THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407270624
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT E. FRITTS, SPECIAL TO THE LEDGER-STAR
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
After arriving in Kigali in 1974 as the new U.S. ambassador to Rwanda, I hosted a lunch for a number of key Rwandan officials, both Hutu and Tutsi.
It went well - there was much verbal camaraderie in French, and, in the African male custom, occasional hand-holding and shoulder hugging. I commented afterward to a young Embassy officer, David Rawson, that the proverbial Hutu-Tutsi tensions seemed absent. David replied that Rwandans were expert in cloaking their thoughts and ``always know who is what.''
He added that during a Tutsi slaughter of Hutus in the neighboring and tribally symbiotic Burundi, those who had worked and prayed together one day killed each other the next. Raised in Burundi of missionary parents, David was - and is now as the U.S. ambassador to Rwanda - the only American official who speaks the essentially common language of both countries. He has just returned to Rwanda in a continuing effort to end this latest chapter in mass killing and mass exodus.
What can be done in the face of such a persistent capacity to hate? Not only within Africa, but also by the Serbs and Bosnians, Israelis and Palestinians, Turks and Armenians and so on?
One step is to recognize that several popular maxims on international affairs are not universally applicable.
To know is not to love: The first is the oft-cited assertion that ``international understanding leads to peace.'' Well, the Hutus and Tutsis have known each other so well for nearly 500 years that the cultures are virtually identical. Intermarriage is so extensive that, as a Kigali colleague of mine once remarked, most Rwandans are ``neither tall (Tutsi) nor short (Hutu), but medium height.'' The Serbs, Croats and Bosnians and similar groups know each other intimately well. A vague belief in the power of ``international understanding'' is inadequate.
The past cuts both ways. Another is philosopher George Santayana's statement, ``Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'' Numerous parties currently engaged in conflict seek to ensure that nothing of their historical past is ever forgotten. Thus Santayana's axiom has a modern corollary: ``Those who remember the past too well too often repeat it.''
Often, there is no answer. A third is the trusting belief that virtually every international conflict can be ``solved.'' In fact, most successful diplomacy is a long consistent slog of slicing a problem salami-style in order to isolate and reduce it rather than solve it. The Middle East is a continuing example. In Rwanda, the United States, along with the United Nations and other parties, is using the kit of diplomatic, military and mediation tools known collectively as crisis conflict resolution. But results, as shown by any number of world trouble spots, are inherently temporary, even when measured in decades.
Will the future be better? Rwanda may tell us something about that. Recall, first, that Rwanda had one of the world's highest population densities - 800 persons per square mile - and, second, that biological science has determined that at least some mammals, such as mice and lemmings, engage in self-destructive behavior when population stress becomes too great. If the human species is subject to the same influence, the outlook for the 21st century is indeed sobering.
So do we give up and let tragic events run their course? Of course not. The only realistic approach is to increase our commitment to eliminate the causes of conflict and ease the impact of tragedies when they occur. But in doing so, we need also to be aware that bringing change to varied human cultures is a daunting prospect.
This was brought home to me near the end of my assignment in Rwanda. I faced an obstacle in negotiating some problem which, I felt, could be overcome if I could only get a handle on the real Rwandan governmental concern. I noted my frustration to an elder Rwandan whom I valued for his insights and advice. ``You have to remember,'' he said, ``that in your country children are punished for telling lies. Here, children are punished for telling the truth. We always have to protect ourselves - Hutus and Tutsis both.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert E. Fritts is a former U.S. ambassador to Rwanda and Ghana.
He is currently Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Thomas
Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William and
Mary in Williamsburg.
KEYWORDS: RWANDA AFRICA by CNB