Reaction to “A Forgotten Hero With Unpaid Dues”

http://www.cafeafricana.com/Capt.%20Mbaye%20Diagne.html

This article is from U.N. Forum. It basically restated what Captain Mbaye Diange did during the Rwandan Genocide and how he did it and, after he was killed his family’s situation and what the government and U.N. react to it, including Captain Mbaye Diagne’s perspective of the world, his understanding of the world.

What my first and strongest reaction was to how the U.N. and the Senegalese government react to his death and how they treated his family that was left behind by Captain Mbaye Diagne. Neither the U.N. nor the Senegalese government helped, or compensated his family adequately. This man, he gave what he could to Rwanda, to the Tutsi people in Rwanda, to his own job, to the organization and his own government. He did everything he could to save the people in Rwanda, to complete his peacekeeping job while the others just wanted to go back to their country without any injury of themselves, not caring about the people that were killed around them. He gave everything to this place, this organization and this government, including his life. But yet when that happened, neither of the above compensated his family adequately. Neither of the above responded to this thing here fairly enough, as if they are still expecting more from him, from his family. While his kind widow gave the video camera he had during the genocide to media and let the world know about the heroes during the Rwanda Genocide, besides himself. Captain Mbaye Diagne recorded everything with his camera, every saving mission, except the ones of him self’s. Again he showed the world his selfless, and the world again didn’t respond to him enough. The world started asking from him on the very first day of the genocide. They ordered him to keep neutral while working for the U.N. as a peacekeeper, unarmed, he saved hundreds of lives, and yet, when he died, they couldn’t find a proper body bag for him, what’s more, they didn’t even compensated his family adequately. I don’t think it’s that they couldn’t, it’s just a matter of whether they want it or not, whether they care about him or not, whether they care about his family or not. Couldn’t they at least do something for his family while the only thing they did is telling the world that he was a hero?

Reaction to an interview of Mark Doyle

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/video/capt.html

“He was a hero”[1], they say, “He was the kind of person you meet once in a lifetime.”[2]

This interview is about Captain Mbaye Diagne. Mark Doyle, as a BBC World Service journalist, knew Captain Mbaye Diagne during the Rwandan Genocide.

Mark Doyle knew Captain Mbaye Diagne well in this case. He was one of the people who really worked and lived with Captain Mbaye, who actually supported him and care about him. Though Mark considered himself as one of Captain Mbaye’s friends, he didn’t know Captain Mbaye’s saving mission. The mission was called “the secret saving mission” for a reason.

Though Doyle wasn’t sure what Captain Diagne was doing exactly, he had heard some rumors too, and through what he has been through with Captain Diagne, he told the journalist what Captain Diagne was capable of. Through little jokes he could ease the tension between e and the Hutu killers at the checkpoints.

His calm and intelligence was precious during the time, plus his own sense of humor, he was able to go through dozens of checkpoints for hundreds and thousands of time while carrying Tutsis in his car.

He was just a normal soldier, who wanted to do something for the Tutsi people who were being killed, instead of standing there watching them being killed, pretending to be one of the “PEACE”keepers the U.N. sent. What’s the purpose of sending peacekeepers to Rwanda during the genocide while ordering them to stay neutral, not to attack anyone, and keeping them UNARMED? What’s the purpose of sending peacekeepers if they are not even able to keep peace without disobeying the headquarters’ orders?

Captain Mbaye Diagne was the real peacekeeper there, the one who really tried and did everything he could to do his job, to keep the peace there as much as he could in Rwanda.

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[1] The Man Everyone Remembers: By Greg Barker, the producer of "Ghosts of Rwanda”, http://www.cafeafricana.com/Capt.%20Mbaye%20Diagne.html, May 5^th, 2011

[2] The Man Everyone Remembers: By Greg Barker, the producer of "Ghosts of Rwanda”, http://www.cafeafricana.com/Capt.%20Mbaye%20Diagne.html, May 5^th, 2011

Reaction to the documentary— Ghost of Rwanda, The forgotten angel of Rwanda: Capt Mbaye Diagne Vol.1

Ghost of Rwanda, The forgotten angel of Rwanda: Capt Mbaye Diagne Vol.1 

This part of the documentary was about how Captain Mbaye  Diagne saved all those people. The video precisely records what Captain Mbaye Diagne did, and how he did it, including different people’s perspective of him.

The things that Captain Mbaye Diagne did were incredible and unbelievable. While everyone was trying to not get himself killed, Captain Mbaye Diagne was trying to do everything he could to save the others, the Tutsis that were in an extremely dangerous place. Saving the Tutsis could sure bring danger to Captain Mbaye himself, great deal of danger. What he did was so selfless. He didn’t care about himself much. Saving people seemed to be the only reason why he was there, in Rwanda what startled, surprised and impressed me was that he was smiling, he was smiling all the time in the video, whether he was driving in the car, maybe on another mission of saving people, or he was talking to his colleagues, maybe discussing a new way to save the Tutsis, he was always smiling. Sometimes he was so delightful he laughed out loud in front of the camera that was shooting, even when facing all the problems and killings and work he had. Maybe this was what he was holding onto and relying on while saving the people, transporting the Tutsis in his car to safe places. Maybe this was what he had and used to remain the relaxing and delightful relationship with the Hutu killers who guarded at dozens of checkpoints. His laughter, his jokes, his confidence, his bravery, his intelligence, and his hope, those were what he had and who he was, those were what made him a hero, a real life one.