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Summary: "Jack is in"
Review: Jack the Ripper, that is. The above caption is quoted from a Rwandan genocide survivor, portrayed by Philip Gourevitch as one of the many Rwandans who today live in fear of another genocide on their country and people.In the summer of 1994, in the span of about three months, close to one million Rwandans were massacred by their fellow Rwandans. In the civic sense, this is what happened. Ethnically, it was a band of Hutu extremists that incited genocide and drove fellow Hutus to kill Tutsi civilians and moderate (unsympathetic) Hutus. The rate of killings fast outpaced all previous incidences in the last one hundred years, even that of the Holocaust, yet it was one of the most obscure and ambiguous genocides outside of Rwanda proper. Foreign presses paid little attention to the massacres, Western governments remained passive, ignorant and sometimes even supportive of the killings all at the same time. The 1994 Rwandan genocide has become a case study in human destructiveness as well as a field in international relations and politics; an area that could be coined "international oblivion." To this day, the new Rwandan government and remaining Tutsis fear a second genocide, while others maintain that genocide is still going on in Rwanda. Hutu Power extremists, on the other hand, much like the Turks who deny that they massacred 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1919, deny that there ever was a systematic attempt to kill every last Tutsi in the country. In a genocide whose roots were in Rwanda's colonial legacy under Belgium, the two dominant ethnic groups in this central African country were Hutus (85%) and Tutsis (15%). Under colonialism, the Hutus were peasants and field workers, while the Tutsis were more affluent and owned land. Following independence in 1962 from Belgium, the country was very deeply divided along ethnic lines. Sporadic attacks and massacres of Tutsis took place. Tutsi exiles in neighboring Burundi and Uganda soon formed a fighting force, the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). Peace accords signed by the country's President, Juvenal Habyarimana, brought slivers of optimism, but at the beginning of April 1994, he was assassinated by an unknown saboteur(s) as his plane was landing in Kigali, Rwanda's capital city. Within hours, Hutu extremists that had been growing in Rwanda for years seized the media and gave calls to join the ranks of extremism, encouraging the killing of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Sometimes, they even pinpointed where Tutsis were hiding, so they could be killed. As part of the peace accords, a small number of peacekeepers, led by a Canadian general, Romeo Dallaire, were stationed in the country, and saw direct signs that genocide was being planned. The UN gave no authorization for this force to take action; when some peacekeepers were killed by Hutu extremists, the Belgian contingent fled, and other countries followed suit, leaving Rwanda on its own. Promises to stop genocide throughout the world remained hollow; so much for history and calls for "never again." The genocide only stopped when the RPF seized Kigali and forced the Hutu Power followers to flee into neighboring countries. Philip Gourevitch has written a badly needed work on the Rwandan genocide. It is part memoir, part history and part current events. Drawing from his own personal experiences as a reporter in Rwanda in the crucial years following the genocide, he has written an unforgettable and profoundly disturbing work about Rwanda. I kept thinking that the things in Gourevitch's book had all the earmarks of some horror movie. The killings in the summer of 1994 were mostly mechanical; as the country was largely agricultural, with plenty of machetes used for cultivating and clearing old crops, those same machetes were used to hack up Tutsis. The killing was practically done by civilians, who incited other civilians to kill. In all, for a country of some eleven million people, there were only a few hundred Hutu Power extremists that seized vital components of the Rwandan media at a time when the country's President was assassinated. From there, the blood bath was only a short time away and thousands of civilians - maybe more - were amassed to do the job of death. Gourevitch provides a fascinating history of Rwanda, he chronicles the root causes that set the country onto a path of genocide, a detailed account of the genocide itself seen through the eyes of those who survived the machete blows, as well as the culpability of those like the French government and the Zairean leadership, who actively supported Hutu extremists by sending in troops to protect them and weapons to arm them. Gourevitch is keen in outlining the guilt of the Western powers, as well as the hypocrisy of their conduct. The same governments who had prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg did absolutely nothing to avert the genocide or stop it. When fleeing Hutus left the country after the RPF took hold and a new Rwandan government was installed, Hutu killers blended into the flow of refugees. Under the aid of the UN and various humanitarian organizations, they managed to organize and arm themselves, so that when they finally were forced to go back to Rwanda, they had the means to resume a campaign of terror (of a lesser size, of course, but for how long?). Many government officials in the West remained quick to deny their responsibility and oblivion. This is perhaps Gourevitch's most startling revelation to a Western reader. The book also examines Rwanda after 1994, on the governmental, judicial, social and cultural level, to show what it means to survive in the wake of this catastrophe. Sadly, though there is some hope now, many Rwandans - Hutus and Tutsis together - already wonder when the next genocide will begin. This book is phenomenal. Gourevitch writes beautifully and eloquently in his guide to this catacomb in central Africa; readers will never forget it. Thank you Mr. Gourevitch!
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Summary: We wish to inform you . . .
