HOTEL RWANDA and
SOMETIMES IN APRIL
SUBJECTS — World/Rwanda & the Post-Cold War Era; U.S./1991
to Present;
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Human Rights; Courage;
MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Respect; Citizenship.
"Hotel Rwanda": Age: 14+; MPAA Rating -- PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and
brief strong language; Drama; 2004; 121 minutes.; Color; Available from Amazon.com.
"Sometimes in April": Age: 14+; Rating: TV-MA (suitable for mature audiences or adults
only); Drama; 2005; 140 minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com.
Description:
These films describe different aspects of the Rwandan genocide. From
April to July 1994, some 927,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were shot or hacked to
death. The perpetrators were the Hutu-dominated army, the Interahamwe militia, and
the neighbors and friends of the victims. The international community - in particular, the
United States, Western Europe and the U.N. - knew what was going on but stood by and
did nothing.
"Hotel Rwanda" tells how Paul Rusesabagina protected 1,268 people who took refuge in
the Hotel Mille Collines. Like "Schindler's List," this movie paints an inspiring portrait of
one man's evolving moral conviction and how, using his wits and charm, he held
maniacal killers at bay.
"Sometimes in April" has a broader sweep, recounting the stories of many victims of the
genocide. In addition, the film describes the situation of three fictional survivors.
Martine, a teacher at a Catholic girls' school, lives with the memory of seeing her class
massacred. Augustin is a Hutu who had married a Tutsi. His wife and sons were
murdered trying to escape. His daughter was a student in Martine's class. Augustin's
brother, Honore, was a hate-mongering announcer for Radio RTLM. As the story begins,
Honore is on trial before the International War Crimes Tribunal for inciting people to
commit genocide.
"Sometimes in April" shows the genocide in a series of flashbacks. Scenes of
documented atrocities are recreated in the movie, including: the murder of young girls
at a Catholic school, Hutu and Tutsi alike, when the Hutu girls refused to give up their
Tutsi classmates; the killing of moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana;
and the repatriation of mostly white foreign nationals by French and Belgian troops,
leaving a group of Tutsis to their fate at the hands of waiting genocidaires. "Sometimes
in April" shows the three survivors trying to deal with the effects of the genocide. The
film shows a gacaca (pronounced ga-cha-ca), a Truth and Reconciliation style village
meeting used to reintegrate low level killers into society without further punishment. It
also shows proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha at which the
leaders of the Rwandan genocide are being tried for crimes against humanity.
LEARNING GUIDE MENU
Benefits of the Movie
Possible Problems
Parenting Points
Benefits of the Movies: Both movies stay very close to the truth. "Sometimes in April" Selected Awards & Cast
paints a more complete picture of the genocide, showing the horror of the hundred days Helpful Background
and the difficulty of recovery. The film raises questions of guilt, punishment,
A Brief Selective History
forgiveness, and reconciliation that Rwandans must still resolve.
The Aftermath
"Hotel Rwanda" shows less killing and focuses on the uplifting story of an ordinary man
who rises to heroic stature under the most frightening circumstances. It is an excellent
lesson in courage. "Hotel Rwanda" also describes the difficult position of peacekeeping
forces when they are not supported by the U.N. and the international community. By
focusing on the daring of Mr. Rusesabagina and the survival of the refugees at the Mille
Collines, "Hotel Rwanda" provides a cushioned introduction to the horrifying subject of
the Rwandan genocide.
A Low Tech,
Personal Holocaust
International Response
Role of the Media
What Makes a Genocide?
Recipe for Genocide
Other Heroes
Dallaire's Story
Each of these films will acquaint students with the continuing problem of genocide. After
the Holocaust the world said "Never again." However, since 1945, humanity has
R2P -- The Future
of International
repeatedly stood by and let genocide occur. (At present the world is struggling with a
Peacekeeping
genocide in Darfur.)
Building Vocabulary
Both movies can serve as a springboard to discussions on the legacy of colonialism and
the challenges facing emerging countries in Africa. Students can explore the history and
dynamics of genocide and issues of justice and forgiveness on a personal and national
level. These films can also promote discussions of the potential for peacekeeping, as well
as the responsibilities of individuals and the media in times of crisis.
Discussion Questions
Possible Problems:
SERIOUS: Both films show the murders of many people.
However, there is no gratuitous violence and care has been taken to avoid making the
images too graphic. Scenes of people being killed with machetes are shot from a
distance. But depictions of genocide are upsetting. Sensitive children might be disturbed
by either of these movies.
Bridges to Reading
--- Social-Emotional
Learning
--- Moral-Ethical Emphasis
(Character Counts)
Links to the Internet
Assignments, Projects &
Activities
Bibliography
Both "Hotel Rwanda" and "Sometimes in April" contain profanity uttered in extreme
situations.
Parenting Points:
Tell children that each of these movies accurately shows what
happened in Rwanda in 1994. Hotel Rwanda focuses on the heroism of one man and
while his heroism is important, the story of the Rwandan genocide is about some
927,000 people being murdered by their countrymen, friends, and neighbors.
Immediately after the movie ask the Quick Discussion Question for that film. Then at
odd times over the next week (for example at the dinner table or in the car on the way
to school) bring up one of the other Discussion Questions. Don't worry if you can only
get through a few questions. Just taking the film seriously and discussing it a little is the
key. Allow your children to watch these movies several times on their own if they want.
This Learning Guide is
dedicated to the memory of
the victims and to the
survivors, with hope for a
better life for the people of
Rwanda and the East Africa
region.
Selected Awards, Cast and Director:
HOTEL RWANDA
See Quick Discussion Question
for "Hotel Rwanda" and Quick
Discussion Question for
"Sometimes in April".
Selected Awards: 2004 Academy Awards Nominations: Best Performance by an
Actor in a Leading Role (Cheadle); Best Performance by an Actress in a
Supporting Role (Sophie Okonedo); Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for
the Screen;
WORKSHEETS: TWM offers
the following worksheets to
keep students' minds on the
Featured Actors: Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina; Sophie Okonedo as Tatiana movie and direct them to the
lessons that can be learned
Rusesabagina; Nick Nolte as Colonel Oliver.
from the film.
Film Study Worksheet
Director: Terry George
for a Work of
Historical Fiction;
SOMETIMES IN APRIL
Selected Awards: None.
Featured Actors: Idris Elba as Augustin Muganza, Oris Erhuero as Honore
Muganza, Carole Karemera as Jeanne Muganza (Augustin's wife), Abby Mikiibi
Nkaaga as Rwandan Col. Bagosora, Pamela Nomvete as Martine, Debra Winger
as Prudence Bushnell.
Director: Raoul Peck
Film Study Worksheet
for ELA Classes; and
Worksheet for
Cinematic and
Theatrical Elements
and Their Effects.
Teachers can modify the
worksheets to fit the needs of
each class. See also TWM's
Historical Fiction in Film CrossCurricular Homework Project
and Movies as Literature
Homework Project.
Helpful Background:
A BRIEF SELECTIVE HISTORY
All Rwandans share a common language, Kinyarwanda. They have the same cultural
heritage, including a common national mythology which enshrines the origins and
historical relationships of their three peoples: the Hutu (85% of the population); the
Tutsi (14%); and the Twa, or Pygmy (1%).
The Rwandan myth of origins asserts that the first king of the earth had three sons,
GaTWA, GaHUTU,and GaTUTSI. Each was given a pot of milk. Gatwa drank all of his.
Gahutu spilled his. But Gatutsi, demonstrating his natural superiority, kept his safe. So
the king put Gatutsi in charge of all. The word Hutu originally meant "servant" or
"subject" and the word Tutsi meant "rich in cattle." History Facing the Present: An Interview
with Jan Vansina - Professor Emeritus Ghent University, Belgium. In general, but with many
exceptions, the Tutsi were taller and had sharper features. The Hutu (again generally
and with many exceptions) were shorter with larger noses and blunter features. Tutsi
tended cattle, and were overlords. Hutu farmed the land and were regarded as
peasants. It was possible to change one's classification by intermarriage or "social
climbing." In effect, the difference between Hutu and Tutsi was one of caste/class rather
than ethnicity.
For a more complete
discussion of the history of
Rwanda, see Leave None to
Tell the Story: Genocide in
Rwanda by Human Rights
Watch. For time lines of the
genocide see Rwanda: A Brief
History of Events or PBS
Frontline "Ghosts of Rwanda".
GENOCIDE: A word created in
1944 by Dr. Raphael Lemkin.
