International response to Libya: Lessons of Genocide in Rwanda and Massacre in Sarajevo

Almost two decades ago, the world saw thousands of people massacre in a cold blood bath in Rwanda. In matter of months, 800,000 Hutus and Moderate Tutsi were murdered while the world was watching. Just a year later after the Rwandan massacre, international opinions began to take shape. The outcry and condemnation of the barbaric massacre in Rwanda spread across capitals of the world, from Paris to London, Washington DC to Berlin, Rome to Kigali. Every civilized nation vehemently denounced Rwandan massacre and labeled it as genocide. Some influential people like former U.S. President Bill Clinton said, such massacre should have happened in 21st century.

Unfortunately, history repeated itself. In 1998, hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered in Yugoslavia while the same international community was debating the language of the UN mandate regarding the United Nations and NATO intervention in the Balkan. However, because the conflict in the Balkan took place in the European Community backyards, Europe was quick to intervene and NATO took the lead to enforce UN mandate to prevent what would have been the largest European massacre second to holocaust in which millions of innocent Jews were murdered.

So when Colonel Gaddafi said a month ago that, “he would have no mercy on his people.” I was personally afraid thinking that Rwandan like massacre was going to repeat itself again in Libya. It might be too soon to say that the world has averted blood bath in Libya. However it is safe to say that something an extraordinary has happened. It hard to assess how this quick response was coordinated but one this is certain to me. The images and scope of Rwandan genocide have made it hard for people like the French President Nicholas Sarkozy to sit back and watched the Libyan dictator slaughtering his own people.


Regardless of the outcome of this international operation, credit has to been given to the French, British, Italy and United States for taking the lead and diverted a blood bath in Libya. The question that I am wrestling with is this, what kind of Libya is the world expecting after the departure of Gaddafi? Would it be a stable Libya or unstable one? With Libya being a nation state made up of tribes, I am concerned that 42 years of Gaddafi dictatorial rule will be replaced by instability and civil wars. It likely that the international community may succeed in getting rid of Gaddafi regime, however, international community is nervous of Libyan future. The world knows little about the Libyan rebels and that is troubling by itself. What if the very rebel that the world may bring to power in Libya will turn out to be like Taliban?