Linda Melvern is a widely published investigative journalist and author. She is an Honorary Professor in the Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth. A consultant to the Military One prosecution team at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, part of her archive of documents is used to show the planning and progress of the 1994 genocide. Linda Melvern has written six books of non-fiction and is widely published in the British press and academic journals. She is the second vice-President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Her previous books include The Ultimate Crime (Allison and Busby, 1995) which traces the secret history of the UN’s first fifty years and became the basis of a TV series for Channel Four, the three- part “UN Blues” broadcast in January 1995. “A People Betrayed. The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide”, (Zed Books, 2000), now in its sixth impression, is widely used as source material by students in universities world-wide and was described as “the best overall account of the background to the genocide, and the failure to prevent it...the investigation is hers, and hers alone. She discovered so much that we did not know”. Lt-.General Romeo Dallaire, Force Commander, UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda, (UNAMIR) 1994.
Events in Rwanda in 1994 mark a landmark in the history of modern genocide. Up to one million people were killed in a planned public and political campaign. In the face of indisputable evidence, the Security Council of the United Nations failed to respond.
In this classic of investigative journalism, Linda Melvern tells the compelling story of what happened. She holds governments to account, showing how individuals could have prevented what was happening and didn't do so.
The book also reveals the unrecognised heroism of those who stayed on during the genocide, volunteer peacekeepers and those who ran emergency medical care.
Fifteen years on, this new edition examines the ongoing impact of the 1948 Genocide Convention and the shock waves Rwanda caused around the world. Based on fresh interviews with key players and newly-released documents, A People Betrayed is a shocking indictment of the way Rwanda is and was forgotten and how today it is remembered in the West.
A secret history of the UN’s first fifty years. The book shows how world powers prevent the UN from doing the job it was created to do. It reveals the inner workings of the UN Security Council and explains how the international system is unaccountable to both press and public. It exposes the secretive selection process for UN Secretary General.
The Ultimate Crime provides a great deal of new information about the UN, describing successes and failures since its creation. The book gives a concise history of UN peacekeeping and describes in detail the tragic missions in Somalia, former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It reveals and challenges the secrecy of the UN Security Council, describing how “UN policy” is devised in secret and informal session, often to disastrous effect, and away from press and public scrutiny.
The book exposes weaknesses in the UN system, and challenges the failure to reform the procedures for command and control of peacekeepers in the field. The book gives a comprehensive account of the anti-UN campaign waged continuously in the United States since the early fifties, beginning with the purging of radical UN staff and the activities of the FBI in the Secretariat building in New York. The book is the result of eight years research and with much of that time spent at the UN Secretariat in New York including at the UN archives, a remarkable and precious resource for those who want to study the history of international cooperation.
The End of the Street tells the inside story of the most historic upheaval in the British press and trade union movement for over a century - the true story of Rupert Murdoch, his coup against the unions and the Fleet Street revolution. In the course of a single year, the war for Fleet Street was fought and won. With military-style planning and precision, Rupert Murdoch and his lieutenants outmanoeuvred the unions, annihilated practices and traditions that had for decades been the pride of the unions and the bane of the proprietors, and sacked thousands of workers who had believed themselves indispensable and invulnerable.
Linda Melvern’s second book, “The End of the Street”, was published in London, in 1986, (Methuen) and it exposed the secret planning by Rupert Murdoch to destroy the strangle-hold of the British print unions. The book was given prime time television advertising and was the subject of a major serialization in The Times. But this book is more than the mere record of industrial relations in chaos; it is a gripping story of drama, tragedy, conspiracy and even fame.
Co-authored by Linda Melvern, Nick Anning, David Hebditch
An account of the campaign by the US Department of Defense to stop the illicit Soviet efforts to acquire American technology.
It contains an investigative report on the Soviet campaign to obtain high-technology information and devices, details the activities of black-market business suppliers, American and European spies and quasi-spies, and KGB agents.
This book was highly acclaimed and translated into several languages.
World Organizations: United Nations presents an overview of the goals, structure, history, and main programs of international organizations.
This book examines the ways in which the UN helps to bring peace and resolve conflich arount the world.
These books introduce readers to faraway countries and people, as each organization dedicates itself to issues such as poverty, pollution, human rights, and world peace.
Buy Conspiracy to Murder
Verso Hardback 2004
Revised paperback 2006
ISBN 1-84467-542-4
Bibliography
Reviews
Buy A People Betrayed
Revised and updated edition: 2009
Zed Books 2000 ISBN 1-85649-831
Reviews
Buy The Ultimate Crime
Allison and Busby 1995
ISBN 0-85031-939-0
Reviews
Buy The End of the Street
Methuen 1986
ISBN 0-413-14640-5
Reviews
Buy Techno Bandits
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 0-39536-0668
Buy United Nations
Franklin Watts Ltd
ISBN 978-0749636937