GLR #2 Hotel Rwanda

1. The problem in Rwanda was the hatred that the Hutu people felt towards the Tutsi people. This created a heavily divided country filled with tension. This hatred stemmed from the German and Belgian colonial rules, in which the Tutsi were the more powerful group. After Rwanda started having elections the Hutu came to power and began to take revenge on the Tutsi, which led to genocide. The Hutu began to campaign against the Tutsi, depicting them as lesser people much the same way that Hitler depicted the Jews. The Hutu assassinated the leader of Rwanda and assumed control of the country. They then began to systematically and brutally kill Tutsis by the thousands.

2. The international community's response was minimal at best and totally unacceptable. As seen in the movie the UN had a limited amount of troops there who were unautorized to defend against the violent Hutu gangs. When the violence erupted the Western countries pulled their people out instead of sending more troops to suppress the genocide. This cost hundreds of thousands of lives and these deaths could have been avoided by sending troops from Western countries to regain control of the country. The UN and the Western powers turned a blind eye to the problems in Rwanda and didn't respond until the genocide was well under way. The genocide is a black eye for the Western countries that failed to stop it and it appears that the lessons of this have been forgotten due to the situation in Darfur.

3. The film showed just how much hatred there still is in the world today. Americans read of the Holocaust and many think that events like that are things of the past. Rwanda and Darfur prove that genocides still happen and the powerful countries are not interested enough to help. It doesn't appear that the United States learned anything from Rwanda based on our lack of interest in the genocide currently going on in Darfur. Our foreign policy is based completely on what benefits us the most. Their is nothing of benefit for us in Darfur and therefore we will not easily be enticed to intervene when we are busy with Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States likes to pretend we are all about "liberating" countries so they can enjoy democracy. If this were true, the Sudan and its Darfur region would be on the top of our list due to the violence and genocide going on there.