HOTEL RWANDA: Notes
According to a Reuters report, Rwanda’s current Tutsi president Paul Kagame, who led the country’s counter takeover to end the genocide, accused Hotel Rwanda (above) of depicting a "falsehood," adding, "Some of the things actually attributed to this person [Paul Rusesabagina, played by Don Cheadle, right, with Sophie Okonedo] are not true. Even those that are true do not merit the level of highlight."
A recent French official report, extracts of which were published in Le Monde, blamed Kagame for the downing of President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane in 1994. That event was the spark that led to the murder orgy that left between 800,000 and one million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, dead. The Rwanda government, now in the hands of the Tutsis, described the report as "fantasy."
Others believe that Hutu extremists were behind the downing of the Rwandan president’s plane, for they were afraid that Habyarimana was going to sign a peace treaty with the Tutsi rebels. To this day, the identity of the attackers has not been confirmed.
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As explained in a BBC report, tensions have long existed between Rwanda’s majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. The rivalry between the two very similar ethnic groups — they share the same language and follow the same traditions — was made considerably worse by the Belgian colonists, who ruled over a large section of Central Africa beginning in 1916. (Rwanda achieved independence in 1962.)
The Belgian occupiers instituted "ethnic" identity cards classifying the locals by their ethnicity, and, in a calculated ploy to divide and conquer, gave the Tutsis the best jobs and educational opportunities. The Hutus, of course, resented the preferential treatment given to the Tutsis. An ethnic revolt in 1959 left 20,000 Tutsis dead. Scores of others fled to neighboring countries.
In the early 1990s, with the Rwandan economy in disarray, President Juvenal Habyarimana used the Tutsis as scapegoats, blaming them for aiding Tutsi rebels living abroad.
Following the downing of Habyarimana’s plane (the president of Burundi and several other officials were also killed), the president’s guard began a campaign of retribution. They were abetted by politicians, businessmen, and the military.
In the aftermath of the Tutsi takeover (Hotel Rwanda ends its story there), more than 2 million Hutus fled to neighboring countries.
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Tags: Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, Politics, Rwanda, Sophie Okonedo
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