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The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide

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This book has plenty of information about Rwanda and the 1994 genocide there. Yes, the book may appear anti-Hutu. But that is because so many of the Hutus were guilty of genocide. The fact that not all Tutsis have always been angels does not change that.

Rwanda is a country of a little over 10,000 square miles, with several million people. At the beginning of 1994, about ten percent of its people were Tutsis and almost all of the rest were Hutus. There were about 900,000 Tutsis. In the space of a few weeks, 800,000 of the Tutsis were brutally murdered, many of them by their neighbors, who generally used machetes to slaughter them. This was a carefully planned extermination. There was a long period of incitement. And even the word "inyenzi" (literally, "cockroaches") used by Hutu extremists to describe Tutsis started as a reference to violent armed men who tended to move at night. It was not merely a term of derision, but also one which helped produce a reaction of fear that encouraged the massacres.

The author explains that had it not been for the success of a Tutsi army in eventually (but too late) taking the capital city, the leaders of the genocide probably would have gotten away with it completely. There might have been a brief and partial UN boycott, with France discreetly violating it, followed by a restoration of international ties with the government.

The differences between Tutsis and Hutus had made a big impression on European colonialists a century earlier. The Tutsis were usually considerably taller and thinner than the Hutus. The Tutsis typically had narrower noses and lighter skins as well. Europeans had put Tutsis in control of the land in spite of the fact that the Hutus were a big majority. However, when Rwanda obtained independence, the Hutus gained control and the Tutsis were almost entirely unrepresented in the government or military leadership.

Although most of the Tutsis in Rwanda were killed, several hundred thousand Tutsis who lived outside Rwanda moved into that country when the Tutsi army gained control of it. And well over a million Hutus fled Rwanda.

Prunier makes many interesting points. One is that although many people claimed that the Tutsis were much richer than the Hutus, the average incomes of Tutsis and Hutus were about the same. Another is about the role of France in supporting the Hutus. There is a revealing quote of a French minister who was asked about this and gave a very unconvincing denial: "Me! Accuse me of having got people to train death squads! Let's be serious! In all these crises some people always find a way to attack France."

When some French troops finally showed up in the area, the Hutus applauded them in a big way. Radio announcements told Hutu girls to "wash yourselves and put on a good dress for our French allies. The Tutsi girls are all dead so you have your chance."

These sorts of things, along with some amazing official French comments about the Hutus and Tutsis killing each other, as though there were simply victims and no criminals, make it appear that France was a big part of the problem. The United Nations forces, with their instructions not to stop any of the atrocities, were worse than useless.

I learned quite a bit from this book. It is a sobering look at our species.

From an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer, Rwanda.
This book seems to have been eclipsed by Gourevitch's journalistic account. Prunier was there and writing at the time that this happened. This book is basically a compilation of his observations of the genocide in Rwanda as it was occuring. It is, perhaps, less passionate than other accounts, but that only makes it more chilling. It traces the origins of the Rwanda genocide, the horrors of preparation and execution. This is an important book.

I have read no other book that so dispassionately, logically, and compellingly (and yes, perhaps coldly) simply gives the reader the facts. Not an easy read, as sometimes I had to read the pages twice to fully grasp the meaning, but a great experience. Probably the best book I've ever read.

This book--dull as a doornail--is the only sensible deconstruction of the Rwandan genocide out there, and believe me, I've read them all. I wept at the calculated coldness that Prunier dissects; I wept at the pieces, and the smooth, hot coals I cradled in my palm. This book gave me blisters.

Toss those easy, primitive theories on Rwandese tribal factions or the wide-eyed machete-wielding Protestant Hutu crying "demon possession, mea culpa": Prunier goes deeper, putting his own horror on the shelf for clear-eyed clarity. He plumbs the history of Rwanda, top to bottom. There's not a nook or cranny of evidence I've heard of that he doesn't explore. He mainly points to the colonialist Europeans who manipulated and separated and created Hutu and Tutsi tribes. Holistic, honest, brilliant, he separates facts and theories from each other with a humble incision. Yet with or without this careful separation it's apparent: his theories hold water AND blood.

and Mr. Prunier, tries to keep out of this game as well as possible. He does so - and this is and answer to the reader who finds it a pitty not to express emotions - because he is aware of the hot climate in which this event is being regarded. Scholars, journalists, people, press and governements draw from the history of Rwanda and from the stereotypes of Africa not to explain what (the facts) happened in 1994, but to impose their own opinion every time, to justify their position. We had enough of this! I really appreciate that Mr. Prunier does his best in not participating to the emotional game. We need to set out the facts in a clear way, this is the only way to discuss. I can understand that it might be hard for someone, expecially for rwandese whose family suffered in the massacres to accept this "cold observer from the outside", still I would like to ask these people to recall all the occasions in which precisely emotional arguments created trouble in that little state in the middle of Africe, and in the world's politics. Thank you.

