Hello everyone. Since I had to be late for class last Tuesday, I thought I'd contribute more to that class by offering some background on the movie "Hotel Rwanda"(that being the part of the class that I missed). The mass muders between the Hutus and the Tutsis are considered by some to be among the worst atrocities of the 20th century. It took only approximately 100 days in 1994 for about 800,000 Tutsis to be murdered and 95,000 children orphaned. Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF states that "the children of Rwanda witnessed unspeakable violence. Tens of thousands lost their mothers and fathers. Thousands were victims of horrific brutality and rape. Many were forced to commit atrocities. The impact of the tragedy simply cannot be overstated." All of this began after Rwandan President Habyarimana and the Burundian President were killed when their plane was shot down. It is believed Hutus were attempting to stop Habyarimana from puting the Arusha Peace Accords into effect. The Hutus were then driven to kill with machetes, clubs, or whatever else they could find due to mass government propaganda that could be heard on all radios throughout Rwanda.
The Mille Collines, the hotel depicted in the film, was a four-star premier hotel in Rwanda. Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager, saved over 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by stowing them away in rooms, the lobby, hallways, and even the roof. Rusesabagina bribed the Hutu militia outside the hotel gates for two months with money and alcohol. At the end of the two months, all who had sought refuge in the hotel were miraculously still there and alive. Rusesabagina now runs a taxi company out of Brussels. To this day he insists, "I'm not a hero. I just did my duty. I did what any hotel manager would have done. I never thought I was being brave. I was just working as quickly as possible to avoid disaster."
Following is an interesting link about genocide warnings reported to the UN, and the UN's lackadaisical response.
Basically my thoughts on all of this are that it comes down to racism. The UN, US, France, and Belgium knew about what could happen in Rwanda before it happened, but weren't compelled to put much effort into the situation, and that trend continues throughout the whole incident. The UN wouldn't even call what was happening a genocide because then they knew they'd be required to do something about it. President Clinton actually stated in a press conference that he was only talking about the issue because there were some Americans in Rwanda. Now I liked Clinton, but he acted like he was part of the Confederate army during the whole deal. So I suppose what it comes down to for some people, some of the time is, "you're just not worth my time if you're not like me."
1 comment:
Ultimately, the massacre in Rwanda and lack of serious involvement comes down to interest. During this same time, Clinton chose to aggressively persue Milosevic for atrocities in Serbia. The genocide in Rwanda is some of the worst in the 20th century and what is even worse is that no one cared. Ultimately, much of the industrialized world wants little to do with the "political affairs" of the un/underindustrialized world, unless there is a potential for some beneficial business venture (it would seem). Why we aren't truly a world grounded in solidarity is sometimes beyond me, especially when we're so quick to espouse brotherhood toward our more industrialized friends.
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