Analysis of Hotel Rwanda - Movie Review Example

Name Lecturer Class Date Hotel Rwanda In 1994, the world witnessed one of the worst cases of mass murder ever since World War II when the Hutus who made up 85% of the Rwandan population turned against the Tutsis, killing an estimated 800000 people. Subsequently, a movie based on the true events of the Rwandan genocide was made called “Hotel Rwanda.” It basically tells the story of the heroism of one man, called Paul Rusesabagina who uses his skills, wit and courage to rescue the lives of the people affected by the genocide. Hotel Rwanda was a historical drama film directed by Terry George, a Northern Irish filmmaker with the main character of the movie, Paul Rusesabagina played by Don Cheadle. A large portion of the filming was done in South Africa and the capital of Rwanda. Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo were nominated for the Oscar’s Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress but failed to win both. In the context of the movie and the real life events which occurred in the Rwandan genocide, the issue which I would like to discuss would be how the United Nations (UN) and the West thought of the problem that was happening in Rwanda. But before that, it is important to know the events which led to the genocide. A chieftain in Rwanda managed to merge several of its neighbors and formed the Kingdom of Rwanda. The Hutus made up about 85% of the total population but were mostly poor peasants, compared to the kings who were the Tutsis. Centralization of power amongst the kings meant that land was distributed among the rich as well as their families and relatives rather than to be shared amongst the lineage groups who were made up of a majority of the Hutus. From the period between 1860 and 1895, Mwami Rwabugiri carried out land distribution via a patronage system where Tutsi chiefs only allowed the return of land to the Hutus if the Hutus provided manual labor. Rwabugiri did not classify the ethnicity of the Hutu and Tutsi people but classified them as either being Hutu or Tutsi which later when on to represent one, a class of power, the other servitude (Mamdani 5-6). After the Berlin Conference in 1885, Rwanda and Burundi were ceded to Germany which held it until 1918 when it was then ceded to Belgium. Racial identification cards were issued to every Rwandan and preferential treatment was given to the Tutsis in terms of education, business and economic opportunities (Doyle). In 1959, the social revolution in Rwanda led by Hutu party Parmehutu formed a republic which was led by the Hutu people and it caused the death of approximately 20000 Tutsis whereas another 200000 fled to neighboring countries. Independence was only declared in 1961 (Human Rights Watch). The Tutsi refugees regrouped and joined the rebel fraction in Uganda, the National Resistance Movement which won the Bush War in the 1980s and formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). On October 1, 1990, the RPF army invaded Rwanda and demanded their return to the country. The Rwandan government thought that the invasion was an attempt by the Tutsis to return to power and the Hutus rallied around then president, Juvenal Habyarimana. On August 4, 1993, the RPF and the Rwandan government signed the Arusha Accords which hoped to end the civil war. President Habyarimana lost most of his power to the Transitional Broad Based Government (TBBG) which also included the RPF who at the last minute, decided to oppose the move to sign the accord. Interahamwe, which were armed militias were formed by youth group leaders in cooperation with government leaders. On January 11, 1994, Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire who was the UN Force Commander in Rwanda notified the Military Advisor to the Secretary General, Major General Maurice Baril that the Hutus were planning a mass extermination of the Tutsis. The message conveyed by Dallaire was that demonstrations were held in order to provoke the RPF in Kigali to fire upon demonstrators and Belgian United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) troops to use force. If this were to occur, the Interahamwe would have a good reason to retaliate against the Belgian troops and the RPF. Immediate plans were made to seize the weapons cache of the Interahamwe but the United Nations (UN) headquarters, in a return notice stated that it was beyond the mandate given to the UNAMIR (Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations 4-5). The killing then started, and with a militia of 30000 strong, the unarmed Tutsi families were no match. On April 6, 1994, the plane carrying President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi was shot down as it was preparing to land in Kigali, leading to the death of both men. This was the catalyst of the genocide, and a sign for the extremist Hutus to start attacking the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. All captured Tutsis were killed as well as the moderate political leaders, mostly by their own neighbors and fellow villages. As there were no attempts to record the number of deaths, estimates of 800000 to 1000000 were killed. During this time, the UNAMIR were restricted from intervening as a few members of the UN Security Council were against being involved (Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations 4-5). Lt General Dallaire was forced to consolidate his soldiers in urban areas