Read these sources carefully and answer one of the questions which follow in your BLOG:
SOURCE A
“… The United States has been a driving force in the provision of humanitarian assistance, in condemning the violence and in trying to organize a U.N. mission designed not simply to promise, but to deliver what it promises. Sending a U.N. force into the maelstrom in Rwanda without a sound plan of operations would be folly … Emotions can produce wonderful speeches and stirring news editorials. But emotions alone cannot produce policies that will achieve what they promise. If we do not keep commitments in line with capabilities, we will only further undermine U.N. credibility and support. The actions authorized last night will help. They may save lives. But ultimately, the future of Rwanda is in Rwandan hands.”
Anthony Lake, American National Security Advisor during a press briefing on May 25, 1994
SOURCE B
Frontline - Another example. Over 2,000 Tutsi refugees took shelter at a United Nations troops compound guarded by Belgian soldiers who then abandoned them, went to the airport, left them to die. How do you feel about that?
Riza – “Just as anyone who had any responsibility for this would feel. Terrible, sad, but I was not on the ground, I don’t know what the circumstances were. Maybe those Belgian soldiers also realized that resistance was futile. It’s quite possible. Maybe you feel that they should have gone down firing and been killed. Well, I do not know whether their commander gave them the order to withdraw, or whether they themselves decided. They certainly didn’t telephone New York.”
Iqbal Riza quoted in a PBS Frontline interview. During the events in Rwanda, he was deputy head of U.N. peacekeeping.
SOURCE C
“This was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that General Dallaire (the Canadian in command of the UN forces in Rwanda) would learn that Kigali–designated a “weapons-free zone” in the Arusha Accords–was a Hutu Power arms bazaar. It was hardly a secret: grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles were openly displayed and affordably priced in the central city market; planes carrying French, or French-sponsored, arms shipments kept arriving; the government was importing machetes from China in numbers that far exceeded the demand for agricultural use, and many of these weapons were being handed around free to people with no known military function–idle young men in zany interahamwe ( A Hutu Power group) getups, housewives, office workers–at a time when Rwanda was officially at peace for the first time in three years.”
Excerpted from Chapter 8 of Philip Gourevitch’s book, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.
Answer ONE of the following questions in your BLOG be sure to include specific evidence from Hotel Rwanda to support your opinions.
1. Do these sources support or contradict the views of events in Rwanda shown in the film?
2. According to the sources and the film, how did individuals, groups of people and the world community fail the people of Rwanda?
Image from www.fictionontheweb.co.uk
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