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Critical reception

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Chronological draft

[edit]

Awards

  • Hillary Weston finalist 2017 September 20 Finalists announced for 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
  • November 20: Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction awarded (presumably chosen earlier)
  • November 30: Globe and Mail 100: "Our favourite books of 2018"

Mainstream

  • September 15, 2018: Garrett, Lancet
  • October 9 CBC books w Ryan B Patrick[2]
  • Sept 30 2020 Braeckman

Scholarly

  • June 25, 2018: Lemarchand
  • "Fall, 2018": Caplan, Genocide Studies International (published online Jan 2019)

Genocide

References

  1. ^ "Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book". Canadian Broadcasting Company. April 2, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2020. 'I'm not a genocide denier. I do recognize and believe, because there's compelling evidence that shows the Tutsis were killed in massive numbers...Am I a revisionist? I guess I am. Because the official narrative of the genocide stipulates that there's basically one group of people who were targeted ... and, in fact, that's not true.'
  2. ^ Patrick, Ryan B (October 9, 2018). "Judi Rever uncovers truths about the Rwandan genocide with In Praise of Blood". CBC.ca. Retrieved December 5, 2020. I decided on 10 or 15 chapters, and the chapters were created as scenes in the cinematic and visual sense. With each chapter, I wanted to not just explore a theme, but prove it as well. There was a cause-effect in each chapter, so I tried to find 10 to 15 ideas that would explore the human dilemma and then build a cinematic scene to depict it.

NPOV summary of critical responses

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Early reviews of the book called the book "explosive"[1] and xxx. Several reviewers praised the author for her bravery and persistence.

focused on its allegations of RPF crimes, noting such allegations would be controversial.[1] Helen Epstein, whose favorable two-part review for The New York Review of Books may have helped popularize the book[2], writes that "Rever's account will prove difficult to challenge"[3] but warns:[4]

Versions of Rever’s story have been told by others. While all contain convincing evidence against the RPF, some are marred by a tendency to understate the crimes of the Hutu génocidaires or overstate the RPF’s crimes. But some, including the work of Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian professor of law and politics, have been both measured and soundly researched. Kagame’s regime and its defenders have dismissed them all as propaganda spouted by defeated Hutu génocidaires and genocide deniers.

Rever's account of RPF violence during the two Congo wars, and of RPF's violence against its political opponents were widely acknowledged as accurate, but her claims about RPF behavior before and during the 1994 genocide against Tutsis proved extremely controversial. Historian Gerald Caplan

Historian Gerald Caplan criticizes the book for "...too many unnamed informants; too many confidential, unavailable leaked documents; too much unexamined credulity about some of the accusations; too little corroboration from foreigners who were eyewitnesses to history"[5] but concludes "...Rever has reinforced the case against the RPF that had already been made and that left little doubt that the RPF under President Kagame is indeed guilty of war crimes, though not of genocide....I believe we all have an obligation to make this record better-known...[6]

Political scientist René Lemarchand calls the book a "path-breaking inquest", "destined to become required reading for any one claiming competence on the Rwanda genocide". He praises Rever for thorough investigation and taking risks in order to gather as much information as possible.[7] The book convinced scholar Filip Reyntjens of the accuracy of the double genocide theory, which he had previously rejected.[8][9] Researchers Bert Ingelaere and Marijke Verpoorten refer to Rever's revival of the double genocide theory as based on "flimsy and mostly unverifiable sources".[10] Political scientist Scott Straus, a critic of the double genocide theory, calls the book "irresponsible" and states that Rever's "title is unnecessarily provocative, her tone breathless and conspiratorial."[11] Vidal writes that "Rever’s work blurs the line between investigation and indictment" and "reads like a prosecutor's closing argument". In particular, Rever describes massacres "in such a way as to classify them as genocide".[12] Vidal states that there are no new revelations in the book, but that Rever accumulates more evidence for charges that have already been made in earlier publications.[12]

