A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide

In her excellent new work, investigative journalist Melvern (formerly of the Sunday Times of London) carefully reveals how the Security Council, the United Nations, the Belgians, the French and the Americans, in particular, failed to act in the face of a carefully executed plan to murder one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. Melvern uncovers the historical roots of the supposed ethnic differences between the Hutu and Tutsi and what she identifies as the real cause of the genocide: the Rwandan government's corrupt oligarchy pilfered the treasury, fomented violence and planned the extermination of the Tutsis simply to hold on to power. She writes that a considerable amount of the $216 million in loans to Rwanda's government from international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF went to the purchase of arms, and that before the genocide, the Egyptians and the French helped arm the Hutu extremists. After the genocide, horrifying articles about the resulting refugee crisis caused by an exodus of two million Rwandans prompted foreign governments to spend $1 million a day to help the refugees. Melvern points out that Rom o Dallaire, the courageous head of the UN mission in Rwanda who acted heroically in the face of little support, had said all along that a small increase in troops by 2,500 to 5,000 would have prevented the deaths of tens of thousands. Melvern gives a shocking portrait of calculated mass murder and Western inaction. Readers who were drawn to Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families or those with a special interest in ethnic strife, genocide or African affairs will want to read this disturbing account. (Nov.)