and this saved the lives of 20000 Tutsis. The US government, led by President Bill Clinton refused to be involved in Rwanda, a decision which was later regretted. A new Rwandan government which was led by interim president Theodore Sindikubwabo tried to minimize international criticism. On May 17, 1994, the UN finally concluded that genocide may have been committed in Rwanda, which by then approximately 500000 Rwandans had been killed. Troops were sent to quash the killings. The RPF too fought back and on July 4, 1994, the genocide ended, a hundred days after it had started. Two million Hutu refugees, including those who were involved in the genocide fled to Burundi, Uganda and Burundi where thousands died of cholera in the refugee camps (Prunier). The size of the UNAMIR was increased and remained in Rwanda until March 8, 1996 (Homepage for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda). Genocide trials were carried out and subsequently in March 1999, the first local elections were carried out. Subsequently, many military leaders within the Rwandan army were put on trial including Bernard Ntuyahaga, a former major in the Rwandan Army, who was found guilty in a Belgian court of killing 10 United Nations peacekeepers from Belgium at the start of the Rwandan genocide (Simons). In regards to the film, it opens with a radio being tuned to the RTLM which played an anti-Tutsi broadcast. At that time, Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), his wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) and their three children had a good life in Rwanda where Paul was the hotel manager of a Belgian-based resort, the Hotel des Mille Collines. However, he started to notice that tension was brewing within the city itself and as Paul was visiting George Rutaganda, the deputy leader of the Hutu extremist Interahamwe militia, Paul was encouraged to join the Interahamwe. However, Paul was a moderate Hutu and refused, and this sparked an even higher level of suspicion that something terrible was going to occur. The only reason his fears were allayed was that there was the presence of the UN in the country and the president of Rwanda was to sign a peace accord. Suddenly, he was informed that the president was killed when his place was shot down. A massive Hutu-led riot began and thousands of Tutsis across Rwanda were killed by the Interahamwe. Paul was worried for his family but he was hopeful that the revolt would be quashed by the UN. However, after a while, Paul realized that the situation was not going to improve, thus he started to look for his relatives and friends who were all Tutsis in order to transport them to the hotel under the protection of the UN soldiers led by Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte). Paul managed to bribe soldiers into letting his family and friends live, followed by hundred of refugees. The hotel staff were swamped with feeding and assisting all the refugees, and a scene shows that ten Belgian soldiers were killed while protecting Tutsi Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana who was also killed. A convoy led by the French arrived at the hotel but only evacuated foreign nationals, white citizens as well as the journalists. Colonel Oliver informs Paul that foreign help would not be arriving as the French and the UNAMIR forces withdrew. With this, Paul calls all of this contacts whom he had given favors to over the years. The RTLM radio urged Hutus to storm the hotel and to kill Paul as well as those seeking refuge at the hotel. Paul managed to convince his contact in the Hutu army, General Augustin Bizimungu that he would be charged with war crimes unless he intervened and came to the hotel to prevent the Interahamwe from slaughtering the refugees. The plan works and all the refugees are saved. Finally, a large convoy of UN trucks arrived at the hotel and saved the refugees. The convoy also manages to survive an Interahamwe attack due to the intervention of the RPF and reached the refugee camp. At the camp, Paul and Tatiana found two of their missing nieces amongst the lost children. At the end of the movie, it was shown that Paul managed to save 1268 refugees and the Hutu army as well as the Interahamwe retreated into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). Rutaganda and Bizimungu were tried for crimes against humanity and that almost 1000000 Rwandans died in the genocide. Paul currently lives in Belgium with his family including his adopted nieces. By comparing both real life events of the Rwandan genocide and the film Hotel Rwanda, there is a great level of detail and the movie did a creditable job of transferring the facts from real life on to the film. As much as the film has received great acclaim globally, the feelings are mixed in Rwanda as some felt that the dramatization of the genocide has taken away the seriousness with which it should be treated (The Monitor). An analysis of the film has shown that a majority of the components of the film, from the beginning of the radio announcement to the arrival of the refugees to the camp matched those of real life events. In an OutNow Channel interview with Paul Rusesabagina, he mentioned that the movie portrayed about 90% of what actually took place. Some of the differences which he noted were that the interaction between himself and the UN general was done slightly differently and that the portrayal of the hotel was toned down as what