"The Shallow Graves of Rwanda", Shaharyar Khan, 2000, I.B. Tauris, London, ISBN: 1-86064-616-6, HC 228 pgs., includes 1 map, 2 pgs. Acronyms, 16 Illust., 1 pg. Biblio., 8 pg. Index. 9 1/2" x 6 1/4"
Khan, retired Pakastani Muslim career deplomat, was give "onerous responsibility" to seek a peaceful settlement in Rwanda as Special Representative of UN Secretary-General after Tutsi Pres. Habyarimana's plane was shot down April 6, 1994. Arriving 3 mos. later, on July 4, 1994, the author learns a civil war &/or genocide had occurred with about 800,000-1,000,000 Rwandan's massacred, largely by Hutu majority wielding machetes in a planned mass-killing of the Tutsi minority. For reader's not familiar with Rwanda, the country is one of the smallest of the smallest countries in the world, less than the size of a small pea on a full Atlas-sized map page of Africa - it is surrounded on the W-N-E-S by Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania & Burundi.
Despite author's claim of his book as a diary, it is nothing of the sorts. He gives a brief synopsis of Rwandan's clash arising in the 1930's from colonists imposing Western values, intra-ethnic tensions, over-population, & that docile compliant mind-set of Rwandan peoples who are silently obedient to any authority. This is bizzare when put in context of the brutal killings which were barbaric, revengeful, & savagely carried out on men, Women, & children left to die slowly by hemorrhage, evisceration, limblessness, genitalia excisions, head bashings or smaller victims tossed into urinal pits to drown or suffocate in feces. It transcends by far anything reported in the Holocaust or Armenian Genocide.
The Author provides a list of 47 acronyms to distinguish & represent various Worldly, African, or United Nation offices, programs, organizations, plans, committees, missions, departments, coalitions, forces, etc. which are supposed to have helped Rwanda, but are herein documented to have been uniformly counter-productive, adversarial, overlapping & heavily endowed groups which spent millions if not billions of dollars in observing the situation, but not even pennies for rebuilding as roads, electric power, communications, etc. The author, despite his "onerous responsibility" was shown to have absolutely no power, & though he ussued decrees, demands, resolutions. suggestioons & reports, he discovered that no one really listened to him, or if they pretended to do so they readily changde their minds. We are informed that various organizations which should have been involved in peaceful measures were actually involved in the illegal & irrational importing of land mines, grenades, pistols, ammo & automatic weapons from Italy, Israel, Egypt, China, etc., instead of aid supplies.
We are informed about the insurgent military groups, RGF (Hutu) vs. the RPA (Tutsi) lead by 37-yr-old Tutsi leader Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame who quickly advanced from VP to Pres. of Rwanda. He was recently accused by French Magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere (Feb. 2007) as ordering the assassinations of April 6, 1944 & it was also alleged the U.S. and the U.N. quashed earlier inquiries since Paul Kagama was an ally of the U.S.
So, all in all, the book is not what it purports to be, is poorly written & poorly cllated,& it is highly repetitive of the miserable accountings of beastly killings that had already occurred before the impotent author had set foot in Kigali. If there was a "fall guy" for the U.N., it was the author. It is not a book about the Rwanda genocide, it is a book about power, politics, & money.
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