In 1994, close to one million people were killed in a planned and systematic genocide in the African country of Rwanda, the largest systematic murder of a single race since the Holocaust. How did this carnage occur when the world declared after WWII that it would never tolerate such mass murder again? Who was responsible? Why did the international community fail to respond? This sensitively filmed documentary attempts to answer these questions.

Forsaken Cries incorporates historical footage of the colonial period, interviews with survivors and analyses of key issues including: international law; history of the Great Lakes region; failure of the international community, US policy and NGOs; the refugee crisis; women’s human rights violations; and the war crimes tribunal.

This is a case study of the horrendous consequences of neglecting preventive diplomacy.