N1029676's List: Hotel Rwanda: Film Review

• This has origins at the Berlin Conference of 1884 where the superpowers of Europe essentially drew lines on a map of Africa and claimed bits and pieces of it for themselves.
• Especially since the colonial powers had granted certain groups elite power, generally those who were seen as being more "civilised", i.e. most like White Europeans [ie the Tutsi] and these minority tended to rule quite cruelly over the majority.
• The Tutsi, a light skinned group, was granted elite status over the Hutu and the lesser known Twa ethnic groups
• Belgian Empire in Rwanda
• Belgian public was unwilling to lose any more men.
• The most famous being Somalia, where a mission that was to be pretty much a "hole in one" ended in casualties that should never have occurred.
• the US voted against sending 2,500 troops like Dallaire requested and, being a permanent seat holder on the Security Council, it made a big difference
• The British turned a blind eye for nearly the same reason
• Rwanda has no natural resources and very little to offer to anyone but the French who needed another francophone country

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• The Kingdom of Rwanda, ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya dynasty, became increasingly dominant from the mid-eighteenth century, as the Kings centralised power and expanded the kingdom militarily, taking control of several smaller kingdoms.
• and uburetwa, a system of Hutu forced labour.
• Rwabugiri's changes caused a rift to grow between the Hutu and Tutsi populations.^[21] The Twas were better off than in pre-Kingdom days, with some becoming dancers in the royal court,^[11] but their numbers continued to decline.
• The Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned the territory to Germany as part of Ruanda-Urundi, marking the beginning of the colonial era.
• They also observed and perpetuated the ethnic divisions of the country; they favoured the Tutsis as the ruling class and aided the monarchy in putting down rebellions of Hutus who did not submit to Tutsi control.^[27] In 1916, during World War I (WWI), Belgian forces defeated the Germans and took control of Ruanda-Urundi.
• Belgium's involvement was far more direct than that of Germany; they introduced large-scale projects in education, health, public works, and agricultural supervision.
• The Belgian authorities considered the Hutus and Tutsis different races and, in 1935, introduced identity cards labelling each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa.^[31] While it had previously been possible for particularly wealthy Hutus to become honorary Tutsis, the identity cards prevented any further movement between the classes.
• Belgium also maintained the existing class system, promoting Tutsi supremacy.
• In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War.^[43] The Rwandan government, supported by troops from France,^[44] was initially successful in suppressing the rebels, but the RPF regrouped and captured territory in the north
• The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing the President and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi.
• Over the course of approximately 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000^[50] Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government.
• The RPF took control of Kigali on 4 July and the whole country by 18 July 1994. A coalition government was sworn in under a transitional constitution with Pasteur Bizimungu as President.
• The international response to the Genocide was limited, with major powers reluctant to strengthen the already overstretched UN peacekeeping force.

