Bill Curry
Ottawa — The Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009 12:00AM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009 8:53AM EDT
Canada lacks the political will and diplomatic might to prevent future genocidal horrors by intervening early and often, concludes a high-profile panel of foreign policy experts that includes Robert Fowler, the career diplomat who was released this year after being kidnapped by al-Qaeda.
The authors of a 139-page report by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights insist soft-power measures like diplomatic warnings and cuts to foreign aid can often avoid the need for military intervention.
The report's authors urge Ottawa to build up its diplomatic corps in "fragile" countries, but also challenge the Canadian news media by noting that in 1993, few Canadian journalists were interested in the early warnings of genocide in Rwanda. The report calls on the media to recognize the important role they play in creating the political will for Canadian politicians to act abroad.
Speaking with reporters at a news conference yesterday, Mr. Fowler, who was working as a United Nations special envoy when he was captured last December in Niger, recalled a trip he took to Rwanda in 1994 as deputy minister of national defence.
In June of that year, he penned a graphic report that warned the highest levels of the Canadian government about the extent of genocide ongoing in Rwanda.
He estimated that between 400,000 and one million people had been killed and that Canada's reasons for inaction would be "irrelevant to the historians who chronicle the near-elimination of a tribe while the white world's accountants count and the foreign policy specialists machinate."
That report was ultimately ignored. Mr. Fowler said yesterday that Canada still does not have the policies in place to detect and prevent genocide.
"What we are talking about here is the moral imperative of engaging when truly appalling, unspeakable and unacceptable things are occurring," he said.
Mr. Fowler appeared along- side Senator Roméo Dallaire who served in 1994 as the military commander of the UN mission in Rwanda. Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent and Conservative Senator Hugh Segal were also on hand to release the report, which advises the Canadian government on how to prevent future genocide, ideally without military intervention.
Mr. Broadbent, who had also visited Rwanda at the time as an independent observer and issued warnings that went unheeded by the Canadian government and media, said there were many things Canada could have done to prevent the genocide.
For instance, Canada could have cut off aid, funded a rival radio network to counter the country's pro-genocidal propaganda or denied student visas to children of pro-genocidal Rwandans studying in Canada.
"We were in a position to take so-called soft power [actions] that would have made a real difference," said Mr. Broadbent. "But we did nothing."
The report calls on the Prime Minister to make the prevention of mass atrocities a national priority and to appoint an international security minister.
It also urges Parliament to create a joint House of Commons-Senate committee on preventing genocide and calls on the government to increase its diplomatic presence in fragile countries and to create a Canadian Prevention Corps. On the military side, it recommends that Canada continue to enhance the capabilities of the Canadian Forces.
A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the government is studying the report.
"The government's foreign policy is centred on freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law and Canada will continue to work with our allies when confronted with grave violations of human rights," said spokesperson Catherine Loubier in an e-mail.
"We will engage in appropriate measures with these countries, including working towards preventing future atrocities."
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