09 Mar 2004 | Philip Gourevitch - We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families

Gourevitch account of the Hutu-lead genocide in Rwanda and the disastrous handling of the aftermath by international aid agencies seems to be a typical example of what appears to be Africa's staple diet for the last forty years; Internal death and destruction and mismanaged international aid packages.
Gourevitch his book is written well. He's able to present the rather complex story in clarity, using a solid fact-based approach, never loosing himself in melodramatic statements, which isn't that easy, considering the more than million, mostly Tutsi victims of the massacres.
The author also shows that the international community, under the banner of the UN was totally unable to counter the situation in this tiny landlocked central African country. Often, UN troops, not allowed to intervene, saw people get killed with machetes right in front of their faces. At the same time, aid agencies were propping up camps with Hutus, just across the border with Zaire. With the maintenance of these camps, the international community was effectively supporting the Hutus who had killed the million Tutsis and had fled the country after it was being freed by a combined Tutsi-Hutu liberation force.
Reading the book, you realize that the "never again" in relation to the Jewish extermination during the Second World War is nothing but a hollow line. If no international (Western) interests are at stake, no one is interested in sorting the problems out.

Find out about the location of the exact copy I read at Bookcrossing.com.

Read