Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda Genocide and the International Community

Rating:
Summary: Sad but true
Review: Conspiracy to Murder is a brilliant book.

It is both sad and disgusting that the world has turned its back on Rwanda.

Recent events show how ironic things are. Yassir Arafat kills thousands of innocents and he is branded a hero. Yet hundreds of thousands of innocents die in Rwanda and no one cares.

This book should be read by anyone with a heart.

Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Book
Review: Linda Melvern's book is an exemplary accomplishment. It is the product of much research and investigation.

There are no winners, although certainly heroes and villians. Melvern lays a political (geographical) and cultural background from which genocide emerges...all the signs and symptoms.

She exposes the United Nations headquarters, the United States and other powerful nations as consummate and self-interested cowards. And France fares far worse...actively supporting Interahamwe militias. UNAMIR under the leadership of L General Romeo Dallaire tried in vein to get a couple of hundred additional soldiers who may well have averted the genocide. He was ignored. Dallaire also reported in detail plans being made in preparation of a genocide to the UN. He, again, was ignored and had to watch the genocide happen, hands tied.

Melvern presents her material methodically. This book will enrage and infuriate you. I think that is the best compliment that can be given to her and her impressive book. I'm confident you will want to know more about the subject after reading this.

If you type "ICTR" in Google's search box you can follow the trials of the Genocidaires.

Rating:
Summary: The Rwandan genocide of the spring and summer of 1994 has
Review: spawned a rich and growing literature. This account, focused mostly on events on the ground, offers little new information about the international context and, unfortunately, covers only the first chapter of these grim events, ending with the July 1994 military victory of Paul Kagame and his Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front and the start of a chaotic exodus of hundreds of thousands of Hutus to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite these shortcomings, Melvern, a journalist who has written before about Rwanda and the UN, provides an authoritative account. Breaking new ground, she documents the extensive preparation for the genocide by extremists within the government of President Juvénal Habyarimana going back at least to 1991. When the genocide began, they had bought and distributed the equivalent of one machete for every three Hutu males and, with breathtaking cynicism, manipulated the media and state institutions to stoke anti-Tutsi passions to a fever pitch.