It is derived from the Latin
words "geno" meaning race or
tribe, and "cadere," meaning
"to kill". Examples of words
derived from "cadere" are:
homicide, suicide, patricide,
and infanticide. Dr. Lemkin
was one of the few people in
In 1884, a hundred years before the genocide, the European colonial powers began to
operate in the Great Lakes section of Africa that includes Rwanda. (1884 was also the
year the Dutch took control of South Africa.) Rwanda was initially colonized by the
Germans. The peace treaty ending WW I, gave a League of Nations "trusteeship" over
the colony to Belgium. The Tutsi, who looked more European to the colonizers, were
seen as natural aristocrats and were favored in government and society. Employing a
"divide and rule" strategy, the Belgians used the Tutsi to help them control the Hutu.
Identity cards were issued with Hutu and Tutsi as "ethnic" designations in 1926.
his extended family to escape
the Nazi death machine.
BUILDING VOCABULARY:
"Hotel Rwanda": genocide,
brokered, denounced,
Interahamwe, agitators,
reprisals, massacres.
During the late 1950s, many African colonies became independent. The Belgians turned
the government of Rwanda over to the majority Hutu, who promptly reversed the
preferences that the Tutsi had enjoyed. After independence in 1962 it was Tutsi children
"Sometimes in April":
who were excluded from school and Tutsi adults who could not get government jobs.
From the 1960s onward, there were episodes in which Tutsis massacred Hutus and
Hutus massacred Tutsis in both Rwanda and neighboring Burundi, which has a similar
class/caste system. Some of the massacres were very large, with 200,000 Hutu and
Tutsi being killed in Burundi in 1993. Due to repression and recurring massacres, half
the Tutsi population of Rwanda had fled to neighboring countries by 1994. Many Hutu
from Burundi, radicalized by the conflict in their own country, had fled to Rwanda.
In 1990 the exiled Tutsi formed a rebel force, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, to
invade their homeland and win the right of return. This set the stage for the Hutudominated Rwandan government to paint all Tutsis as traitors. The government
condoned or actually sponsored outbreaks of violence against the Tutsi. The RPF was
better trained and had a brilliant general, Paul Kagame. By 1993 the RPF was a real
threat to the Hutu-dominated Rwandan government.
A coalition government was announced in 1993 after negotiations in Arusha, Tanzania.
The UN passed a resolution creating the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)
under a Chapter VI mandate to assist in implementing the Arusha Accords.
(Peacekeepers operating under Chapter VI of the U.N. Charter may only use force if they
are attacked and only to defend themselves.) General Roméo Dallaire of Canada was
appointed Force Commander. He first arrived in Rwanda on an information-gathering
mission with little more than a map and an encyclopedia article on Rwanda. Dallaire
requested 5,000 peacekeeping troops but was granted only 2,500.
The genocide was planned months or years in advance by Hutu extremists in the army
and the government. It was launched in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on April 7, 1994
when the plane carrying Rwandan president Habyarimana, and Burundian President
Ntaryamira (also a Hutu) was shot down by a hand held, ground to air missile. The
genocide ended only when the RPF completed its conquest of the country on July 18,
1994.
genocide, proxies,
Interahamwe, Inyeri.
Index to Helpful
Background Section










A Brief Selective
History
The Aftermath
A Low Tech, Person to
Person Holocaust
International
Response and
Responsibility
Role of the Media - Its
Responsibility
What Makes a
Genocide?
Recipe for Genocide
Other Heroes
Dallaire's Story
Responsibility to
Protect -- The Future
of International
Peacekeeping
When asked by a priest from
the Episcopal Church about
the role of the Christian clergy
in the 1994 Rwandan
genocide, Mr. Rusesabagina
responded that the Christians
in Rwanda remained silent in
the face of the genocide and
that the Muslims were more
active in objecting to it than
the Christians [Note that
Rwanda is one of the most
Christian nations on earth:
Roman Catholic 56.5%,
Protestant 26%, Adventist
11.1%, Muslim 4.6%, see CIA
World Factbook.] The relative
lack of protest and even the
active complicity in the
genocide by established
Catholic and other Christian
churches, with certain
exceptions, is reported by
many sources. See e.g.,
Human Rights Watch and
Gérard Prunier in The Rwanda
Crisis - History of a Genocide,
Columbia University Press,
New York, 1995, p. 250 - 253.
Others contend that the role
of the clergy and church
hierarchy was mixed in the
extreme circumstances of the
genocide. Sibomana, Hope for
Rwanda pp. 121 - 136. Note
that Mr. Sibomana was a
Catholic priest and human
rights activist. He was denied
the opportunity for medical
treatment because of his
criticism of the new regime
and died in Rwanda in 1998.
Paul Rusesabagina and others
report that the only organized
religious group to protest the
THE AFTERMATH
genocide were the Muslims.
Rusesabagina Lecture, Los
As the RPF gained territory from Rwandan government forces, millions of Hutu refugees
Angeles California, April 4,
fled to camps in Goma, Zaire, and other border areas. Many genocidaires were
2006. "The only faith which
embedded in the stream of refugees. International humanitarian aid poured in to
provided a bulwark against
prevent famine and disease in the camps. This had the undesired effect of bolstering the barbarity for its adherents was
Hutu extremists, who wound up as de facto leaders of the refugees. They continued
Islam. There are many
testimonies to the protection
their aggression from the camps. The new Rwandan government, now dominated by
members of the Muslim
Tutsi, has itself launched incursions into neighboring countries. Instability and warfare
community gave each other
within the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi have resulted in
four million deaths in the Great Lakes Region of Africa in the decade since the Rwandan and their refusal to divide
themselves ethnically."
genocide.
Prunier, above, p. 253.
The RPF crammed 100,000 accused genocidaires into inadequate prisons. Rwandan
courts started trying people suspected of planning the genocide in 1996. In 1998 some
condemned prisoners were publicly executed. At the time, these executions were
considered therapeutic.
Several years after the genocide the government sought to use a traditional form of
Rwandan dispute resolution called "gacaca" to reconcile the ordinary people who
RWANDA GEOGRAPHY:
Rwanda is located in the Great
Lakes area of central East
Africa, along the Great Rift
Valley. The mountainous West
of the country borders the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and parts of Uganda to
participated in the killing with their former victims and the survivors. Gacaca hearings
were traditionally used to address relatively minor property disputes within villages.
They stress truth-telling and accountability. For a description of how gacaca worked in
traditional Rwandan society, see Rusesabagina & Zoellner, An Ordinary Man, pp. 8 & 9. The word
"gacaca" comes from the Kinyarwanda word for grass or lawn. The dynamic of this
"justice on the grass" has worked well in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation process.
But Rwanda's wounds are far more traumatic and the current government's commitment
to human rights is not as strong as the commitment of Nelson Mandela's government in
South Africa. Unfortunately, "justice on the grass" has proven inadequate to deal with
the wounds of genocide. The gacaca program has now virtually collapsed. For a critical
look at how the gacaca courts have failed and a list of references on the web, see Gacaca Courts
in Post-Genocide Rwanda by Radha Webley.
the North and Burundi to the
South. Eastern Rwanda is
mostly high uplands, which it
shares with its neighbor,
Tanzania. See free blank map
of Rwanda and adjacent
countries and CIA Factbook
Map of Rwanda
Even after the genocide,
Rwanda is the most densely
populated country in Africa. In
world-wide comparisons, its
population density is second
only to that of Bangladesh.
In 2003, President Kagame ordered the release of some 40,000 prisoners: the very old,
the very young, and the gravely ill. The Rwandan government has also instituted a
program to cut in half the sentences of convicted genocidaires who confess and
cooperate with authorities. These programs removed about half of the prisoners from
Rwanda's overcrowded jails. They not only freed prisoners but relieved their families of a The source of the Nile River is
tremendous burden. When a person is imprisoned in Rwanda, the family must provide
in Rwanda.
food. The prisons only accept food during the days. This usually means that the spouse
cannot work, a factor which further impoverishes the family of the prisoner. Paul
Rusesabagina, April 4, 2006 Lecture, Los Angeles, CA.
The civil war brought the Tutsi to power again. RPF general Paul Kagame served as the
unelected president of Rwanda from 2000 to 2003. In August of that year, Kagame was
elected president with an incredible 95% of the vote. Observers charge that he won
through intimidation and by outlawing the opposition party. See "Kagame won, a Little Too
Most genocides have been
explained to the public as
being preemptive and
defensive. The concept is to
get them before they get you.
Well".
