A CNN documentary analyzing global response -- or lack thereof -- to genocide. The broadcast, set for 9 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow, December 4, is meant to mark the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948. That's 60 years ago next Tuesday.In the 2-hour documentary, CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour (above left) (photo credit) will present interviews not only with world leaders, but also with persons personally affected by atrocities in, for example, 1970s Cambodia, 1980s Iraq, 1990s Bosnia and Rwanda, and 2003 Darfur. According to a CNN release, the documentary concludes
that instead of using a U.N. treaty outlawing genocide as a springboard to action, political leaders have invoked reason after reason to make intervention seem unnecessary, pointless and even counter-productive.The conclusion dovetails with the one that Samantha Power reached respecting the United States in her Pulitzer Prizewinning book A Problem from Hell (2003) -- itself worth a reread at this anniversary time.
* Why "perhaps," one might ask? Surely CNN deserves much credit for devoting resources to this important issue. Yet this prospective viewer remains wary on account of the title chosen: Scream Bloody Murder. Let's hope the documentary itself is far less sensationalist.
