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
Quite extraordinary: precise, and yet overwhelming; a fine balance in the face of depravity... Linda Melvern has written an extraordinary account of the Rwanda genocide, and the shocking failure of the West to lift a finger... What Melvern demonstrates so powerfully is that where Western geopolitical interests are absent, Western morality and 'civilised' concerns are nowhere to be found ... A brave and compelling book.
Professor Richard Falk
Center of International Studies, Princeton University
This is a devastating account of lies, deceit, complacency and tragic neglect.... All we can hope is that this fine book will provide lessons for the future, because it provides all of us who lobby and campaign for early warning systems and conflict prevention with invaluable evidence. Looking around the world, you wonder what has been learnt since 1994. Linda Melvern deserves our thanks for investing so much in breaking the silence and revealing the truth.'
Glenys Kinnock, MEP;
Chair
Forum on Early Warning And Early Response (FEWER)
What happened in Rwanda is one of the most appalling, heartbreaking tragedies that the world has known. Why did it occur? And what more could have been done to prevent it? This serious, very thorough attempt to answer those questions will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand what happened. This is a powerful and important book.'
The Right Reverend Richard Harries
Bishop of Oxford
Melvern describes how, months in advance, funds from the World Bank and IMF were diverted to buy weapons from countries like China, Egypt and France. These weapons were stockpiled around the country, so that when the signal was given bands of unemployed youth could be armed in order to begin the slaughter. The radio station that coordinated the genocide was powered from generators in the presidential palace. This was not ethnic conflict but a desperate attempt by a ruthless clique to stay in power.
Melvern exposes how the bureaucrats in the United Nations, and the leading politicians in the United States, Britain and France, sat on their hands and did nothing despite increasingly desperate appeals from the commander of the UN troops on the ground. read review...
John Baxter
"A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide" by Linda Melvern, a former reporter for the London Sunday Times, condemns the international community, specifically the U.N. Security Council, for failing to intervene in the face of indisputable evidence of genocide. She argues that stubbornness and negligence, in addition to the suppression of information and deliberate distortion of fact, paved the way for three months of unrestrained violence that could have been prevented. Melvern’s second book on the subject, "Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda Genocide and the International Community," published this month, is a detailed account of the planning of the genocide that reiterates themes found in "A People Betrayed".
By Katherine Arie
Top 10 reading on Rwanda - Apr 2004 Reuters Foundation AlertNet
“... lifts the lid on the international community’s failure to prevent the genocide. Outlines how the slaughter was aided and abetted by international indifference, loans and weapons deals”.
Geoff Cumming
New Zealand News
“...Melvern offers a vivid picture of the role of Western nations in abetting, ignoring and allowing Rwanda's genocide.”
New York Times Book Review
“Linda Melvern has written a compelling description of the most dramatic aspects of the genocide.”
Astri Suhrke
International Affairs
“The best overview of the West’s complicity in the genocide”.
Adam J. Jones
Amazon, Listmania
More Reviews for A People Betrayed...