In The New York Review of Books, Epstein writes that Rever's "sources are too numerous and their observations too consistent for her findings to be a fabrication."[13] Journalist Colette Braeckman praised Rever's "investigative work that she carried out, not without risks and difficulties" but criticized the book for one-sidedness and for omitting the historical background of repeated previous Hutu violence against Tutsis.[14] According to journalist Laurie Garrett: "As journalism and creative writing In Praise of Blood is excellent".[15] The Lancet later published a letter critical of Garrett's review, which disputes the book's conclusions and accuses Rever of victim blaming.[16]

Regarding the new allegations raised in Rever's book, genocide scholar Samuel Totten wrote to Caplan that Rever's book fails to answer many important questions, starting with: whether other researchers heard the same rumors and tried to investigate them, and if the ICTR heard any testimony related to them.[17] Researchers Helen Hintjens and Jos van Oijen focus on Rever's claim that the RPF operated Nazi-style extermination camps without leaving any trace. Specialists they consulted, including the Netherlands Forensic Institute, concluded that the methods described by Rever "would certainly have left significant traces of mass murder", and a Belgian journalist who visited the site when it was supposed to be in operation did not notice anything unusual. They describe Rever's "infiltrations"-theory as "the RPF was pulling the strings of every organization, even the Interahamwe militias," and recall a comparable suggestion by the Rwandan ministry of defence published in 1991. Overall, they state that "Rever's book does little more than recycle... earlier denial narratives and sources".[18]

During a promotional tour in Belgium which included speeches at three universities, a group of sixty scientists, researchers, journalists, historians and eye-witnesses such as Romeo Dallaire, published an open letter in Le Soir criticizing the universities for giving the impression that by promoting Judi Rever's book they supported her theories[19] An open letter which accused the book of genocide denial was published in Libération in 2020, signed by organizations such as Ibuka, an association of Tutsi genocide survivors, and SOS Racisme.[20] Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide,[21][22] but she is a "revisionist" because she questions existing historical narratives.[21]

In Africa the book received mixed responses as well. Zahra Moloo took most of Rever’s information for granted but noted that “a proper judicial investigation would be required to determine whether or not a genocide against Hutus did take place.”[23] Yash Tandon criticized In Praise of Blood for overlooking the historical roots of the genocide. He noted that the book is accusatory rather than an inquisitive analysis and questioned Rever’s finger pointing as the way forward in the reconciliation efforts.[24] Boubacar Boris Diop and Jean-Pierre Karegeye focus on what they call “a paradoxical negationism": ”It doesn’t say that genocde didn’t take place: on the contrary, it maintains that everyone has “genocidated” everyone, which makes tragedy a zero-sum game.” .[25]

According to Yash Tandon, "by adopting an accusative approach – rather than inquisitive – and by pointing a finger at the Tutsis..Revers lost an opportunity of joining forces that are seeking to leave behind the Hutu-Tutsi genocidal recent history in order to move forward. Indeed, the genocides should be a kind of a lighthouse - warning people against moving in that direction."[26]

