We are genocide tourists now

The tourists approach the genocide memorial in an excited, expectant state. This after all is an important 'must do' in their whirlwind tour of the country's top sites. Their mood quickly changes as they realise the scale and the mechanics of massacre.

Tears don't come at this stage because you cant have much empathy with thousands or even millions of dead people. The tears come later when they read the individual stories. The 5 year old Rwandan child, a picture of her at a birthday party, who had her head split in two by a machete. The hundreds of babies who where swung by their legs and smashed against as 'special' tree in the Cambodian killing fields



Finally, for the tourists, there is anger and the thirst for revenge or at least justice. The Western need for a nice neat ending that will never come.

Rwanda has begun the process of reconciliation and justice. Formal trials of some of the Hutu leaders are taking place in Zanzibar. Local courts are enabling people to tell their stories and to confess. Rwanda has ditched the French language because of Frances actions around the massacre. The people refer to themselves as Rwandan now, instead of Hutu or Tutsi. 800,000 Tutsi where killed.

Cambodia is now starting trials of a few Khmer Rouge leaders, far too late most of the leaders including Pol Pot have died of old age. Its not easy to investigate these things when your current leader is ex-Khmer Rouge. 1-3 million died out of a population of 8 million



Both massacres demonstrate the impotence and moral cowardice of the UN. In Rwanda a few armed peace keepers could have stopped the killing. The UN continued to recognise the Khmer Rouge Government years after they where ousted by Vietnamese forces. Both France and the US, amongst others, played shameful roles in these decisions

As for the tourists? They end the tour chastened and maybe a little change. Most importantly their presence helps ensure the stories are told and not forgotten






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