Event

The Training for Peace Programme at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and the Embassy of Canada in Oslo have the pleasure of inviting you to a film screening and discussions:

The screening of the film will be followed by a short coffee break and comments provided by

Questions about the seminar to helene.revhaug@nupi.no

With unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping (DPKO), The Peacekeepers
provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of the struggle to save "a failed state". The film follows the manoeuvres to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC).

Focusing on the UN mission, the film cuts back and forth between the UN headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the 'Crisis Room' as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance.

In the background, but often impinging on peacekeeping decisions, are the painful memory of Rwanda, the worsening crisis in Iraq, global terrorism and American hegemony in world affairs. As Secretary- General Kofi Annan admonishes the General Assembly at the end of the film: "History is a harsh judge. The world will not forgive us if we do nothing."

The film and the extra study material are produced by the National Film Board of Canada, in collaboration with The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, with support of Foreign Affairs Canada.