Club Name : HOTELRWANDASOMETIMESINAPRIL Description : THE GENOCIDE IN RWANDA On April 6 1994 the plane carrying Rwanda's president was shot down, almost certainly the work of an extremist. This was the trigger needed for the Hutus' planned 'Final Solution' to go into operation. The Tutsis were accused of killing the president, and Hutu civilians were told, by radio and word of mouth, that it was their duty to wipe the Tutsis out. First, though, moderate Hutus who weren't anti-Tutsi should be killed. So should Tutsi wives or husbands. Genocide began. Up to a million people died before the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), some of whose personnel are Hutu, was able to take full control. Unlike the instigators of the killings of Armenians in 1915, and of Jews and Roma in 1941-5, no-one tried to keep the genocide in Rwanda a secret. Journalists and television cameras reported what they saw, or what they found when the genocide was over. There was even a UN force (UNAMIR) in place, monitoring the ceasefire and now obliged to watch as people were killed in the street by grenades, guns and machetes. ('We have no mandate to intervene.' UNAMIR did their best to protect trapped foreigners, until they were pulled out of Rwanda altogether.) But the genocide organizers were conscious of the risks of international scrutiny: over the radio the killers were constantly incited to continue, but 'No more corpses on the roads, please'. Corpses in the countryside were covered with banana leaves to screen them from aerial photography. Although on a large scale, this genocide was carried out entirely by hand, often using machetes and clubs. The men who'd been trained to massacre were members of civilian death squads, the Interahamwe ('those who fight together'). Transport and fuel supplies were laid on for the Interahamwe - even remote areas were catered for. Where the killers encountered opposition, the Army backed them up with manpower and weapons. The State provided Hutu Power's supporting organization; politicians, officials, intellectuals and professional soldiers deliberately incited (and where necessary bribed) the killers to do their work. Local officials assisted in rounding up victims and making suitable places available for their slaughter. Tutsi men, women, children and babies were killed in thousands in schools. They were also killed in churches: some clergy colluded in the crime. The victims, in their last moments alive, were also faced by another appalling fact: their cold-blooded killers were people they knew - neighbors, work-mates, former friends, sometimes even relatives through marriage. Even aid agencies were helpless; having let into compound or hospital people injured or in flight, they were forced to leave them there. Few survived. Cold blood, with a shot of motivating fear, was what the planners wanted: the Interahamwe weren't fuelled by drink, drugs or mindless violence, but by fanatic dedication to a political cause. There were indeed people stoked-up on drink or hysteria or a manic wish to show they were 'on the right side' ; but when these mavericks began to join in and kill on whim, local administrators called for police assistance: such 'disorderly elements' might derail the genocide programme. A MODERN GENOCIDE The Rwandan conflict of the 1990s marked one of the bloodiest chapters in recent African history. The genocide was made all the more tragic by the fact that most of the world chose to ignore the conflict and the plight of the Rwandan people. While occasional reports about "tribal warfare" in Rwanda were carried by international news agencies, the horror of the conflict, instead of causing international outrage, seemed to be written off as another "third world incident" and not worthy of attention. Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda. The streets of the capital city of Kigali ran red with rivers of blood, but no one came to help. There was no international intervention in Rwanda, no expeditionary forces, no coalition of the willing. There was no international aid for Rwanda. Rwanda's Hutu extremists slaughtered their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus who stood in their way, and the world left them to it. "Ten years on, politicians from around the world have made the pilgrimage to Rwanda to ask for forgiveness from the survivors, and once more the same politicians promise 'never again,'" says director Terry George. "But it's happening yet again in Sudan, or the Congo, or some Godforsaken place where life is worth less than dirt. Places where men and women like Paul and Tatiana shame us all by their decency and bravery." Wars have always provided fertile ground for the emergence of heroes and supreme acts of heroism by ordinary people. Rwanda was no exception. Amidst the horrendous violence and chaos that swept the country, one of the many heroes to emerge was Paul Rusesabagina, an ordinary man who, out of love and compassion, managed