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As starvation and disease threatens tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees in Central Africa, the U.S. seems reluctant to respond to calls for assistance from the international community. It appears that America's values and natural generosity have won out, however, as American forces departed for Central Africa on November 14, ready to take part in the multi-national humanitarian effort.
In his weekly radio address on November 16, 1996 President Clinton said, "America is the world's indispensable nation, the one the world looks to for leadership because of our strength and our values." He also said that it is because of our high standing that we must intervene in the Rwandan refugee crisis.
On the evening of November 14, 1996 a TV news reporter interviewed Air Force crews at Fairchild Air Force Base who were getting ready to deploy to Africa. The wing commander expressed the appreciation his troops had for the opportunity to be of service in a "humanitarian mission." The colonel's mood was upbeat and optimistic, as though he were off to do a good deed and felt good about it.
Many Americans are patting themselves on the back for their goodness and generosity toward other nations in the earth. Some conservatives chide this nation's policy of giving money, food, and other assistance to developing nations, as though our government did this out of some compulsive generosity. What the Colonel wasn't thinking about, as well as most Americans, is that American "humanitarian aid" comes with some pretty thick ropes attached.
The complex history of this troubled region would never fit into the evening news or the narrow attention span of most people today, and that suits the purposes of those behind the scenes just fine. Let us consider, however, certain details of this region and look a little deeper than the evening news and the President's radio address.
In the late 1800's Central Africa was parceled out between the colonial powers. These included Belgium, France, Germany and Great Britain. Zaire was then called the Belgian Free Congo and Rwanda was under German jurisdiction. The borders of these colonies were drawn up to suit the whims of the colonial powers and did not reflect old tribal boundaries. When the Germans were defeated at the end of World War I, Belgium assumed control of Rwanda.
After World War II, the old world order began to crumble and make way for the "new". The United Nations was created, as was a host of new "rights" for the oppressed "victims of imperialism." One by one, during the 1950's and 60's, the African colonies of the European powers obtained their "independence" from their colonial oppressors, usually through U.N. resolutions supplemented by armed revolt.
These newly independent African states were left with the old colonial borders that cross tribal boundaries which have existed for centuries. The new rulers were quite successful in freeing their land of the European farmer, factory owner and skilled technician, but, unfortunately, were unable to meet the challenge of running a country in the 20th century. One African nation after another fell into decay, bankruptcy and civil war under home rule.
The new rulers of these African nations were eager to raise the capital needed to keep them in power, and were more than willing to accept the generous offer of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail them out of their troubles. The huge loans made to these inept politicians were squandered on band-aid measures for the population and extravagant living for themselves. Soon all of Africa was saddled with a huge amount of debt and in need of more loans to maintain the status quo.
The World Bank and IMF were sympathetic to their troubles and offered more assistance as long as there were "certain reforms". Some of these reforms included the opening up of natural resources to transnational corporations to mine and export. Royalties from these exports would help service the debts of the African nations.
As the colonial profiteer faded from the African continent, he was replaced by the huge transnational corporations. Africans imagine that they are self ruled now, but they are ruled more firmly by foreign money in the new order than they ever were by the colonists of the old order. This is how the World Bankers would have it.
The African nations are forced to maintain the colonial borders that cross tribal lines. Every time an African nation descends into tribal conflict and anarchy and threatens to obliterate those borders, Belgian, French or American troops rush in and prop up whatever form of government exists. It benefits the transnational corporations and world bankers to keep Africa in turmoil, at the precipice of disaster, without obliterating those political entities that serve their interests.
This state of chaos is being preserved in Central Africa today. In the early 1990's, the World Bank and the IMF forced certain "free market" reforms on Rwanda, just as it was facing civil war. These reforms, called "Scenario II" by the World Bank, coupled with a collapse in coffee prices (Rwanda's main export), caused the country's economy and public service sector to collapse. In early 1994 there was widespread famine in the southern provinces. This desperate situation formed the catalyst that caused the ethnic blood bath between the Tutsis and Hutus, and resulted in the mass extermination of over half a million people, as well as the displacement of a million refugees into Zaire and the internal displacement of a million refugees within Rwanda.
