Clare Short
Review of “Hotel Rwanda”
“Hotel Rwanda” by Keir Pearson/Terry George, directed by Terry George
Review by Clare Short
The Times
24 February 2005
Hotel Rwanda’s story is basically true to the real events that took place in Rwanda eleven years ago. A million people were slaughtered in three months in an organised and systematic attempt to wipe out a whole people. And the world stood by and did nothing.
After the Holocaust in Europe, a genocide convention was negotiated. It laid down that whenever genocide is threatened, the world must intervene to prevent it. Almost every country ratified the convention and agreed to be bound by it. In Rwanda, there was a UN force present, as the film shows, but despite repeated messages to UN headquarters warning that genocide was being organised, they were not reinforced or permitted to act. The UK amongst others, called at the Security Council for UN forces to be withdrawn just as the genocide was getting going. The leader of the UN force was a Canadian Major-General who plays a major role in the film. He understood what was threatened and sent repeated messages calling for help, but was constantly let down by New York. The UN force was in Rwanda to monitor the implementation of a peace agreement negotiated between rebel forces and the government of Rwanda. The rebels were led by Tutsi exiles who had been driven out of Rwanda into neighbouring Uganda in bouts of ethnic killing since Rwanda became independent in 1962.
In fact, the supposed difference between Tutsi and Hutu was a Belgian colonial myth, as was explained in a conversation at the bar during the film. In Rwanda some people are tall and thin like Somalis and Ethiopians tend to look, and some more stocky with flatter noses, like central Africans. Some kept cattle and some tilled the soil. All spoke the same language and often intermarried. The Belgians set up studies of the length of noses and necks and then classified Rwandans into Tutsi and Hutu. All were issued with passbooks and the Tutsi were given privileges and access to education and used to assist the colonial regime. This was of course part of the old colonial device of divide and rule.
As independence movements spread across Africa, the Belgians realised they would have to go and the Tutsi could not win elections. So they switched sides and handed power over to the Hutu people who were hungry for power and property. Rwanda is an exceptionally beautiful country. This was not portrayed in the film which is largely confined to the events in the hotel. It is also extremely fertile, but has a very large population, partly thanks to Catholic missionaries’ hostility to contraception.
And thus we have the conditions for genocide – a racial myth, poverty and overcrowded land and a rebel army led by Tutsis. The peace agreement favoured the sharing of power and a new settlement where all would be treated equally. But Hutu extremists favoured ‘Hutu Power’. Just as in The Balkans, a radio station polarised the population by pouring out messages of hate and threat. And then when the preparations were complete, the President’s plane was shot down and the slaughter began. People killed under orders. The Tutsis fled to churches and massacres took place in most churches in the country. Priests and nuns joined in the killing. Tutsis also fled to camp around the UN base. But the UN troops were withdrawn and they were slaughtered surrounding the UN camp.
The film shows very well how the slaughter could have been halted. The Rwandan General Bizimungu is regularly supplied with whiskey and other flavours by the hero of the film – Don Cheadle – in return for keeping the residents of the hotel safe. A number of times, ‘Hutu power’ forces armed with machetes invade the hotel, then troops with full military equipment turn up and display their fire power, and the Hutu extremists run away.
But the Security Council failed to act and the killing was brought to an end when the rebel army took the capital. At this point the leaders of the genocide called on all their followers to leave Rwanda for neighbouring Congo so that they could reorganise to continue the fight. Millions left and it was at this point that the cameras and the NGOs turned up. The focus was on the refugees in Congo and therefore their leaders – the perpetrators of the genocide – were provided with food and other supplies to distribute. And thus they got organised in Congo to make incursions into Rwanda and continue their project of exterminating all Tutsis.
The story is not yet ended. Rwanda is rebuilding magnificently. The passbooks are abolished. A record number of children are in school, the economy is growing. But the forces of the genocide are still attacking from Congo and being armed and supported by elements in Congo who have bought into the racial myth. And refugees across Europe who were on the side of the genocidaire tell lies about the Rwandan government and influence our NGOs to campaign for cuts in aid to Rwanda. And the UK – which is the biggest supporter of Rwandan reconstruction – is persuaded to suspend aid payments. If this keeps happening, Rwanda will fail and that will lead to a return to ethnic killing.
In the meantime, to the North East of Rwanda in Darfur there is ethnic conflict over land and resources. This time it has been denounced as ‘genocide’ by the greatest power in the world. But the Security Council has not mandated a peace enforcement force. There are a little over 1000 African Union monitors. Ironically, many of them are Rwandan. But there aren’t enough, they don’t have the right powers or equipment and thus the killing continues and we keep being told “Never again”.
Clare Short MP