In 2003, in an interview, President Kagame stated that:
Genocide is central to the history of Rwanda and Rwandans because it is an
expression of what went so badly wrong in our history. We must therefore
understand the causes of the problem, confront them, and address them. It
plays a central role. It tells us about our history. It tells us about the present and
it tells us about the future as well, informing us that if we are to move into the
future with hope, there are certain issues that we must address without
question. Otherwise there is always a danger that if we do things wrong, there is
a possibility of sliding back. I am sure that all the people of Rwanda, irrespective
of their backgrounds, would not wish that to happen again. It caused a disaster
for everyone. There is nobody in Rwanda who did not suffer from this bad period
in our history. So reason will have to prevail in informing everyone that we
cannot have a repeat of this kind of thing at any cost. See Interviews with A Leader
from the Rwandan government's web site.
Some commentators doubt
that there would have been a
genocide if the Rwandan
government had not felt so
threatened by the Tutsi rebels
returning from Uganda.
However, there is no excuse
for genocide, ever.
Rebuilding Rwanda with the
survivors and the genocidaires
living side by side is "as
though in 1945 the Jews and
the Germans were to live
together in Germany after the
Holocaust under a Jewishdominated army...." Melvern,
A People Betrayed, p. 222.
President Kagame has ordered that designations of Hutu and Tutsi be removed from
identity cards. He claims that approximately 5% of the public revenue is allocated to
relief for victims of the genocide. It pays for school fees, shelter, and medical treatment
for victims. He states that he would like to do more but Rwanda is a poor country.
President Kagame is also critical of the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha. It has "Sometimes in April" ends
spent more than six hundred million dollars and has processed only a handful of cases. with a scene of a gacaca
See Interviews with A Leader from the Rwandan government's web site.
Kagame has his critics, among them Paul Rusesabagina, who had to flee Rwanda two
meeting.
In a lecture in Los Angeles,
years after the genocide. Persons with high positions in the government threatened his
life to obtain an advantage in a business transaction. Mr. Rusesabagina now lives in
Belgium. He ridicules Kagame's claim that he received 95% of the vote in a free election
and charges that Kagame is behaving like any other African despot. According to
Rusesabagina Rwanda today is "governed by and for the benefit of a small group of
Tutsis." Rusesabagina & Zoellner, An Ordinary Man, p. 199.
California, in April 2006, Paul
Rusesabagina, explained why
he could not leave the Hotel
Mille Collines until the last
refugee had been rescued. "I
never would have been free. I
would have been a prisoner of
my own conscience." He went
on to say that had he left a
refugee in the hotel he would
not have been able to enjoy
the simple pleasures of life
such as being with his wife
and children or enjoying a
good meal.
Some actual survivors of the
genocide played the "swamp
people" who were called out of
hiding in "Sometimes in April."
The necessity of Justice:
Justice is a basic human right.
Every human being has a right
to have justice done.
Acknowledging this universal
principle, André Sibomana
describes a situation in which
a Hutu peasant hid a Tutsi
family for several weeks but
was finally found out. The
militia told him, "'Now prove
that you are a good Hutu. ...
If you don't kill these
cockroaches yourself, we will
kill your wife and children.
Make your choice!' So he
killed with his own hand the
family he had hidden and fed
for several weeks. But that
was not enough for the
Interahamwe. Before they
left, in order to punish this
bad Hutu who had been an
'accomplice' of the Tutsi, they
killed his wife and children.
Today, this peasant is asking
'Who am I? If those
militiamen are not punished,
then who am I? If they are
still free, then what about me,
where do I belong?"
Sibomana, Hope for Rwanda,
p. 105.
A LOW-TECH PERSONAL HOLOCAUST
Can a country with a
repressive government or
which has been engulfed by
political and social chaos go
directly to a multi party
democracy? It is possible but
difficult a shown by the
struggles of Taiwan, Korea,
The genocidaires achieved a "kill rate" of 1,000 people in 20 minutes, outdoing the Nazis Iraq, Argentina, Chile, Russia,
and the former communist
in their ghastly efficiency. The planners of the genocide agreed on a system of
communications that would work "under the radar screen": whistles, runners, and secret countries of eastern Europe.
People in Uganda who
meetings.
remember the terrible regimes
of Idi Amin and Milton Obote
Some of the killers revelled in their atrocities. Their victims were often neighbors,
are grateful for the less than
students, patients, and parishioners. Sometimes the victims were family members.
democratic but stable
Children would be killed in front of their parents. The genocidaires sometimes forced
their victims to kill before they themselves were killed. Parents would be required to kill government of Musaveni. In
their own children. Neighbor would be required to kill neighbor. Friend would be required an April, 2006 article in the
to kill friend. A large part of the populace was either incited, deputized, or forced to kill. L.A. Times several Iraqis were
reported as having voiced the
wish that a "benevolent
It was a genocide of horrifying savagery and cruelty. Some victims were killed slowly.
strongman" -- anyone short of
First the tendons in their legs would be cut so that they could not run away. Then an
Sadam Hussein -- would seize
arm would be severed and the victim left for a while. The killers would then return and
power and restore order.
severe another limb. The purpose was to intensify the cruelty of the death and prolong
Unlike the industrialized Holocaust engineered by the Nazis, Rwanda was a person-toperson genocide. Small arms imported from countries such as Egypt, South Africa, and
Poland were used in the attacks. Farm implements were used to kill. But it is the
infamous machetes (one for every three Hutu males) that are forever identified with the
horror of the slaughter. The killing occurred face-to-face. The killers were often
spattered with the blood of their victims.
the suffering in a "passionate desire to destroy not only the body but the soul of the
victim before ending their life ...." Sibomana, Hope for Rwanda, p. 69
"A three-year-old child who
The Rwandan genocide involved rape and murder on a massive scale. The following eye- had just seen his siblings
killed, pleaded with the
witness descriptions from General Dallaire, the Commander of UNAMIR, are haunting.
attackers to spare his life:
You may not want to read them to students. You may not want to read them yourself:
'Please don't kill me. . . . I'll
"We drove by abandoned check-points ringed with corpses, sometimes beheaded
never be Tutsi again'. But the
and dumped like rubbish, sometimes stacked meticulously beside neat piles of
killers, unblinking, struck him
heads. Many corpses rapidly decayed into blinding white skeletons in the hot
down." Power, The Problem
sun....
from Hell, pg 334.
"We saw many faces of death during the genocide, from the innocence of babies
to the bewilderment of the elderly, from the defiance of fighters to the resigned
stares of nuns. I saw so many faces and try now to remember each one. Early
on I seemed to develop a screen between me and the sights and sounds to allow Some Tutsis paid the
Interahamwe to shoot them
me to stay focused on the work to be done....
"... [I]f you looked, you could see the evidence [of rape, torture and mutilation]
even in the whitened skeletons. The legs bent apart. A broken bottle, a rough
branch, even a knife between them. Where the bodies were fresh, we saw what
must have been semen pooled on and near the dead women and girls. There
was always a lot of blood. Some male corpses had their genitals cut off ... many
women and young girls had their breasts chopped off and their genitals crudely
cut apart. They died in a position of total vulnerability, flat on their backs with
their legs bent and knees wide apart. It was the expressions on their dead faces
instead of hacking them to
death.
How do you face down a
killer? Read the autobiography
of Paul Rusesabagina, An
Ordinary Man, pp. 88 - 91 and
118 - 120. Should Mr.
that assaulted me the most, a frieze of shock, pain, and humiliation. For many
years after I came home, I banished the memories of those faces from my mind, Rusesabagina have kept up
his friendships with men in the
but they have come back, all too clearly." Shake Hands with the Devil, p. 430.
Hutu Army or the militia? He
General Dallaire also describes a trip he took to RPF territory to see General Kagame. At contends that it saved his life
that point the RPF had not yet reached the capital Kigali and Dallaire had to cross a river and the refugees at the Mille
to get to Kagame's headquarters.
Collines, Ibid, p. 128 - 131.
"... The RPF engineers had constructed a pontoon-type bridge that light pickup
trucks could cross gingerly. Getting out of my vehicle, I noticed a number of
soldiers with long poles upstream, pulling bloated bodies up on the bank. To me
this was now such a commonplace sight it did not penetrate my protective
screen.
