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

by Linda Melvern

In Rwanda in 1994 one million people were killed in a planned, public and political campaign. For six years Linda Melvern has worked on the story of this horrendous crime, and this book, a classic piece of investigative journalism, is the result. Its new and startling information has the making of an international scandal.

The book contains a full narrative account of how the genocide unfolded and describes its scale, speed and intensity. And the book provides a terrible indictment, not just of the UN Security Council, but even more so of governments and individuals who could have prevented what was happening but chose not to do so.
Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews, the author also tells the story of the unrecognized heroism of those who stayed on during the genocide - volunteer UN peacekeepers, their Force Commander the Canadian Lt.-General Romeo A. Dallaire, and Philippe Gaillard, the head of a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, helped by medical teams from Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The international community, which fifty years ago resolved that genocide never happened again, not only failed to prevent it happening in Rwanda, but, as this book shows, international funds intended to help the Rwandan economy actually helped to create the conditions that made the genocide possible. Documents held in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, as well as hitherto unpublished evidence of secret UN Security Council deliberations in New York, reveal a shocking sequence of events.

What happened in Rwanda shows that despite the creation of an organisation set up to prevent a repetition of genocide - for the UN is central to this task - it failed to do so, even when the evidence was indisputable. At a time when increasing attention is being given to the need for UN reform, this book provides evidence to urgently accelerate and focus that process. Only by understanding how and why the genocide happened can there be any hope that this new century will break with the dismal record of the last.

Genres: History, Rwanda, Africa, Nonfiction, Politics, International Relations

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[ReGina · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a line in the movie Hotel Rwanda where someone asks who is funding the Hutus, and the response is "The French." This was very curious to me; why would the French be funding a group in a former Belgian colony? So, I began my quest for a book to answer that question.

It took me two years because most of the books on the Rwandan genocide solely focus on the genocide. A People Betrayed provides the very complicated, intertwined back story of Belgian's colonization and, more importantly, their "exit" from Rwanda; the establishment of the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa; and how the events and leaders in Europe, the United States, Northern Africa, and the U.N. contributed to the Rwandan genocide (the largest one in 1994 because there have been others).

While this is truly a heartbreaking story, it is fascinating to understand the various elements that came together to create this perfect storm. This is not a light gloss over, but rather an intricate study of all of the straws in the pile that became the tinder for the Rwandan fire. Excellent, excellent read.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly researched and searing indictment of not only the Rwandans who perpetrated the years long genocide, but also of the international community who knew early on of the severity but did nothing to stop, or even to slow down, the murderous rampaging. I have read quite a lot about the Rwandan genocide in a variety of books from a variety of source material, and this book collects, in excruciatingly obvious details, how terrible but ultimately preventable the Rwandan Genocide was. The complicity of the French government and its military in the build-up, the ongoing murderous slaughter, and the eventual and mostly successful cover-up of their complicity was appalling to read about, and while it was not entirely unknown to me, the extent of their involvement and denial was disturbing, yet unsurprising. A "Western Civ" nation involving themselves in Africa for financial, political, and nationalist gains was par for the course in world affairs, then and still. This book makes for painful and terrible reading, but it is necessary, dare I say required reading. Not only because we must try to prevent the next genocide, as there surely will be another one, but because it is essential people are made aware of the facts of the matter. Yes, Hutus savagely murdered Tutsis and Moderate Hutus, there is no denying that. But how it happened, why it happened, and who else was involved is presented here, clearly and in exhaustive detail. This is a massively important book, and an extremely impressive piece of scholarship and reportage. Essential reading for anyone concerned with human rights, the evils of capitalism, military expansion, global issues of race and racism, and the explosive growth of neo-liberal attitudes about unbridled state power.

[Chintushig Tumenbayar · Rating 4 out of 5]

1994 онд Африкийн Швейцарь гэгдэx Руанда улсад айxтар хядлага болсныг мэддэггүй явжээ. Үүx түүxийг нь нэг бүрчлэн танилцуулж байгалийн баялаг иxтэй, хөгжиxөд хамгийн боломжийн гэж үзэж байсан улс өөрсдийxоо хөгжлийн хэрxэн хагас зуунаар хойш нь татсаныг уншингаа харамсан суулаа. Улс орны иргэн бүр хүний эрxийн өндөр мэдрэмжтэй байж гэмээн улс орон зөв хөгжилд чиглэдэг ажээ.

