Rwanda genocide

In the wake of the 1994 the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu president in Rwanda, triggered the bloodshed of massive proportions. When President Habyarimana's plane was shot down by ground missiles, Hutu extremists seized power in the country and began a slaughter of all Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In just 100 days mass killings perpetrated by millitia took a death toll of more then 800,000 people. Men, women, and children were murdered without regard. Since bullets were expensive, most of the killing was done with machetes or clubs in a brutal manner. A large number of victims were often tortured before being killed. Thousands of Tutsi women were raped and kept as sex slaves for weeks. The international community refused to intervene and stop the violence at first. When they finally decided to react, the aftermath of genocide found in the country was absolutely horrible. Read more on Rwanda genocide here. You can also watch a documentary on the horrible event.

Rwanda genocide documentary

Watch the story of a horrible massacre in which around 800,000 Rwandans were hunted down and murdered by Hutu millitia. The genocide of such magnitude occured because of the social, political, and diplomatic failures on the belhalf of United States and international community. The documentary is divided into eight parts and originally named "Ghosts of Rwanda", a PBS special two-hour documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.

Great Sparrow documentary

The campaign against sparrows was initiated by Mao Zedong, the President of China. Officially, the Four Pests campaign was one of the most significant actions in the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962. The four pests designeated for elimination were rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The activities did improve the harvest at first, but later on locusts swarmed the country and contributed to the famine. This documentary shows how the Great Sparrow campaign was executed.

Great Smog of London documentary

The citizens of London learned a hard lesson about the effects of air pollution on December 5, 1952. As people shoveled coal into their stoves, they had no idea that a tragedy would occur shortly. Vast amounts of smoke exited the chimneys, which in combination with light winds and moist air created a thick, toxic smog. The phenomena caused several thousands of deaths from pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis or heart failure during the following week. Learn more information in this three part documentary.

Easter Island documentary

The classic episode of the documentary "In search of" hosted by L. Nimoy studies all the big historical notions of Easter Island. The local population deforested, overfished, and drastically degraded the ecology of the island due to class warfare between zealous leaders of two tribes. The iconic stone statues remain as a reminder to the dangers of exploitation.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster documentary

The documentary shows a sequence of events which resulted in a destruction of a nuclear reactor and a considerable amounts of radioactive material released to the environment at Chernobyl powerplant. The accident caused many deaths from radiation injuries over time. The authorities evacuated and subsequently relocated thousands of people from areas surrounding the reactor.

Bhopal disaster - part II

The gas cloud was composed mostly of materials denser than the surrounding air, so it was clearly visible. That fact also helped it to stay close to the ground and spread outwards through the surrounding community, making heavy damage on everyone who got in the way. The initial effects of exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation. When the panic started, many people were trampled to death trying to escape. Literally thousands of people had fallen victims of the deadly gas cloud by the next morning. There were mass funerals and cremations, while some of the bodies were disposed in the Narmada River. Read more about the Bhopal disaster aftermath here. You can also watch a short documentary on Youtube. Warning, some pictures are quite graphic!

Return to: Bhopal disaster - part I