" I did not want to risk our vehicles on the bridge. As we made our way across
on foot, I noticed that clothes were caught between the struts of the floating
base and I stopped to look over the side. Staring up at me were the faces of
half-nude corpses, stuck under the bridge. There were a lot of them. In some
places they had accumulated to the point that we were actually walking on a
bridge of dead bodies. On the far bank, soldiers were trying to pry them loose
for fear that their weight would pull the bridge apart. The screen shattered, my
stomach heaved and I struggled for composure. I couldn't bear the movements
of the bridge, up and down on the slaughtered hundreds. Dallaire, Shake Hands With
the Devil p. 431.
As Michael Barnett says:
"The genocide was executed with a brutality and sadism that defy imagination.
Eyewitnesses were in denial. They believed that the high-pitched screams they
were hearing were wind gusts, that the packs of dogs at the roadside were
feeding on animal remains and not dismembered corpses, that the smells
enveloping them emanated from spoiled food and not decomposing bodies. One
is reminded of Primo Levi's observation about the Holocaust: 'things whose
existence is not morally comprehensible cannot exist.'" Eyewitness to a Genocide,
More than 300 children
younger than 18 years of age
were accused of killing people
in the genocide. At least
100,000 Tutsi or children from
moderate Hutu families were
orphaned by the genocide or
kidnapped and taken from
their parents. Melvern, A
People Betrayed, p. 222
Michael Barnett, p. 1.
If you believe that we are all capable of doing what one individual or one group of
people has done, then we must look deeply into the reality and the mystery of this
unspeakable horror to figure out what constraints must be put into place so that it never In his April, 2006 lecture in
happens again; or if it does, that we, humankind, can at least cut it short and ameliorate Los Angeles Paul
its impact.
Rusesabagina said, "In
Rwanda when you offer
someone drink or food and
you sit next to him and look
In 1994 several international crises absorbed the attention of world leaders. In addition, him in the eye and ask him for
Rwanda's fate did not affect the interests of any world power. It has no oil, nor does it
something, it is impossible for
have iron, steel, diamonds, or other natural resources. Its location is not strategic.
him to refuse."
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
There were many risks to intervention. U.S. and Pakistani peacekeepers had recently
been killed in Somalia. (Dead U.S. soldiers had been dragged through the streets of
Mogadishu.) In Rwanda there was an ongoing civil war and a real possibility that
international troops would get caught in a cross-fire. (Several members of General
Dallaire's UNAMIR force were in fact killed by weapons aimed at opponents in the civil
war.) There was no legitimate government to request intervention. Many of the available
well trained troops would be from developed countries and would be white. The
intervention might then appear to be a colonial venture.
On the side of intervention was the need to protect human life; hundreds of thousands
of lives as it turned out. In addition, allowing genocide to occur on any part of the globe
reduces the level of national and international political morality. (In contrast, Gandhi's
non-violent movement for independence in India raised the level of world-wide political
ethics. See Learning Guide to "Gandhi".) As discussed below, relatively few foreign
troops, a total of 5,000, would have been enough to stop the genocide.
At one point, Clinton's
Secretary of State Warren
Christopher, had to pull out a
map of Africa to see where
Rwanda was. Power, The
Problem From Hell, page 352.
Shortly after the genocide, the universal judgment was that the failure to intervene was
a great mistake. It was seen as a failure to recognize long-term, important goals in favor
of short-term, relatively minor goals.
In January 1994, three months before the killings began, General Dallaire sent an urgent
coded cable to U.N. headquarters in New York stating that an informant known as "JeanPierre" had reported plans for a systematic extermination of Tutsis and had disclosed the
location of hidden stockpiles of weapons to be used in the genocide. President
Habyarimana had lost control of the Hutu extremists, whose plans were being finalized
under the leadership of Rwandan Army Colonel Theodore Bagosora. Jean-Pierre had also
talked about plans to trap and kill Belgian peacekeepers to force the U.N. to withdraw.
In his cable, which came to be known as The Dallaire Fax, the Canadian General
proposed to raid the weapons caches. Despite the fact that the veracity of the informant
was confirmed by the U.N. Secretary General's personal representative in Kigali, U.N.
headquarters in New York denied Dallaire permission to raid the caches. Dallaire, Shake
Hands With the Devil, pp. 146 - 148. It later turned out that all of Jean-Pierre's information
was accurate.
The world soon knew that large-scale slaughter was occurring in Rwanda. Joyce Leader,
deputy chief of the U.S. Mission in Kigali, recalls that early on the morning after
President Habyarimana's plane was shot down, "People were calling me and telling me
who was getting killed. I knew they were going door-to-door." She explained to her
colleagues at the State Department that "three kinds of killing were going on: casualties
in war, politically motivated murder (moderate and opposition Hutu) and genocide."
The Peace Accords are not to
blame for the genocide. It was
the reaction of Hutu
extremists, fearful of losing
power and privilege, that
caused the problem. In
addition, diplomats focused on
the Accords, trying to keep
them alive even while
genocide was occurring. This
made them reluctant to
further alienate the Rwandan
government out of fear that
the government would
withdraw completely form the
Arusha Accords.
Power, Bystanders to Genocide, Atlantic Monthly, September 2001.
As of April 10, General Dallaire was telling the U.N. that the Rwandan Army and the
Interahamwe militia were killing anyone with a Tutsi identity card. Ten Belgian
peacekeepers had been tortured and killed by the extremists on the first day of the
genocide. (Right on schedule according to the plan disclosed by "Jean-Pierre".) When
their mutilated bodies were sent home on April 14, Belgium appealed to the U.S. to call
for a withdrawal of all peacekeeping forces. Belgium did not want to be seen as the lone
country abandoning the Rwandans. General Dallaire, frustrated that his pleas for help
were being ignored, cabled the U.N. on April 30th: "Unless the international community
acts, it may find it is unable to defend itself against accusations of doing nothing to stop
genocide." HR Watch But the international community did not forcefully intervene.
"American officials, for a variety of reasons, shunned the use of what became known as
'the g-word.' They felt that using it would have obliged the United States to act, under
the terms of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide. They also believed, understandably, that it would harm U.S. credibility to
name the crime and then do nothing to stop it." A Defense Department memo states
that U.S. officials were worried that a "genocide finding could commit [the U.S.
government] to actually 'do something.'" Power, Bystanders to Genocide
In April General Dallaire also told the U.N. that with 5,000 motivated and experienced
Colonel Bagosora is now on
trial before the International
War Crimes Tribunal in
Arusha. He is not to be
confused with Lt. Colonel
Bizimungu, who is shown in
Hotel Rwanda negotiating with
Paul Rusesabagina over the
fate of the refugees.
Important Documents: The
Dallaire Fax informing the
U.N. in January that Hutu
soldiers he could stop the genocide. The soldiers never materialized. Three years after
the genocide, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Georgetown
University, and the U.S. Army made an intensive study of Dallaire's proposal, using a
panel of international experts. They determined that, "The hypothetical force described
by General Dallaire--at least 5,000 strong, depending on the method of employment,
and armed with the equipment and capabilities to employ and sustain a brigade in
combat--could have made a significant difference in Rwanda in 1994.... In Rwanda, a
window of opportunity for the employment of such a force extended roughly from about
April 7 to April 21, 1994, when the political leaders of the violence were still susceptible
to international influence. The rapid introduction of robust combat forces, authorized to
seize at one time critical points throughout the country, would have changed the political
calculations of the participants. The opportunity existed to prevent the killing, to
interpose a force between the conventional combatants and reestablish the DMZ
[Demilitarized Zone], and to put the negotiations back on track. Additional forces may
have been required to solidify the initial success and maintain order." See Preventing
Genocide; How the Early Use of Force Might Have Saved Rwanda.
Throughout the hundred days of the genocide, General Dallaire repeatedly reported to
his superiors what was going on and pleaded for help to stop the genocide. U.N. and
international observers came to Rwanda and verified that genocide was occurring. The
primary practical response was to reduce UNAMIR to less than 500 troops, not to
increase the force levels so that it could effectively intervene. Even when the U.N.
belatedly agreed to ask member countries to send the 5,000 troops and the equipment
that they would need, nothing significant materialized. For example, the U.S. was to
provide the armored personnel carriers for the troops but the Army imposed so many
bureaucratic delays that APCs didn't reach Rwanda before the end of the genocide. Had
the international community acted promptly, hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many
as 500,000 lives could have been saved.
extremists were planning a
genocide. See also Bushnell
Cable. For more documents,
see The US and the Genocide
in Rwanda 1994 Evidence of
Inaction, William Ferroggiaro,
Editor, at the National
Security Archive.
"Is it Tutsi and Hutu or Tutu
and Hutsi?" questioned a
member of Lt General Wesley
Clarke's staff after
Habyarimana's plane crashed.
