Books...

I mentioned that I'd read a few accounts of the genocide and recent Rwandan history. Here's a list, for anyone who's interested:

'Shake Hands With the Devil' by Romeo Dallaire
-This is an incredibly detailed account of the genocide from the perspective of the UN commander in Rwanda at the time. Very heavy-going, but probably the most exhaustive account of the events. Also a damning indictment of the international community's complete failure to act.

'A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali' by Gil Courtemanche
- Fictional, but based closely on reality, this is extremely graphic in its depictions of the violence. Mixes incredibly deep and dark cynicism with a kind of hope towards the end. 'Interesting' or 'provocative' are probably the best words to describe it.

'We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families' by Philip Gourevitch
'Season of Blood' by Fergal Keane

Both journalistic account of the genocide, by renowned correspondents (Keane of the BBC, Gourevitch of the New Yorker). Both excellent. Keane's book is more personal, Gourevitch's has stories from lots of different people. I think I found Gourevitch's to be the best of the lot, and it describes in some detail the chaos after the 100 days of genocide in 1994 - I hadn't realised how much the resulting refugee crisis destabilised the whole Great Lakes region of Africa. Also utterly scathing about the international response to the genocide. I hadn't realised before this that not only did the UN and the West ignore Rwanda's plight completely, but they then sprung into action to house and support the fleeing genocidaires in giant refugee camps in Zaire (now DR Congo, a transition Rwanda played a large role in) and Tanzania. The genocidaires continued to launch attacks against Tutsis from these camps for some years afterwards, and the UN and aid agencies did almost nothing to stop them. What a mess.