Hutu rebels moved back into Rwanda

I found this article about UN soldiers forcing Rwandan Hutu rebels out of the Congo, back into Rwanda. Before I had seen the movie, Hotel Rwanda, I doubt I would have looked at this twice. But the movie made a permanent mark in my memory.

If you havent seen it, it depicts the slaughter of almost 1 million Rwandans. Tension between the two ethnic groups the Hutu and the Tutsi has been a problem in Rwanda for decades. But in 1994, they had been living relatively peacefully. Then, the Hutu decided to take over the government and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis, often with machetes. This was all on the heels of the US military catastrophe in Mogadishu, Somalia (ever seen Black Hawk Down?) and the US and UN were reluctant to intervene. Close to a million Rwandans (almost all Tutsis) died before the genocide was stopped.

I hate admitting this, but I barely remember this happening. Its an endictment of our world, and of myself, that it took a major motion picture to bring this to my attention. Close to a million people, were murdered. More than double the Asian Tsunami, and these deaths were entirely preventable. I think of it as one of the darkest moments in human history. I am also reminded of Tom Cruise's character in Collateral. He is an assassin that justifies his murder by the fact that millions of Rwandans died in 1994, and barely anyone knew about. He is obviously wrong, but it makes a strong argument.

Anyway, after having seen the movie, this article made a lot more sense. The Hutu responsible for much of the genocide fled into the Congo (after being driven out by the Tutsi counter-rebellion) and continued to launch attacks in the area. But now the Congolese army and the UN are driving them back into Rwanda.

To me, this doesnt make too much sense. Wont they be likely to cause even more problems in Rwanda? I wonder how the Hutu government feels about this. I suppose its not really theo Congo's problem, and maybe its the right thing to do. But really, I suppose there is no way to get past the scars and deep sentiments that follow from something as awful as genocide.

Finally, I just realized I mentioned 3 movies here. Interesting what effect, both good and bad, can have on a person's perception of the world. And I highly reccommend 2 of the 3 aforementioned movies (dont see Collateral though).