Arrests made as a diverse group gathers to protest Clinton speech in Toronto

Updated: Mon, Jun 25 11:14 PM EDT

TORONTO (CP) - At least two people were arrested Monday as nearly 200 protesters railed against Bill Clinton outside the downtown concert hall where the former U.S. president was delivering a speech.

Most of the protesters were picketing Clinton's failure to quell a bloody uprising in Rwanda in 1994 as they held candles and silently mourned the loss of friends and families.

"The Americans didn't do anything," said Evariste Sibomana, who fled Africa shortly after more than a million moderate Hutus and Tutsis were butchered by Hutu extremists seven years ago.

"Against people using machetes, 100 American marines with machine guns could have stopped the genocide very easily, but they didn't want to."

It was a small faction of Iraqi protesters, angry about U.S. sanctions that have crippled their homeland in the wake of the Gulf War, that screamed obscenities and chanted "shame" when a police escort pulled up in front of the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts.

Two people were arrested for hurling eggs and tomatoes at police while Clinton was quietly ushered into the building through a back door. The protesters later moved to a nearby park.

Once inside, Clinton - who was invited to speak by the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, an international group dedicated to educating the world about the Holocaust - acknowledged the Rwandan anger.

"I noticed that in some of the press, I was criticized for coming here tonight because the United States did not stop the killing in Rwanda," Clinton said.

"That is true, and I regret it."

Peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia in 1992, two years before the Rwandan genocide, exacted a heavy toll both in terms of U.S. military and civilian casualties, and dampened public enthusiasm for international peacekeeping efforts, a contrite-sounding Clinton explained.

"After Rwanda, I made up my mind that if we could stop it, it would not happen again."

Clinton's appearance was to help organizers raise thousands of dollars for the construction of a memorial wall in north Toronto to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

During his speech, delivered from a stage barren save for a stylized menora with six lit candles, Clinton lamented his inability to establish a lasting peace in the Middle East.

He related colourful tales about Nelson Mandela, former Israeli president Yitzhak Rabin, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan, and expressed confidence that a lasting peace is still within reach.

"I have seen these people alone together, the representatives of the two sides," he said.

"I know how close they were at the end of my tenure to an agreement, and I cannot believe that it is in the interests of anyone to continue to let young people die."

The visit, Clinton's second to Canada since leaving office, has instead opened a rift between two communities whose members consider each other kindred spirits, united by sheer survival.

Juliet Karugahe, who was barely into her teens when several of her family members were killed in Rwanda, has since travelled overseas in order to better understand what the Jews endured.

"Just last month, I was in Poland, and I went to all these horrible places," said Karugahe, 20, one of about 50 protesters on hand Monday.

"I support every effort to honour Holocaust victims, and I even support the wall of remembrance; I support everything they do to remember the six million Jews who perished," she said.

"But you can't get the right thing going the wrong way. The end doesn't justify the means."

The 500 Rwandans living in Toronto are upset with Yad Vashem and their decision to invite Clinton, not with the Jewish community itself, said 27-year-old Che Rupari.

"We are for putting up the Holocaust memorial wall, because it reminds everybody of what happened, and the result of a genocide, what happens to a people," Rupari said.

"Unfortunately, to have Bill Clinton fundraising for that subject, it's an affront to human dignity."

A significant portion of Canada's 16,000 Holocaust survivors live in Toronto, and their numbers continue to dwindle with the passage of time, making such memorials all the more important, said Canadian Jewish Congress president Keith Landy.

"It's not just there to serve the Jewish community; it's there to serve all fair-minded, fair-thinking people who decry these kinds of horrors - and that would include the Rwandan genocide," Landy said.

"One would have to question the motives of those who are seeking to raise the profile of this matter on the backs of such a worthy enterprise."

The Holocaust Wall of Remembrance will be the first of its kind in Canada. The names of Jewish people who perished during the Second World War will be engraved onto eight granite walls. Space on the walls will be sold to families of the dead and there will be room for 10,000 names.

About 3,000 tickets for Clinton's appearance were sold at prices ranging from $150 to $250. A corporate dinner with Clinton before the speech was sold out.

The official unveiling of the wall, estimated to cost $750,000, is scheduled for September.

Clinton travels for speaking engagements more than three weeks a month and is believed to earn about $100,000 a speech. He was greeted by protesters when he spoke in Hamilton last month.

Organizers of Monday's event have refused to disclose how much the former president was paid

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Answers

what a waste of eggs and tomatoes.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001