On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, April 4, 2014, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier addressed the German Bundestag. Steinmeier is one of the most eloquent and insightful of today's crop of world diplomats.
* * *
* * *
“The mountains
of Rwanda radiate warmth and benevolence, tempt with beauty and silence,
a crystal clear, windless air, the peace and exquisiteness of their
lines and shapes. In the mornings, a transparent haze suffuses the green
valleys.”
Mr President,
Members of this House,
That’s how
Ryszard Kapuscinski describes Rwanda’s landscape. Rwanda is known in the
vernacular as the “land of a thousand hills”.
One of these
thousand hills is in Murambi. Tens of thousands of Tutsis fled there
when the genocide in Rwanda began 20 years ago.
“You’ll be safe up on the hill, in the newly built school,” the bishop had said.
But in the
early morning of 21 April 1994, militia groups surrounded the school
building and began to kill – with machetes, knives and clubs: a
bloodshed which seemed to last forever.
Tens of thousands of people died on this hill in one single day.
Jonathan Nturo
survived the massacre as a small boy. Today he says looking over the
hill, “I’m surprised sometimes that grass still grows here. That life
goes on.”
Yes, it’s difficult to understand how Earth can continue to turn after the horrors of genocide.
That’s how I
felt the first time I visited Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz.
Indeed, that’s how everyone feels when they visit these places. But the
grass still grows there, too. Now in spring, the trees are even
blossoming.
As a German,
I’m careful about making historical comparisons. They don’t do justice
to the unique and incomparable nature of these crimes. Indeed, they
don’t do justice to the unique nature of the history and culture of
individual nations.
And yet: as a
German I can’t talk about a genocide in Africa without remembering the
one for which we were responsible. These were fateful and tragic events
on our continents. They influence our actions to this very day and they
influence our relations with one another.
These tragic
events may be as different as our landscapes: the hills of Rwanda, the
forests of Auschwitz, the poppy fields of Verdun. Yet the lessons we
learned from them form a link between us. They are the lessons of our
shared humanity.
The most important lesson which has to be taken from a day of remembrance like today is:
never again!
Yes, never again. Yet, how we can live up to this responsibility is a much more difficult question.
For let’s be
honest, the international community has shouted loud and clear “never
again!” before. That was in 1948, after the Holocaust, when the United
Nations adopted the Genocide Convention.
But we were unable to keep this
pledge. The international community failed when it withdrew its blue
helmets from Rwanda in the midst of the violence.And we also have to admit that in the present day, the demons of genocide have by no means been banished:
Even though the
international community developed the concept of “responsibility to
protect” in response to what happened in Rwanda, even though it has
improved prevention, operational capability and international criminal
justice. We don’t talk of genocide everywhere but we’re faced with
never-ending bloodshed in the Congo, Central Africa and Syria.
We can never
make amends to Jonathan Nturo and all other victims of crimes against
humanity for the loss of their children, fathers, mothers and friends.
However, we owe them one thing, even if we’ve to honestly admit that we
can’t stop every injustice or instance of bloodshed: we owe it to them
not to give in to feelings of powerlessness and most certainly not those
of indifference – to not only speak out but do everything in our power
to prevent genocide!
Rwanda is in
the process of coming to grips with the past, of building a new Rwanda.
So many new developments have been emerging all over Africa in the last
few years. Africa is changing more quickly than our perception of the
continent.
That’s why I
travelled to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Angola last week. As different as
these countries are, I heard the same appeal from almost everyone with
whom I spoke. The appeal was: we don’t want to be beggars at Europe’s
gates. The African continent is viable on its own and, at least
potentially, can provide food and development for everyone.
When it comes
to peace and stability, many say: we Africans want to take
responsibility for our own security! We don’t want to ask Europe to send
troops but, rather, we want to be able to guarantee our own security,
to act on our own.
Members of this
House, that also has to be in our interest. Of course, we Europeans
also want Africa to take its fate in its own hands. Africa is a
continent on the rise and we’ve to do everything in our power to support
its progress.We Europeans
have to increasingly see ourselves as the partners of states in Africa.
We need partners for the global challenges we both face and which we
know only too well we can only master if we work together.
Both sides have
realised how close our continents have moved together. We’ve realised
how much we depend on the stability of the other side. We Europeans
experience that, for example, when refugees from Africa’s crisis regions
reach Europe’s borders. And Africans notice this when the economic
crisis in Europe also makes its impact felt in Africa.
Our goal is easy to describe: strong, responsible partners in Africa. But there are many ways to achieve this.
Africa is
developing far too quickly and too diversely for us to give our
political engagement a snappy motto. Although the world of politics and
the media are keen to find such a motto – Africa is neither simply a
continent racked by crises nor a continent full of opportunities. Former
Federal President Horst Köhler is most likely right: such judgements
say much more about us than they do about Africa.
