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Originally Posted by Manx
I stand by what I said. It was not a dismissal of the incredibly wrong actions of the murderers. The people that represent me and you and pretty much everyone on TFP were the people that knew what was happening and decided to ignore it. The people that are supposed to provide me and you and everyone TFP with the information we need to make informed decisions decided to ignore it.
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That doesn't make them the "real criminals".
The genocide took approximately four months. Not that long a time to organize international intervention. By no means am I excusing what happened; indeed, I think it's a travesty of the greatest order. But I don't believe the international community can be characterized as criminals of a greater order than those who actually planned, organized and carried out the genocide.
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I do believe that the conflict in pretty much every country in Africa that is experiencing internal conflict is directly related to how Western countries have, through the ages, manipulated the people of those countries.
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Yes, I'm quite familiar with the history of the continent. I
highly recommend the book
The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham that covers this subject in great detail -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846. One of my favourites which I regularly reread. Also,
Africa - A Biography of the Continent by John Reader (Winner of the Alan Paton Award 1998) gives a fascinating and often disturbing history of Africa; this second book begins in prehistoric times even before the evolution of mankind and ends with a description of the genocide (
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...273817-3227349). David Landes's
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations - Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor also goes some way to describe how Africa was exploited by the "Western" powers (
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...273817-3227349) and even Jared Diamond's best seller
Guns, Germs and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies touches on the same topic (
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...273817-3227349).
I'm far from ignorant of the history of Africa. It's a favourite interest of mine, along with the history of Islam, colonization and imperliamism, human evolution, genetics and paleo-anthropology (amongst others); all topics that are in some way related to this subject.
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In the case of Rwanda, in simple terms, the Belgians created a class division between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
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The class divisions existed long before the arrival of the "Western" powers. The Belgians certainly emphasized, exploited and enriched from it. But create it they did not.
Mr Mephisto