References

  1. ^ a b Cronin-Furman, Kate (May 16, 2018). "The Insistence of Memory". LA Review of Books. Retrieved January 3, 2021. The hegemonic narrative of the Rwandan Genocide allows no nuance or moral ambiguity and so must carefully conceal the violence of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Any mention of RPF atrocities meets with fury from the Kagame regime and determined disbelief from its admirers abroad. Yet incontrovertible evidence exists of massacres committed against Hutu populations in Rwanda and in refugee camps across the border in Zaire.
  2. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 181.
  3. ^ Epstein, Helen (June 7, 2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 2, 2020. Rever's account will prove difficult to challenge. She has been writing about Central Africa for more than twenty years, and her book draws on the reports of UN experts and human rights investigators, leaked documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and hundreds of interviews with eyewitnesses, including victims, RPF defectors, priests, aid workers, and officials from the UN and Western governments. Her sources are too numerous and their observations too consistent for her findings to be a fabrication.
  4. ^ Epstein, Helen (June 28, 2018). "A Deathly Hush". New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 2, 2020. ... it's worth asking why the fiction has persisted that Kagame's RPF rescued Rwanda from further genocide when much evidence suggests that it actually helped provoke it by needlessly invading the country in 1990, massacring Hutus, probably shooting down the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994, and failing to move swiftly to stop the genocide of the Tutsis, as Roméo Dallaire—commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda at the time—suggested in his memoir Shake Hands with the Devil.
  5. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 184.
  6. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 187.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference lemarchand was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Reyntjens, Filip. "Un " second génocide " au Rwanda : retour sur un débat complexe". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  9. ^ Reyntjens, Filip. "De dubbele genocide van 1994". De Standaard (in Flemish). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  10. ^ Ingelaere, Bert; Verpoorten, Marijke. "How trust returned to Rwanda, for most but not for all". African Arguments. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  11. ^ Straus, Scott (2019). "The Limits of a Genocide Lens: Violence Against Rwandans in the 1990s". Journal of Genocide Research. 21 (4): 504–524. doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1623527.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Vidal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Epstein, Helen (2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  14. ^ Braeckman, Colette (29 September 2020). ""L' Eloge du sang", une enquête fouillée mais controversée sur les crimes commis au Rwanda". Le Soir. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  15. ^ Garrett, Laurie (2018). "Rwanda: not the official narrative". The Lancet. 392 (10151): 909–912. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32124-X. Rever's book, In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, is expertly crafted, riveting, though often gruesome, names names, and provides 33 pages of references and interview notes.
  16. ^ Binagwaho, Agnes; Hinda, Ruton; Mills, Edward (2019). "Rwanda and revisionist history". The Lancet. 393 (10169): 319–320. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30121-7.
  17. ^ Caplan 2018, pp. 170–171.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hintjens was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ "Rwanda: pétition contre des conférences révisionnistes sur le Rwanda". LeSoir (in French). 9 October 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Rwanda: "L'éloge du sang", ouvrage polémique sur le rôle du FPR pendant le génocide". RFI (in French). 27 September 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  21. ^ a b "Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book | CBC Radio". CBC. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  22. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 169.
  23. ^ Moloo, Zahra (10 April 2019). "The crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front – review". Africa is a country. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  24. ^ Tandon, Yash (21 October 2019). "A pan-African perspective on Rwanda through a critical review of Judy Rever, In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Canada, Random House, 2018". Pambazuka. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  25. ^ Diop, Boubacar Boris (2 December 2020). "Á bâtons rompus sur le génocide des Tutsi du rwanda". Seneplus. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  26. ^ Tandon, Yash (September 26, 2019). "A pan-African perspective on Rwanda through a critical review of Judy Rever, In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Canada, Random House, 2018". Pambazuka. Retrieved January 20, 2021. In her book, Judy Revers has overlooked the institutional and cultural carnage left behind by the imperialists. Furthermore, by adopting an accusative approach .. Rever lost an opportunity of joining forces that are seeking to leave behind the Hutu-Tutsi genocidal recent history in order to move forward. Indeed, the genocides should be a kind of a lighthouse - warning people against moving in that direction.

Background work: dates relevant articles

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2015

  • July 3: article by JR in FPJ "What the United Nations Knows about Rwanda’s Powerful Spy Chief"
  • September 25: Lara Santoro

'2017 September 20 Finalists announced for 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

2018

  • April 2: CBC
  • May 16 LARB https://web.archive.org/web/20200814024355/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-insistence-of-memory/
  • June 7, 2018: Epstein1 NYRB
  • June 24: Reyntjen, Conversation
  • June 25, 2018: Lemarchand
  • June 28, 2018: Epstein2 NYRB
  • July 10, 2018: Vidal, Conversation
  • September 15, 2018: Garrett, Lancet
  • November 20: Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction awarded (presumably chosen earlier)
  • November 30: Globe and Mail 100: "Our favourite books of 2018"
  • "Fall, 2018": Caplan, Genocide Studies International (published online Jan 2019)
  • December 18, 2018: van Oijen ZAM

