Yet all the minorities in the Middle East, whose very existence is under direct and immediate threat, have received from western governments is a woolly undertaking that they will collect evidence. I visited the genocide sites in Rwanda—a salutary and chilling experience. I am always struck that President Clinton and British Ministers of the day say that their failure to identify and take action to prevent that genocide, which led to the loss of 1 million Tutsi lives, was their worst foreign affairs mistake. In the past two years, two serving British Foreign Secretaries have similarly lamented the failure of the international community to decry the genocides in both Rwanda and Bosnia quickly enough, despite the overwhelming and compelling evidence that existed. William ( Lord) Hague, speaking as Foreign Secretary on the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, said: “The truth is that our ability to prevent conflict is still hampered by a gap between the commitments states have made and the reality of their actions”. His successor, Mr Philip Hammond, said last year that the horror of Srebrenica, “demands that we all try to understand why those who placed their hope in the international community on the eve of genocide found that those hopes were dashed”. The reality has been that once it is recognised that genocide is being committed, serious legal obligations follow, and states have proved reluctant to engage with their responsibilities. There are really only two options here. If there is no genocide, our obligations under the genocide convention have not been triggered, but if there is, how could we sleep at night having disregarded the chilling lessons of past
Yet all the minorities in the Middle East, whose very existence is under direct and immediate threat, have received from western governments is a woolly undertaking that they will collect evidence. I visited the genocide sites in Rwanda—a salutary and chilling experience. I am always struck that President Clinton and British Ministers of the day say that their failure to identify and take action to prevent that genocide, which led to the loss of 1 million Tutsi lives, was their worst foreign affairs mistake. In the past two years, two serving British Foreign Secretaries have similarly lamented the failure of the international community to decry the genocides in both Rwanda and Bosnia quickly enough, despite the overwhelming and compelling evidence that existed. William ( Lord) Hague, speaking as Foreign Secretary on the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, said: “The truth is that our ability to prevent conflict is still hampered by a gap between the commitments states have made and the reality of their actions”. His successor, Mr Philip Hammond, said last year that the horror of Srebrenica, “demands that we all try to understand why those who placed their hope in the international community on the eve of genocide found that those hopes were dashed”. The reality has been that once it is recognised that genocide is being committed, serious legal obligations follow, and states have proved reluctant to engage with their responsibilities. There are really only two options here. If there is no genocide, our obligations under the genocide convention have not been triggered, but if there is, how could we sleep at night having disregarded the chilling lessons of past
warsaw-lecture.docx