!!! PLEASE READ !!!
Roméo Dallaire's
Shake Hands with the Devil:
The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

and PLEASE spread the word about it !!!
(so it may never happen again)


Some important links: 

Rwanda Genocide: Ten Years on
the BBC's special coverage

100 days of slaughter
the PBS' official timeline of UN & US inactions

Leave None to Tell the Story
the Human Right Watch guide
for a successful Genocide

Remembering Rwanda
a global Rwanda Genocide remembrance project

Aegis Trust
confronting genocide

Sometimes in April
first genocide film to be shot in Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda
hollywood discovers the Rwandan genocide

Rwanda Net
information exchange on Rwanda

ReliefWeb
the best humanitarian relief community resource

IsraAid
the Israeli humanitarian relief forum

UNICEF
the most efficient of the UN agencies

 

tears in the green photo exhibition                                   SLP Home


 

Rwanda - 10 years after
- by Erez T Yanuv Barzilay -
 

(presented at the Remembering Rwanda 10 years anniversary ceremony at the Morris J. Wosk Center, Vancouver, 8 April 2004)
  Hebrew article 


Rwanda has taken responsibility and is showcasing itself to the whole world.  The same world that betrayed Rwanda twice.


I was born in Jerusalem a decade after the Holocaust. 

I grew up with Israel and its straggle to evolve, develop and survive. 

A decade ago, I was fortunate enough to have already spent, third of my life - traveling all around the globe (including, post-war Cambodia, Somalia and southern Sudan). 

When I was sent to Rwanda -- as a television and radio journalist, a few weeks into the killings -- I was stricken by the beauty, the greenery and the good fortune of the Land.  I could not believe it was absolutely - empty.  One of the world's most populated countries stood totally empty, like a huge green lush ghost-town.  

I have followed Rwanda since, very much astonished by its achievements.  Every visit I paid to Rwanda, sometimes twice a year through the past decade, I am more astonished, more surprised and more hopeful - by and for the new Rwanda. 

Out of the horrors of the Genocide, an unbelievable good is emerging.  Rwanda is a world leader today: 

· Rwanda has taken reconciliation and justice to a place that shades Europe, the Americas, SE Asia, and other places in Africa - altogether. 

· Rwanda is implementing economic growth and social rebuilding that equal if not bypasses my own homeland - Israel. 

· There are almost no orphanages in a country still having over half a million kids and teens with no parents. 

· Since last summer, Rwanda is leading the world with the largest number of women representatives in its Parliament. 

Rwanda has taken responsibility and is showcasing itself to the whole world.  The same world that betrayed Rwanda twice: 

First, when not preventing, then not trying to stop - this huge crime against humanity.  Then, aiding and still sheltering the Genocide masterminds and their associates. 

Second, by abandoning Rwanda once again:  leaving her to straggle alone with eliminating the forces of Evil terrorizing the Genocide survivors, while facing the unbelievable task of healing the nation, and at the same time, absorbing over two million refugees (a few weeks after the Genocide, and a couple of years later), yet, there was no and there is not one single refugee camp in Rwanda.  

Lets only hope and pray, the new Rwanda will continue to have the wisdom needed - to not let down its own people - ever again. 

 
to the tears in the green photo exhibition                Hebrew exhibition

after three years of covering the Rwanda Genocide, the original tears in the green exhibit was created in Jerusalem in 1997. It was a traveling photo exhibition documenting the Rwandan genocide and its consequences, accompanied by a 90 minute video documentary (composed of three years television news, feature reports and interviews). The exhibition was shown in educational institutions, universities and cultural centres all over Israel. Generating support and creating the right atmosphere for the launch of Aid Without Borders (AWB) in May 1998.
 


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