Last month, the world received warnings from both a UN official and a French foreign minister that the Central African Republic could be on the verge of genocide. The situation in this small African country has been deteriorating since March, when the Séléka rebel alliance overthrew the government of Francois Bozizé, forcing him to flee the country.
Violence, mostly against innocent civilians has been escalating for months. There have been reports of children’s throats being slit, and young men tied up and thrown to the crocodiles. Yet, if you flip through Canadian newspapers or turn on the news, it’s almost as if the conflict doesn’t exist.
Yes, this conflict is far away. It’s incredibly dangerous to cover, and it has nothing to do with Canadians. But should proximity be the deciding factor in whether or not we care? What if this was happening in your own back yard, to your own families? You would want the world to know.
The UN estimates that over 400,000 people in the Central African Republic have either been displaced or are seeking refuge in surrounding countries. More important, 1.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Meanwhile, France is deploying one thousand troops to the region, to help the 2,500 African Union peacekeepers already in place, and the UN is voting to turn into a larger peacekeeping mission, which they will take charge of. Where does the Conservative government stand on intervention? We don’t know, because nobody is asking the tough questions.
This type of willful blindness has happened before, during the horrific Rwanda genocide almost 20 years ago. In 1994, over the course of around 100 days it’s estimated that 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were slaughtered by ethnic Hutus.
It is an event that’s ingrained in our historical consciousness. An event that forced us to ask: how could we let this happen? A big part of the answer to that has to do with the fact that there was almost no comprehensive coverage coming out of Rwanda during the genocide.
There was a severe lack of picture and video evidence of what was going on, and the limited reporting depicted just another African conflict. The world didn’t know what was really happening until after the fact, and by then it was too late.
It seems that we are doing it again. Ignoring a conflict that may have devastating consequences if left alone.
Instead of waiting around for the bodies to pile up we need to start drawing attention to what’s happening.
We need to start asking our leaders tough questions in the hopes that the international community will find a solution.
I’m not saying that what’s happening in the Central African Republic is the same thing that happened in Rwanda. The point is that I don’t have a clue what’s actually happening over there.
When news organizations decide not to cover something, or only designate a few lines to a story, they’re not only saying that’s it’s not important, they’re saying: we don’t care, so why should you.
I think we do care. As Canadians we value human rights. Not just for ourselves, but for the rest of the world.
If we aren’t properly informed about what’s going on, there’s a limit to what we can do about it. Now is the time to get informed.