One year after hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were slaughtered in Rwanda, the bloodshed continues. This time, it is the Tutsis who are killing Hutus.
The massacre of 8,000 Hutus in recent days underscores the failure of the United Nations' strategy of encouraging the voluntary return of Rwandan refugees who fled to Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi. Details about the killings at the Kibeho camp are sketchy, but enough is known to keep refugees from wanting to return on their own.Apparently, the Rwandan army forced 100,000 unwilling refugees onto a hilltop and kept them there with little food or water. Some were people who were believed to have participated in the deaths of Tutsis last year.
But Kibeho isn't the only part of Rwanda where atrocities continue. Thousands of people, including more than 1,000 children, are crammed into prisons awaiting trial on charges of genocide. Many of the children tell stories of being arrested while riding their bicycles or engaging in other harmless acts. Many of them don't know the meaning of genocide.
Unfortunately, the United Nations quickly is losing the will to help. Member nations, including the United States, are increasingly reluctant to send troops to dangerous, faraway places.
Meanwhile, the atrocities of Rwanda are difficult to ignore or forget in an age of instant global communication. But the world can do little more than watch and be reminded that the international community is virtually powerless to stop ethnic conflicts until the combatants themselves are willing to put ancient hatreds behind them.