Reviews

• Gripping!

  An incredible, but devastating book. I wish everyone would pick it up and read it. It changed my life to be honest; It has helped remind me why I want to become a nurse with its a gripping accounts of human devastation.

• The eradication of a race.

  An excellent first-hand account of the horror of the genocide in Rwanda which accounted for nearly 1million deaths of Tutsis by the Hutus. Fergal Keane hasn't minced his words in this book and it comes from his own experiences in the field so to speak. The descriptions of the victims injuries at times require a strong stomach but to gloss-over or fail to describe what these poor souls suffered, men, women, children, babies - no one was safe from the Hutu machetes, would be an injustice to them all. This was a well-planned attack and the Hutus knew well in advance what was going to happen when people who were friends and neighbours for years were suddenly called upon to do their duty and erase the Tutsis from the face of the earth.It highlights the high level of corruption in the country and Keane isn't afraid to criticise the UN in New York but equally he praises individual UN Force members who worked with BOTH their hands tied behind their backs, with a mandate which turned them into voyeurs of violence.They were ordered NOT to intervene on any account between the two tribes and this inaction by the UN undoubtedly cost hundreds of thousands of lives.Nothing changed even when some Belgian troops were also murdered and with the problems NOW with IS in Syria and the UN's failure again to take any decisive action it raises the question of exactly WHY they exist and WHAT use they are?

• Great Read

  I bought this for a Grad class. It was absolutely intriguing. The author imbeds the tragedy of th Rwandan Massacres with his own personal accounts as a BBC reporter. Read the whole thing in a few hours.

• Excellent Read & Brief History Lesson

  This is a first class read. It tells the tale of the journey through Rwanda by at the height of the atrocities there, from April to July, in 1994. The story revolves around the local tribes of the Tutsi and Hutu (vast majority) and the simmering disquiet between them which was in fact historical. This is not a comprehensive account of all that happened in the atrocity. It is very much a personal story of what a small crew found from their own investigations, and with the aid of their contacts, to unearth the truth. They were in the middle of a very volatile environment and were very brave indeed, considering the murderous attitude around them. The tension and fear they suffered going about their business comes across loud and clear. One fact that is very hard to stomach is that once again the 'protectors' - UN, USA and others, stood by and watched whilst innocents were slaughtered? This was not a war; it was a slaughter, genocide. In just 3 months a million people were slaughtered, hacked to death by machetes & knives. They were mostly Tutsi and Hutus sympathizers. However, what was possibly not known at the time was that up to 500,000 women were raped as part of the genocidal tactics, of these it is thought that two thirds were purposefully infected with HIV & Aids, which is rife in Rwanda even today, with some 500,000 infected and 150,000 recorded deaths. Up until now very few of the main political perpetrators have been brought to justice, though the Rwandan prisons are full (100,000) with local war criminals. Worse was still to follow. After the Rwanda tragedy, the neighbouring Congo wars took place in which several million further deaths followed. The whole area was utter carnage for several years during and after the Rwanda episode. The book, which is less than 200 pages, is very easy to read and gives you a real flavour of what it was like to be in that very hostile environment at that particular time.

• A scary trip

  Hard to say I love it because the scenes described were so disturbing. But it was written in a way that made you feel like you were riding along and seeing what was he was seeing. I gave it a 5 star because it is a book that should be read and not forgotten. When genocide rears it ugly head again it should be recognized for what it is and a loud cry should be given so that governments need to take action a hell of a lot sooner than what they did to the Rwandan situation. But then history has shown that it seems to be the way with governments reaction to genocide.

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