Power, Bystanders to
Genocide, Atlantic Monthly,
September 2001.
Interahamwe is roughly
translated as "those who fight
together"
During the negotiations in
Arusha, Rwandan Army
Colonel Bagosora walked out
saying that he was going back
to Rwanda to prepare the
second apocalypse. Melvern, A
People Betrayed p. 54.
Both movies show clips of
Christine Shelley, the State
Department spokesperson,
twisting herself into a pretzel
to avoid using the "g" word:
Reporter: How would
you describe the
events taking place in
Rwanda?
State Department
Spokesperson: Based
on the evidence we
have seen from
observations on the
ground, we have
every reason to
believe that acts of
genocide have
occurred in Rwanda.
Reporter: What's the
difference between
"acts of genocide" and
"genocide"?
State Department
Spokesperson: Well, I
think the—as you
know, there's a legal
definition of this ...
clearly not all of the
killings that have
taken place in Rwanda
are killings to which
you might apply that
label ... But as to the
distinctions between
the words, we're
trying to call what we
have seen so far as
best as we can; and
based, again, on the
evidence, we have
every reason to
believe that acts of
genocide have
occurred.
Reporter: How many
acts of genocide does
it take to make
genocide?
State Department
Spokesperson: Alan,
that's just not a
question that I'm in a
position to answer.
This exchange taken from
Power, Bystanders to
Genocide, Atlantic Monthly,
September 2001.
"Any time you mentioned
peacekeeping in Africa" said
one U.S. official, " the
crucifixes and garlic would
come up on every door."
Power, Bystanders to
Genocide Atlantic Monthly,
September 2001.
THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA: ITS RESPONSIBILITY
As in Nazi Germany, the mass media was used by the extremists to help create the
preconditions for genocide.
The extremist Hutu paper Kangura ("Wake up!) published its "Ten Commandments of
the Hutu" at the end of 1990. The commandments, like Hitler's Nuremberg laws and the
precepts of the Bosnia Serbs, smeared and branded the minority (Tutsi) as traitorous,
second class citizens, and called for the limitation of their rights. Power, A Problem from
Hell pg 338.
The major method of communication between the leaders of the genocidaires and their
minions was radio RTLM. Formally called Radio Television Libre Mille Collines, radio RTLM
was known in the international community as "Hate Radio." Transistor radios had
become cheap and widely available in Rwanda just before the beginning of the genocide.
Radio RTLM was financed by Hutu extremists, including President Habyarimana, his wife,
and her associates. Radio RTLM incited the Hutu people to exterminate the Inyenzi
("cockroaches"). After the genocide started, RTLM broadcast names and addresses of
people who were to be murdered around the clock. "I listened ... " one survivor recalled,
"because if you were mentioned over the airways, you were sure to be carted off a short
time later by the Interahamwe. You knew you had to change your address at once."
Ironically, Inyenzi was a term
coined by the RPF (mainly
Tutsi) forces to describe
themselves: stealthy and
impossible to eradicate. It was
later co-opted by the Hutu
extremists and used to incite
the extermination of all Tutsi.
Power, A Problem from Hell p. 7.
In May some U.S. officials suggested jamming RTLM broadcasts. The responses ranged
from "too difficult technically" to "too expensive" to "we can't interfere with free speech,
especially in another country." However, the International War Crimes Tribunal has ruled
that RTLM managers and announcers were guilty of crimes against humanity. Inciting
The Guilt of the Press and the
and facilitating genocide is not protected speech.
Intelligentsia: André
The international media could have been instrumental in stopping the genocide. Dallaire
was acutely aware of the importance of the media. When the expatriates were being
evacuated, he persuaded a BBC reporter to stay by allowing him to live in the U.N.
compound, guaranteeing him protection, and promising him a story a day. Dallaire, Shake
Hands with the Devil, p. 332. Samantha Power quotes Dallaire as saying: "A reporter with a
line to the West was worth a battalion on the ground," and, "at that point, the
journalists were really all I had". Poynter Online. But some reporters fell into the same
trap as the diplomats who specialized in Africa, interpreting the violence as one more
Sibomana pointed out that
"Intellectuals bear an
overwhelming share of
responsibility. The ideologues
of the genocide were not
unemployed young men from
[the slums of Kigali] but
highly intelligent people who
had studied at the best
universities in Europe or the
manifestation of ancient tribal hatreds, rather than a new phenomenon created by
extremist politicians. Power, A Problem from Hell pp. 355 - 56.
United States."
WHAT MAKES A GENOCIDE?
A genocide is the effort to exterminate an entire ethnic group, culture or race by
murder, sterilization, rape, relocation, etc. A genocide is never accidental. It is always
planned, and requires a hierarchy of command to execute. (In the case of Rwanda, the
extremist Hutu government and its sympathizers probably began planning the 1994
genocide years before it occurred.) It requires a ruthless government which can crush
and silence opposition, rally an efficient killing force, identify the target group,
manipulate the media and parry any thrusts of intervention from the outside world. It
requires people who are willing to kill and many good people who stand by and do
nothing.
Are cultures and races of people analogous to species of animals? Many people would
say that the death of an individual wild animal is regrettable, but the annihilation of an
entire species of animal or plant is something we must work to avoid in the name of
biodiversity. Differentiating genocide from large scale massacre and murder infers that
we do place a special value on maintaining the human cultural/ethnic equivalent of
biodiversity. Extinction, cultural or biological, is forever.
WHAT WAS THE RECIPE FOR GENOCIDE IN RWANDA?
The sine qua non for genocide is people willing to kill: to hack others apart with a
machete; to pull the trigger of a gun; to finger someone for the genocidaires. However,
it is also true that there are conditions and forces which lead people to abandon their
morality and embrace evil. After all, the vast majority of Rwandans (93.6%) claim to be
Christians. CIA Factbook Article on Rwanda What happened?
Background Conditions:
o
o
o
o
o
Historical class/caste divisions and grievances based on the Tutsi role as
overlords of the Hutu; this was exacerbated and institutionalized by the "divide
and rule" policy of the Belgian colonists;
Poverty and overpopulation (only Bangladesh has a greater population density
than Rwanda); contraception was effectively banned in Rwanda;
Tightly organized and controlled communities;
A subservient population used to following orders;
A culture of impunity (a society without the rule of law) which tolerated powerful
or agressive people taking what they wanted without any consequences. (Paul
Rusesabagina described it this way: "I am convinced that one of the strongest
engines of the Rwandan genocide was the culture of impunity that was allowed to
flourish after the revolution against the colonists began in 1959. Rwandans killed
their neighbors just to take their houses, people killed people for their banana
trees, people leaped over the counters of abandoned general stores and started
selling the merchandise as if they were the rightful owners." These activities went
on without the perpetrators being called to account. Rusesabagina & Zoellner, An
Ordinary Man p. 198; André Sibomana also noted the culture of impunity and its role in
the genocide. See Sibomana, Hope for Rwanda, p. 105).
"The other thing you have to
understand was that the
message [from Radio RTLM
and other media outlets] crept
into our national
consciousness very slowly. It
did not happen all at once. We
did not wake up one morning
to hear it pouring out of the
radio at full strength. It
started with a sneering
comment, the casual use of
the term 'cockroach,' the
almost humorous suggestion
that the Tutsis should be
airmailed back to Ethiopia.
Stripping the humanity from
an entire group takes time. It
is an attitude that requires
cultivation, a series of small
steps, daily tending. I suppose
it is like the famous example
of the frog who will
immediately leap out of a pot
of boiling water if you toss
him into it, but put it in cold
water and turn up the heat
gradually, and he will die in
boiling water without being
aware of what happened."
Rusesabagina & Zoellner, An
Ordinary Man, p. 64.
It's easy for those of us who
live safe and secure lives to
judge those who participated
in the genocide of 1994.
Many, perhaps even most of
the genocidaires, deserve our
moral condemnation.
