A People Betrayed

Events in Rwanda in 1994 are 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 UN Security Council failed miserably in its response.In this classic of investigative journalism, Linda Melvern tells the compelling story of what really happened. She reveals the scale, speed and intensity of the unfolding genocide, and she exposes the Western governments and individuals who could have prevented what was happening if only they had chosen to act. What emerges is a shocking indictment of how Rwanda was ignored in 1994 and of how it is remembered in the West today—an indictment that renders all the more poignant Melvern’s accounts of the unrecognised heroism of those who stayed on during the genocide, from volunteer peacekeepers to courageous NGO workers.Thirty years on from one of the darkest episodes in modern history, this revised, expanded edition of A People Betrayed includes copious new material reckoning with the information that came to light during the 2022 trial of Félicien Kabuga, the alleged financier of the genocide. This new evidence feeds not only into a revised chronology and a wholly new section on the build-up to the genocide, but also into a new appendix that lists the six major genocide memorial sites in Rwanda along with now-incontrovertible details of the massacres that occurred there.