Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________ GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER BY VIVIENNE WALT (03/20/98)

I always enjoy your magazine, but was shocked at the shallowness with which the subject of Rwanda was handled. Relying on a U.N. source regarding Rwanda is very nearly like interviewing a fox about the state of the henhouse. They have been utterly ineffectual and roundly criticized.
The simple fact is -- and this has been documented in the New Yorker, the Nation, on "60 Minutes" and elsewhere -- that prosecution of alleged war criminals is virtually impossible because so many of these men claim to have done what they did at gunpoint (the same holds for the Balkans). Additionally, many of those interviewed have stated that they witnessed fathers being forced to murder their children on pain of the death of their wives, and vice-versa, only to be murdered themselves.
Then, of course, there is the thorny issue of reverse genocide on the part of the Tutsis. What of them? What of those Hutus who have since claimed that they killed Tutsis to defend their homes? The entire thing is a mess, and your article and accompanying interview did little to shed light on the problem (incidentally, those of us who have been paying attention have known for quite some time that the killing has continued). Please try a little harder.
-- Robert Anderson
In your article on the Rwandan genocide you have a few facts wrong. The 2 million people who fled did not flee in fear but to avoid revenge because they were the very ones who had committed the genocide. Almost all the so-called refugees except very small children were involved in various ways in the genocide as perpetrators. They mostly fled to Zaire, now Congo, where they staged attacks, still ongoing, hence the present genocide, on Rwanda and Burundi. Also, they are now allied with other ethnic groups in Central Africa, the Mai Mai, the Ugandan "rebels," the Unitas of Angola, the opposing side of Congo-Brazzaville, etc.
A conflagration is occurring as we are writing, but it is the Hutus primarily who are committing the murders. The Hutus are not the victims of genocide. Trials are ongoing as this is being written, but it is true that not many have been actually caught, and there are few jurists to work in their trials. In the future, if you are going to write articles that are not about U.S. politics, please get your facts at least up to date and get straight who is the perpetrator and who is the victim.
-- Christine Armas
SALON | March 24, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| HILLARY WAS RIGHT BY ANDREW ROSS

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_______________ GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER BY VIVIENNE WALT (03/20/98)
	I always enjoy your magazine, but was shocked at the shallowness with which the subject of Rwanda was handled. Relying on a U.N. source regarding Rwanda is very nearly like interviewing a fox about the state of the henhouse. They have been utterly ineffectual and roundly criticized. The simple fact is -- and this has been documented in the New Yorker, the Nation, on "60 Minutes" and elsewhere -- that prosecution of alleged war criminals is virtually impossible because so many of these men claim to have done what they did at gunpoint (the same holds for the Balkans). Additionally, many of those interviewed have stated that they witnessed fathers being forced to murder their children on pain of the death of their wives, and vice-versa, only to be murdered themselves. Then, of course, there is the thorny issue of reverse genocide on the part of the Tutsis. What of them? What of those Hutus who have since claimed that they killed Tutsis to defend their homes? The entire thing is a mess, and your article and accompanying interview did little to shed light on the problem (incidentally, those of us who have been paying attention have known for quite some time that the killing has continued). Please try a little harder. -- Robert Anderson In your article on the Rwandan genocide you have a few facts wrong. The 2 million people who fled did not flee in fear but to avoid revenge because they were the very ones who had committed the genocide. Almost all the so-called refugees except very small children were involved in various ways in the genocide as perpetrators. They mostly fled to Zaire, now Congo, where they staged attacks, still ongoing, hence the present genocide, on Rwanda and Burundi. Also, they are now allied with other ethnic groups in Central Africa, the Mai Mai, the Ugandan "rebels," the Unitas of Angola, the opposing side of Congo-Brazzaville, etc. A conflagration is occurring as we are writing, but it is the Hutus primarily who are committing the murders. The Hutus are not the victims of genocide. Trials are ongoing as this is being written, but it is true that not many have been actually caught, and there are few jurists to work in their trials. In the future, if you are going to write articles that are not about U.S. politics, please get your facts at least up to date and get straight who is the perpetrator and who is the victim. -- Christine Armas SALON \| March 24, 1998