Monday, April 06, 2009

Rwanda Remembers...The 15th Anniversary of the Rwandan Massacre

Today marks the 15 Anniversary of the Rwandan Massacre which started on 6th April 1994 lasting for 100 days whereby 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu people were massacred by Hutus in Rwanda. The Hutus are the majority in Rwanda and sought to eliminate the Tutsi minority through ethnic cleansing. I personally was horrified when i learnt about this massacre in 2004 on the 10th Anniversary. To me, it was like the Nanking Massacre or Holocaust and i cried (as usual ) when i watched the movie Oscar-nominated movie 'Hotel Rwanda' which showed the massacre based on the true story of a moderate Hutu whom used his connections and status as the manager of a foreign-owned hotel to ultimately save over 1000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus whom sought refuge at the hotel.

I was so angry when i found out that the world did nothing and allowed the massacre to continue, fiddling out and the UN even cut back its peacekeeping force in Rwanda as the massacre worsened. Furthermore, extra troops were brought in overnight to shuttle the Western expats and diplomats stuck in Rwanda whilst leaving behind the Rwandans...truly horrifying and racists!!! And i thought the world said never again after the Holocaust happened..
obviously the world only cared if it were a white race which appeared to be killed and not Africans...

Watching 'Hotel Rwanda' also showed me how similar massacres are everywhere, with mass killings on the streets and women being raped or taken back to 'barracks' to be kept as sex slaves...reminded me of the Rape of Nanking...eery..

The Rwandan Massacre would rate as one of the worst massacres in modern 20th Century History in my opinion considering the brutal method of ethnic cleansing used (machetes hacking people to pieces!), mass rapes incidence, and the speed in which people were killed (800,000 in merely 100 days)...so let's take a moment to reflect and mourn for the Rwandans killed on this 15th Anniversary of the Massacre and think what more can be done in the Darfur Crisis and Congo Crisis happening right now.

'Hotel Rwanda': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWROLZXgrHk&feature=channel_page -Please watch!!! Highly Recommended:-)

'Ghosts of Rwanda': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ3-_K6s-pg&feature=channel_page -A highly worthwhile 'Frontline' documentary on the Rwandan Massacre.

5 comments:

aimlesswanderer said...

Sadly, developed countries, when it comes to actually doing something about all sorts of terrible things in Africa (or other unfortunate areas of the world where they have little interest), are rarely prepared to actually do anything.

Good recent example: the mess in Darfur, where the noise and outrage came from developed countries, but when it came to actually putting soldiers on the ground, nope, it was left to African countries. They did contribute most of the $ though.

hcpen said...

aimlesswanderer: yeah, but then again, its an african problem so i expect african countries to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their regional issues, we can't expect Western nations to always be responsibile for all the world's wars and problems..but then again, there shouldn't be differences in policy based on race.:)

aimlesswanderer said...

So by your logic then, the African countries should have done something about Rwanda and the west should have made noise but not given much support?

In many cases the African counties are unwilling or unable to intervene when things get messy.

hcpen said...

aimlesswanderer: yeah, i do expect african nations to do more, not that i mean the western nations should just make noise, but i certainly would not feel that the western nations have to be condemned severely if they don't act as much as they should..i think the idea of western money but african troops is a good one..

Louisville Professional Organizer said...

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