In his article entitled "IMF - World Bank policies and the Rwandan holocaust", economist Michael Chossudovsky describes the cause of the holocaust. He writes:
"The brutality of the massacres has shocked the world community, but what the international press fails to mention is that the civil war was preceded by the flare-up of a deep-seated economic crisis. It was the restructuring of the agricultural system [by the IMF] which precipitated the population into abject poverty and destitution. This deterioration of the economic environment which immediately followed the collapse of the international coffee market and the imposition of sweeping macro-economic reforms... exacerbated simmering ethnic tensions and accelerated the process of political collapse.
"No sensitivity or concern was expressed as to the likely political and social repercussions of economic shock therapy applied to a country on the brink of civil war....The austerity measures combined with the impact of the IMF-sponsored [Rwandan currency] devaluations, contributed to impoverishing the Rwandan people at a time of acute political and social crisis. The deliberate manipulation of market forces destroyed economic activity and people's livelihood, fueled unemployment and created a situation of generalized famine and social despair...." (Quoted from "IMF - World Bank policies and the Rwandan holocaust" by Michael Chossudovsky, who is a Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada. Article published by Third World Network Features).
It is apparent that the World Bank bears a significant weight of responsibility for the massacres in Rwanda. Economic factors make or break social fabric, and the World Bank had assumed dictatorial powers in Rwanda's economy, as well as the value of its currency on the exchange. If the economists at the World Bank and the IMF understand the machinations of economics, how is it that they created a slaughter of such catastrophic proportions? Could it be they meant well, but made a grave error? It is doubtful that they made a mistake in Rwanda because the same scenario is repeating itself in most of sub-sahara Africa, resulting in the slaughter of tens of millions of Africans in the last 25 years. Since this is evidently a deliberate policy, what could the motive be for creating such a catastrophe?
As in other conflicts that have required a protracted intervention, this one is no different. Rwandan refugees are returning to a country that has been wrecked. Aid agencies will be required to stay and feed the helpless thousands. "Peacekeeping" troops will have to remain and protect the rival factions from each other. Instead of ruling by proxy through its puppet governments, the New Order will place its own troops on the ground that will ensure the furtherance of New World Order objectives. These objectives include the control of the natural and human resources on the African continent, as well as using African crisis as a laboratory for future "humanitarian" intervention.
The financial powers that rule the world from behind the scenes would have us believe that the world is becoming a "kinder, gentler" place as President Bush predicted in his speech before the United Nations in 1991. In reality, this world is now ruled by a power that is more cruel and sinister than Stalin and Hitler combined. It is more evil because of the overpowering illusion of benevolence that it uses to disguise its global conquest. This same illusion was promoted by President Clinton in his weekly radio address when he said, "As the world's most powerful nation, we cannot turn our back when so many people, especially so many innocent children, are at mortal risk....We know the mission is not risk-free, but hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need. This is the right thing to do." The mention of "innocent children" seems to never fail in obtaining public agreement for politicians' murderous designs.
As the World Court opens its genocide tribunal in Rwanda, prosecuting those involved in the ethnic killings, it would be well for them to consider who the real war criminals are. Tribal conflict has its part to play in the genocide, but the largest burden of guilt sits on the rich men who control the World Bank and the "stooge" politicians who carry out the agenda of international finance. They deliberately plunged Rwanda into economic destitution, thus precipitating this terrible tragedy.
Since the U.N. and the World Court are the creation of this system of world finance, it is highly unlikely that they will indict those truly guilty of this genocide. There is a Higher court, however, that has weighed the evidence and is even now rendering a sentence of strict justice. The sentence reads:
"Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon [system of world finance], and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." Isaiah 13:6; 14:4,5; 13:19.
IMF - World Bank policies and the Rwandan
holocaust
CNN - Rwandan refugee flow heavy, but slowing - Nov. 17,
1996
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