Hotel Rwanda

A heroic character evolves in a tragic story in the factual movie Hotel Rwanda. In 1994 a civil genocide erupted in the landlocked country of Rwanda. The Hutu’s massacred their long-time rivals; the Tutsi’s.

In just one hundred days, almost one million Tutsi’s were killed by the vengeful Hutu’s. The hatred between the two ethnic groups built up over centuries of oppression, misunderstandings and colonization.

During these events, one man, Paul Rusesabagina (played by award-winning Don Cheadle) stood up against the raging Hutu’s and housed over a thousand Tutsi’s within his hotel walls. He saved their lives as their country fell apart around them.

Many westerners and Europeans were located in this hotel at the beginning of the genocide. Consequently their respective native land’s governments removed them from this violent area. These countries did not make an attempt to intervene with the fighting though.

Canada had a peace keeping contingent located in Rwanda at the time. The contingent was lead by Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire. He continually asked the Canadian government and the United Nations for backup to help secure peace, but he never received any.

Due to a lack of commitment by the United Nations around one million innocent Rwandans died. It is up to the United Nations to protect innocent civilians around the world and to prevent them from being harmed in any event that threatens their well being.

The United Nations was created ultimately to protect human rights. I am not sure how this terrible genocide was missed by the United Nations and how they have let so many people down. It is their duty as they claim to prevent these tragic events and we will hold them responsible to act upon these events in the future. The United Nations is a strong and very enlightened apparatus of the international society and it is important that it can always function properly and clearly to intervene in such situations.