Take a moment. Rwanda 11th anniversary.

[Helms]

Today is the 11th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. On April 6 1994, president Habyarimana's plane was shot down sparking 100 days of violence which killed at least 800 000 people. Whatever lies some governments say, people around the world KNEW it was going to happen months beforehand. They KNEW exactly what was happening when it started. They KNEW how to stop it. Nobody cared. Nobody could be bothered. Nearly a million people died.

[Anonymous20]

Today is the 11th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. On April 6 1994, president Habyarimana's plane was shot down sparking 100 days of violence which killed at least 800 000 people. Whatever lies some governments say, people around the world KNEW it was going to happen months beforehand. They KNEW exactly what was happening when it started. They KNEW how to stop it. Nobody cared. Nobody could be bothered. Nearly a million people died.

this was a tragic event, to bad no one intervened, the UN is a joke, the european UNion is a joke, even the Rawandan government could have did something more. The US had just finished going into Somalia and lost a handful of soldiers so I dont think Clinton was going to send troops to another African country in his first term. All these people around here screaming why doesn't American go here and there to help. If they do, then the US govt is criticize, and if they dont provide aid because they dont want to hear negative public back lash, they are still criticized.

Just a shame, and I think the number is closer to 1,000,000 slaughtered, but i have heard of the 800K estimate. So what's going to happen in the Sudan???????????????????

[Sentenza]

Today is the 11th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. On April 6 1994, president Habyarimana's plane was shot down sparking 100 days of violence which killed at least 800 000 people. Whatever lies some governments say, people around the world KNEW it was going to happen months beforehand. They KNEW exactly what was happening when it started. They KNEW how to stop it. Nobody cared. Nobody could be bothered. Nearly a million people died.

this was a tragic event, to bad no one intervened, the UN is a joke, the european UNion is a joke, even the Rawandan government could have did something more. The US had just finished going into Somalia and lost a handful of soldiers so I dont think Clinton was going to send troops to another African country in his first term. All these people around here screaming why doesn't American go here and there to help. If they do, then the US govt is criticize, and if they dont provide aid because they dont want to hear negative public back lash, they are still criticized.

Just a shame, and I think the number is closer to 1,000,000 slaughtered, but i have heard of the 800K estimate. So what's going to happen in the Sudan???????????????????

yea thats true, the fuckin french government had elite soldiers on the border of Rwanda who could have stopped the massacre, but they didnt.
Dont know why, but i do know that that was a bitch move.

[blackmanofhonor]

why?because they were black.The US doesnt give a fuck if 10 or 10 million black people die.If it had been whites slaugtered to that extent it would have been all over the news.

[BlaKK]

That is very true. No one gives a damn about Africa or the region. More people die in Africa annualy than the tsunami, Wheres the worlds largest relief effort to our region? wheres the $5,000,000,000? Good Point Blackman.
No one cares and its truly so sad. But in the Valley of decision they will be judged.

[Anesis]

I don't think it's because of the color of their skin that they were ignored. (one poster already commented about Somalia). I think it's because politically and monetarily, they (Africa in general) have nothing to offer the US.

Look at the continent. The UN's 2004 list of the least livable countries (based on the quality of life rather than $) were all in Africa. It has 34 out of 49 of the world's poorest countries. Many countires are crippled by debt. Over 28 million people have HIV/AIDS.

What can they possibly offer the US? Well, other than the few countries that the rich visit for safaris and beach travel - not much.

I think another problem is that the help that the Americans and Europeans do send over causes culture conflicts. I've heard that the abstinence-only plans are hindering Uganda's fight against HIV because they aren't giving people any advice other than "no sex until marriage."
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/30/uganda10380.htm

Years of colonization have left people in such a sorry state they they have been set up to fail. I think that tribal culture has been and is still viewed by many as ignorant and foreign (especially the whites living in Africa).