However, it is also true that
The perception of the Tutsi as "other" and less than human, as vermin
you never know what you will
("cockroaches") to be exterminated;
do until you are tested. Those
A despotic government comprised of extremists determined to maintain power at of us who live safe and secure
in peaceful communities can
any cost and capable of meticulously planning mass killing;
only hope that if put to the
An exiled Tutsi rebel force invading from Uganda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF) which the extremists used to stir up the fears of the populace; Hutu Power test, we would respond in an
ethical manner.
claimed that the goal of the RPF was to exterminate the Hutu;
Acting forces:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
A ready supply of jobless young men who didn't see any future for themselves
who were recruited into the Interahamwe;
Hate Radio, the chatty and entertaining RTLM, which debuted on the airwaves in
June of 1993 and spread the poison of hatred until the RPF pulled the plug in July
of 1994;
France's Assistance to the Habyarimana government, including the officers who
trained the Interahamwe militias. Although the first language of all Rwandans is
Kinyarwanda, France was in favor of maintaining the French speaking, or
Francophone, government. The Tutsi rebels had grown up in Anglophone (English
speaking) Uganda;
Egyptian, South African and Polish arms dealers willing to sell arms; and
International aid money (siphoned off to buy weapons for the genocide).
It all happened as if those who
committed the genocide were
submerged in a hatred which
had been contained for a long
Paul Rusesabagina wrote:
time. ... Where did it come
I will never forget walking out of my house the first day of the killings. There
from, this hatred of others? I
were people in the streets who I had known seven years, neighbors of mine who
can only explain it by an
had come over to our place for our regular Sunday cookouts. These people were insurmountable hatred of
wearing military uniforms that had been handed out by the militia. They were
one's self. Indeed some killers
holding machetes and were trying to get inside the houses of those they knew to committed suicide after they
had killed.... After several
be Tutsi, those who had Tutsi relatives, or those who refused to go along with
days of this horrific bloodbath,
the murders. Rusesabagina & Zoellner, An Ordinary Man, p. xiv.
the killers went completely
Mr. Rusesabagina describes a neighbor, about thirty years old. "Peter was just a cool
mad. Politics, ethnic divisions,
guy; so nice to children, very gentle, kind of a kidder, but never mean with his humor." the war, none of this even
entered their minds.
That night Peter killed his neighbors with a machete. Rusesabagina asks why, and
Sibomana, Hope for Rwanda,
proposes an answer,
p. 69.
. . . Very simply: words.
The parents of these people had been told over and over again that they were
uglier and stupider than the Tutsis. They were told they would never be as
physically attractive or as capable of running the affairs of the country. It was a
poisonous stream of rhetoric designed to reinforce the power of the elite. When
the Hutus came to power they spoke evil words of their own, fanning the old
resentments, exciting the hysterical dark places in the heart. Ibid.
He points to the words of the broadcasts of "hate radio RTLM" and how at first it limited
itself to ethnic jokes at the expense of the Tutsi. It then stressed long standing Hutu
grievances against the Tutsi and stirred up fears that the RPF invaders would triumph
and dispossess the Hutu. Step by step it grew more radical until it denied the Tutsis'
humanity and urged the Hutu populace to kill every Tutsi, including friends and relatives.
The avalanche of words celebrating racial supremacy and encouraging people to
do their duty [kill Tutsis] created an alternate reality in Rwanda for those three
months. It was an atmosphere where the insane was made to seem normal and
disagreement with the mob was fatal.
Rwanda was a failure on so many levels. It started as a failure of the European
colonists who exploited trivial differences for the sake of a divide and rule
strategy. It was the failure of Africa to get beyond its ethnic divisions and form
true coalition governments. It was a failure of the Western democracies to step
in and avert the catastrophe when abundant evidence was available. It was a
failure of the United States for not calling a genocide by its right name. It was
the failure of the United Nations to live up to its commitments as a peacemaking
body.
All of these come down to a failure of words. And this is what I want to tell you:
Words are the most effective weapons of death in man's arsenal. But they can
also be powerful tools of life. They may be the only ones.
Today I am convinced that the only thing that saved those 1,268 people in my
hotel was words. ... just ordinary words directed against the darkness.... I used
words in many ways during the genocide -- to plead, intimidate, coax, cajole,
and negotiate. I was slippery and evasive when I needed to be. I acted friendly
toward despicable people. I put cartons of champagne in their car trunks. I
flattered them shamelessly. I said whatever I thought it would take to keep the
people in my hotel from being killed. .... Id at pp. xiv - xvi.
OTHER HEROES
Many of the U.N. peacekeepers acted heroically to save lives during the genocide.
Particularly stalwart were the units from Ghana and Tunisia. Officers from several other
countries attached to the U.N. mission also acted heroically. Prohibited by civilian
authorities at the U.N. from firing their guns except to protect their own lives, UNAMIR
soldiers placed their bodies between the genocidaires and people who needed
protection. At times they would have to pull and kick the killers from their intended
victims. Individuals like Phillipe Gaillard of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) and the U.N. Force Commandeer commander LT General Roméo Dallaire went to
heroic lengths to save Rwandans.
In April the Belgian UNAMIR
contingent was ordered out of
the country by Belgium's
civilian leaders. The Belgian
commander refused the order
three times before he finally
complied. He was responding
to the extreme situation in
Rwanda and to the craven
Senegalese Captain Mbaye Diagne, a peacekeeper serving under General Dallaire, was a nature of the order. However,
charismatic man whose official position was liaison between the Rwandan armed forces military officers must always
and the U.N. This provided him with an excuse to move around Kigali. He charmed,
obey lawful orders from their
bantered, and bribed his way through roadblocks to save lives a few at a time. He saved civilian leaders and he should
the children of the Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana who was killed by the Rwandan have left sooner. There is a
Army in the first hours of the genocide. Captain Diagne, a devout Muslim, is thought to saying in the U.S. military that
you get only one chance to
have rescued hundreds of people. His actions were contrary to UNAMIR's rules of
challenge an order that you
engagement. General Dallaire knew what Captain Diagne was doing, but took no steps
think is wrong or ill-advised;
to stop him. Unfortunately, Captain Diagne was killed by an RPF mortar as he tried to
only one, "But, sir ...."
negotiate his way through a government military checkpoint. This occurred just as his
unit prepared to leave the country. Captain Diagne was aided by his companion Captain
Senyo of Ghana, who also plucked refugees from their houses and found a safe haven
Should General Dallaire have
ignored the orders from the
for them. See PBS Frontline: Memories of Captain Mbaye Diagne and Rusesabagina & Zoellner,
civilian leaders at the U.N. and
gone after the weapons
caches or attacked the
genocidaires? The answer is
An exception to the dismal record of Rwandan clerics in staying quiet, sometimes
clearly no. Military officers are
defending the genocidaires, and even participating in the genocide, was Felicitas
not elected or selected
Niyitegeka, a Hutu member of the religious congregation of the Auxiliaires de l'Apostolat.
through a political process
Human Rights Watch describes her heroism:
which is designed to express
. . . [S]he had given shelter to many Tutsi in Gisenyi since the start of the
the will of the people. While
genocide and had helped them across the border to Zaire. Her brother, Col.
the U.N.'s orders to Dallaire
Alphonse Nzungize, who commanded the nearby Bigogwe military camp, heard were probably ill-conceived
that she was threatened with death for her work and asked her to give it up. She and contributed to the deaths
refused. On April 21 she was taken to a cemetery for execution with forty-three of many people, the problems
caused by military officers
persons, including other religious sisters and Tutsi who had sought refuge with
making policy decisions is so
them. Once there, militia members who feared retaliation from her brother
great that the principle of
offered her the chance to leave. She refused to abandon the others. They
civilian control is essential to
democracy. An example is the
repeated the offer after they had slain thirty people. She still refused and was
successful NATO intervention
shot and thrown naked with the others into the common grave. When her
in Kosovo spearheaded by the
brother heard the news, he went to find her body and had it dressed and
U.S. President Clinton
properly buried. Human Rights Watch.
pushed the Kosovo
intervention through despite
doubts from many in the U.S.
DALLAIRE'S STORY: -- POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) AMONG SOLDIERS military that it could be
successfully accomplished.
An Ordinary Man, pp. 124 & 125.
The character of Colonel Oliver in "Hotel Rwanda" is modeled on the Force Commander
of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), Lt. General Roméo
Dallaire. General Dallaire told the U.N. headquarters in New York about the
government's planning for genocide in January, months before it occurred. He appealed
repeatedly to the U.N. and the international community for troops and equipment to
stop the killing. Instead of increasing his forces, the U.N. reduced his command by 80%
to 450 soldiers. All of his pleas were ignored until the RPF won the civil war and millions
of Hutu refugees were streaming into neighboring countries. It was only then that the
West acted, mounting significant humanitarian aid efforts.
General Dallaire and his truncated force of peacekeepers saved about 30,000 lives by
stationing small groups of blue helmeted soldiers outside a stadium and a few other
places where Tutsis were taking shelter. It did not take much to turn back the machetewielding Interahamwe. Hundreds of thousands more could have been saved had the
U.N. sent the troops Dallaire requested.
