Taking a Look at Hotel Rwanda

The UN had failed to resolve conflict in Rwanda there is still some little minor conflict going on in Rwanda this day. The UN had put up some camps for the tutsis and helped alittle for people to seek shelter and safety. The hutus knew that the UN could not do anything physical because they are primarily peacekeepers and trying to resolve the problem so the hutus was still killing everyone so nothing was resolved.

The documentary “Ghost in Rwanda” illustrates the devastation of the 1994 Genocide where approximately eight hundred thousand Rwandans were exterminated by their own government. The genocide was a result of ongoing conflicts between the Hutu, the ethnic majority in Rwanda, and the Tutsi the ethnic minority. The United Nation assisted in the establishment of a peace agreement between the two warring parties and sent General Romeo Dallaire, UN Force Commander, to Rwanda to ensure the terms of the agreement were honored. Dallaire had never seen action and welcomed opportunity to make a difference supporting peace in Africa. The peace mission was especially important to Dalliaire in light of recent U.N. failures to maintain peace in Somalia and Bosnia.

Hotel Rwanda is a film directed by Derek George that tackles one of the most shockingly disturbing events in recent history, when the Hutu radicals of Rwanda initiated a frightening crusade of genocide, slaughtering thousands of minority Tutsis while people from other countries did nothing and acted oblivious to what was going on in Rwanda. George vividly adapted Hotel Rwanda in a way that the viewer from beginning to end saw the effects of genocide, political corruption, and the consequences of violence. Depicted in the early 1990s , the views on ethnic conflict in Rwanda and the sequence of events is really descriptive and sometimes hard to watch as George digs deep into what happened in Rwanda. The early scenes in town set the scene amazingly for what’s to come throughout the film and gives us vivid insight on the views and social standing of Rwanda in the 1990’s. Don Cheadle portrays Paul Rusesabagina in the movie playing the hotel manager, his wife in the movie played by Sophie Okonedo is a Tutsi and wants to help when the violence ensues. Their marriage throughout the movie supplies a great sub plot detailing how a relationship can stand through turmoil.

On December 22, 2004 director Terry George released the movie Hotel Rwanda, and with that asserts that honor and integrity can mean more than one’s safety. Paul Rusesabagina, the main character, illustrates this this throughout the entire movie showing what ones integrity can do for others in a time of hopelessness. George’s purpose is to bury an everlasting document into the audience’s mind that reveals the horrors from this gruesome genocide. George accomplishes this throughout the movie with different uses of image, sound, and movement. Although the movie’s main audiences is aimed towards the United Nations, to keep reminding them of these tragedies that occurred while they were doing nothing, George also targeted an older more understanding

If nations knew that there would be consequences to their calculations of profit from the genocide, that would cause them to lean towards the right and not the wrong. Taking away the benefits of any alliance or trade, to the ones that cause genocide would intensify the seriousness of their atrocities. Together, every member of all diplomatic nations, must have the right to intervene in military interventions. Solving the issue before it happened would have been helpful when the Serbians manipulated Bosnians by feeding the children cookies, and assuring them not to be afraid. The United Nations should have not been deceived by these actions, nor abandoned 25,000 Bosnians gathering in a United Nations base, wanting protection. Not only did the Unite Nations ignore this situation, but they claimed to not have any information about the Rwandan genocide that cause the deaths of 800,000 individuals. Therefore, we must hold our leaders accountable to their promises to alleviate the issues, otherwise they should be denied not to hold that

     The world organization that concerns itself with issues parallel to genocide is the Commission on Human Rights. It is the commission’s duty to meet once a genocidal act occurred and was reported. Then the commission must develop different ways to mend the problem at task in a fair and just way. By doing so, the commission helps to fix this human right’s issue with the seven treaties.

Throughout the 20th century, numerous acts of genocides have attempted to bring the complete elimination and devastation of large groups of people originating from various particular ethnicities. With these genocides occurring in many regions of the world, the perpetrators often organizing such crimes, have historically been larger and more powerful than the victims themselves. Often being the government and its military forces. However, the lack of international response associated with these genocides, further contributed to the devastating outcomes. On April 6,1994, the fastest killing spree of the century took place in Rwanda against the Tutsi minority population. With many warning signs having already been proclaimed prior to the start of the Rwandan genocide, I believe that with international interference, this bloodshed could have ultimately been prevented.

