Shooting Dogs

I recently saw the film "Shooting Dogs" for the first time, the film that tells the story of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide as seen and lived by those few survivors.

In 1994 i was a mere 5 years of age but was actually aware of the trouble in Rwanda, i say i was aware i was aware of what i was told. I was led to believe that in 1994 "Civil war" broke out in Rwanda following the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana. Juvenal was a Rwanda "Hutu" (One of the three biggest ethnic groups of Rwanda) The Hutu are believed to have made home in Rwanda in the 11th century making kingdoms and being the sole proprietors of Rwanda.

This was until the Tutsi arrived, there are theories regarding the main differences between the Hutu and The Tutsi, the main being that the Hutu had migrated From what is now known as Chad in the 11th Century whereas the Tutsi had migrated South from what is now Ethiopia and had overthrown the Hutu Kingdoms and forced those of the Hutu tribe to live as slaves to those of the Tutsi's. Another main theory is that the two groups had once been a one people that had been artificially divided by the German and Belgium colonies so the Tutsi could be used as overseers for both Berlin and Brussels. Regardless of the basis of their hatred it is well noted that even pre the 1994 genocide the two groups had their differences (I hope that doesn't sound patronising, im being serious).

In the wake of The assassination of the Hutu president Rwanda was plagued with Anti Tutsi propaganda, saying that the assassination had been an attack by the Tutsi who were planning to reclaim there dominance over the Hutu tribe and to make them their slaves once again and if any Hutu resisted they would be killed in their sleep. The two political groups responsible for this Propaganda were the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi whom had umbrella the two main militia groups behind the genocide. The Genocide was the Brain child of the Hutu power group Akazu.

The Hutu militias had approximately 30,000 members (That's an average of one militia member for every ten families in Rwanda). The militias had only to fill out a requisition form to be able to get hold of AK-47's, aswell as that such weapons as grenades required no paperwork and were widely distributed amongst the militia, however the most prolific killers of the groups were those who branded machetes and hacked the Tutsi to death regardless of age or sex.


History will show us that the genocide was as well planned and organised as that of The Nazi genocide of the Jewish people, a list of names of every Tutsi listed in the country was handed out to each militia with adresses and all necessary info to find and slaughter those listed. Within a day of the assasination of the president those on the list were being tracked down to their homes and hacked to death, those who managed to escape fled to "Ecole Technique Officielle" The technical college (School) the reason for this was that the U.N had a Belgium regiment posted at this location and the Tutsi believed that the U.N would not allow this genocide to happen directly nder their noses. soon enought the Ecole Technique Officielle housed 2,500 Tutsi refugees .

The Hutu now had the remaining and surviving Tutsi's essentially penned into a small space ready for the slaughter. Amongst those within the tight space of the school were an exhausted British catholic Preist (Hurt) and a young teacher trying to give back (Dancy), the decision faci ng these two was whether two stay and die with those they had tried to protect or to flee knowing that whte males were not the Hutu's prime target.

The U.N's involvement in the Rwandan peace keeping was to "Monitor the peace" as opposed to "enforcing the peace" so in layman's terms the Belgium U.N peace keepers could not fire unless fired upon, of course the organisation of the Hutu militia were aware of this and lurked outside the School taunting th Tutsi, waving their machete's.

The U.N force commander in Rwanda was a Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire of the Belgium U.N. Romeo had made the powers that be aware of the Genocide happening just beyond the gates but no order to interveine was given to the Lieutenant.

(Despite the Murder of five Belgium U.N peacekeepers in retaliation to the rumour that they had had some part in the assasination of the president)

As the days drew on the Tutsi became ever more nervous and planned an escape form the School through the back exit, this escape plan lasted about 20 steps before the surrounding Hutu's attacked hacking away at all whom were Tutsi including a day old baby and her mother.

The U.N realising the extent of the situation called for reinforcments in the form of the French U.N regiment, The arrival of the French was met by raptous applause by the Tutsi in belif that they were there to either take them to safety or prefferebly do what should have been done on day one and retaliate to the Hutu's Genocide plans. However in good U.N form the French regiment arrived only to save the europeans who had holiday'd in the country or those who were working as missionaries, only europeans were given space on the cavalry trucks that arrived, this was The tutsi's final proof that there was nothing The U.N would do, in a last act of desperation is in recorded that the Tutsi begged the remaining U.N soldiers to shoot the Tutsi children at point blank range to avoid the pain of the machete. The U.N declined, and left leaving the Tutsi to die a horrible pointless death.

As the U.N moved out the Hutu moved in, the Tutsi penned like lambs to the slaughter were well...slaughtered. Approximately 800,000 Tutsi were murdered in the Genocide, however Hurt (The British Catholic Preist) unlike his parner Dancy stayed with Tutsi in their time of need and even snuck a hanful of Tutsi children past the awaiting Hutu militia knowing that they did not need to spill his blood.

With the streets of Rwanda littered with the corpses of the Tutsi, road blocks Of machete branding Hutu's scattered all over the country were the last thing standing infront of Hurt and freedom for the few chldren he had managed to save, however when confronted by a friend of hurt's whom was also the local dotor and a Hutu Hurt could not keep his disgust in as he saw his close friend brandashing a bloodied machete and clothes stained with Tutsi blood, Hurt was shot dead for being "A Tutsi Lover" however the children he had died to protected escaped and fled, they then went on to recap their story so that "Shooting Dogs" the Movie could be made.

I have not been more moved and upset by a film like this before, ever since it has been a major topic of conversation and contemplation for me.

Not being a religious man i do not pray however i dream of peace in rawanda and mourn for those killed and those whom have had loved ones killed.

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT IT'S NOT ALL JOKES AND LAUGHTER, SHIT IS DEEP!