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• The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda.
• the news media played a crucial role in the genocide; local print and radio media fueled the killings while the international media either ignored or seriously misconstrued events on the ground.
• The print media in Rwanda is believed to have started hate speech against Tutsis, which was later continued by radio stations.
• The state-owned newspaper Kangura had a central role, starting an anti-Tutsi and anti-RPF campaign in October 1990.
• After April 6, 1994, authorities used the RTLM and Radio Rwanda to spur and direct killings, specifically in areas where the killings were initially resisted. Both radio stations were used to incite and mobilize populations, followed by specific directions for carrying out the killings.
• The RTLM had used terms such as inyenzi (cockroach in Kinyarwandan) and Tutsi interchangeably with others referring to the RPF combatants.
• On April 6, 1994, the RTLM accused the Belgian peacekeepers of having shot down–or of helping to shoot down – the president's plane. This broadcast has been linked to the killing of ten Belgian UN troops by Rwandan army soldiers.
• Despite emphatic demands from UNAMIR's commanders in Rwanda before and throughout the genocide, its requests for authorization to end it were refused, and its intervention capacity was reduced.
• In 2000, the UN explicitly declared its reaction to Rwanda a "failure".^[26] Then Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the event "The international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret.".
• Others Catholic and Protestant clergy, however, gave their lives to protect Tutsis from slaughter.^[30] The majority of Rwandans, and Tutsis in particular, are Catholic, so shared religion did not prevent genocide.
• When the Presidential Guard stormed the building, they took the UN peacekeepers prisoner and confiscated their weapons. They assassinated Uwilingiyimana and killed the ten Belgian UN soldiers, after releasing the Ghanaian ones. In 2007 Major Bernard Ntuyahaga was convicted of these murders as the commanding officer. The Presidential Guard quickly assassinated other moderate officials who favored the Arusha Accords. Protected by UNAMIR, Faustin Twagiramungu escaped execution.
• "I called the Force HQ and got through to Ghanaian Brigadier General Henry Anyidoho. He had horrifying news. The UNAMIR-protected VIPs – Lando Ndasingwa [the head of the Parti libéral], Joseph Kavaruganda [president of the constitutional court], and many other moderates had been abducted by the Presidential Guard and had been killed, along with their families [...] UNAMIR had been able to rescue Prime Minister Faustin, who was now at the Force HQ."
• Most nations evacuated their nationals from Kigali and abandoned their embassies in the initial stages of the violence.
• Through the RTLM, the Hutu also attacked Lieutenant-General Dallaire and UNAMIR personnel.
• Dallaire informed the UN that the campaign of violence was well-organized and deliberately conducted, primarily by the Presidential Guard.
• On April 9, UN observers witnessed the massacre of children at a Polish church in Gikondo. The same day, 1,000 heavily armed and trained European troops arrived to escort European civilian personnel out of the country. The troops did not stay to assist UNAMIR. Media coverage picked up on the 9th, as the Washington Post reported the execution of Rwandan employees of relief agencies in front of their expatriate colleagues. On April 9–10, US Ambassador Rawson and 250 Americans were evacuated.
• The militia typically murdered victims by machetes, although some army units used rifles. The Hutu gangs searched out victims hiding in churches and school buildings, and massacred them.
• Local priest Athanase Seromba was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison by the ICTR for his role in the demolition of his church; he was convicted of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity.
• The US was reluctant to get involved in the "local conflict" in Rwanda and refused to label the killings as "genocide". Then-president Bill Clinton later publicly regretted that decision in a Frontline television interview. Five years later, Clinton stated that he believed that if he had sent 5,000 U.S. peacekeepers, more than 500,000 lives could have been saved.
• Paul Rusesabagina, who saved over 1,000 people by sheltering them at the Hôtel des Mille Collines, has said: “In a sense things got better after the peacekeepers left… People realized no one was going to help them.

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• Since the genocide, they have been forced out of Rwanda, and have sought asylum in Congo. They are currently a terrorist group hiding in the Congo and the Ugandan forest.
• The Vice President of Interahamwe was Georges Rutaganda.

• On November 16, 2011 Rusesabagina received the 2011 Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize from The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

• Paul's work is dramatized in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda in which he is played by Don Cheadle. There are few differences with the actual story.

   
   
  • Tatiana Rusesabagina was not in fact angry about Paul putting her and her children on a truck to escape the Hôtel des Mille Collines but was instead sad about the decision—which she nevertheless accepted due to the circumstances. Paul did not make his decision at the last moment, but rather he discussed the matter with Tatiana and the children the night before they attempted the evacuation.^[4]
   
   
   
  • Paul and his family did leave Rwanda two years after they escaped the Hôtel des Mille Collines.^[5]
   
   
   
  • Paul Rusesabagina said in a lecture that the film was "less violent" than the actual genocide, claiming that "you couldn't invite someone to watch the real thing."
   
   

• He understands that when a general's briefcase is taken for safekeeping, it contains bottles of good scotch when it is returned. He understands that to get the imported beer he needs, a bribe must take place. He understands that his guests are accustomed to luxury, which must be supplied even here in a tiny central African nation wedged against Tanzania, Uganda and the Congo.
• His hotel is hardly functioning, the economy has broken down, the country is ruled by anarchy, but he puts on his suit and tie every morning and fakes business as usual -- even on a day he is so frightened, he cannot tie his tie.
• He deals with a murderous Hutu general, for example, not as an enemy or an outlaw, but as a longtime client who knows that the value of a good cigar cannot be measured in cash.

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• in fact he insists that member states notably France and the U.S. knew of the genocide, had the power to act, yet failed to do so until it was too late.