The United nations refused to intervene during the genocide but instead provided humanitarian aid. As time went on they established six “safe area.” These efforts failed because the U.N. was not prepared or didn’t have the correct resources. The hostile situation went on for over four years. In the beginning of the Bosnian War, U.N. did nothing to stop mass executions, concentration camps, rape and sexual violence, and forced displacement. Again, their role was to show a presence, give assistance when needed and be

In 1994, genocide unfolded in Rwanda claiming the lives of more than 700,000 Tutsi massacred at the hands of Hutu extremist, while the entire world stood by and watched. Some would argue this event was a result of civil unrest between the Tutsi and Hutu stemming from ancient

The UN and the US government are accredited for deploring conflict situations as well as contributing humanitarian aid, and this is what these two organizations did in Rwanda and Darfur. However, the UN did not do anything to punish or prevent the genocides that took place in these two countries. The US government promised to support the peace talk’s agreement in Darfur and hold the perpetrators accountable for their acts. It never kept that promise since nothing has been done. So far, the UN’s Security Council has also failed in its peace keeping mission effeorts, and is instead pressuring Sudan with words only. No solid steps have been made to bring the wrong doers into justice (Shapiro).

Nevertheless, they failed to prevent this ridiculous genocide because of their lack of attempt and lack of effort to stop it. On the fourteenth-anniversary of the genocide, the UN’s thoughts go out to the victims who have been traumatized, hurt, or dead during Rwanda’s Genocide. Quote UN secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s message “It is often those who most need their rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists -- and that it exists for them.”- This message was a little too late after hundreds of thousands of people have been brutally massacred in the genocide in Rwanda. Though the UN seemed to have convinced the people in Rwanda that they were doing their best to stop this, nevertheless, the UN is respectively responsible for their inability to keep peace among the ethnic tribes (Hutus and Tutsis). (M2PressWIRE, 2008)

The continent of Africa has been continually engaged in civil, tribal and cross national conflicts from colonial independence up until present day. What historians regard as the most ‘efficient genocide’ in history, occurred in a mere 100 days in the small central African country of Rwanda. The Hutus and the Tutsis, two ethnic groups within Rwanda, have been at continual unrest for the past half a century. During the 100 day massacre of 1994, a murder occurred every two seconds; resulting in 18% of the Tutsi population being killed. A decade after the war, in 2004, the film Hotel Rwanda was released. The film followed the story of a Hutu man; Paul Rusesabagina as he housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles

1. a. The main points deputed around the term genocide during the UN convention are: Motive, Premeditation/Deliberateness, Intent, Agents, Victim, Scale, Goal, and Strategies. Motive is not included in the international law as one could deny their true motive. Premeditation/ Deliberateness is also not in the UN definition because of the context of war and superfluous because you cannot have a genocide without a plan. Intent is debated because it could be denied and document destroyed. Agency, which emphasizes leadership broken down into the elite perpetrator theory if these crimes would still happen without their leaders and Front Line Killers asking why people follow their leaders to commit these crimes. Victims that have survived and can recount being there. Scale of genocide debating if there should be a set number for it to be considered a genocide. Whether the goal of total or partial deconstruction should be taken into account and strategies taken toward committing the act of genocide.

We as a nation should prevent genocide by being open minded to when these events occur. We shouldn't have been passive when this was happening we have to act accordingly, when the mass killings were happening. Even though we did help in the end we should have been there in the beginning, so that we can prevent less deaths and destruction. A way we could have prevented less damage and deaths was to start with the Treaty of Versailles.

A group of Rwandan people known as the Hutu want to eliminate another Rwandan group, the Tutsi, and they get very close to succeeding. About one million Tutsi people were murdered in the Rwandan Genocide in a time span of 100 days. Hotel Rwanda is a movie about a hotel manger, Paul, that saves a thousand Tutsi people by keeping them in his hotel. He saves the refugees, mostly, by giving the Hutu rebels his money and alcohol in return for leaving the Tutsi people alone. The movie is trying to send the message that helping others is equally important as helping one’s family.