This is an amazing book, a must-read if you want to find out why and how the genocide unfolded in Rawanda. I have read other books on this subject, including prize-winning ones, but none is as thorough lucid and as well written as this account. This is a book that is actually about Rawanda and not a book about someone passing through Rawanda. Good job Gerard Prunier!

The people of Rwanda have lived through an ongoing civil war and one of the three recognized genocides. Prunier seems to step back from the emotional aspect and explain what happened in a logical way. This is important for understanding the events. Equally as important, the rest of the world essentially ignored the tragedy. Rwanda is a prime example of the damage caused by colonialism and the arbitrary boarders drawn out by the ruling country. The west wants to ignore the ramifications of colonialism because they were the participants. But the effects are real and they are devastating.

According to Gérard Prunier, "Because of the chaotic nature of the genocide, the total number of people killed has never been systematically assessed, but most experts believe the total was around 800,000 people.


-- I'm sorry, but if the total number was never systematically assesed, then just what did these "experts" base their estimates on?




This includes about 750,000 Tutsis and approximately 50,000 politically moderate Hutus who did not support the genocide. ... Only about 130,000 Tutsis survived the massacres." Some, though, have taken issue with Prunier's (and others') estimates, alleging that the number of Tutsis in Rwanda was lower at the outbreak of the genocide than is generally believed. By these measures, "an estimated 500,000 Rwandan Tutsi were killed, or more than three-quarters of their population. ... The number of Hutu killed during the genocide and civil war is even less certain, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to well over 100,000." (Alan J. Kuperman, "Genocide in Rwanda and the Limits of Humanitarian Military Intervention," unpublished paper, 2000; see also Kuperman, "Rwanda in Retrospect," Foreign Affairs, January/February 2000.)


-- Basically, we're being asked to believe that farmers and peasents and a disorganized, soon-to-be defeated Rwandan military was able to kill almost a million people in a few months, with machetes no less, and then dispose of their bodies in such a way that nothing even close to this number of mass grave burials has been found. This is sheer nonsense, perpetuated by Paul Kagame and gulliable white-guilt westerners who have never asked themselves why no verifiable evidence supporting this hyper-inflated number has ever been discovered. This book, and any number of others simply accept the figure of 500k-1mil without serious question. They have to--Paul Kagame's government will not allow inspection of these imaginary mass graves. Not even for the purposes of prosecuting the ringleaders on trial in Tanzania.

When the Nazis perpetrated their Holocaust in Europe, the victims had names, there were lists, there was a vast amount of clear physical evidence. Where is this evidence in Rwanda? In a tiny church in Nyumbe where thousands of people met their deaths in a building that wouldn't have held more than a few hundred at most? 800,000 victims should have left massive piles of bodies near any settlements of any size. There were no such piles of bodies. 450 people found in a mass grave becomes 40,000. Thousands of political murders (many carried out by PDF) in Kigali become 250,000 deaths. Who are these people, where did they come from, where did they live, why aren't lists of the missing available?

People who don't believe me, feel free to post your proof. Just make sure you include some kind of cite which doesn't rely on simply parroting the 800,000 number and attributing it to unnamed "experts." The Rwanda Genocide was in fact a wave of political killings carried out by paramilitary groups, many of whom traced their loyalties not to "Hutu Power" but to men who are now in positions of great prominence in Rwandan society, both Hutu and Tutsi. Men who owe their prominence to supporting the side which ultimately won: Paul Kagame's PDF, an organization which would later go on to launch *another* invasion, this time into the Congo, and spark wars which have now claimed millions of lives. And unlike the genocide, these lives can be documented, and the mass graves being found in the Congo were filled by PDF (now PDA) military, not machete-wielding farmers.

RstJ
Salem, OR

Though the cold hard facts are present, I found a lack of passion towards what Mr. Prunier was writting about. He may have felt compassion towards the estimated 1,000 brutally murdered people, but he did not express it in his words. For practically the whole book you learn about the politics involved but not the people, the real people. The lack of enthusiasm and compassion make this book dry and uninteresting towards the younger audience. Mr. Prunier is a very good author but he needs to show, in words, his feelings, not the cold hard facts. NOT everything is as black and white as some may see it to be.