TO THE EDITOR:
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. 20 years ago, ordinary Rwandan citizens carried out one the most swift and destructive act of human aggression known today, killing close to 800,000 people in 100 days in an attempted purification of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Most importantly, a group of nations claiming to be the protector of human rights sat idly by and watched.
The United States and the United Nations refused to acknowledge their moral and legal obligations to prevent genocide at all costs. Evidence of a systematic, government campaign of mass murder flooded the U.S. State Department, yet due to a lack of political will, the U.S. refused to act on its values and never attempted to prevent the genocide. After World War II, we said “Never Again,” but the Rwandan genocide showcased the hypocrisy of this political grandstanding. After travelling to Rwanda last summer, it is with a heavy heart I commemorate the families whom I grew close to that are still confronting the memory of this horrific event. I implore the UNC community to consider the grave failure in human empathy in Rwanda as violence in the Central African Republic, Syria, and Darfur continue to this day. “Never Again,” a moral obligation the entire human community is responsible for, not a political talking point.
Eli McCrain ‘14
Anthropology
