire spoke heatedly of the G8 and other countries that have the capabilities to send troops but don’t – even Canada. "There is no reason for not [intervening] if we are ethical and moral," Dallaire said. He advocated going beyond borders and providing protection on a global scale because of a shared sense of humanity.

"Not one of us counts more than the other," Dallaire said. "The eyes of human children are all exactly the same. We all count the same."