to save the lives of 1268 people. Terry George had long been interested in doing a film set in Africa, but it was Paul Rusesabagina's story that finally brought him to the continent. "When my co-writer Keir Peirson introduced me to the story, I immediately knew I wanted to do it," says George. "I flew to Belgium and met Paul and learned of his life: how he became a hotelier, how he rose through the ranks of employees in the various Sabena hotels he worked in, and how he ended up at the Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali." It was the remarkable human element of the story that struck a chord with Hotel Rwanda producer Alex Ho. "This story is very close to my heart, and it's the kind of story I really appreciate," he says. "It's about a normal man who, when prompted by his wife, is able to use his position to help others. In the course of doing that, he sets out on a journey that makes him a better man." HOTEL RWANDA: THE MOVIE Don Cheadle gives a riveting performance as Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a European-owned hotel in Rwanda, who created a secret refugee camp for the Tutsi people during the brutal genocide committed against them by the Hutu people in 1994. His efforts helped to save 1200 lives out of close to a million who were killed. HOTEL RWANDA shows this man's courage, while also capturing the political events that occurred between April and September '94. First, United Nations soldiers are restricted from fighting back against Hutu guerillas, even after the Rwandan president is assassinated and the country is thrown into chaos. But as the fighting worsens, all non-Rwandans including UN peacekeepers, Europeans, and Americans are evacuated. This leaves the Tutsi people defenseless against aggressive Hutus who are armed with machine guns and machetes. While working the system with strategic phone calls to powerful international contacts of the hotel, Rusesabagina also uses smart lies and power plays to hold off the Hutus. The morale among the refugees is low, but because they are protected from the inconceivable brutality happening outside the hotel's gates, they maintain a sense of hope. Powerful acting from all cast members, including throngs of children, makes this film touching and believable. Sophie Okonedo offers moving support as Rusesabagina's wife Tatiana, Nick Nolte shows knowing machismo as an American UN officer, and Joaquin Phoenix turns in a heartfelt display as a TV journalist. But it is the delicate treatment that director Terry George gives the insane, helpless situation depicted in HOTEL RWANDA which makes the film so penetrating. While the violence and gore of the genocide play a disturbing part in the film, the focus lies on the heroism of its protagonist and the strength with which he navigates under seemingly impossible odds. HOMAGE TO A BRAVE MAN: PAUL RUSESABAGINA In January 2003, Terry George traveled to Rwanda to research the story and familiarize himself with the country. "I was also looking for answers," says George. "Why the genocide? Why were so many people murdered in the space of 100 days, the fastest genocide in modern history? I also wanted to get a sense of the ordinary people of Rwanda and listen to their stories. George was accompanied on his visit by Paul Rusesabagina. It was the first time Paul had returned to Rwanda since the atrocities. While in Rwanda they were able to travel, film the various locations and meet many of the people who took refuge at the Milles Collines hotel, including Odette Nyrimilimo, her husband Jean Baptiste Gacacere, and various members of Paul's family. "It was a unique privilege to visit Rwanda with Paul," says George, "to get a sense of the love and admiration people had for him. When we walked back into the Hotel Mille Collines, we met many of the survivors, cooks, cleaners, people Paul had sheltered. There was true joy in their eyes." Though many of George's experiences in Rwanda were positive and he took inspiration from the many people he met, nothing could have prepared him for what he experienced when visiting one of the massacre sites. "We paid a visit to a former technical college at Marambi in Southern Rwanda," says George. "I passed through rooms filled with the mummified skeletons of some of the 40,000 people who were massacred over four days in April 1994. As I listened to the sole survivor of that massacre tell of those days, I truly felt there was nothing more important in my life than to make this film." In visiting Rwanda, George was also able to see the incredible beauty of Rwanda and to investigate the politics of the extremist Hutu government, how their radio station RTML spewed forth hate and venom towards the Tutsi and how prejudice and fear drove ordinary people to believe that they had to massacre their neighbors in order to preserve their existence. "If I had to point to the one factor that sparked this genocide," says George, "it was that radio station. We