My view is that
the tools available within the scope of Germany’s policy on Africa have
to be as diverse as Africa’s development.
Depending on
the country and on its situation, these tools comprise economic
investment as well as disarmament and the containment of small arms;
cultural exchange as well as road construction; strengthening the rule
of law as well as training security forces.
I’ve seen all
of these instruments on my trip and they will all be included in the
German Government’s Africa policy guidelines which we’re currently
drawing up.
Foreign policy
is a balancing act between the quest for common ground and respect for
our differences – also the recognition of what is incompatible.
Our common ground with Africa – I saw this very clearly during my trip – goes far beyond “never again war and genocide”.First
of all, Europeans and Africans have learned to work with instead of
against their neighbours. This is the guiding principle of regional
integration.
I fear that we
sometimes underestimate what is being achieved nowadays by African
organisations. Many simply don’t know that the African Union is
currently deploying 70,000 troops in conflicts within Africa and is
seeking earnestly and not always successfully to restore stability where
it has been lost. Strengthening Africa’s own responsibility, which is
necessary for this, played a major role at the EU-Africa summit this
week.
We Germans are
making very concrete contributions towards this by, for example,
supporting the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in
Ghana or the Peace and Security Centre, which is being built in the
grounds of the African Union in Addis Ababa and is due to be opened next
year, more punctually than some construction projects in Germany. I was
able to see this project with my own eyes during my Africa trip.
Second, we’ve learned to protect people’s diversity.
In a speech to
mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide, Rwanda’s Ambassador to
Germany said, “We’re building a Rwanda in which everyone [...] can
develop their potential and enjoy the same rights.”
Living in
diversity – that’s only possible in a state governed by the rule of law
on which everyone can rely. I’m firmly convinced that this diversity
includes freedom of opinion or religion as well as freedom of sexual
orientation.
That, too, was a
principle which played a role on every stop on my trip. For example,
during my visit to the German-Tanzanian Law Centre in Dar es Salaam,
where I met students who I hope will have an impact one day on the rule
of law in East Africa. Many of their teachers studied at German
universities. I’d therefore like to take this opportunity to express my
thanks to the many German universities engaged on the African continent,
in particular the German Academic Exchange Service, which has worked
with boundless energy for this cooperation through its scholarship
programmes.Third, we’ve learned that peace or conflict also have a material basis, especially when it is missing.
The genocide
20 years ago was fuelled by material need and scarce resources –
conflicts which those in power used systematically to get as many people
as possible involved in the murders.
The lessons
learned from the genocide therefore include the pledge of peace just as
much as the pledge of prosperity. One is inconceivable without the
other.
The Congo,
Nigeria and Angola – all of these states teach us that oil, gas, gold
and diamonds alone cannot ensure a prosperous development in which
everyone can participate. Rather, this has to be organised at the
political level.
Only if the
economic upswing creates opportunities for everyone and enables them to
enjoy a measure of prosperity can it promote social cohesion. Only then
will it ensure lasting peace.
More than to anyone else, we owe this twofold pledge of peace and prosperity to our young people.
I’ll never
forget one impression from my Africa trip. In Addis Ababa I met the
Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ms Dlamini-Zuma. After our
talks, a journalist asked her a clear question, “What is Africa’s
greatest expectation of Europe?”
And Ms Zuma
gave an equally clear answer, something which is not exactly typical of a
politician. She said, “Our young people! For their sake, we want to
cooperate with Europe, for their vocational training, for their economic
prospects.”
In response, the journalist asked the inverse question, “And what can Europe expect of Africa?”
And again Ms Zuma replied, “Our young people! Our young people are our asset and Europe will also benefit from this asset.”Ladies and gentlemen,
The lessons to
be learned from the tragic events in our past form a bond between us. 20
years after the genocide, Rwanda is on its way to a new future, without
suppressing or forgetting the past.
The thousand hills of Rwanda are and will remain one of Africa’s fateful landscapes.
Roméo Dallaire,
who cam to Rwanda in 1993 as the commander of the blue helmets,
exclaimed on seeing the thousand hills: “This a Garden of Eden”. Only a
few months later he had to stand by full of shame and anger and watch
the massacre.
The memory is etched on the thousand hills. Their name remains linked to the crime against humanity committed 20 years ago.
Members of this House,Alongside
all the memories which lie in this landscape –may the thousand hills
again be home and provide fertile land to those building Rwanda today.
* * *
Speech by Foreign Minister Steinmeier in the German Bundestag remembering the victims of the genocide in Rwanda. Federal Foreign Office, April 4, 2014
--DCH
No comments:
Post a Comment