The Peacekeepers

The 1994 Rwandan genocide had a significant impact on central Africa, particularly in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). If the United Nations was shamefully dilatory in responding to the Rwandan crisis, it found itself working thrice as hard in the DRC as ethnic tensions threatened to deteriorate into another massacre. Shot over a two-year period, Paul Cowan's The Peacekeepers offers unprecedented access to the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping's Congolese operations, traveling from the relative safety of the so-called crisis room (where strategies are calmly mapped out, including fundraising efforts) to a look at the ground troops in Congo tasked with preserving order in a dangerous region. Congo did not follow Rwanda's fate, although the loss was still considerable (hundreds of deaths, tens of thousands left homeless), and the nation was still in a precarious situation when the filmmakers wrapped the production. Offering both an in-depth portrait of the Congo crisis (which most American media ignored) and an illustration that some functions of the U.N. are still working vigorously to keep order and stability in a world where violence and chaos too often prevail, this invigorating and disturbing documentary is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)