feature that radio station as a character in the film. I need people to understand the power of that propaganda. When adapting Hotel Rwanda for the screen, it was important to George and Peirson that the film not be structured or perceived as a documentary, but rather an emotional distillation of the events and facts of Paul's life that gives the audience an intimate, insider's view of the events that took place at the Hotel Mille Collines at the time. "I find it most important to tell a story based on character and the evolution of that character, as well as the strengths of the character," says George. "We have highlighted the particular events that formulated his triumph - his ability to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds. I enjoy my work best when it's a project that will enlighten and hopefully invigorate people." Hotel Rwanda is, for the most part, a deeply personal story, and it's uniquely focused on one building (the hotel), the people within it, and the relationships between them. The filmmakers deliberately avoided focusing on the overwhelming horror of the genocide itself. "When the film ventures outside into Kigali during the genocide, we tried to create this bizarre, surreal atmosphere, to let viewers feel the psychological terror of the genocide without going close on the slaughter." Says Alex Ho, "This is a powerful human drama, not a horror story, and we believe it is important that the widest possible audience should see it." SOMETIMES IN APRIL HBO pushes the envelope once again with this dramatization of the brutal events that befell the citizens of Rwanda in April 1994. Director Raoul Peck shot the bulk of the picture in Rwanda, adding an incredible feeling of poignancy to his film by revisiting many of the sites where the unthinkable acts of genocide occurred. Peck focuses his cameras on two Hutu brothers, a military man and a DJ. The Hutu's were responsible for the estimated 800,000 deaths of their Tutsi countrymen during this period; the violence was sparked when Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana--also a Hutu--was killed after his plane was shot down on April 6th. As the gruesome events unfold, the two brothers lives are immeasurably changed in ways they never thought possible. Hard hitting and not afraid to depict many of the graphic scenes of violence that exploded across Rwanda during this dark chapter in Africa's history, SOMETIMES IN APRIL is a courageous, brave piece of filmmaking that stands alongside Terry George's HOTEL RWANDA as an important document of a tragic time. A FEW BOOKS I HIGHLY RECOMMEND We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda Kill Thy Neighbor: One Man's Incredible Story of Loss & Deliverance in Rwanda Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda Genocide and the International Community The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe, and Power in the Heart of Africa Touched By Fire: Doctors Without Borders in a Third World Crisis Hotel Rwanda: Bringing the True Story of an African Hero to Film Me Against My Brothers: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide The International Dimensions of Genocide in Rwanda Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide Rwanda Genocide: What the U.S. Knew Rwanda: Death, Despair, and Defiance Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey Genocide: Rwanda & Burundi the Campaign to End Genocide: An Initiative of Citizens for Global Solutions http://www.endgenocide.org/ the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda http://www.ictr.org/ The Triumph of Evil: How the West Ignored Warnings of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and Turned its Back on the Victims http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/ Valentina's Nightmare: A Journey into the Rwanda Genocide http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/ Rwanda: How the genocide happened http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/currentaffairs/region/northamerica/us010823.html Gendercide Watch: Rwanda http://www.gendercide.org/case_rwanda.html Remembering Rwanda: The Rwanda 10th Anniversary Memorial Project http://www.visiontv.ca/RememberRwanda/index.htm Genocide Watch http://www.genocidewatch.org In the last 100 years, due to genocide alone, we have bore witness to the death of over 75 million people, including ... 25 million Soviets, not including 7 million in Stalin's forced famine 6 million Jews and over 7.5 million others, including 6 million Poles, 500,000 Gypsies, and 15,000 homosexuals, in the Nazi Holocaust 6 million Gypsies and Slavs 3 million Ukrainians 3 million Cambodians 2 million Sudanese and counting... 1.6 million North Koreans and counting... 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey 1.5 million Bengalis 1.2 million Tibetans 1 million Ibos 800,000 Rwandans 500,000 Ugandans 500,000 Indonesians 300,000 Burundians 200,000 East Timorese 200,000 Guatemalans 200,000 Bosnians