Genocide, a termed coined after the Holocaust’s scope of horror and destruction left world leaders without sufficient vocabulary to describe it, comes from the Greek word ‘genos’ (race or tribe) and the Latin word ‘cide’ (kill), and defines the deliberate annihilation of a race of people. Considered one of the four large-scale genocides of the 20th century (the Holocaust in Germany, Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia, and the slaughter of Armenians / Greeks by the Turks), the Rwanda massacre resulted in the murders of approximately 800,000 with a three-month time.
Dan Hardo’s The Rwandan Genocide explains in concise detail how such atrocities could happen. Hardo reviews the historical context of colonialism and explains how the Belgians worked with the Catholic Church to reinforce and exploit the social differences between tribes that sowed the seeds of future hatred between them. Hardo uses interviews with foreign war correspondents to show the reader that beneath the surface of this genocide, there was not a simple issue of tribal hatreds but a complex web of politics, economics, history, psychology and a struggle for identity among the peoples. Hardo presents numerous eyewitness accounts to explain how the United Nations organization hindered the UN peacekeeping forces within Rwanda from stopping the slaughter, how the death squads were recruited and trained, and how radio broadcasts were used to spread propaganda and incite murder.
Hardo also describes how other countries (US, Italy, France) used their troops to evacuate their own citizens but did not commit troops to help Belgium maintain order after ten Belgium troops were brutally murdered. The US and others later admitted that they should have done more to stop the mass murders. Hardo notes that surveys determined that if these governments had used the term ‘genocide’ in the debate of whether or not to commit troops, a majority of their citizens would have supported military action.
Hardo ends the book with an account of how Rwanda has rebuilt itself in the sixteen years since the genocide, how the country has desegregated itself, and sought justice for the ringleaders of the movement. Interestingly, justice often came in the form of restitution such as working on a victim’s land.
The Rwandan Genocide is a disturbing read with graphic descriptions of slaughter of men, women (including pregnant women), children and even infants. There are color photographs of the victims, as well as photos of the death squads, the military, political figures, and of the country’s natural beauty and wildlife.
As a book in a series on world history, The Rwandan Genocide includes maps, timelines, and an annotated bibliography and defines vocabulary words within the text itself.