We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

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  Warning...if you plan to read this book you must have a stomach for descriptions of graphic violence and human cruelty. I came to the conclusion that the United Nation is ineffective when dealing with acts of genocide around the globe. My thoughts and feeling on the the Clinton administration and the French government also have changed (for the worse). Eight hundred thousand Rwandans hacked to death with machetes within 100 days in 1994, is difficult to fathom let alone forget once you finis... (show more)

  Warning...if you plan to read this book you must have a stomach for descriptions of graphic violence and human cruelty. I came to the conclusion that the United Nation is ineffective when dealing with acts of genocide around the globe. My thoughts and feeling on the the Clinton administration and the French government also have changed (for the worse). Eight hundred thousand Rwandans hacked to death with machetes within 100 days in 1994, is difficult to fathom let alone forget once you finish the book. Few people outside Rwanda realized what was happening (or choose to turn a blind eye) until it was too late. No one of consequence took any meaningful action to stop the massacres. The United Nations and the U.S. (still licking their wounds by the failure in Somalia less than a year before), and much of the world sat on the sidelines. Mr. Gourevitch's writing goes beyond facts and figures. His book brings the events of the genocide in Rwanda to life in horrifying detail, page after page. I felt the terror of the Tutsis who had their achilles tendons cut, left writhing in pain on the ground while their assailants came back later to kill them at their leisure. I think this book is one of the most important books written in the last decade, and gives a voice to the 800,000 men, women and children that died, while the world sat silent. The book gives you a total understanding of the events leading up to the genocide and the progress of healing once it ended. (show less)

   

  by Gaspare Marturano on Jun 22, 2009 at 01:58AM

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  Through eye witness accounts and interviews with key Rwandan and international officials, the author details the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in all its harrowing atrocity. Most shocking however, is the clear failing of the international community to stop the systematic murdering of an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans (both Hutus and Tutsis) in a mere couple of months. Although its precise scale was only grasped afterwards, the outside world knew about the slaughter before it happened and ... (show more)

  Through eye witness accounts and interviews with key Rwandan and international officials, the author details the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in all its harrowing atrocity. Most shocking however, is the clear failing of the international community to stop the systematic murdering of an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans (both Hutus and Tutsis) in a mere couple of months. Although its precise scale was only grasped afterwards, the outside world knew about the slaughter before it happened and certainly as it was taking place, but no country was willing to send in the troops to put a halt to the tragedy unfolding before their eyes, in clear contravention of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Art. 1: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish, see http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm)

  Philip Gourevitch does an excellent job in sketching the background against which the genocide could take place: the divide and conquer strategy of the old coloniser, Belgium, based on deepening and exploiting ethnic divisions; the fear of the Hutu Power/Habyarimana regime to loose power as the collapse of the Cold War order increased international pressure for competitive elections; the post-colonial struggle for influence in English-speaking and French-speaking Africa,...

  Make no mistake: this is no detached account of the genocide aming to stay as neutral as possible. The author squarely lies the blame for the slaughter with the Hutu Power regime and the at first tacit, but then active French support, sending soldiers to directly intervene in the war with the Tutsi rebels, without however trying to put a stop to the genocide. Both Hutu Power and France were helped by the procrastination of the international community and its failure to demilitarise the refugee camps that sprang up in Congo, after the genocide had taken place. The presence of Hutu extremists in Congo, making frequent raids accross the Rwandan border, continue to be a source of instability in the region until this very day.

  Not everyone might agree with the conclusions drawn in the book, but the consistent defence of the weak and powerless that were such an easy prey 15 years ago vouches for the author's integrity. His descriptions of the lasting effects of the genocide are moving and show how difficult it is to heal a nation which has been so deeply wounded. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Apr 22, 2009 at 07:51PM

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