[Sentenza]

Africa has a lot to offer. Thats why many governments are putting in much work there. Like the Russian, the chinese ,the French, British and most of all the US government.
Africa has a lot of Ressources, like oil, diamonds, gold, expensice wood and ultrarare metals that are needed to produce stealth bombers(they exist only in africa)
Thats why so many governments and companies are going there. Cause with so many wars and conflicts going on, africa is an easy prey.
For example,
When Laurent Kabila (ex President of Congo) started to participate in the civil war he signed a major contract with De Beers Inc., in which he promised to give them all of the diamond at very cheap prices. They supported him with tons of military equipment and millions of dollars.
Miraculously Tanks out of the Arsenal of Saddam Hussein which were confiscated in 1991 by the US appeared on the battlefield of Congo which indicates that some high ranked US politicians are involved in all of that shit.
After L. Kabila won that war he established a regime of violence and terror and....that was his fault, he broke the contract with De Beers and their powerful friends and did not give a single diamond to them.
Rumors are spread that a black man with strong american accent was last seen around Kabila before he was assassinated.

Western -and eastern- Countries have a strong interest in letting the fire burn. China just signed a contract with Angola for their major Oil ressources, because China is dependent on finding alternative oil ressources other than the middle east (because the Us is in there big time).
The money the companies spend for the diamonds is returned instantly because the warlords use it for buying weapons from the same companies.
Thats how the shit works and thats one reason why "we" are not interested in solving africas problems. Cause some of us are getting filthy rich of that.

Sorry for writing this essay but i think its important to know that.

Peace

[Anesis]

No apology needed.

I didn't mean for my last post to make it sound like Africa was a devoid wasteland, but if you look at the average American, the politics of the African countries have little to do with Mr. Smith. Granted, there is a morality issue in letting others suffer whilst we dine on McNuggets, but until people are personally affected by an issue, they will continue to keep their eyes closed.

With oil production on the rise in West Africa, my hope is that more attention will paid to those countires.

[Paper Chaser]

What can they possibly offer the US? Well, other than the few countries that the rich visit for safaris and beach travel - not much.

I guess the diamonds are not much. Americans probably go over there and take the diamonds.

[Anesis]

How many Americans do you know that care about diamond ethics? What's even more, how many Americans do you know that would refuse to buy or wear African diamonds based on that knowledge? Not many.

And is there anything that is happening in Africa right now that is wreaking havoc with supply and demand of diamonds back in the states? My point in my previous post was that typically, people don't care about an issue until it affects them.

Until the price sky rockets on diamonds, or until exporting diamonds becomes a political issue, you won't see people care.

[Helms]

The price of diamonds is heavily controlled. The big companies have massive stockpiles of them. They only release a certain number of them a year to keep the price up. They completely control the market, and I don't think anything can be done to stop them (except stop buying diamonds).

[Sentenza]

Another Patrice Lumumba would have to come up and kick those greedy businessmen out of africa. Unfortunately righteous guys like Lumumba tend to die very early.
If countries in Africa would unite or at least the ethnics inside the countries, they could change everything.
But as long as they chase the fast Dollar theyll be controlled by those conglomerates.

[Military Mind]

Ever seen the movie "HOTEL RWANDA"?

DEEP SHIT!

TRUE ABOUT THE COLORS AND HOW U.S CANT HELP, BECAUSE THEIR JUST BLACK NEEGROWS.

[Noog]

I heard about the Hotel Mille-Collines from Rwandan people I met in London - one story where people were saved and thank the Creator. But hell...so many other stories where...there was no salvation, only death.
One story I heard was of a pastor letting his congregation know that the very next day, the Hutu militias were coming to murder the congregation...the pastor said " I wish to inform you that tommorrow you will be killed with your families". And they were.

Tragic thing is, if the world ignored Rwanda, the world can still ignore the next Rwanda - and there will be one - we havnt learned yet - Remember the saying 'Never Again' in relation to the holocaust? Well, the world has had Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Serbian Nationalism and a thousand more 'Never Agains'.....maybe its our human condition....hell, give me some hope out there!

[Mraka]

you didn`t reach me NOOG.?
-the mess startet and ended in nearly a week.
guerilla was steady ,but is/was part of the problem.
UN lost many men there,and many are traumatized.
i do not feel that poeps on globe have learned of it.not here or elsewhere.

[Noog]

Mraka - will u Fu-off, your beginning to get on my tits man, go on fu-off you silly fu--er