: Ghosts of Rwanda - Movie Review Example

Movie Review: Ghosts of Rwanda This is a movie written, produced, and directed by Greg Barker. The movie starts by explaining that there were about 800, 000 people who lost their lives through slaughtering because of the war between Hutus (forms the majority) and Tutsis (forms the minority). Majority of those who died were the Tutsis, and while this happened, the world turned away assuming that nothing was happening. On August 1993, General Romeo Dallaire, a United Nations force commander for Rwanda says they heard rumors going around that there was a 3rd party militia that was involved in a number of killings and assassinations. He further goes on to say that, he and his troops could at that moment do nothing about it since they had little background information concerning Rwanda. On January 1994, an informant from the third party also called the Hutu extremist snitched on about some very valuable information. He said that the extremists had plans to derail the peace agreement between the two tribes on power sharing. The majority, Hutus had continued to rule Rwanda since independence from Belgium in the early 1960’s. Koffi Annan, who was the one in charge of UN peace keeping, advised against any action whatsoever by general Dallaire. Annan knew that there was insufficient military back up if anything was to be done and he was hopeful that if Rwanda could be given more time it would probably be able to solve its issues despite the many threats by the extremist groups. Joyce Leader, the US ambassador for Kigali by then, says that they had already been warned with regard to this issue, prior to it happening but they did not heed due to the large magnitude of the issue. By April 8, 257, Americans were to be released by Laura Lane. This number comprised of all the Americans within the borders of Uganda. This was in a bid to ensure the safety of the American citizens as the events unfolded in Rwanda. All American citizens could be evacuated except only one who willingly decided to stay in order to help those affected by the genocide. Meanwhile, the Tutsi were being preparing to fight against the Hutus as they went ahead to import many machetes. On April 9, journalists had an opportunity to take pictures and verbally interact with the Tutsis that had been hiding in a small house for 3 days. These people see eked for help but the journalist could offer none. Bonaventure also gets to explain how the whites were untouched and could go about their business while within the confines of Rwanda, as if the blacks were the only ones destined to die. The Belgian troupes also pulled out from Rwanda after the torture and killing of 10 of their men. Madeleine Albright, the US ambassador for UN was instructed by Christopher, legal advisor, to push for withdrawal of the entire peace keeping force in order to avoid a repeat of what happened to the US soldier in Mogadishu, which literally brought the USA government and the presidency to its Knees. US soldiers were tortured and brutally murdered in Mogadishu, just a few months prior to the events in Rwanda. When General Dallaire seeks advice from his deputy, General Henry Anyidoho, since the Belgian troops had withdrawn, General Anyidoho resisted to withdraw his Ghanaian peace keeping troops despite USA and Belgian withdrawing its troops. This noble action by General Anyidoho provided hope to General Dallaire when he was almost giving up. It was also during this time that radio extremist was spreading propaganda, as they talked ill of Tutsis with the aim of getting the killed by the Hutus. On April 15 1994, in an area called Nyambuye, there were Hutus who managed to hide in the church but unfortunately, they were found and hacked to death by the Tutsi extremists. Valentina Iribagaza, a Tutsi schoolgirl who was one of those who were in the church at that time, was able to explain how she narrowly escaped death by camouflaging herself among the death and later on hid in a small room for 43 days. Phillipe one of the Red Cross doctors offering medical services to the injured, talks of six patients being killed as they were being transferred to the medical camps. They later on went public about it. This rather threatened the extremist and they later on succumbed to the Red Cross wishes of transporting patients and medical supplies without any interference. On April 25 1994, approximately four weeks since the Rwanda genocide had begun an estimated 300, 000 Rwandans had been killed. On May 3rd Prudence Bushvellhe, the assistant secretary of state for Africa, made a call to the leader of the Rwandan extremist and even Paul Kagame who was in charge of the Tutsi troops by then, to stop the killings. A Senegalese soldier, by the name of Mbae was able to save lives through hiding and transporting survivors secretively, but unfortunately, he was murdered in cold blood in his car. Six weeks since the genocide commenced, UN Security Council changed course and authorized 3000 more peacekeeping troops to go to Rwanda. This did not come easy since Anan had approached almost 80 governments but all declined to provide their troops. On the 7th week, Bill Clinton had made it clear that USA would only intervene only if it were according to American interests, but after visiting Rwanda and actually seeing the magnitude of the genocide he was able to say that much could have been done if they reacted faster. Fortunately, by July 1994, a 100 days after the start of the genocide, it ended after the Tutsi rebels won. Work Cited Macrae, J. “Genocide in Rwanda.” Disasters 1996: 281–285. Web. Read More