‘Hotel Rwanda’ spurs action to help Sudan

By COURTNEY LINGLE, The Fort Collins Coloradoan.

March 3, 2005 — It happened in their lifetime, but it took a movie to make it real.

A Sudanese refugee cries upon reaching Bahai on the Chad border, after fleeing violence in Darfur, on July 9, 2004. Seeing ‘Hotel Rwanda’ inspired students at Fort Collins High School and other PSD high schools to raise awareness of the current violence in Darfur, Sudan.(AP).

Now, less than two weeks after they sat horrified in a dark theater watching a Hollywood account of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, high school students throughout Fort Collins are asking the world to pay attention.

“I was too angry to cry. I wanted to puke,” Fort Collins High School sophomore Andrea Garfinkel said of the movie “Hotel Rwanda.”

The movie tells the real-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 people from certain death.

Over the course of 100 days, almost 1 million Tutsis were killed when Hutu extremists assassinated Rwanda’s president and attempted to exterminate the Tutsi people.

Nearly a third of Fort Collins High School’s 10th-graders saw the award-winning film “Hotel Rwanda” as part of a field trip organized by social studies teacher Suzanne Dickens, who felt the movie could teach her kids in a way that no history book could.

Other Poudre School District students have been encouraged by teachers to see the heart-wrenching movie, which gives names and faces to the victims of the racially motivated slayings.

“I was sitting there with my hand clasped over my mouth,” said sophomore Annette Penny, admitting she knew next to nothing about Rwanda before seeing the movie. “Those images have stuck with me.”

Students said they were devastated to know America and the world stood by and allowed the ruthless slaughter of Tutsis.

Tenth-grader Sahan Jay said the scene that stuck with him the most was one in which an American cameraman, played by Joaquin Phoenix, tells the hotel manager that people will watch his graphic footage on the news, say, “Oh, my God, that’s horrible,” and then go on eating their dinner.

For many students, the emotional impact of “Hotel Rwanda” has led to action.

They have organized informal student groups to raise awareness about a similar conflict in Darfur, Sudan.

While violence has raged for more than 20 years between the Sudanese government and rebel groups, the United Nations recently determined the violence did not rise to the level of genocide.

Students in PSD, however, say the organized killing and displacement of millions dangerously echoes events in Rwanda.

“I want to show people what’s going on in Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda,” Fort Collins High School sophomore Rachel Johnson said. “These kinds of genocides that are going on in Africa need to stop. That loss of life just shouldn’t happen.”

Students said they want to do their part to ensure the world doesn’t look away as millions of people are butchered.

Garfinkel wants the United States to learn from its mistakes and take action in Sudan. Students at Fort Collins High School met last week to discuss possible activities, including a letter-writing campaign urging Congress to support U.S. intervention.

They discussed making T-shirts with a slogan that would prompt discussion and visiting junior high school classes to talk with younger students about the situation.

“The more people know about this, the more people will want to help,” said 10th-grader Christy Beckman.

Students said their age does not prevent them from having a voice and an impact.

At Fossil Ridge High School, students are collecting donations for a rummage sale Saturday to raise money for the International Red Cross and Amnesty International’s efforts in Darfur.

“This is a big thing. It’s happening right now in our generation,” said Fossil Ridge junior Joe Lang, adding that politicians looking back on the Holocaust and on genocide in Rwanda have said “never again,” yet history continues to repeat itself.

Fossil Ridge students said they hope their sale will bring attention as well as money to the Darfur region.

If a lot more people knew about it, maybe the United Nations would reconsider its stance that it is not genocide, junior Ashley Miller said.

“If no one knows, nothing’s going to happen,” Muzanne Kroemer added.

When she first told her students about “Hotel Rwanda,” Dickens had no idea the film would prompt such a huge response.

“They’re so sheltered, and they just don’t know,” the Fort Collins High School teacher said.

But after seeing their reactions and the poems, drawings and videos they’ve produced in response to “Hotel Rwanda,” Dickens said she is impressed.

“The last week and a half, I have left school every day ready to burst into tears out of pride,” she said. “It’s incredible.”