Sometimes we dehumanize other people to the point where we justify ruthless murder and engage in war. For most of us HUFSans, this kind of murder is very distant. How could people have the audacity to take the life of other people on an imperceivably large scale as they do in war? In times of peace, such acts are stories to be read from history books, and though the threat of ruthless killing always exists, it has been numbed down to unalarming background noise. Nevertheless, humankind is aware of the subset of war known as genocide: the Nazi Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and countless more smear our history. And to some, the wounds of genocide are still fresh. April 7th, 2020 marks the 26th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. Just as the Korean War was part of the identity of many Koreans following the ceasefire of the Korean War, the genocide is still fresh to the people of Rwanda. The Argus, through the film Hotel Rwanda, looks into the 100 days of killing that happened to the Tutsi and moderate Hutus of Rwanda, then carefully sifts through the events to decipher what led to genocide.

History of Rwanda, a nation meddled with

 In order to understand the Rwandan genocide, it is necessary to know the history that precedes the incident and some basic facts about Rwanda.

 In Rwanda, there are three ethnic groups: the main two groups known as the Hutu and the Tutsi, and a pygmy people called the Twa. Why they emerged as two distinct ethnic groups is unknown. There are several theories, all without substantial evidence that they are, in fact, different people. Some believe that the Hutu and Tutsi have different ancestors from different lands. Others believe that this distinction comes from their occupations. Either way, Tutsi are traditionally pastoralists who grazed cattle, while the agrarian Hutus grew crops. It is believed that Tutsis amassed enough wealth and power to become the ruling class of the Kingdom of Rwanda, a pre-colonial state that controlled Rwanda.

 When the Germans took over in the late 19th century, they did not actively participate in the rule of Rwanda but supported the rule of the Tutsi. During World War I, the Belgians took over Rwanda. In the process of modernizing Rwanda, the Belgians promoted Tutsi superiority. It was during Belgian colonial times that people were given identity cards labelling them either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalized. This widened the gap between Hutu and Tutsi.

 Meanwhile, the Hutu were not completely marginalized. After the end of World War II in 1945, Hutu elites developed in power to counter the Tutsi. The Catholic church had close ties to the Hutu elite, some of whom were clergy in high ranking positions. They were voices that called for Hutus emancipation, which eventually led to the Rwandan Revolution in 1959. In the power struggle between the Hutus and Tutsis, the former rioted and burned down Tutsi homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of Tutsis to flee to neighboring countries as refugees.

 The exiled Tutsis formed militias and executed numerous, but unsuccessful attacks on Rwanda over the next few decades. In the 80’s, many of the Tutsis who had fled to Uganda joined the Ugandan Bush War (also known as the Ugandan Civil War) and helped the side that eventually secured power. They tried to get the Ugandans to start a war with Rwanda, but when this failed, Tutsi Fred Rwigyema formed the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1990. With an experienced fighting force, Rwigyema led troops into Rwanda, starting the Rwandan Civil War. The RPF’s leader died early in the war, which led to a leadership change. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s current president, took power.

 At that time, Rwanda had been ruled by Juvénal Habyarimana for 17 years. He was a moderate Hutu with extremists, such as his wife, by his side. This small group of Hutu extremists called the Akazu spread anti-Tutsi propaganda. They vilified Tutsis and moderate Hutus who maintained good relations with the Tutsis. In August 1993, the RPF and Habyarimana’s government, with the help of France and the USA, agreed to a ceasefire called the Arusha Accords. This divided the government into two parties, Habyarimana’s ruling party which was called the MRND (National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development) and the RPF.

 Many Hutus, however, were angered by this peace treaty. An ideology known as Hutu Power, spread by government-controlled radio stations, radicalized many Hutus. They instructed people on how to deal with the Tutsi. Many groups, including the Interahamwe, the youth wing of the MRND, became militant. The various militias were receiving training from the Rwandan armed forces.

 These were the events that led to the Rwandan genocide.

Plot of the film Hotel Rwanda

 Hotel Rwanda is a 2004 film based on true events that happened during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It depicts the actions of a hotelier named Paul Rusesabagina and his efforts to save over 1,200 refugees who were doomed to be victims of genocide.

 In April 1994, the tension between the Hutu and Tutsi had reached a breaking point. The peace that followed the Rwandan Civil War was brittle. Paul Rusesabagina, born to a Hutu father and Tutsi mother, was leading his life as a hotelier, often gaining favor with the various elites that visited the hotel in which he worked. Though of mixed origin and married to a Tutsi, Paul’s identity was ultimately Hutu, which he utilized to maintain good relations with wealthy Hutu suppliers and generals. Rusesabagina’s interpersonal skills had him rise through the ranks to become the House Manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali, Rwanda. This four-star hotel owned by Sabena, Belgium’s national airline, catered mainly to westerners.

 Upon the assassination of President Habyarimana, the brittle peace between the Hutu and Tutsi broke. Though the assassins were unknown, the event was enough to throw the nation into disorder. The Hutu started their ethnically motivated killing of the Tutsi. The Rwandan Armed Forces and the Interahamwe set up roadblocks and members of the Hutu Power went from door to door, killing the Tutsi and any Hutu trying to protect them.

 As the unrest began to unfold, Rusesabagina negotiated the safety of his neighbors and family with the access he had to hotel vaults in Kigali. He brought the refugees, a mix of Tutsis and Hutus, to the Hotel des Milles Collines where they joined westerners and wealthy Rwandans who were staying there. UN Peacekeepers stood their guard at the Milles, which led Paul to believe that they were there to protect all refugees including the natives. Red Cross and foreign press were present, and the entire world called for humanitarian intervention. Rusesabagina was sure that he and his refugees would soon escape the nightmare. However, he could not have been more wrong.

 French and Belgian troops came to the rescue, but to Paul’s harrowing realization, they were only interested in the non-Rwandans stuck in the hotel. Buses came to take only those with foreign passports, mainly white westerners. How indifferent were they to Rwandans? As the select few were about to leave the hotel, a van full of children pulled up, and a priest stepped out, begging the people on the bus to take them. The soldiers would not allow this, and the expats left, hearts shattered that they could not do anything. The world had seen what was going on in Rwanda, but the foreign governments stayed detestably neutral.

 In the ensuing days, it was up to Rusesabagina to make the hotel look like it is under normal operations to the radicalized Hutu who were looking to kill the refugees. By doing so, he warded off potential killers. This was necessary as everyone had identification papers that labeled them either Hutu or Tutsi. By this point in the genocide, Hutu extremists were sometimes killing people who failed to promptly provide ID. Like usual, Paul managed the hotel, all while trying to find a way to save everyone.

 The hotel at this point had run out of supplies, so Rusesabagina went to the workplace of a Hutu businessman who he had often traded with. The businessman had turned into a warlord and was leading Hutus who were going around killing the Tutsi. There were Tutsi sex slaves and weapons at his compound. Because of their Hutu ties and prior acquaintance, the businessman gave Paul a pass and gave him supplies but blatantly asked if he knew the location of any Tutsis or Tutsi-protecting Hutus. It was almost as if he knew that Paul was harboring Tutsis at the Milles. The hotel manager stoically said no. In response to this, Paul’s once close business-partner recommended Paul to take a certain route back to his hotel. He took the advice, and on this road, he found hundreds of massacred people - it was a clear warning to Paul about loyalty.

 With even more motivation to escape, Paul’s efforts to negotiate his way out of the situation doubled. Some of the members of the hotel, being a part of the Rwandan elite, had connections to the outside world. Using all their connections, they started reaching out to notable acquaintances and friends abroad to let the world know that they were trapped. One by one, different countries granted visas to the refugees, and on paper, they were finally allowed to leave Rwanda.

 However, they were still surrounded by marauding murderers. Radio stations promoting Hutu Power were continually calling for the murder of Tutsis and anyone protecting them. Even when the refugees tried to secretly leave on UN trucks, the information of their escape was leaked, and they were attacked by Hutu militia. This was only stopped by Paul’s bribing, then blackmailing of General Bizimungu of the Rwandan Army. (Bizimungu was later tried for war crimes at the UN War Crimes Tribunal and sentenced to 30 years in prison.) This convinced the general allowed Paul and the refugees to leave. The refugees left the hotel in a UN convoy and finally met freedom.

 All throughout this ordeal, it is preconditioned in the movie that horrible acts of murder were concurrently happening outside the compounds of the Hotel des Milles Collines. According to the UN, the three months of killing claimed more than 800,000 lives. On average, 8,000 people died each day.

Controversy and facts surrounding the film

 This film has received praise from many but was also on the receiving end of rather harsh criticism. Various critics included it on their list of the top 10 best films of 2004 and the film won several awards in the humanitarianism category. Indeed, the film is a testimony of Paul Rusesabagina’s experience of the horrifying genocide in Rwanda. However, many came forward after the film’s release to criticize its plot as historical revisionism and put Paul Rusesabagina under scrutiny.

 A Hutu worker of the hotel Rusesabagina managed was villainized in the film. Pasa Mwenenganucye was portrayed as a traitor to the refugees of the hotel. However, the Rwandan created a website where he put together anything that demerits Rusesabagina and accounts of other survivors that deal with his actual role at the hotel. However, the site Mwenenganucye once ran is no longer active.

 The New Times, Rwanda’s largest private media corporation established in 1995, often criticizes Mr. Rusesabagina as well. One must look at the situation as objectively as possible, however. The New Times calls itself “private,” but according to the non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights called Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New Times is a “state-owned” newspaper that often contributes to government censorship of certain facts. Articles regularly include quotes from Kagame that attack Rusesabagina.