Don Cheadle, adding his voice
to the calls for decisive action
to stop the genocide in Darfur,
said: "I don't want to make
"Hotel Darfur."
Dallaire left Rwanda shortly after the RPF victory. His experiences in Rwanda had shaken
him to the core. In A Problem from Hell -- America and the age of Genocide, Samantha
Power describes Dallaire's revelations and mental state in the aftermath of his
deployment:
The genocide in Rwanda cost Roméo Dallaire a great deal. It is both paradoxical
and natural that the man who probably did the most to save Rwandans feels the
worst. By August 1994 Dallaire had a death wish. 'At the end of my command, I
drove around in my vehicle with no escort practically looking for ambushes,'
Dallaire recalls. 'I was trying to get myself destroyed and looking to get released See Witness To Evil: Roméo
from the guilt.'"
Dallaire and Rwanda for many
Haunted by memories of the gruesome deaths of countless innocent civilians, Dallaire
was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) about two years after the
film and audio clips of General
Dallaire and of Rwanda at the
time.
genocide. Years of psychological care and medication followed. Dallaire was the first
high-ranking military officer to go public with PTSD. On a video made to help fellow
soldiers cope with their battlefield experiences, he explained that "Sometimes I wish I'd
lost a leg instead of having all those grey cells screwed up. You lose a leg, it's obvious
and you've got therapy and all kind of stuff. You lose your marbles, very difficult to
explain, very difficult to gain that support that you need." Information Overload Bulletin
2001 A prosecutor recalled that in 1998 when the General testified at the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda his military demeanor began to crack shortly after he
began to testify. Dallaire said that he found it difficult to return to the details of the
genocide: "I had the sense of the smell of the slaughter in my nose and I don't know
how it, appeared but there was all of a sudden this sudden rush to my brain and to my
senses . . . Maybe with time, it will hurt less." Shake Hands with the Devil, by Romeo
Dallaire, forward by Samantha Power, pg. xv, 2005.
For more on General Dallaire's
leadership, see Leadership in
General Dallaire was forced to retire from the Canadian military due to his PTSD and his
the Canadian Armed Forces -refusal to refrain from criticizing the international community for its failure to stop the
Conceptual Foundations and
Rwandan genocide. He has continued to work to stop genocide. In 2002, he received the LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AT
first Aegis Award for genocide prevention in London. His book Shake Hands with the
THE OPERATIONAL LEVEL
Devil won the prestigious Canadian Governor General's Literary Award in 2004 and was RWANDA AND AN UNLAWFUL
ORDER By Colonel B. W.
a best seller in Canada for a short time. In 2004-05 he served as a Fellow at the Carr
MacLeod, a paper submitted
Center for Human Rights at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
to the Canadian Armed Forces
College.
DOES RWANDA HAVE A FUTURE?
How Does A Society Recover from Genocide?
How can a society recover from the horror of genocide when the perpetrators and the
survivors live side by side? No one knows the answer. There are perhaps three key
components. First, the people and those in power must recognize that continuing the
way things are is much worse than the pain of giving up their old prejudices and
hatreds. From this will come a determination to do what it takes to find the causes and
make sure that the genocide does not happen again. Second, there must be some
semblance of justice for both the victims and the survivors or a South African style
"truth and reconciliation" process. Third, the flaws in society that permitted the genocide
to occur must be rectified. For Rwanda, this means embracing the rule of law and
eliminating the culture of impunity. It means wiping out the distinctions between Tutsi
and Hutu, with equal opportunity for all.
THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT -- HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION IN THE 21ST
CENTURY
What should the international community do when faced with catastrophic
human rights violations within nation states?
In 1999, even though Russia's veto prevented the U.N. Security Council from authorizing
the use of force, the United States spearheaded a NATO intervention in Kosovo to
prevent ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Muslim ethnic Albanian population.
President Clinton, understanding that his leadership had failed in Rwanda, pushed this
intervention through despite doubts of the U.S. military. Under the leadership of General
Return to Learning Guide
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The hotel depicted in "Hotel
Rwanda" is the "Hotel Mille
Collines." It is still in operation
today under new owners.
"Mille Collines" was also the
name of the hate radio station
RTLM (Radio Television Libre
Mille Collines). "Mille Collines"
means "a thousand hills" in
French. Rwanda is often
referred to by its people as
the land of the "Mille Collines."
Wesley Clark, in conjunction with its NATO allies, the U.S. stopped the genocide. Kosovo
demonstrated that the international community could effectively act in concert to stop
human rights abuses.
Gareth Evans was Foreign Minister of Australia from 1988 to 1996 and is presently (as of
2006) President and Chief Executive of the International Crisis Group. This organization
works to prevent international conflict. In an article published in the Los Angeles Times,
The Dogs That Never Barked, Mr. Evans cited many successes of international
peacekeeping as of 2005. He reported that the "number of mass killings has fallen 80%
since the late 1980s .... And around the world, there has been a spectacular increase in
the number of civil conflicts resolved - as in Indonesia's separatist Aceh province [in
2004] - not by force but by negotiation." He gave primary credit to "the huge increase in
international efforts to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts." Mr. Evans noted that
descriptions of the extensive international diplomatic efforts necessary for these
successes are usually not reported on the evening news but they are nonetheless
important. Other examples cited by Mr. Gareth include: the successful presidential
election in Liberia in 2005 (a country that in the decade before 2005 suffered a
devastating civil war that was rife with human rights abuses), diplomatic efforts that
prevented a new civil war from erupting in Somalia, and the work of peacekeepers in
Sierre Leone.
One of the largest obstacles to an effective system of international intervention to
protect human rights is the concept of national sovereignty, i.e., the exclusive right of a
nation to exercise supreme authority over its people and its physical territory.
Traditionally, governments, even totalitarian dictatorships that retained power by force,
have had the right to deal with their citizens as they saw fit. There was no recognized
right of outsiders to intervene.
International law develops through experience and by following the practice of
governments. The condemnation heaped on the U.S., Belgium, France, and the U.N. for
failing to intervene to stop the killing in Rwanda showed that respect for national
sovereignty would no longer excuse the failure to protect a people from genocide
sponsored by the government in power. The 1999 Kosovo intervention showed that: (1)
governments can sacrifice their right to sovereignty by committing genocide against
groups within their borders; (2) the international community can act together in
stopping that genocide; and (3) international cooperation to stop genocide will be hailed
as a great success even if national sovereignty is sacrificed.
Following the practice of nations and most particularly what occurred in Kosovo, efforts
have been made to replace the concept of sovereignty with the "responsibility to
protect" ("R2P"). This is a national and international imperative that requires
governments to protect minorities at risk and justifies international action against
governments that fail to fulfill their responsibilities. (Applying R2P to the Kosovo crisis in
1999, the Serb dominated Yugoslav government was persecuting its Muslim ethnic
Albanian citizens. It thereby forfeited any right to object to international intervention. As
a result of the ongoing human rights abuses in Kosovo, the international community had
a responsibility to intervene, even when the U.N. refused to act.) Building primarily on
the actions of the international community in Kosovo the R2P was first enunciated in
2001 by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. It is
expressed as a continuum of obligations composed of: (1) the responsibility to prevent
human rights abuses, met by addressing the causes of internal conflict and other manmade crises; (2) the responsibility to react to human rights abuses, fulfilled when
situations of compelling human need are ameliorated; measures encompassed in the
"responsibility to react" include coercive measures such as sanctions, prosecution of
wrongdoers, and in an extreme situation, military intervention; and (3) the responsibility
to rebuild after coercive action, to help a nation recover if there have been sanctions,
military intervention, or other coercive action.
The concept of R2P has come a long way toward acceptance since 2001 and parts of it
have been adopted in various U.N. reports and resolutions. (For a description of these
events, see From Humanitarian Intervention to the Responsibility to Protect, a speech by
Mr. Evans to the Symposium on Humanitarian Intervention, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, March 31, 2006.) However, time will tell if this new concept will help the
international community ignore the "sovereign" right of nations and permit the
international community to intervene to stop genocide.
Discussion Questions:
QUICK DISCUSSION QUESTION FOR "HOTEL RWANDA": At the beginning of
the movie, the character of the hotel manager is unwilling to use some of the favors he
has stockpiled to help a neighbor. By the end of the movie his attitude was different.
When did this change begin and what caused it?
