Alain Destexhe, in Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, describes the massacres of half a million Tutsis in Rwanda, places that genocide in its historical context, explains how such a holocaust could occur just fifty years after Hitler, and calls for punishment of the guilty by an international tribunal to forestall another genocide in the future. The book is brief but powerful, leaving the clear impression that what has happened in Rwanda is truly among the three most horrible mass murders in the century. The author is relentless in focusing on the fact that the international community allowed this horror to occur, did little to stop it, funnelled its efforts into largely after-the-fact humanitarianism, and failed to punish the guilty and thus deter future genocide. The author suggests that the world has learned little from the genocides of the Armenians and Jews earlier in the century. He argues that unless the world takes forceful action against the perpetrators of the slaughter of Tutsis, more such genocides are certain to happen in a world in which conflict is increasingly seen as "non-structured," "destructured," or "identity-based" (vii).
Destexhe argues that the leaders of the world view the Tutsi-Hutu "conflict" as local, ethnic-based, and difficult to fathom or sort out. However, the local, ethnic, religious and "identity-based" divisions in Bosnia did not stop international involvement, because that "conflict" took place in the middle of Europe and threatened the stability of surrounding European nations.
This reader cannot help but view the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda as a result of the racist view of the international community of primarily white leaders who concluded that what was happening in Rwanda was simply two black tribes killing one another. In fact, just as surely as the Turks in power massacred the Armenians, and just as surely as the Nazis in power slaughtered the Jews, the Hutus in power sl...