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Toronto
Star,
OPINION,
Thursday, April 21, 1994
A memorable highlight of the recent Academy Awards was the
touching speech given by Steven Spielberg. It was an emotional
moment when he said that the world must not forget the
Holocaust.
Spielberg was right. With reminders through films like
Schindler's List, people will recall and, it is to be hoped,
recoil in horror from atrocities committed in the name of
humanity.
I think that movies like Schindler's List create an important
awareness in us. Many of us have never lived through a war or
seen ethnic cleansing. We need to see this film to acknowledge
that humanity can stoop to such a low level of depravity, that
people can annihilate an entire community without conscience.
I also feel that building a Holocaust memorial is an
important step toward raising world consciousness for peaceful
co-existence. The movie, however, set in World War II, makes us
think that the tragedy of the Holocaust was all in the past and
cannot happen again.
Yet, strangely enough, the human holocaust continues. This
week, the virtually defenseless Muslim enclave of Gorazde - a
U.N.-designated "safe haven" - is being shelled
mercilessly by Serbian attackers. When it finally is overrun,
ethnic cleansing will commence.
We are calmly watching this holocaust as though it were a
film. Yet, are the cries of wounded children in Bosnia any
different? Is the rape and mutilation of men and women any more
acceptable today than it was 40 years ago? How is the holocaust
taking place in Bosnia today any different from what took place
in Germany, Russia and Poland years ago?
It does not matter who is to blame. It may be due to the
apathy of the Muslim world or the ineptness of the West. The
fact is that we all are idle spectators to a gross atrocity in
which thousands of innocent men, women and children are being
butchered without mercy.
Gorazde and the people of Gorazde soon will be history. Their
tragedy is twofold: They are losing their homes plus they have
nowhere to go. They stand alone.
Who will help them? Will some new Schindler not come to the
rescue of the people of Bosnia? Are they not considered human
enough to be cared about? Do we not act on their pleas for help
because we have double standards or because their cries have
been stifled in their throats before the world could hear them?
In a way, we all are to blame. We are so wrapped up in our
material things, our careers and our politically correct lives
that we do not care for the innocent lives of others.
Each one of us who has remained silent has been party to the
rape and assault of innocent men, women and children in Bosnia.
And it is not as though the world does not know what has been
happening and what continues to happen.
There is enough documentation to prove that torture, murder,
rape, mutilation of innocent victims has repeated itself in
Bosnia, but there is no cry of outrage, there is no protest. It
is as though lips have been sealed and hearts have been
hardened.
It is comforting that the U.N. is conducting "diplomatic
negotiations" on the issue. The diplomats may as well take
their time because human lives (especially in Bosnia) are
obviously not as valuable as the "issues" that must be
discussed and the "powers" that must be pleased.
Copyright
© 1994 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.
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