OTHER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
GENERAL QUESTIONS
2. What is a "culture of impunity" and how does it relate to the "rule of law"?
3. Could the Rwandan genocide have been stopped?
4. Who is to blame for the Rwandan genocide of 1994?
5. What is necessary for a genocide?
6. Can genocide happen by accident?
7. Should the U.S. have taken the lead in getting the international community to
intervene to stop the Rwandan genocide?
8. What is the concept of national sovereignty and what is R2P?
9. Can a country with a repressive government or which has been engulfed by political
and social chaos go directly to a multi-party democracy or must they go through
transitional stages which fall short of full representative democracy?
10. The genocidaires have been treated well in the prison run by the International
Criminal Tribunal. They receive adequate food. They are allowed to pray. If they are ill
they receive medicine. This is much more than they gave their victims and, in fact, they
are living better than many innocent people in Rwanda. Should they be treated this well?
11. Are the international tribunals in Arusha, which are prosecuting only a few highprofile genocidaires, just a way for the international community to wash its hands and
pretend that justice has been done?
12. How does a society move forward from a genocide?
13. European colonial powers held sway over large populations with a small number of
troops through technological superiority and the strategy of "divide and rule." The
Belgians pursued this strategy in Rwanda and the English ruled through division in some
of their colonies. What is "divide and rule" and how was it used in Rwanda and India?
QUESTIONS RELATING TO "HOTEL RWANDA"
PRE-VIEWING QUESTION - The first question below will help students focus on one of
the themes of the film as they view it. Ask the question before the film and let students
answer it afterwards.
14. At the beginning of the film, the character of the hotel manager comes home and
the children at his house are playing a game. He initially asks, "Who is the winner?" He
then answers his own question, "It doesn't matter, I have chocolates" which he then
passes out to all of the children. What does this show about the hotel manager and how
does it foreshadow what he does in the movie?
15. According to the Rwandan journalist in the movie, what are the differences between
the Hutus and the Tutsis? Was his description accurate?
16. What was the role of the radio in the genocide?
17. What does the bearded reporter say to Paul's belief that people around the world
would act when they see the footage of the murders? What do you think he means?
18. What tactics does the hotel manager use to keep the hotel open and the people
there safe?
19. In the movie, a genocidaire offered to let the hotel manager have a few Tutsis of his
own in exchange for turning over the rest of his neighbors and friends. What did the
hotel manager do?
20. When he finds out that the European soldiers are there only to take the foreign
nationals of out Rwanda, Colonel Oliver tells the hotel manager that "The West, all the
superpowers, everything you believe in, Paul. They think you're dirt. They think you're
dumb. You're worthless." He goes on to say, "You're the smartest man here. You got'em
eating out of your hands. You could own this hotel, except for one thing ... You're black.
You're not even a nigger, you're African. They're not gonna stay, Paul. They're not
gonna stop the slaughter." What did Captain Oliver mean by saying to the hotel
manager that he was not even a "nigger"?
21. At the beginning of the movie, the hotel manager talks to his assistant about the
importance of style. What role did style have in saving the Tutsi and moderate Hutu who
had sought refuge in the Hotel Mille Collines?
22. What were the similarities between Paul Rusesabagina and Oscar Schindler?
23. Did the hotel manager do the right thing by staying at the hotel and not leaving
with his wife and children on the first attempt to get them out?
COURAGE
2. How did the character of the hotel manager in "Hotel Rwanda" display courage?
FOR SUGGESTED
ANSWERS: click here.
3. Is it realistic to expect that a soldier who endures horrific experiences in war will
emerge emotionally unscathed?
Moral-Ethical Emphasis Discussion Questions (Character Counts)
1. Both the citizen who killed his Tutsi neighbor with a machete and the government
leader who convinced his people to do the killing but did not kill anyone himself are
criminals. Who commits the greater wrong?
RESPECT
(Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule; Be tolerant of differences; Use good
manners, not bad language; Be considerate of the feelings of others; Don't threaten, hit
or hurt anyone; Deal peacefully with anger, insults and disagreements)
2. Are the genocidaires, the ordinary people who took up machetes and killed their
neighbors, and the leaders who encouraged the genocide deserving of any respect at
all?
CITIZENSHIP
(Do your share to make your school and community better; Cooperate; Stay informed;
vote; Be a good neighbor; Obey laws and rules; Respect authority; Protect the
environment)
3. Some of the genocidaires may have thought that they were doing their patriotic duty
and protecting themselves by killing their neighbors. (This doesn't account for the
atrocities.) The communists in Cuba who persecute people for being counterrevolutionary believe that they are being patriotic. In the United States there have been
times when, in the interest of patriotism, the rights of citizens have been abused. An
example is the excesses of the McCarthyite era or when Japanese Americans were
interned during the Second World War. Should ethics limit patriotism?
Bridges to Reading: Three personal memoirs offer the most engaging reading on the
genocide for high school students:
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An Ordinary Man -- An Autobiography, by Paul Rusesabagina with Tom Zoellner,
Viking Penguin, The Penguin Group, New York, New York, April 2006; this is a
MOVIES ON RELATED TOPICS:
A PBS Documentary which can
be obtained from some
libraries is "Front Line: The
Triumph of Evil." This film
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fascinating and outstanding book; Mr. Rusesabagina shows that he is wise as well
as courageous; his memoir has much to say to people of any nation;
Shake Hands with the Devil; The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Lt General
Roméo Dallaire, The Avalon Group, New York, New York, 2005; this book was
Winner of the 2004 Canadian Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction;
Surviving the Slaughter; The ordeal of a Rwandan refugee in Zaire, by Marie
Beatrice Umutesi, Translated by Julia Emerson, The University of Wisconsin
Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 2004;
Other interesting books include:
(The first two books are literary treatments of the ruinous encounters of colonialists and
missionaries who invade the Congo.)
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describes the genocide and
the inadequate response of
the Western powers. It
contains footage shot from
about 1000 feet showing
people being hacked to death
with machetes and of people,
who most likely were later
killed, begging for protection
from white soldiers sent to
extricate foreign nationals
(almost always white). The
film is 60 minutes. The current
PBS documentary on sale is
120 minutes and is called
"Ghosts of Rwanda."
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad;
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver;
Speak Rwanda by Julian R. Sparks and Ejo: poems, Rwanda, 1991-1994 by
Derick Burleson, Madison; University of Wisconsin Press, c2000;
Eyewitness to a Genocide; the United Nations and Rwanda by Michael Barnett,
Cornell University Press, 2002;
Leave None to Tell the Story by Allison Des Forges;
A People Betrayed; The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide by Linda Melvern,
Zed Books Ltd, London and New York 2000;
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories
from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, New York : Picador USA : Farrar, Straus, and
Giroux, 1999;
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide Samantha Power; New
York : Basic Books, c2002;
Hope for Rwanda: Conversations with Laure Guilbert and Herve Deguine by André
Sibomana, Pluto Press London, England and Sterling, Virginia 1999;
Hotel Rwanda, Bringing the True Story of an African Hero to Film Edited by Terry
George, (director of the film). The book contains the script to the film and the to
the PBS Frontline Documentary, "The Triumph of Evil" and several articles on the
Rwandan genocide; and
Journey Into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda Thomas P. Odom; foreword by
Dennis J. Reimer. College Station, Texas A&M University Press, c2005.
OTHER LESSON PLANS:
Links to the Internet:
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PBS Web Site for "The Triumph of Evil". This site contains interviews with the
participants and scholars, a time line, texts of official documents, and many other
materials;
PBS Web Site for the Ghosts of Rwanda;
Captain Mbaye Diagne;
Wikipedia Article on the Rwandan Genocide;
Wikipedia Article on Paul Rusesabagina;
Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda; a comprehensive site from
Human Rights Watch;
Lesson Plan at the
Official Movie Web
Site;
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National Security Archive -- The US and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994 Evidence
of Inaction; this site contains links to many original documents generated by the
U.S. government during the crisis;
CIA Factbook Article on Rwanda;
The Responsibility to Protect, an article by Garth Evans on the PBS web site;
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda;
U.S. Department of State Report on Rwanda;
Web Site for the Movie from United Artists;
Amnesty International Library of Articles; search on Rwanda;
UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency; search for articles on Rwanda;
Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation;
AllAfrica.com provides news about the continent;
Hate Radio: Rwanda; for excerpts of the announcements from Radio RTLM;
Bystanders to Genocide by Samantha Power for the Atlantic Monthly;
Ethnicity as Myth: The View from Central Africa; and
Genocide in Rwanda: Fundamental Questions from the Irish Peace Society.