Dustinkramer's Blog

Silence is Consent

dustinkramer — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:04:32 +0000

I agree with the authors point here. By not standing up for what you believe in and telling people what they are doing is not right, you let them continue to do it. Some people may believe the action they are doing is acceptable because they don’t know better and have never been told not to do it. If someone were to stand up and tell them that they are doing is unacceptable they will hopefully think about what they did and realize why it was wrong. If everyone were to stand up, instead of sitting silently, people would become aware of these issues and think before they said something demeaning.

Highway of Tears

dustinkramer — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:04:18 +0000

It seems that the Highway of Tears murders haven’t got the attention they deserve is because most of the victims are native. Many people think that if most of the victims had been white there would be a much larger task force assigned to the case, but since the majority has been native it has been overlooked. The remote location and lack of witnesses and evidence could also be a big factor. Recently a German group has gone through the communities affected by the murders and did a documentary. They said that that the people there were all rather kind and open to talking about it. (http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090324183164/local/news/journalists-finish-highway-of-tears-trek.html) There has been several inquiries recently about any progress that the police have been making on the case. Although they are keeping tight lipped about the ongoing case, they have said that they are closer to solving it.

Children’s Rights

dustinkramer — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:34:50 +0000

It is important to fight for children’s rights because they usually can’t fight for themselves. Children can have a hard time seeking help because they are scared and don’t want to create more trouble for themselves. Kids who have been abused can be too afraid to get help because of threats from their abusers. It is important to help these kids because the abuse can lead to long term psychological problems. In developing countries kids who are abused or forced into combat have no one to go to. If they try to run away there are generally harsh consequences, such as torture or death. If child soldiers do get away they have to hide in fear and fend for themselves. Sometimes the only place to hide is in the jungle, which can be just as dangerous as being in the army. We need to fight for these children’s rights because without us they will be overlooked. They will continue to be abused and taken advantage of. With our help these children can be freed and live a normal safer life without the fear of abuse and neglect.

People Under the Poverty Line

dustinkramer — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:20:22 +0000

People who are new to the country, such as refugees generally live under the poverty line. Many of these people come here with no money or job experience and cannot speak English. It can be hard for these people to find a job and they generally don’t get paid much. These people can be taken advantage of and offered jobs for less than minimum wage, because they sometimes don’t know their rights or can’t find a job due to other reasons. Since they aren’t making much money they can’t afford many, if any luxuries and most likely have to live in low income housing. Families can often be split up and are put under additional stress because they have to worry about family members that they had to leave behind.

Genocide in Rwanda

dustinkramer — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:05:23 +0000

Genocide in Rwanda – 1994 – 800,000 Deaths

Beginning on April 6, 1994, and for the next hundred days, up to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using clubs and machetes, with as many as 10,000 killed each day.

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in Central Africa, with just 7 million people, and is comprised of two main ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Although the Hutus account for 90 percent of the population, in the past, the Tutsi minority was considered the aristocracy of Rwanda and dominated Hutu peasants for decades, especially while Rwanda was under Belgian colonial rule.

Following independence from Belgium in 1962, the Hutu majority seized power and reversed the roles, oppressing the Tutsis through systematic discrimination and acts of violence. As a result, over 200,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

In 1990, this rebel army invaded Rwanda and forced Hutu President Juvenal Habyalimana into signing an accord that mandated that the Hutus and Tutsis would share power.

genocide in Rwanda

Ethnic tensions in Rwanda were significantly heightened in October 1993 upon the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, the first popularly elected Hutu president of neighboring Burundi.

A United Nations peacekeeping force of 2,500 multinational soldiers was then dispatched to Rwanda to preserve the fragile cease-fire between the Hutu government and the Tutsi rebels. Peace was threatened by Hutu extremists who were violently opposed to sharing any power with the Tutsis. Among these extremists were those who desired nothing less than the actual extermination of the Tutsis. It was later revealed they had even drawn up lists of prominent Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians to kill, should the opportunity arise.

In April 1994, amid ever-increasing prospects of violence, Rwandan President Habyalimana and Burundi’s new President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, held several peace meetings with Tutsi rebels. On April 6, while returning from a meeting in Tanzania, a small jet carrying the two presidents was shot down by ground-fired missiles as it approached Rwanda’s airport at Kigali. Immediately after their deaths, Rwanda plunged into political violence as Hutu extremists began targeting prominent opposition figures that were on their death-lists, including moderate Hutu politicians and Tutsi leaders.

The killings then spread throughout the countryside as Hutu militia, armed with machetes, clubs, guns and grenades, began indiscriminately killing Tutsi civilians. All individuals in Rwanda carried identification cards specifying their ethnic background, a practice left over from colonial days. These ‘tribal cards’ now meant the difference between life and death.

Amid the onslaught, the small U.N. peacekeeping force was overwhelmed as terrified Tutsi families and moderate politicians sought protection.

genocide in Rwanda

Among the peacekeepers were ten soldiers from Belgium who were captured by the Hutus, tortured and murdered. As a result, the United States, France, Belgium, and Italy all began evacuating their own personnel from Rwanda.

However, no effort was made to evacuate Tutsi civilians or Hutu moderates. Instead, they were left behind entirely at the mercy of the avenging Hutu.

Back at U.N headquarters in New York, the killings were initially categorized as a breakdown in the cease-fire between the Tutsi and Hutu. Throughout the massacre, both the U.N. and the U.S. carefully refrained from labeling the killings as genocide, which would have necessitated some kind of emergency intervention.

On April 21, the Red Cross estimated that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi had already been massacred since April 6 – an extraordinary rate of killing.

The U.N. Security Council responded to the worsening crisis by voting unanimously to abandon Rwanda. The remainders of U.N. peacekeeping troops were pulled out, leaving behind an only tiny force of about 200 soldiers for the entire country.

The Hutu, now without opposition from the world community, engaged in genocidal mania, clubbing and hacking to death defenseless Tutsi families with machetes everywhere they were found. The Rwandan state radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, further encouraged the killings by broadcasting non-stop hate propaganda and even pinpointed the locations of Tutsis in hiding. The killers were aided by members of the Hutu professional class including journalists, doctors and educators, along with unemployed Hutu youths and peasants who killed Tutsis just to steal their property.

Many Tutsis took refuge in churches and mission compounds. These places became the scenes of some of the worst massacres. In one case, at Musha, 1,200 Tutsis who had sought refuge were killed beginning at 8 a.m. lasting until the evening. Hospitals also became prime targets as wounded survivors were sought out then killed.

In some local villages, militiamen forced Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors or face a death sentence for themselves and their entire families. They also forced Tutsis to kill members of their own families.

By mid May, an estimated 500,000 Tutsis had been slaughtered. Bodies were now commonly seen floating down the Kigara River into Lake Victoria.

Confronted with international TV news reports depicting genocide, the U.N. Security Council voted to send up to 5,000 soldiers to Rwanda. However, the Security Council failed to establish any timetable and thus never sent the troops in time to stop the massacre.

The killings only ended after armed Tutsi rebels, invading from neighboring countries, managed to defeat the Hutus and halt the genocide in July 1994. By then, over one-tenth of the population, an estimated 800,000 persons, had been killed.

I think it is horrific how many people were killed in this genocide while other countries sat back and watched. If the Hutus and Tutsis realized that they weren’t that different and tried to work together to help the country this slaughter never would have happened. The fact that the United Nations only sent a handful of peace keepers to try and protect the citizens, and then pulled most of them out when some were captured and killed is horrific. The fact that the United Nations didn’t really want to send troops makes me think that they don’t care about Rwanada and that protecting the citizens human rights isn’t important.