Taylor on Melvern

Reviewed by: A People Betrayed: the role of the West in Rwanda’s genocide Christopher C. Taylor Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: the role of the West in Rwanda’s genocide (London: Zed Books, 2000) This is an excellent book, thoroughly researched, and despite numerous misprints, very well-written. The story is a profoundly tragic one, one with a nauseating surfeit of villains, very few heroes, and close to a million Rwandan victims, many of whom were killed under the most horrific circumstances. Among the villains one could include: both belligerents (the former Rwandan Government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front), the West (especially France and the United States), “the international community,” the United Nations, including the Security Council and the Secretariat under Boutros Boutros-Ghali. This book devotes most of its attention to the West: its active complicity in the case of France, its reluctance to spend money on peacekeeping in the cases of the United States and Great Britain, its unwillingness to recognize the true nature of events in Rwanda until it was too late, and its pusillanimity in enforcing the 1948 Geneva accords against genocide. The author, a journalist, provides keen insight into the motives and actions of all the key players in the Rwandan genocide and she does this without encumbering the reader with a ready made political, theoretical, or moral agenda. It is not that there are no moral lessons to be learned from this story; it is more that the author prefers to let the analysis of events lead the reader to the almost ineluctable conclusion that the West and its “good offices” were criminally negligent in allowing this madness to transpire. One might fault her for over-minuteness given the profusion of detail that her investigations have managed to unearth, but many readers will welcome this and will find rich facticity a welcome breath of fresh air in an intellectual ambiance in which many seem to forget that real blood spills from the bodies of real human beings. Despite the book’s title, the author does not fix all the blame for this tragedy on the West. She demonstrates persuasively that both local and global political interests have colluded in complex ways to bring about the situation in Rwanda. The author briefly traces the history of colonial involvement in the region starting with the Germans and following with the Belgians. She shows how ethnic antagonism between Tutsi and Hutu was exacerbated as a result of colonial policies, which favored Tutsi. Melvern continues the historical portion of the book with a look at early independent Rwanda after the majority Hutu took over the country in a so-called “social revolution” (1959–62) which claimed thousands of Tutsi lives and sent tens of thousands into exile. She then examines the historical role of the Kayibanda government (southern Hutu, 1962–73) and later the Habyarimana government (northern Hutu, 1973–94) both of whom were loath to de-ethnicize Rwandan society and to eliminate political and economic discrimination against Tutsi. Despite the failure of two Hutu-dominated governments to confront Rwandan society’s contradictions, external financial support was never lacking. Belgium and later France provided Rwanda with generous military and economic aid and both turned a blind eye to the local regime’s internal excesses. Shortly after the 1990 invasion of Rwanda by members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (70–80% Tutsi), France’s role in Rwanda began to eclipse that of Belgium. Belgium was losing patience with the Habyarimana regime as it became clear that the president and his coterie were willing to abuse human rights and to use murder and massacre to stay in power. France leaped to Habyarimana’s aid, fearing the erosion of “la Francophonie” should the Anglophone RPF take power. Men, money, and materiel all began to pour in saving the regime from almost certain defeat. Useful as both a conduit and an ally in this process were Egypt and its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who, about a year later became Secretary-General of the United Nations. Although the Secretary-General has done his best to disculpate himself with regard to the Rwandan tragedy and has preferred to place the

Complicity · Genocide · International community · Political science · Politics · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Philosophy