Hotel Rwanda Why Didn't the Us or Europe Intervene to Stop This Genocide?

Hotel Rwanda why didn't the US or Europe intervene to stop this genocide?

The major sociological issue in this movie was the continued genocide of the Tutsis by Hutu militia groups. On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan president, a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali airport. Hutu politicians blamed Tutsis for the president's death and within hours, loosely organized Hutu militia groups known collectively as the Interhamwe began mobilizing across Rwanda. In a preplanned campaign, these Hutu gangs killed roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over the course of 100 days.

Social activists around the world condemned the US, Europe and the International community for not intervening. However, there are key factors that contributed to the United States or Europe not intervening. Although, no real reason of non intervention of the US was given in the movie, it was believed that because of the disastrous U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia in 1993, less than a year before, which ended after a U.S. helicopter was shot down and the bodies of U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu the U.S. held back.

Europe and the U.N. in particular had strict guidelines pertaining social unrest in foreign countries. And in the movie, the UN Colonel tells reporters that his troops are "peace-keepers," not "peace-makers." By UN mandate, UN troops were permitted to use their weapons only in self-defense and that was their official stance. And these were just some of the underlying reasons why the U.S. or Europe did not intervene.