“The dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust. It was the most efficient killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”I certainly know about the atrocities of the Holocaust; it was taught to me in school, and I teach it to some extent to my 10th graders when we read Night. I’ve also studied and learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Rwanda? My knowledge of the genocide that occurred there was cursory at best, until I showed Hotel Rwanda as part of the Night unit. Even then, I am embarrassed to admit, I did not realize the connection with Gourevitch’s book.
It’s one thing to read about Hutus killing Tutsis, or the political corruption that fueled the genocide, or the European role in creating friction between the Hutus and Tutsis in the first place. But it is another thing entirely to read Gourevitch’s scathing indictment of the United States’ role – or lack thereof – in the tragedies in Rwanda. For all of the proclamations of “Never again” – never again will we have another Holocaust, never again will we allow groups of people to be exterminated – within a year of President Clinton ceremoniously opening the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, “never again” happened again. And Clinton and his administration did nothing about it because, as Gourevitch points out, “as far as the political, military and economic interests of the world’s powers go, it might as well be Mars. In fact, Mars is probably of greater strategic concern. But Rwanda, unlike Mars, is populated by human beings, and when Rwanda had a genocide, the world’s powers left Rwanda to it.” (p. 149) When the Clinton administration finally did agree to help, they tried to charge the U.N. $15 million for 50 armored personnel carriers. (p. 149)
Gourevitch’s scenes of murder and blood lust are chilling indeed, not just because human beings can become so irrational as to butcher neighbors and friends, but because the world stood by and did nothing. I think Hotel Rwanda should have included some of that. Rather than have Nick Nolte, who evidently never met a scene couldn’t masticate with wild abandon, represent frustrated westerners, director Terry George would have been better served by showing some of the Clinton administration’s hand wringing and poor decision making, as well as General Dallaire’s testimony regarding his predictions about what was going to – and did – happen in Rwanda.
As aggravating and disgusting as Gourevitch’s details about the limp world response to Rwanda is, his pages devoted to Odette Nyiramilimo leave us more hopeful and thankful. Odette is a Tutsi married to Jean-Baptiste, whose father was Tutsi and mother was Hutu. They are both doctors and have three children, and their story could be its own movie. They managed to escape through luck, strength of will, and blind determination. At one point, Hutus come to get Odette at the hospital where she worked; thanks to a mix-up with another woman named Odette, she escaped, whereas the other Odette was killed. Odette and Jean-Baptiste wound up at the Mille Collines Hotel, where manager Paul Resesabagina sheltered 1,100 Rwandans from certain death. Odette, Jean-Baptiste and their children survived the genocide, but her journey to recover from the ordeal is one that Gourevitch assures us will take a very, very long time.
We Wish to Inform You is an amazing book, and one I definitely would not have read had it not been for this class. It helped make me realize that I need to be ever vigilant against “never forgetting.”
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