you refer to. Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.
Most of the dead were Tutsis, killed by the Hutus.
Even for a country with such a turbulent history as Rwanda, the scale and speed of the slaughter left its people reeling. The two ethnic groups are actually very similar; they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions. But when the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they saw the two groups completely different, and even produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity. The Belgians considered the Tutsis as superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours. During the massacre Soldiers and police officers encouraged ordinary citizens to take part. In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder their Tutsi neighbours by military personnel. They were often given incentives, such as money and some were even told they could get the land of the Tutsis they killed. Finally, in July, they captured Kigali. The government collapsed and they declared a ceasefire. As soon as the new leaders took over, an estimated two million Hutus fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). These refugees include many who have since been implicated in the massacres. United Nations did not come to their rescue as you suggested in your letter, not one piece of military equipment or one soldier arrived in Rwanda before the killings ended. United Nation troops and aid workers then arrived to help maintain order and restore basic services. On 19 July a new multi-ethnic government was formed, promising all refugees a safe return to Rwanda. But although the massacres are over, the genocide continues, and the search for justice has been a long and arduous one. We must not forget to learn from our mistakes.
Most men were killed and the women raped and infected with aids. This leaves the children with no fathers and dying mothers, not enough adults to look after the children that are left. All of the children who were born to mothers with aids are now dying themselves. Setting up orphanages and medical help was just some of the concerns that our own country helped Comic Relief raise millions of pounds.
Your comments concerning ‘so called’ race riots in Oldham. I cannot agree with your views on ‘just letting off steam after a football match.’ Surely, seeing your Uncle in Oldham cannot stand as factual evidence of no racism
Or violence and can only be your opinion at that time. There are in fact several perspectives on these riots; many conclude that youths rampaged
Through the Glodwick area causing trouble, breaking windows, which eventually had to be controlled by the police. There were white people as
well as Asian people each blaming one another for sparking off the violence. The Asian community in general stayed away from the town centre before the rioting because there had been a large presence of members of the National Front. However, the whole of the UK will look at this episode as being a riot between the police and Asian Youths. We have all got to live together. Race hatred rears it’s ugly head all too often.
Another subject you have raised is discrimination against women at work. Many women did feel discriminated against, particularly in the work place. On 3 September 1981 a convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women was entered into force, which set out the equal rights of men and women. Women have the same ability, mentally, maybe not physically, to become career people should they wish. If they have a better capability to earn more money than their partner, why can’t they become the breadwinners of the household. Your comment of ‘women staying at home, there would be proper jobs for the man’ is totally sexist. Everybody should have the right to choose to work.
I cannot condone your further comments on travellers being scroungers, dirty and dishonest. Your views are blinkered and certainly not a general rule of travellers. Gypsies, sometimes known as Romanies are a race of people thought to originate in Northern India. Despite the length of time Gypsies have been in Europe, they are a race that has suffered racial persecution in many countries: half a million were killed by the Nazis in Germany. Gypsies are born Gypsies but tramps and thieves are not born tramps and thieves. Anyone of any race may become a tramp or a thief and the term Gypsy should not be bracketed together with being dishonest. They are certainly not given ‘free handouts’ as you have suggested in your letter, to the contrary, many councils should be able to do more to enable them to have better sites so they would not have to ‘park’ along the road.
Many asylum seekers pass from one European country to another before applying for asylum.
Although the European Union has been trying to harmonise its asylum procedures, there are still differences in the kind of reception an asylum seeker can expect.
The reasons for going to a particular country are numerous - and range from money to language and cultural links.
But asylum seekers are often accused of shopping around, and their applications for asylum are sometimes not considered on the grounds that they came through a "safe third country". The biggest groups came from Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran - all countries from which there may, in the eyes of EU governments, be legitimate reasons to flee. But only about a quarter of the asylum seekers were granted asylum status in 1999, the latest year for which there are figures. By the end of the last decade, there were still 200,000 asylum applications pending in EU countries, more than half of which were in the UK. I hope you have read this letter with a better understanding of the facts concerning your issues raised. We must all live together in this World and life is too short to be angry and intolerant towards others.
Yours sincerely,
