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The United Nations and Rwanda 1993-1996 Paperback – December 4, 1996

by United Nations (Author)

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The horrific events, particularly the genocide, that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 presented the international community with challenges of unprecedented scale and consequence. The United Nations and Rwanda, 1993-1996 is a comprehensive account of the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States to respond to civil strife, large-scale massacres and military hostilities; to deliver emergency relief to millions of refugees and internally displaced persons; and to help Rwanda regain the path towards peace, reconciliation and development. This volume includes more than 180 key documents relating to the crisis as well as an extensive introduction by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and a detailed chronology of events.

Print length

750 pages
Language

English
Publisher

United Nations
Publication date

December 4, 1996
Dimensions

7.5 x 1.5 x 10.25 inches
ISBN-10

9211005612
ISBN-13

978-9211005615
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Triangulator

A detached but authoritative view of the Rwanda crisis.

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 1998

This weighty tome comprises a 100-page overview, a detailed chronology and the texts of about 180 source documents including UN Resolutions, the Arusha Peace Agreements, reports from UNAMIR and other UN agencies, correspondence from a number of key players and an index of further material held in UN libraries. This book will be important to students of African history, international politics and of the UN's way of doing business but it is by no means faultless or complete. In sticking to the strategic level of decision making, Boutros Boutros-Ghali's history of the crisis remains detached to the point that many of his "primary sources" are, in fact, hearsay. (A significant proportion of his sources are actually his own reports to the Security Council and, since he was not on the ground, were self-evidently compiled from reports and submissions made by UN staff in Rwanda.) This is not to say that Boutros-Ghali is personally detached: in diplomatically-modest language, he makes plain his very great frustration at the time-consuming bureaucracy of his own organization and the inaction of the international community in the face of one of the most vicious and unsparing tragedies of recent times. At every turn, he reports the Security Council selection of the smallest and cheapest option open to it and even then, potential donors and contributors being unwilling to act. His problem must, however, be considered in the light of other operations and the vast number of blue berets serving around the globe in 1994/5. With the benefit of having served in UNAMIR and having witnessed some of the incidents reported by Boutros-Ghali at third or more distant hand, it is not surprising that this reviewer finds some imperfection. In particular, one of the printed texts outlines a situation from which he seems to have extracted the figure of 80,000 which he applies to the break out from Kibeho during the tragedy of 22 April 1995. The fact is that a much smaller number tried to break out from a crowd that had been 80,000 not long before. Notwithstanding this and other criticisms, Boutros-Ghali and the UN are to be commended for making this material accessible: it must, overall, prove of immense value to serious students of its subject.

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