East Campus – “40,000 people slaughtered within 6 hours by only using
machetes and knives," said Michael Savage, a former British Army soldier.
He had witnessed the entire genocide while he was there. Savage was sent with three other men to Rwanda in 1993 to assess the genocide events and he was sent again to answer final questions regarding the assessment in 1994.
During the seminar that he had held on Sept.12 on East Campus, he revealed some of the most gruesome stories. The entire room was filled and each seat was taken by students, faculty, and families.
With a firm voice he said “This is not Hollywood people, this is reality, Hollywood gives you sound effects, but it will not give you the sound of dogs eating corpses, Hollywood will not give you the smell of the corpses, it won’t even give you the feeling of actual fear” As soon as he said that, the entire room had a pin drop silence with some sighs and shocked faces. No one knew how to react at all to what he said.
He had witnessed the entire genocide while he was there. Savage was sent with three other men to Rwanda in 1993 to assess the genocide events and he was sent again to answer final questions regarding the assessment in 1994.
During the seminar that he had held on Sept.12 on East Campus, he revealed some of the most gruesome stories. The entire room was filled and each seat was taken by students, faculty, and families.
With a firm voice he said “This is not Hollywood people, this is reality, Hollywood gives you sound effects, but it will not give you the sound of dogs eating corpses, Hollywood will not give you the smell of the corpses, it won’t even give you the feeling of actual fear” As soon as he said that, the entire room had a pin drop silence with some sighs and shocked faces. No one knew how to react at all to what he said.
"It was remarkable how Michael used Hollywood to explain to the audience regarding the smell and sound effects," said Rachel Allen, a professor of Humanities.
The Rwanda genocide consists of the Hutu tribe killing the Tutsis because as Savage said during the seminar, “The killing was to heal”. What caused the spark that lead to genocide was that the Tutsi were allowed to participate in the government which had weakened the Hutus. The change occurred for the Tutsis to participate on August 3rd, 1993. Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Rwanda Genocide- A Short History of the Rwanda Genocide." Rwanda Genocide A Short History of the Rwanda Genocide. N.p.. Web. 20 Sep 2013. <http://history1900s.about.com/od/rwandangenocide/a/Rwanda-Genocide.htm>.
As he continued with the seminar, he comes across a fact that made the audience gasp and that was “Roman Catholic priests were doing the killings too”. The Hutus used the church to eliminate its victims, the Tutsis.
Savage came across the topic of the Holocaust and how it was “trivialized and distorted”. However he also mentioned that the Holocaust did not mention it being genocidal. “200 million people were killed because of Holocaust, famine, starvation, and bombing.”
"The reason why Peace and Justice department decided to be in charge of this event is because we as the Peace and Justice department believed that not many people know about the genocide and it is our duty to reach out to them and let them know about what actually happened," said Linnette Bonilla, a student intern at the Peace and Justice office.
One of his
student asked him the question that wasn't it 6 million Jews that were killed?
He answered with a gasp with a five minute pause and responded “The death toll
went up recently and it was miscounted.” Audiences started to mumble among st
themselves because it was unbelievable.
I had asked him in my interview with him that was is the message you’re trying to send to your audience and he responded with a firm and confident voice.
I had asked him in my interview with him that was is the message you’re trying to send to your audience and he responded with a firm and confident voice.
“We must not focus on the Holocaust anymore; we must change our direction and focus on the 200 million people who were killed. We must focus on preventing the same problem in the future and also think of stopping them because there are different ways to prevent them. You cannot prove genocide unless you prove the intent.”
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