A People Betrayed

• A Nightmare in Kigali
  
  ...But Boutros-Ghali was far from the only scoundrel. Melvern's account of the U.N. Security Council deliberations that spring confirms what was obvious from the general U.N. paralysis. The Western powers, including the U.S., spent most of April 1994 pretending the genocide was a civil war. Repeatedly, they instructed the peacekeepers to negotiate a cease-fire--"rather like wanting Hitler to reach a cease-fire with the Jews," as one diplomat tells the author.

  By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, The Washington Monthly, December 2000



• The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance
  
  Melvern pulls no punches in her writing, detailing a substantial list of external actors: France’s support of the Habyarimana regime; Uganda’s role as a source of combat training and experience for the Tutsi army-in-exile, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF); Egypt’s channelling of armaments to Rwandan government forces through one of its diplomats, Boutros Boutros-Ghali – the man who would later serve as the UN Secretary General during the genocide; American stonewalling on the issue of armed intervention; even Britain’s inattention to the crisis comes under scrutiny.

  By MICHAEL A. INNES, The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, October 2001



• Human Rights Watch
  
  When it came time to summon the mettle to confront and prevent the undeniable ethnic slaughter of innocents in Rwanda, the international community, in particular the Western governments faltered and mocked the mandate, "Never Again."
  The failure is even more shameful in that, by most accounts, a relatively small increase in the peacekeeping force in Rwanda, combined with a minimal show of resolve by the Security Council would have prevented the killing from reaching genocidal proportions.

  HRW, Books-Community Review, 2000

• Accessory to Murder?
  
  A British journalist examines the U.N.'s flawed mission in Rwanda. The U.N. Force Commander, General Dallaire had pleaded with the Security Council for troop reinforcements, supplies and the authority to protect civilians. None of these were forthcoming. The Rwandan people would become, in the words of Linda Melvern, ''a people betrayed.''

  By SAMANTHA POWER, The New York Times, February 2001