2019

2020

Current content of relevant part of the "Reception" section

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The book was publicized in a media campaign and quickly received international attention.[1] Caplan credits Helen Epstein's favorable two-part piece in The New York Review of Books for popularizing Rever's work.[2] Caplan acknowledges that Rever’s book "... presses all of us to give the uglier aspects of the RPF’s record the prominence they deserve," but he concludes: "... there are too many unnamed informants; too many confidential, unavailable leaked documents; too much unexamined credulity about some of the accusations; too little corroboration from foreigners who were eyewitnesses to history."[3] According to French sociologist Claudine Vidal, the book's publication revived efforts by "propagandists, researchers and activists" to prove that the RPF regime committed genocide, which is perceived as "the only way of gaining recognition of a mass crime and eliciting public outcry".[1]


In The New York Review of Books, Epstein writes that Rever's "sources are too numerous and their observations too consistent for her findings to be a fabrication."[4] Le Soir journalist Colette Braeckman praises Rever for her on-the-ground investigation but criticizes her for examining only one side of the coin, concluding that she appears in the end to be an ally of the revisionists that preceded her.[5] According to journalist Laurie Garrett: "As journalism and creative writing In Praise of Blood is excellent".[6] The Lancet later published a letter critical of Garrett's review, which disputes the book's conclusions and accuses Rever of victim blaming.[7]

Political scientist René Lemarchand calls the book a "path-breaking inquest", "destined to become required reading for any one claiming competence on the Rwanda genocide". He praises Rever for thorough investigation and taking risks in order to gather as much information as possible.[8] The book convinced scholar Filip Reyntjens of the accuracy of the double genocide theory, which he had previously rejected.[9][10]

The rest of current content (expert commentary and criticism)

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Researchers Bert Ingelaere and Marijke Verpoorten refer to Rever's revival of the double genocide theory as based on "flimsy and mostly unverifiable sources".[11] Political scientist Scott Straus, a critic of the double genocide theory, calls the book "irresponsible" and states that Rever's "title is unnecessarily provocative, her tone breathless and conspiratorial, and her account of 'there is a conspiracy of silence that I broke, even if it destroyed my family,' is misleading and narcissistic".[12] Vidal writes that "Rever’s work blurs the line between investigation and indictment" and "reads like a prosecutor's closing argument". In particular, Rever describes massacres "in such a way as to classify them as genocide".[1] Vidal states that there are no new revelations in the book, but that Rever accumulates more evidence for charges that have already been made in earlier publications.[1]

Regarding the new allegations raised in Rever's book, genocide scholar Samuel Totten wrote to Caplan that Rever's book fails to answer many important questions, starting with: whether other researchers heard the same rumors and tried to investigate them, and if the ICTR heard any testimony related to them.[13] Researchers Helen Hintjens and Jos van Oijen focus on Rever's claim that the RPF operated Nazi-style extermination camps without leaving any trace. Specialists they consulted, including the Netherlands Forensic Institute, concluded that the methods described by Rever "would certainly have left significant traces of mass murder", and a Belgian journalist who visited the site when it was supposed to be in operation did not notice anything unusual. On Rever's "infiltrations"-theory, that the RPF was pulling the strings of every relevant organization, they recall a comparable suggestion by the Rwandan ministry of defence published in 1991. Overall, they state that "Rever's book does little more than recycle... earlier denial narratives and sources".[14]

During a promotional tour in Belgium which included speeches at three universities, a group of sixty scientists, researchers, journalists, historians and eye-witnesses such as Romeo Dallaire, published an open letter in Le Soir criticizing the universities for giving the impression that by promoting Judi Rever's book they supported her conspiracy theories and denial.[15] An open letter which accused the book of genocide denial was published in Libération in 2020, signed by organizations such as Ibuka, an association of Tutsi genocide survivors, and SOS Racisme.[16] Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide,[17][18] but she is a "revisionist" because she questions existing historical narratives.[17] Investigative journalist Linda Melvern notes that in her acknowledgements, Rever thanks several defence lawyers and known genocide deniers for their help.[19]

Content

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Content section proposed by Saflieni

[edit]
Title: In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front is a 2018 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Judi Rever and published by Random House Canada.
Introduction:
In Praise of Blood describes an alternative version of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and a secret genocide against Hutu committed by units of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The book was lauded in the popular press as a groundbreaking feat of investigative journalism but the overall reception by experts and survivor organizations was critical. Genocide scholars questioned the author’s methodology and denounced the double genocide theory as having no basis in science.
Career:
The first chapters of In Praise of Blood recount Rever’s early career as a reporter for Radio France Internationale in 1997 when she covered the aftermath of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A three year stint as correspondent for Agence France Press (AFP) in Ivory Coast followed. Rever moved back to Canada in 2001 to raise a family. When in 2010 she had the opportunity to interview Luc Coté about a United Nations report on war crimes in the DRC she resumed writing about Africa. Two years later she was contacted by Théogène Murwanashyaka, a former RPA officer who would become the main informant of her book. From 2012 onwards Rever devoted her career to a full time investigation of RPF war crimes. The first critical articles on Rwanda based on her own research appeared in 2013 in Jeune Afrique and Le Monde Diplomatique. She also wrote for The Globe and Mail and contributed the foreword to Victoire IngabireUmuhoza's 2017 book Between 4 Walls of the 1930 Prison: Memoirs of Rwandan Prisoner of Conscience.
Career:
The first chapters of In Praise of Blood recount Rever’s early career as a reporter for Radio France Internationale in 1997 when she covered the aftermath of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A three year stint as correspondent for Agence France Press (AFP) in Ivory Coast followed. Rever moved back to Canada in 2001 to raise a family. When in 2010 she had the opportunity to interview Luc Coté about a United Nations report on war crimes in the DRC she resumed writing about Africa. Two years later she was contacted by Théogène Murwanashyaka, a former RPA officer who would become a main informant of her book. From 2012 onwards Rever devoted her career to a full time investigation of RPF war crimes. The first critical articles on Rwanda based on her own research appeared in 2013 in Jeune Afrique and Le Monde Diplomatique. She also wrote for The Globe and Mail and contributed the foreword to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's 2017 book Between 4 Walls of the 1930 Prison: Memoirs of Rwandan Prisoner of Conscience.
Content:
In Praise of Blood describes war crimes in Rwanda and the DRC which according to Rever’s sources were committed by the RPF under the leadership of Major General Paul Kagame, the current president of Rwanda, during the 1990s. Based largely on interviews with Rwandan dissidents and army deserters living in exile in Europe and North America and confidential documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) leaked to Rever by anonymous sources, the book discusses three periods during which these crimes took place: The Rwandan civil war of the early 1990s, the genocide and its aftermath in Rwanda, and the subsequent wars in the DRC. Rever qualifies the RPF crimes against Hutu civilians as a genocide comparable in scale and cruelty to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The book accuses the RPF of having sown mistrust by infiltrating the political parties and the extremist Hutu militia during the the early 1990s, of creating fear with its incursions in northern Rwanda which caused hundreds of thousands of displaced people to gather in camps around Kigali, and finally to have shot down President Habyarimana’s plane on 6 April 1994 to use the ensuing chaos and mass killings to generate sympathy for its military campaign to grab power. The book suggests that during the genocide members of the RPF disguised as Interahamwe militia fueled and perpetuated the genocidal violence by participating in the killing of Tutsi civilians at roadblocks. RPF massacres of Hutu civilians described in the book include Byumba, Kibeho, Karambi, Gabiro, Gikongoro. Rever writes that the RPF employed Nazi methods to secretly transport hundreds of thousands of Hutus to death camps in remote areas such as the Akagera National Park where they were killed and incinerated, leaving barely a trace. Her discussion of RPF crimes against Hutu refugees in the DRC draws in part from her personal experience. Rever argues that while suspects of the genocide against the Tutsi have been put on trial at the ICTR, these crimes committed by the RPF have been left unpunished.

Content section proposed by Saflieni, with my edits

[edit]
Career:
The first chapters of In Praise of Blood recount Rever's early career as a reporter for Radio France Internationale in 1997 when she covered the aftermath of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A three year stint as correspondent for Agence France Press (AFP) in Ivory Coast followed. Rever moved back to Canada in 2001 to raise a family. When in 2010 she had the opportunity to interview Luc Coté about a United Nations report on war crimes in the DRC she resumed writing about Africa. Two years later she was contacted by Théogène Murwanashyaka, a former RPA officer who would become a main informant of her book. From 2012 onwards Rever devoted her career to a full time investigation of RPF war crimes. The first critical articles on Rwanda based on her own research appeared in 2013 in Jeune Afrique and Le Monde Diplomatique. She also wrote for The Globe and Mail and contributed the foreword to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's 2017 book Between 4 Walls of the 1930 Prison: Memoirs of Rwandan Prisoner of Conscience.
Content:

In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front describes war crimes that, according to Rever's sources, were committed during the 1990s by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) under the leadership of Rwanda's current president Paul Kagame.[20] Based largely on Rever's own experiences, including interviews with Rwandan dissidents and army deserters living in exile, the book also draws heavily on files of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which were leaked to Rever by an anonymous source.[21]

The book discusses three periods during which these crimes took place: The Rwandan civil war of the early 1990s, the 1994 genocide against Tutsis and its aftermath as the RPF took control of Rwanda, and finally the subsequent massacres of Hutus during the First Congo War (1996–1997).[22]

During the Rwanda Civil War, the book says the RPF systematically killed Hutus in areas that it conquered.[23] In regions governed by Rwanda's then-president Juvénal Habyarimana, the RPF used "technicians" to spread fear and dissension. Some of these technicians worked to inflitrate Hutu militia groups. According to the ICTR report and Rever's informants, the infiltrators encouraged and took part in killing Tutsi civilians, including at roadblocks.[24] Rever devotes a chapter to evidence that the RPF, not Hutu extremists, shot down President Habyarimana’s plane on 6 April 1994.[25] The RPF used the ensuing chaos to gain power, permitting the genocide against Tutsis to continue as their troops advanced slowly on the capital.[26]

RPF massacres of Hutu civilians described in the book include Byumba, Kibeho, Karambi, Gabiro, Gikongoro. Hutu corpses were hidden by various means: thrown into rivers,[27] mingled with the bodies of Tutsi genocide victims in mass graves,[28] or incinerated with their ashes spread on lakes.[29] Rever writes that the RPF secretly transported hundreds of thousands of Hutus to death camps in remote areas such as the Akagera National Park where they were killed and incinerated, leaving barely a trace.

Her discussion of RPF massacres of Hutus during the First Congo War began with her experience accompanying humanitarian aid workers in Zaire.[30] Rever met Hutu women and children who had fled RPF soldiers but were then hunted down when they fled into the jungle. She describes the Second Congo War as a "looter's war."[31]

In the book's conclusion, Rever stresses that bad actions by the RPF did not in any way justify or diminish the horror of the Rwanda genocide against Tutsis, saying:[32]

There is no part of this book that denies the genocide...There is no question that after Habyarimana's death, the [Hutu] hardliners chose genocide...But this book is not an examination of the dynamics of that 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

