On terror, selective empathy and outrage

President Barack Obama of the United States was spot on with his statement on Paris attacks. It was indeed an attack on “all humanity and the universal values that we share,” as he eloquently put it.

As a Muslim, I was also among the billions of humans who were naturally outraged by that heinous act. It was barbaric, senseless, inhuman, anti-religious and anti-Islamic, particularly.

Yet there are many who were shocked at the fact that a similar horrible crime In Lebanon, 24 hours before, failed to attract close to an equal notice.

On Paris attacks, Facebook had to swiftly provide an application for its subscribers worldwide, to enable them stand with the French during their moment of tragedy. But noble as the gesture was, it brought to the fore, how the world has always been selective in what and who is more deserving of its compassion.

The embattled Syrian President, Bashar Assad thus quickly reminded the French that for Syria, every day is virtually a Paris of this moment. But Assad has made even more significant contribution in his statement. The accusing finger he pointed toward France and her allies on their role in raising the villainous ISIS cannot be easily dismissed with a wave of hand.

We in Africa, for example, can never forget the key role Sarkozy- led France played in destablising prosperous Libya under Muammar Ghaddafi, the domino effects of which Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Mali are today grappling with.

Before the Libyan debacle, however, there was Rwandan genocide in the 1990s — when within a space of 100 days; some 800,000 people were slain—about three quarters of the Tutsi ethnic-group’s population.

The truth, however, is that this unparallel catastrophe in history, would have been averted if not because of French inordinate ambition on Rwanda– something it nurtured since the 1970s.

Martin Meredith’s Grave Are Not Yet Full, arguably, the most touching chapter of his insightful book, The State of Africa is an indictment of France on Rwandan genocide.

While commenting on President Jean-Christophe Mitterrand’s decision to send military assistance with a view to saving the blush of Hutu genocidal president, Habyarimana, Meredith described it as “a decision that was to have disastrous consequences.”

He said: “For French, it meant becoming ever more deeply involved in propping up a regime with genocidal intentions”.

Thus it was with French assistance, according the author, Habyarimana set in motion a huge expansion of Rwanda’s armed force of 9,000 men in October 1990 to 28000 in 1991.

“France provided training staff, counter-insurgency experts and huge quantities of weapons. It financed and trained a presidential guard, an elite force recruited exclusively from Habyarimana home district. It also facilitated arms contracts with Egypt and South Africa “.

Yet if the French could be excused for having the right to choose whom to extend their supports to during a civil war, their resolve to remain deeply attached with a regime that was all out to wipe out a particular ethic-group was, no doubt, unjustifiable.

Even amid growing turmoil that followed the demise of Habyarima, which prompted western governments to rush to evacuating their citizens, the French didn’t miss an opportunity to reveal the true colour of their mission.

“French troops landed at the airport on 9th April and headed for the embassy. The embassy was crowded not only with French citizens but members of Habyarimana’s clique, the Akazu whom French has supported for so long and who had been deeply involved in planning genocide.

“Among them was Madame Agathe Kanzinga, her brother and some 30 other extremists including the director of Radio Mille Collines, Professor Ferdinand Nahimana, responsible for organising hate broadcast,” he pointed out.

Writing further, Meredith said: “Madame Agathe, her children and rest of her entourage were escorted on to the first French flight out of Kigali. On Arrival in Paris, she received a gift of some 40, 000 dollars from the French government”.

Regrettably, among those whom the French deliberately refused to evacuate were the 5 children of the murdered Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana and long standing embassy employees most of them Tutsis, according to Meredith.

Yet there are series of more atrocious decisions to follow, as Meredith noted that a contingent of 250 Belgium paratroops landed on 9^th April and made strenuous efforts at the UN to obtain a strengthened mandate for United Nations Assistance Mission for Riwanda (UNAMIR), enabling UN forces to intervene militarily in Rwanda and stop the killing.

He said, Belgium was ready to attach its paratroop contingent to their peace keeping force already on ground. But France adamantly opposed the plan.

“Belgium paratroops were therefore confined to evacuation duties, passing scenes of slaughter on the streets, along with French. Some Tutsis who managed to board trucks heading for the airports were taken off at militia roadblocks and killed on the spot while French and Belgium looked on, under orders not to intervene,” Meredith further elaborated.

Alas, at the United Nations, too, members of the Security Council were said to have ignored mounting evidence of genocide.

“France, still acting to protect its Hutu power allies, insisted that the violence was not genocide but the result of civil war. US official went to extraordinary length to avoid using the word genocide for fear that under the terms of the UN’s genocide convention of 1948, it would create a legal obligation for them to intervene.” Can you imagine!

Thus it was not a surprise when a draft statement submitted to Security Council warning that genocide contravened international law was watered down, or more appropriately redacted, to a more acceptable version.

Again, when the idea of UNAMIR 2 was being mooted and before any action was taken, France announced its own intervention.

“The French,” Meredith said, “had become increasingly alarmed by the prospect that the interim government might be defeated”.

Again, even when it was obvious that Paul Kagame-led RPF victory in Rwanda was just a matter of time, the French were determined to prevent it at all cost–even if it meant continuing to collaborate with genocidal killers.

“According to human right watch, arms shipment from the French government, or French companies operating under government licenses were delivered to Riwanda at Zaire’s border town of Goma on five occasions between May and June,” he added.

While there might be more evidences of how meddlesomeness of nations like France ended up in fiasco, one thing that has now become a consensus is the fact there wouldn’t have been anything like ISIS– if Iraq was not invaded under pretext of saving the world from the weapons of mass destruction that never existed. Indeed it would have been difficult to create anything like ISIS if Libya and Syria were not also occupied.

In Syria, the West is still pursuing a preposterous dual containments policy of fighting ISIS and Assad simultaneously, a strategy that has so far produced only one result: a tragedy comparable to Rwandan genocide.