Review: Books like this one need to be read by more people in the hope that understanding will prevent things like this from happening again. Gourevitch's book is about understanding: understanding the complexities of international politics, understanding the role of the western world in the third world, understanding the consequences of ambivalence, and understanding the human effect of political decisions. Gourevitch helps the reader do all of these things through the series of stories and commentary that he masterfully weaves together. The aspect of his book that struck me most was the western complacency in these massacres, and the largely ineffectual relief from "humanitarian" oranizations. It really made me reflect on my own assumptions about the effectivness of these organizations. The massacre(s) in Rwanda was not just another African attrocity. This was a tragedy with its own political roots, unique to this particular area that cannot be lumped together with some larger "African problem." I admit my relative ignorance of African politics, but it is books like this that will help me gain a better understanding.
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Summary: Portrait of a senseless tragedy...
Review: This book completely and expertly details the senseless genocidal tragedy that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Shamefully, this tragedy was allowed to unfold under the watching eyes of UN peacekeepers, and the author expresses that eloquently. If you want to learn the true story of the massacres that occurred in Rwanda, and the historical events that led to them, get this book.
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Summary: Review
Review: The title of this book is startling, and had I not already known its subject, I might have thought it was a fictional horror novel. But the stories contained inside are sadly real. The title comes from a letter sent by a group of Tutsis to their pastor on April 15, 1994. The group of about two thousand had taken shelter at a church compound in Mugonero in western Rwanda to avoid being killed by Hutu attackers. The letter asks the pastor to intervene on their behalf to save their lives. Instead, the pastor leads the attack against them the next morning, ending in their massacre.
This story is one of many tragic tales woven together skillfully into a multiple-award-winning book. The author, Philip Gourevitch, is a staff writer for The New Yorker, a contributing editor to the Forward, and has also reported from abroad for Granta, Harper's and The New York Review of Books. Between 1995 and 1998, he made numerous trips to Rwanda, speaking with hundreds of people from all walks of public and private life. In addition, he consulted a variety of works on Rwanda, both published and unpublished.
In addition to tracing the stories of genocide survivors, Gourevitch reports the international community's reaction, or more accurately, lack of reaction to the events in Rwanda. He minces no words in describing the Belgian, French, U.N., U.S. and other powerful players' failure to respond to repeated warnings of genocide. Not only did they fail to act when appropriate, but the actions that they did eventually take served to support those who had committed or were committing genocide:
"Rwanda had presented the world with the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews, and the world sent blankets, beans, and bandages to camps controlled by the killers, apparently hoping that everybody would behave nicely in the future" (p. 170).
These circumstances force the reader to question the humanitarian community's fiercely-held ideal of neutrality. In some cases, acting "neutral" is taking the wrong side.
Indeed, Gourevitch does not succumb to this temptation, clearly favoring the anti-Hutu Power movement and the power-sharing government led by Paul Kagame installed after the genocide. The reader accustomed to international human rights organizations and Western news reports, which, in an attempt to appear unbiased, present the new government in a less positive light and emphasize the crimes committed against Hutus by Tutsis, may be surprised by Gourevitch's unapologetic moral judgment against the Habyarimana regime and his Hutu Power successors. But he presents a persuasive argument backed by clear evidence, and I for one was convinced.
Gourevitch acknowledges his audience's possible motivations for reading about this subject and expresses his rationale for the book thus:
"Perhaps . . .you hope for some understanding, some insight, some flicker of self-knowledge - a moral, or a lesson, or a clue about how to behave in this world. I don't discount the possibility, but when it comes to genocide, you already know right from wrong. The best reason I have come up with for looking closely into Rwanda's stories is that ignoring them makes me even more uncomfortable about existence and my place in it" (p. 19).
My chief motivation for reading this book was to gain understanding about the events that took place and to identify with the people who experienced these events. I thought that perhaps the more people know, the less likely a scenario like this will replay itself. After reading this book, I must emphasize the word "perhaps." As Gourevtich aptly states, "If Rwanda's experience could be said to carry any lessons for the world it was that endangered peoples who depend on the international community for physical protection stand defenseless" (p. 351).
This is the kind of book that everyone should read. Gourevitch's style is engaging, frank, and emotive. The book is hard to put down but also hard to keep reading. When I finished it, I cried - for the dead Rwandans, for the ones who survived, for the ones who allowed themselves to believe the myth of ethnicity and kill their countrymen, and because of the guilt I felt for being a citizen of the most powerful country on earth that could have done something to stop it.