actually happened was a lot more horrible. As films based on true life events have to always adapt to directorial and creative needs, there was the lack of the true horror and fear which griped the people of Rwanda who were being prosecuted (OutNow Channel). The film’s accuracy was also agreed upon by historians and the journalists who were together with Paul before they were evacuated. The historical inaccuracies however, included that of the characters referral to Zaire as Congo which did not occur until 1996 (Central Intelligence Agency), the green Land Rover Defender used by the Hutus is of UK-military specification which is most likely to be a 1980s-era Ministry of Defence surplus, Colonel Oliver who was of Canadian nationality pronounced lieutenants as "lū-tĕn'ənts" the American pronunciation; however, the Canadian pronunciation is modeled after the British where the rank is pronounced "lĕf-tĕn'ənts" and Rwandans drive on the right side of the road which in the movie, the usage of right-hand drive cars is incorrect (Immortal Chaplains Prize). As noted earlier, there was an issue of how the UN and the West thought of the problem that was happening in Rwanda. In this context, the UN and the West failed to take any adequate or early action which would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Although the UNAMIR was stationed in Rwanda, there was resistance from numerous members of the United Nations Security Council even from the onset of the Arusha Accords which any political analyst would have forecasted that it would lead to a high level of dissatisfaction amongst the Rwandans, thus leading to violence. Belgium did attempt for a stronger UNAMIR mandate but later on pulled out their forces after the ten Belgian peacekeepers protecting the president were murdered (American RadioWorks). Dallaire was also instructed to focus the UNAMIR on only evacuating foreign nationals from Rwanda and a change in orders led to the peacekeepers deserting a school which was housing 2000 refugees, all whom were later murdered including hundreds of children. The Security Council later on voted to reduce the UNAMIR peacekeepers to only 260 men, a decision which would be illogical given the thousands of armed Interahamwe UN Security (Council Resolution 912). After the genocide, the administrative head of the UNAMIR, former Cameroonian foreign minister Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh was criticized by the international community for downplaying Dallaire’s reports. At this time, the US government was reluctant to be involved in the Rwandan conflict. The US’s stand on the genocide was confined to making public statements, initiatives for ceasefire as well as to contact the interim government and the RPF. Its influence in the UN Security Council was not to offer help, but rather to discourage a full blown UN response. Its response was much later when the genocide had ended where the US assisted in humanitarian efforts (Ferroggiaro). The decision was later on regretted by President Bill Clinton who noted in an interview that if he had sent about 5000 US peacekeepers, more than half a million lives would be saved (Public Broadcasting Service). In the movie, a magazine rack in the hotel lobby held a copy of Time Magazine’s 1992 Man of the Year with Bill Clinton on the cover, possibly a deliberate statement by the film maker to show that Clinton failed in his international duties. In an interview by CNN with Dallaire, he was quoted as saying "The international community didn't give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance." Only after more than a month on May 17, 1994 did the UN concede that genocide had occurred but the Red Cross estimated that about 500000 were already been killed. Even after this, the US charged $6.5 million for the transportation of armored personnel carriers and the logistical arrangements further delayed the deployment of peacekeepers. By June 22, there was still no sign of the deployment of UN peacekeepers, thus the Security Council authorized French forces to land in Zaire on a humanitarian mission. The genocide was quelled in southwest of Rwanda but often, they were too late. This mission called Operation Turquoise was charged with aiding the Hutus against the RPF army as Rwandan ambassador to France Jacques Bihozagara testified that "Operation Turquoise was aimed only at protecting genocide perpetrators, because the genocide continued even within the Turquoise zone." (British Broadcasting Corporation). In addition to this, it was later found out that France had advanced knowledge about the genocide but too failed to prevent it from occurring (East African). Other members of the international community also deserted Rwanda during the genocide. All the Western nations landed their troops in Rwanda or Burundi during the first week of the genocide to evacuate their citizens and left, bringing none of the Rwandans. We can clearly see that if the RPF did not retaliate, the killings would have continued and thousands more would have died. The international community including the West as well as the UN failed in their roles and this resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Rwandans. It is disappointing but a fact of life that countries which received help early were often those which benefited other countries. As long as a particular country such as Rwanda did not have any resources or raw materials which would benefit