Hotel Rwanda and link to conflict in Somalia, 1993

I believe everyone that has posted on Hotel Rwanda has given ample background information and summary. Therefore, I will not rehash what has already been posted. What I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention is a possible reason for the lack of intervention on behalf of the US. Now, of course stopping a genocide such as the one in Rwanda is a huge undertaking and cannot be resolved in a few steps, and I do believe that our country could have done something to at least help. Yet after doing some outside research I believe I have found one good explanation for our country’s hesitancy to get involved, and it may not be something most have though about.

First off, I have seen Hotel Rwanda many times, and every time I watch it I take something different away from it. Of course one of the biggest issues I began to think about was the civil warfare between people in their own neighborhoods. When walking back to class, some of the images of the urban warfare in the movie sparked thoughts about the conflict in Somalia in 1993 and some of the many parallels between the two situations. Now granted, there was not a mass genocide in Somalia, but there are many similarities in the type of warfare and strife that went on among the citizens. I’m sure many people have heard of the movie Black Hawk Down, but here is some general information about that incident anyway:

When many people think of the Somalia conflict in 1993, they think of the Battle of Mogadishu, where a group of Task Force Rangers were sent into the city to capture certain leaders of the Aidid militia. Mohammed Aidid was a powerful warlord that ran the city at that time and did so through terror. Previous to the time when Aidid became a powerful warlord, there were four main groups fighting for control: the United Somali Congress, the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, the Somali Patriotic Movement, and the Somali Democratic Movement. These groups went back and forth for control of the country, resulting in hard times for the people living there. Notice the similarities to Rwanda, where the Hutus and the Tutsies consistently battled back and forth for power. When the warlord Aidid came about, he had such power and such a loyal following by the Somali militia fighters that the US felt it was the time to interject. During the Battle of Mogadishu, two Black Hawk Helicopters were shot down and the crews were stranded where they fell. Urban fighting continued all night and the stranded crews were left to fend for themselves against the riotous Somalis. When all was said and done and the US troops had made it out, 18 Americans had died and an estimated 1000 were wounded.

My point (Well, Wikipedia’s): “The Battle of Mogadishu led to a profound shift in American foreign policy, as the Clinton administration became increasingly reluctant to use military intervention in Third World Conflicts” (Wikipedia)

My point: This battle happened one year before the conflict in Rwanda that we saw in the video. I think the battle had a direct influence on the response (or lack of) on the US’s part. I think events like this are absolutely devastating, and I do believe that there is some way that we can help (or could have). Yet after doing this outside research, it gave me a better understanding of some of the reasons why we didn’t get involved in Rwanda and don’t always jump right in as the world police. These issues are so complicated and deal with more than right vs. wrong (for example, economy, political repercussions around the world, foreign relations, etc), and I think that people need to think about these different aspects.

Here is that link to the Wikipedia article I got a lot of my Somalia information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu