Rwanda

On April 6, 1994, the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda was shot down. The president was a Hutu, the assassins allegedly Tutsi. The historic animosity between the two ethnic groups was nothing compared to the violence unleashed after the assassination. The presidential guard began an immediate campaign to kill Tutsis and any moderate Hutus in Kigali, the capital, and within hours had dispatched recruits to do the same throughout the country. An unofficial militia, encouraged by the presidential guard and bolstered by radio propaganda, grew at its height to 30,000 Hutu, who slaughtered their Tutsi and moderate Hutu neighbors. The international community abandoned Rwanda completely: The UN pulled out its troops after 10 soldiers were killed. It was only the arrival of the Rwandan Patriotic Front soldiers that brought an end to the bloodshed. Over the course of 100 days, 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were murdered.

Rwanda

Film

Documentary:

  • The Ghosts of Rwanda, Greg Barker, director, 2004
  • Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, Peter Raymont, director, 2004
  • God Sleeps in Rwanda, Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman, directors, 2005
  • Gacaca: Living Together Again in Rwanda?, Anne Aghion, director, 2002
  • In Rwanda We Say: The Family that Does Not Speak Dies, Anne Aghion, director, 2004

Fiction:

  • Hotel Rwanda, Terry George, director, 2004
  • Shooting Dogs, Michael Caton-Jones, director, 2005
  • Sometimes in April, Raoul Peck, director, 2005

Literature

Narrative nonfiction:

  • Romeo Dallaire, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Da Capo Press, New York, 2005
  • Philip Gourevictch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, Picador, New York, 1998
  • Jean Hatzfeld and Linda Coverdale, Life Laid Bare: the Survivors in Rwanda Speak, Other Press, New York, 2007
  • Jean Hatzfeld, Susan Sontag and Linda Coverdale, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 2006
  • Veronique Tadjo, The Shadow of Imana Travels in the heart of Rwanda, Heinemann, Oxford, 2002
  • Aimable Twagilimana, Teenage Refugees from Rwanda Speak Out, Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 1997
  • Wendy Whitworth ed, We Survived: genocide in Rwanda, Quill Press, UK, 2006

Fiction:

  • Julian R. Pierce, Speak Rwanda, Picador, New York, 2000
  • J. P. Stassen, Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda, First Second, New York, 2006