another Western country, response time towards violence would be slow. The UN also failed in its role as the global governing body, and let a Western country use its influence to prevent a simple life saving decision. So, did the international community, the UN and the US learn from this genocide? This would be seen in the Darfur conflict in Sudan. According to Caplan from the Globe and Mail (Canada), “The world knows everything about Rwanda except what really matters” and thus, genocide is unfolding right before our eyes again.This around, again, the UN response was slow, so was that of the international community including the West but compared to the Rwandan genocide, international peacekeeping response was improved. According to Flounders who is co-director of the International Action Center, an organization which provides information, activism and resistance towards US militarism and war, the US in this context moved faster, but have been criticized as doing so as they had interests in Sudan. In conclusion, we have to be aware that the movie Hotel Rwanda tries to tell us of the atrocities that have been committed against the basic principles of humanity and that we must not forget. We have to learn that inaction leads to devastating results, in this case the death of hundreds of thousands. Hopefully in the future, no events of similar horror would occur. Works Cited American RadioWorks. Timeline of Events in Rwanda, http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/justiceontrial/rwanda_chronology.html (Accessed 6 November, 2007) BBC. France accused on Rwanda killings", BBC News, 24 October 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6079428.stm. (Accessed 6 November, 2007) Caplan, Gerald. “We’ve learned nothing from Rwanda” The Globe and Mail (Canada) 10 April 2006. LexisNexis Academic. J Murrey Atkins Library. UNC Charlotte, North Carolina. 5 November 2007. https://connect2.uncc.edu/dana-na/auth/url_1/welcome.cgi Central Intelligence Agency. "Democratic Republic of the Congo", CIA - The World Factbook, (10 January 2006). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cg.html (Accessed 5 November, 2007) CNN. West 'guilty' over Rwanda genocide. April 2006. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/04/06/rwanda.dallaire/index.html. (Accessed 6 November, 2007) Doyle, Mark "Rewriting Rwanda". Foreign Policy (154). (May/June 2006). http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3442 (Accesed 5 November, 2007) East African. New Book Accuses France of Advanced Knowledge of Genocide. Africa News. 16 October, 2007. LexisNexis Academic. J Murrey Atkins Library. UNC Charlotte, North Carolina. 5 November 2007. https://connect2.uncc.edu/dana-na/auth/url_1/welcome.cgi Ferroggiaro, William. The National Security Archive. The US and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994. Evidence of Inaction August 20, 2001 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/index.html (Accessed 6 November, 2007) Flounders, Sara.. The U.S. Role in Darfur, Sudan Oil reserves rivaling those of Saudi Arabia? Center for Research on Globalization. International Action Center. June 2006. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2592 (Accessed 6 November, 2007) Homepage for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda. http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/unamir.htm. (Accessed 5 November, 2007) Human Rights Watch. The Hutu Revolution" section in Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, 1999 http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-09.htm#P233_103259 (Accessed 5 November, 2007) Immortal Chaplains Prize, 2000: Paul Rusesabagina. http://www.immortalchaplains.org/Prize/Ceremony2000/Rusesabagina/rusesabagina.htm (Accessed 5 November, 2007) Mamdani, Mahmood. "When Does a Settler Become a Native? Reflections of the Colonial Roots of Citizenship in Equatorial and South Africa" University of Cape Town, 13 May 1998, pp. 5-6 http://www.bard.edu/hrp/resource_pdfs/mamdani.settler.pdf. (Accessed 5 November, 2007) OutNow Channel. Interview with Paul Rusesabagina http://outnow.ch/specials/2005/HotelRwanda/interview-Rusesabagina.E/ May 2005. (Accessed 5 November, 2007) Prunier, Gerard. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press. 1995 Public Broadcasting Service. Frontline: the triumph of evil.. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/etc/script.html (Accessed 6 November, 2007) Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda 4-5 (15 December 1999). http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/395/47/IMG/N9939547.pdf?OpenElement (Accessed 5 November, 2007) Simons, Marlise. Rwanda: Army Major Guilty In U.N. Killings. New York Times. 5 July, 2007. ProQuest. J Murrey Atkins Library. UNC Charlotte, North Carolina. 5 November 2007. https://connect2.uncc.edu/dana-na/auth/url_1/welcome.cgi The Monitor. Why Rwanda is Uneasy about Genocide Movies. Africa News. 21 May, 2006. LexisNexis Academic. J Murrey Atkins Library. UNC Charlotte, North Carolina. 5 November 2007. https://connect2.uncc.edu/dana-na/auth/url_1/welcome.cgi UN Security Council Resolution 912 (1994), implementing an "adjustment" of UNAMIR's mandate and force level as outlined in the Special Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda dated April 20, 1994 http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=S/RES/912%20(1994)&Lang=E&Area=UNDOC (Accessed 6 November, 2007) Read More