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jawnbcAm ensconced in my usual spot, on the sofa, remote controls at the ready, iBook shielding my groin. I’ve got cupcakes in the oven, something of a breach with respect to diet. So be it. There’s a Betty Crocker can-o-frosting that stands at the ready to be applied to the wee cakes. I will endeavour to not eat spoons of the stuff directly out of the can. All I can promise is to try. Promise.
This week will mark the 10th anniversary of the Srebenica massacre in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Over 7000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) men and boys were collected, beaten and then shot, after the UN abandoned a group of Dutch peacekeepers working under impossible conditions in that “safe haven.” Apparently the Dutch commanders put in a request to UN command for air support to stop the Yugoslavian (mostly Serbian but not entirely) army’s advance. When no support was forthcoming the commanders were told they had filed the form, and that the situation didn’t merit bombing. Some of the men escaped, scampered across the bush and into a genuinely safe zone...but they were exceptions. Genocide, 90s style, in the garden of Europe. It took the issue of Kosovo a few years later for any substantial military intervention by the West. Perhaps 300,000 perished in the Balkan conflicts post-Yugoslavia.
We’re apparently willing to re-learn--no, we’re apparently willing to watch others re-learn--some historical lessons again and again and again. There’s little doubt about the genocide in Darfur, yet we leave it to the African Union’s peacekeepers--woefully equipped by their own admission--to protect several million refugees in a huge, unbordered, rural part of Sudan. Even recent video evidence of the attacks by Sudanese government militias hasn’t compelled a proper intervention. Estimates are that up to half a million have already died. Among the few leaders of the world who’ve expressed a willingness to explore a military intervention is Bush--but few want to see another American incursion into a foreign land. Understandable (to an extent), but ultimately just an excuse.
My inclination is always to promote dialogue; in fact I think that we can achieve quite a lot by talking and listening across difference. And I think that justice through peace is a much more fertile ground for stable democracy than strife, war and domination can ever produce. Oppression necessitates a power dynamic that will inevitably (presuming genocide fails) result in counter-attack. Dialogue, however, presumes reasonableness. Genocide isn’t reasonable: it’s ideological. It’s racism, in its most pernicious form. And the current UN structure (particularly the “Security Council” and the vetoes available to some members) means waiting around for an international consensus to act means to do nothing.
I say enough. Enough rationalizing. I think a fitting way to acknowledge the horrors of Srebenica would be to intervene in Darfur. Stop the killing, stop the cleansing of villages. Foment stability: through security, through basic infrastructure (water, sewage), through fostering education. These things will bring prosperity, which in turn will demonstrate the value of peace and stability, in tangible terms.
Oh, and I shaved my head today, like starkers.
This week will mark the 10th anniversary of the Srebenica massacre in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Over 7000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) men and boys were collected, beaten and then shot, after the UN abandoned a group of Dutch peacekeepers working under impossible conditions in that “safe haven.” Apparently the Dutch commanders put in a request to UN command for air support to stop the Yugoslavian (mostly Serbian but not entirely) army’s advance. When no support was forthcoming the commanders were told they had filed the form, and that the situation didn’t merit bombing. Some of the men escaped, scampered across the bush and into a genuinely safe zone...but they were exceptions. Genocide, 90s style, in the garden of Europe. It took the issue of Kosovo a few years later for any substantial military intervention by the West. Perhaps 300,000 perished in the Balkan conflicts post-Yugoslavia.
We’re apparently willing to re-learn--no, we’re apparently willing to watch others re-learn--some historical lessons again and again and again. There’s little doubt about the genocide in Darfur, yet we leave it to the African Union’s peacekeepers--woefully equipped by their own admission--to protect several million refugees in a huge, unbordered, rural part of Sudan. Even recent video evidence of the attacks by Sudanese government militias hasn’t compelled a proper intervention. Estimates are that up to half a million have already died. Among the few leaders of the world who’ve expressed a willingness to explore a military intervention is Bush--but few want to see another American incursion into a foreign land. Understandable (to an extent), but ultimately just an excuse.
My inclination is always to promote dialogue; in fact I think that we can achieve quite a lot by talking and listening across difference. And I think that justice through peace is a much more fertile ground for stable democracy than strife, war and domination can ever produce. Oppression necessitates a power dynamic that will inevitably (presuming genocide fails) result in counter-attack. Dialogue, however, presumes reasonableness. Genocide isn’t reasonable: it’s ideological. It’s racism, in its most pernicious form. And the current UN structure (particularly the “Security Council” and the vetoes available to some members) means waiting around for an international consensus to act means to do nothing.
I say enough. Enough rationalizing. I think a fitting way to acknowledge the horrors of Srebenica would be to intervene in Darfur. Stop the killing, stop the cleansing of villages. Foment stability: through security, through basic infrastructure (water, sewage), through fostering education. These things will bring prosperity, which in turn will demonstrate the value of peace and stability, in tangible terms.
Oh, and I shaved my head today, like starkers.
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Like this but with an accent.
Date: 2005-07-10 03:49 pm (UTC)