 Paul Rusesabagina continues to give speeches at various human rights events, but his non-profit organization, Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation no longer has an online trail. According to a letter from Rusesabagina to the UNHCR commissioner in 2017 published by “La Tribune Franco-Rwandaise,” the human rights advocate was exiled from Rwanda into Belgium, then had no choice but leave Belgium due to threats on his life by those working for the Rwandan government.

 Countless reports can be found of Rusesabagina’s humanitarian effort as well as reasonable criticism. Some parts of the movie were exaggerated for the Hollywood audience and Rusesabagina’s motives are questioned from time to time. There is no universal consensus on whether the former hotel manager’s ultimate motives and intentions fit in line with those depicted in the film. It is clear, however, that only the western media seems to be portraying him as one of the main reasons so many refugees made it out alive of the Hotel des Milles Collines. One may question the lack of other survivor testimonies of “Hotel Rwanda.” Other sources criticizing Rusesabagina are obscure and do not leave behind enough trails for fact-checking.

Rwanda today: getting better?

 It has only been 26 years since the gruesome events unfolded, but Rwanda is steadily recovering. Its Human Development Index has been on the rise along with a decrease in poverty rate which sits at around 39%. According to the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index, however, Rwanda ranks 107 out of 162 worldwide for Personal Freedom and according to Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, Rwanda ranks 155 out of 180, showing that Rwanda has a long way to go in terms of human freedom.

 Notable figures of Rwandan history actively participate in its current-day affairs, as well. Paul Kagame is currently in his third term as the president of Rwanda, which he won in 2017 with a whopping and suspicious 99% of the vote. The RPF is the dominant party. As mentioned in the history brief, Paul Kagame played a key role in the Rwandan Civil War. Having grown up in a Tutsi family exiled from Rwanda, he was able to find his rise to power in the Ugandan Army. He holds the power of Rwandan presidency, which entails broad executive powers and command of the military.

 Efforts to reconciliate the victims and perpetrators of the genocide are ongoing. The Rwandan government and the UN currently run numerous programs where Rwandans identify with each other as Rwandans rather than Tutsi and Hutu. The Rwandans are making the effort to fight discrimination and solidify an identity that unites them.

How could such atrocities happen in Rwanda?
(Or anywhere?)

 The inhumane events of the Rwandan genocide are unthinkable, but the reality is that it happened. One may question how it is possible for human beings to commit such acts of atrocity. The circumstances laid out above have all the details. The genocide did not happen overnight, but it was a long-brewing ordeal. Even before the colonial times, the Tutsi and Hutu were in different castes.

 The colonial government that solidified this identity helped bolster the animosity amongst the Hutu against the Tutsi. It held a vicious status quo, and when the colonists left, the rules and regulations that contained the human emotions that perhaps kept everything in check absolutely came down in ruins. Oppression of the weak stressed the social fabric in which the Tutsi and Hutu coexisted. When the Rwandan revolution happened, some of the Hutus took to themselves the vengeance that they had longed for. The Hutu’s desire for freedom and emancipation manifested itself in the revolution. The colonial masters fled the scene and did not clean up the mess they made.

 Hate breeds hate. Without proper communication between the Tutsi and Hutu, the once pompous ruling class became victims themselves, being pushed into exile. The Tutsi wanted revenge as well. Though it seems natural to take an “eye-for-an-eye” approach in any case, this meant war in Rwanda. Amid this, propaganda was used to push people into action. An easily influenced young population called the Interahamwe was radicalized and given weapons. Previously oppressed people were empowered by ruthless killing. The killers let themselves get fooled that “it is okay to kill.”

 This all comes back to the dehumanization of others to the point where they are no longer human. What people must always be mindful of is that this very act dehumanizes the offender as well. From then on, it became possible to kill without thought. The massacre may have killed 800,000, but it left millions more scarred for life.

 Long after the massacre ended, the Roman Catholic Church also admitted in 2017 that its Rwandan priests and nun either looked the other way or even participated in the genocide. Even those who profess love and the life of peace succumb to the evils of dehumanization. The Roman Catholic Church has one of the most powerful voices in the world. Their call for action may have changed outcomes. Their complicity before, during, and after the genocide played a role in letting the genocide happen.

 In sum, the Hutu and Tutsi people chose harmful ways to vent their emotions rather than the communicative high road, and third parties just watched as the two built the spiral of hate. It ultimately came down to people letting the hate brew.

 What happened at Rwanda is a lesson for the rest of the world to take to heart. For those that meddle with the internal affairs of other entities, Rwanda shows that acting solely in the interest of one entity creates a butterfly effect that leads to events as macabre as genocide. Those that are being pushed around can learn that they ought to see through the hogwash their oppressors frame their lives in and overcome their given realities.

 The Argus hopes that readers take in the story of what happened at Rwanda and realize how little actions
crescendo into the chaos that took place there. The details regarding the massacre are so confuddled and
skewed that only tremendous facts exist, and nobody knows the truth. The one thing that remains constant is the fact that almost a million people were murdered – people were hurt emotionally, physically, mentally, and permanently. Look at your world and notice the small injustices and details. Amplify the good details and kill off the injustices.