User:Interpreted/sandpit

WIP

Introduction
The strange thing is, however, that none of these past and present tragedies in Africa has been called genocide. Indeed, in the past, when Western politicians and agencies tried to use the genocide label to legitimise their own actions, few were taken in by their claims. For example, when, in 1968, during his successful bid for the presidency, Richard Nixon argued that genocide was being committed in the Biafran War, most understood that Nixon's claim had more to do with winning votes at home than with describing events in Africa. An international military observer team stated that, while many thousands had been killed in the Nigerian civil war, there was no genocide, and that the continued accusations of intended genocide could only be interpreted as'malicious disregard of the authentic facts'.

Why has Rwanda now been singled out as a uniquely genocidal episode in Africa's history? What is so different about this conflict? The answer cannot lie within Rwanda or even in Africa, since very little distinguishes the real events of this war from others in the recent past. What is different about the Rwandan war is the political climate in the West. This new climate makes many interpret and judge the war in a different light.

In the past, wars in Africa angered many in the West. When African people were maimed and slaughtered, radicals and activists pointed the finger of blame at their own governments. The wars might take place on African soil but Western interference in African affairs was understood as the decisive factor in many conflicts. So during the Biafran war at the end of the sixties, thousands marched in London to protest against the British Labour government's backing for the Nigerian state. Pitched battles between the police and the demonstrators showed how deep these passions ran. Similarly aid workers and campaigners in the eighties knew that the protracted and bloody civil war in Angola could not have gone on unless the CIA, the US government and the South African army propped up the anti-government forces.