Aaron Diamond
English 102 12:00pm
10-31-11
Dr. Adam Fischer
Hotel Rwanda Summary

Hotel Rwanda is the true story of genocide of Tutsi people at the hands of Hutu extremist. During the genocide Paul Rusesabagina the manager of the Sabena Hotel des Mille Collines is a Hutu who provides shelter for over a 1,000 Tutsi refugees. His wife Tatiana is also a Tutsi who helps Paul provide shelter and comfort for the refugee’s. As the political situation in the country worsens, Paul and his family observe neighbors being killed in ethnic violence. Paul curries favor with people of influence, bribing them with money and alcohol, seeking to maintain sufficient influence to keep his family safe. When civil war erupts and a Rwandan Army officer threatens Paul and his neighbors, Paul barely negotiates their safety, and brings everyone to the hotel. More refugees come to the hotel from the overburdened United Nations camp, the Red Cross, and orphanages. Paul must divert the Hutu soldiers, care for the refugees, be a source of strength to his family, and maintain the appearance of a functioning high-class hotel, as the situation becomes more violent. Even with the, United Nations presence at the time of the genocide, they were not authorized to use any force to protect the Tutsi people, as they were only there to play the role of peace keepers. Thus they only evacuated the foreigners, leaving Paul and his family behind, along with the rest of the refugee’s at the hotel. Paul using all his connections eventually is able to get a UN convoy for all the refugee’s as they eventually get behind the Tutsi rebel lines. In the end of this traumatic story Paul Rusesabagina saved 1,268 refugee’s at the Sabena Hotel des Mille Collines. In conjunction with that more than a million people had been killed by the time the genocide ended in July of