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Summary: "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic
Review: As Joseph Stalin stated: "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic." I picked up Gourvitch's book on my way to Rwanda. I was sent on a humanitarian medical mission to help the government upgrade what was left of a ravaged, dilapidated, central hospital's medical system. This book was my first read during my two week stay in Rwanda/Kigali. Unnerving, I was reading it while I sumptuously dined at the only five star hotel. I just finished my meal when I got to the part where Gourvitch mentions that it was at this hotel that scores of killing and atrocities occurred. Distressing. Later, the next weekend, after I finished the book, I went to a hotel disco and the dance floor was full of Hutus and Tutsis dancing together. Very bizarre, for my Western mind to grasp, considering that just eight years ago 99.9% of those on the dance floor witnessed violence, 79.6% experienced death in their family and 57.7% watched the gore of killing or maiming with machetes. Not to mention how many were victims themselves or how many were perpetrators. In this outstanding book, Philip Gourvitch lays it all out, and it is brutal and gruesome. His writing is forceful and forthright. He directly indites the U.S. and Europe, citing their deliberate indifference to the genocide. He writes, "Rwanda had presented the world with the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews, and the world sent blankets, beans and bandages ... hoping that everyone would behave nicely in the future.' Especially damning is France's complicity with the Hutus. There are a few areas of shortcomings. The lack of an index and noticeable is Philip Gourvitch remiss to lay any blame at the door step of any of the African nations for their disengagement. Also, if you selected this book, hoping to have a rational and sane answer for how and why this insanity happened, how 1,000,000 people could be hacked to death by friends, family, teachers, physicians and coworkers in 100 days; you will come away empty handed. But, this is not a shortcoming of Philip Gourvitch book. For there can never be adequate explanation for such demonic decimation. The genocide of Rwanda, the base brutality, the inhumanity, the cries and pleading prayers of the victims and the vacuum of morality and compassion have made these actions uncircumscribible. Finally, this book should be read in several sittings. The despairing denseness of the inhumane acts are too heavy to be comprehended without breaks, ie "Hutus young and old rose to the task. Neighbors hacked neighbors to death in their home and colleague hacked colleague to death in their work place. Doctors killed their patients, and school teachers killed their pupils.'. Highly Recommended.
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Summary: Stories from Rwanda
Review: Gourevitch has penned a haunting story. His personal encounters are the best account that you and I are likely read anywhere in an attempt to understand the Rawandan genocide. And it is so well written that I could not put the book down. Like the Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, this book details the horror of a 20th Century mass murder that the World simply watched from a distance. The only clear lesson from this account is that it can and probably will happen again, somewhere. ...
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Summary: stunning, beautiful...essential
Review: Philip Gourevitch has a rare gift: conscience. His willingness to apply his substantial writing talent to one of the greatest injustices of our time (the twentieth century, the 1990's) has left us with one of the most important books ever written. The title, "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families," is lifted from a letter addressed to a Hutu priest by his Tutsi parishioners. They seek his intervention -- would he please intervene to keep bands of community men with machetes from hacking them to bits within his church. He does not. The line, however, becomes a broader plea. With this book, Gourevitch is informing us on the outside, many for the first time, of the brutal genocide which took place in Rwanda in 1994. 75% of the Tutsi population killed, 800,000 people, in just a few weeks: an efficiency that puts the Nazis to shame. For these Tutsis, however, tomorrow has already come and gone. The response of the international community to the genocide in Rwanda was nothing less than egregious. Our countries, who pledged "never again" and signed on to the Genocide Convention, responded with reprehensible weakness and hypocrisy. They --we -- might do it again. Tomorrow, yet more people will be killed, by their neighbors, by their state, for the crime of being who they are. Gourevitch informs us of this. The responsibility is ours, to be vigilant, to carry the burden of "never again" which falls on every person's shoulders. I only hope enough of us hear and listen.
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Summary: Complex anti-soundbite account of the Rwandan genocide.
Review: Gourevitch's writing does justice to the horrible history of the Rwandan massacare of 800,000+. He never simplifies the extremely murky and complex and questionable actions that most involved chose. His keen eye and pen take it all down. Gourevitch's account is gift to a mostly daydreaming civilized world. This book is a reality check. A call for vigilance and a recognition of our common humanity. I never knew it was that bad was what I kept thinking. It felt really bad to not have known that another holocaust occured. And then to learn it was totally preventable. I didn't want to talk to anyone for a while after finishing it. One of the few relevant books on our world and culture. 'Never again'. That idea would be wonderful if we could make it reality. Still, most sleep on and the slaughters continue.
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Summary: Intelligent indictment of western policy in Rwanda
Review: A scathing indictment of the West's response to the largest genocide since the Nazi extermination of the Jews. Gourevitch writes an intelligent and provactive book. Through inaction and misguided relief attempts, the international relief community, France, the US, and the United Nations are portrayed as willfully ignorant at best.
Intelligently (if on occasion slightly awkwardly) written. I can only hope this will lead to a re-examination of UN and our own American policies. From now on, 'first do no harm'...
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Summary: Very informative and interesting book
Review: A great book! This book was easy to read, interesting and informative. Gourevitch was able to explain a very complicated event in an interesting and easy to read book. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to understand what happened in Rwanda.
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