International Humanitarian Law

Submitted by: Leia Bianca Alberto Terrazola

Professor: Atty. Evecar Cruz-Ferrer

“I think if people see this footage, they’ll say Oh my God that’s

horrible. And then they’ll go on eating their dinners”- Jack Daglish,
Hotel Rwanda

The movie Hotel Rwanda was about the non-international

armed conflict between Hutu and Tutsi groups in the country of
Rwanda. The Hutu tribes after long years of being disfavored in their
own land, took revenge by slaughtering the Tutsis. The Hutus out of
their hatred and anger showed no mercy that even children were not
spared. Almost one million (1,000,000) Tutsis were massacred. To
make things worse, other countries initially offered no help at all,
leaving the Tutsis on their own to survive. The survivors were
internally displaced persons who found temporary shelter in Millie
Collines Hotel with the efforts of the Hotel Manager, Paul
Rusesabagina.

Under the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement,

principle 3 provides that national authorities have the primary duty
and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance
to internally displaced person within their jurisdiction. General
Bizimungu who was a police officer was despicable as he needed to
be bribed first to give protection to the Tutsis. He was even
admonished by Paul Rusesabagina before giving aid when he should
be the first one to give protection to the internally displaced Tutsis.

In the said movie, the Hutus violated the fundamental

guarantees under Additional Protocol II, articles 4 (par. 1 and 2) and
13. Under Additional Protocol II, all persons who do not take a direct
part in hostilities, whether or not their liberty has been restricted, are
entitle to respect for their person, honour and convictions and
religious practices,. They shall in all circumstances be treated
humanely, without adverse distinction. It is prohibited to order that
there shall be no survivors. The Hutus also violated Common Article
3 specifically violence to life and person, in particular murder of all
kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture, taking of hostages, and
outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and
degrading treatment. Absolutely, the Hutus committed a crime
against humanity, genocide.

Under the IHL, specific protection must be given to women. It

was a pitiful scene to watch when Paul Rusesabagina went to buy
food supplies from their hotel supplier, George Rutaganda (hutu
militia member) and saw detained Tutsi women being maltreated and
abused by the Hutus. More horrifying was when Paul Rusesabagina
while on their way back to the Millie Collines Hotel, crossed a road full
of lifeless bodies that he could no longer continue traversing the said
road.

The UN troops led by Colonel Oliver were basically

peacekeepers in the movie. Peacekeeper forces do not participate in
the hostilities. However, there was one scene where they were
attacked by the Hutus while fetching political refugees that they had
to use their guns to defend themselves. In this kind of situation, the
peacekeepers may use force for self-defense.

It was also illustrated in the film that relief societies located in

the territory of the state, such as Red Cross organizations, may offer
their services for the performance of their traditional functions in
relation to the victims of the armed conflict. The Red Cross team had
actively provided assistance to the Tutsis by supplying medicines and
food provisions. Ghastly, the Hutus’ acts contravened principle 26 of
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement which provides that
persons engaged in humanitarian assistance, their transport and
supplies shall be respected and protected and shall not be the object
of attack or other acts of violence. They also violated Additional
Protocol II article 11 which explicitly states that medical units and
transports shall be respected and protected at all times and shall not
be the object of attack. The Red Cross team of Ms. Pat Archer was
attacked by the Hutus while they were rescuing some internally
displaced Tutsis. The Hutus knew that it was the Red Cross team
with the van apparently bearing the redcross emblem was still
destroyed by them.

The Hutus and Tutsis were both native Rwandans, hence both
tribes are equal as to their rights and obligations as Rwandans. They
were only divided because of Belgian colonists.

Sad to say, the movie was not far from reality. I was reminded
of the Marawi siege in Mindanao. The armed conflict in Marawi was
started by the Maute group who were Muslim fanatics. They took it as
a Jihad and attacked civilians, who were mostly Christians, displacing
them of their own land. Marawi was totally destroyed when the Maute
group yielded.

In my view, non-international armed conflicts are more

destructive than international armed conflicts. The violence
committed by the Hutus against the Tutsis was more painful to bear
than foreign aggressors. Moreover, no reason could justify citizens of
their own country waging war among themselves.