[Dan Muthui]

A riveting, but disturbing, and heart breaking account of Rwanda’s genocide. Linda Melvern, has written a penetrative account which vividly reveals how the international community under the auspices of the United Nations miserably and unjustifiably failed to act in the face of a carefully executed plan to exterminate by murdering the minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. The results of this apathy and inaction by the international community resulted in the murder of approximately one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in what has been termed as one of the greatest humanitarian scandal of the twentieth century. Melvern’s account raises very critical issues regarding the prevailing disparity between the theories of universal human rights, and humanitarian interventions, and the actual executions in real situations in which grievous human wrongs are carried out. By criteria, Africa humanitarian situations reveal this stark gap. The issue is, if promotion and protection of human rights even by interventionary measures has been universally acceded to as morally permissible, and lawfully obligatory, does the implementation of this consensus abroad entail the adoption of different stances for different humanitarian situations, or even regions?

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly interesting and well researched, can be a dense read so if you are looking for a basic summary of events this is not the book for you.

[Alexis]

A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide by Linda Melvern (2000)

[Khorberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive history of the Rwandan genocide. Probably best book I've read on the topic.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very confronting but an excellent read.

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has shocking revelations of the west role in enmity between the two groups HUTU and TUTSI who lived in Rwanda for many centuries together . It also give details how Belgium , France and UN peace keeping missions failed to protect many innocents but just Europeans , How west failed to protect and some govt. brushes away from responsibility of the Genocide . I am grateful to Emanuel macron to at least apology to the people of Rwanda .

It also give you detail of how violent African society is and how west had exploited it for their own benefit , How , much corruption is there in these countries and how much politics is engraved in the leaders . Nice book to read , I am not sure if its the best regarding Rwanda genocide but it is a decent book to know what was happened and all events that make that possible

[Target · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very detailed account of how the international community abandoned Rwanda when she needed help the most. Many countries especially superpowers like USA and UK did nothing despite all the evidence they had. France on the other hand helped and protected the genocidaires in any way they could. They came back to Rwanda pretending to be a neutral force and they continued protecting the militia. After all those years, they accused the RPF of being the wrong party in this history. Yet here we are in the 21st century and all those countries that abandoned Rwanda are trying to impose their rules and policies on the very country they abandoned. Shameful.

[Lucas Calestini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-documented account of the events that preceeded the Rwanda's Genocide and how multiple countries failed to act to help the Rwandan population. There were multiple warnings, from multiple organizations across time about the genocide, and very little consideration was given to the cause. Linda Melvern does a great job in sourcing every single piece of information provided. She also provides a timeline at the end, which makes it surprisingly helpful to summarize the flow of events.

Highly recommend.

[Kashish Bansal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The work described in this book is resourceful and sobering. I read Dallaire's book first so I had a little idea about Rwanda, but this book was perfect to fill in the gaps. The missing gaps were filled by presenting the history of Rwanda and how the ethnic tensions were already present before the colonization. Colonization drove Rwanda toward bitter ethnic hatred. World powers despicably swept the clear genocidal campaign under the rug of ethnic hatred and civil war for far too long, and this book relays that out perfectly. Rwanda was a true failure of humanity.

[Isla Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was superb investigative journalism done by Linda Melvern. It depicted a vivid picture of the role of Western nations in abetting, ignoring and allowing Rwanda's genocide. This also provided insight into the intensity and speed of the genocide in 1994, as well as exposing the governments and individuals who could have prevented what was happening, if they had chosen to act. It makes me wonder if human rights are truly universally applicable, as the UN failed to intervene in a sufficient manner… This was written so well and brought light to a moment in History I was not very educated on.

[Quinns Pheh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The violence that engulfed Rwanda for months in 1994 resulted from a planned extermination of a minority ethnic group, which officially classifies it as a genocide. According to the author, the murder of one million people could have been prevented if the international community paid attention to the ample evidence of the genocide and take action in prevention before it began.

[Jonas Stephan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good day all well i faith this is a good book through the splendid story through the genocide in Rwanda god bless really have it good.

[Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

WIP

[Anthony Musyimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intense book on the complicity of the Western powers and the UN in failing to prevent the Rwandan genocide.

[Eugenia Montiel Aceti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read some of the chapters of this book in order to write an undergraduate university paper.

[The 99th Edition · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blinkist
مرعب ... شنيع ... فظييع ... شاهد من أهلها على حقارة الانسان الأوروبي

[Charlie Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

God bless the Rwandan victims and God damn the fucking French.

[Shourov Hasonov Pre · Rating 3 out of 5]

😟😞😔