But she says that RPF "policy of ethnic murder" against Hutus should be considered a genocide as well.[32] Her final message is that Rwanda cannot have true reconciliation as long as its government enforces secrecy about crimes committed by the RPF.[32]

Short but neutral summary of the book

[edit]

The book's fifteen chapters, which trace the chronology of Rever's research, start in 1997, when Rever accompanied aid workers in Zaire and met Hutu refugees being pursued by troops from Rwanda during the First Congo War. Rever wondered why other countries did not step in to stop the violence by RPF troops, then or later during the Second Congo War.[33]

After publishing several articles that criticized Rwanda's president Paul Kagame, Rever began to be approached by Rwandans who wanted to tell her about their own experience. In 2015, she received by anonymous email a top-secret ICTR report from 2003, about alleged RPF war crimes that never came to trial.[34] (The document has since been published online.[35])

Rever devotes much of the book to accounts she heard or read of RPF forces killing large numbers of Hutu civilians before, during, and after the Rwanda Genocide (during which Hutus brutally killed hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis.) The book also describes in detail the claim that Paul Kagame's forces, not extremist Hutus, had shot down the plane of President Habyarimana.[36]

Another major book topic is the ICTR, which ultimately indicted 96 Hutus for their role in genocide against Tutsis but never prosecuted anyone from the RPF. Instead, evidence against major RPF figures was turned over to the Rwanda government for prosecution; no prosecution of high-level RPF resulted.[6]

In the book's conclusion, Rever stresses that bad actions by the RPF did not in any way justify or diminish the horror of the Rwanda genocide against Tutsis, saying:[37]

There is no part of this book that denies the genocide...There is no question that after Habyarimana's death, the [Hutu] hardliners chose genocide. Their actions were deliberate and organized, and they used the power of the state to murder massively.

Rever writes that the reason RPF crimes remain less well-known than the Rwandan genocide is that "most people simply wished to believe a more palatable construction of history. The story of a morally disciplined RPF rescuing Rwanda from the brink, to save Tutsis from a genocide…This story was easier to comprehend than what actually happened."[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Vidal, Claudine. "Debate: Judi Rever will not let anything stand in the way of her quest to document a second Rwandan genocide". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 181.
  3. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 184.
  4. ^ Epstein, Helen (2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Braeckman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c Garrett, Laurie (2018). "Rwanda: not the official narrative". The Lancet. 392 (10151): 909–912. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32124-X. Since 1997, Canadian journalist Judi Rever has dedicated her life to tracking down evidence of what she characterises as a massive cover-up, orchestrated by Kagame, some of his RPF colleagues, and Rwandan Government officials. Rever's book, In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, is expertly crafted, riveting, though often gruesome, names names, and provides 33 pages of references and interview notes.
  7. ^ Binagwaho, Agnes; Hinda, Ruton; Mills, Edward (2019). "Rwanda and revisionist history". The Lancet. 393 (10169): 319–320. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30121-7.
  8. ^ Lemarchand, René (25 June 2018). "Rwanda: the state of Research". Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche. Sciences Po. ISSN 1961-9898. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  9. ^ Reyntjens, Filip. "Un " second génocide " au Rwanda : retour sur un débat complexe". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  10. ^ Reyntjens, Filip. "De dubbele genocide van 1994". De Standaard (in Flemish). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  11. ^ Ingelaere, Bert; Verpoorten, Marijke. "How trust returned to Rwanda, for most but not for all". African Arguments. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  12. ^ Straus, Scott (2019). "The Limits of a Genocide Lens: Violence Against Rwandans in the 1990s". Journal of Genocide Research. 21 (4): 504–524. doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1623527.
  13. ^ Caplan 2018, pp. 170–171.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hintjens was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ "Rwanda: pétition contre des conférences révisionnistes sur le Rwanda". LeSoir (in French). 9 October 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  16. ^ "Rwanda: "L'éloge du sang", ouvrage polémique sur le rôle du FPR pendant le génocide". RFI (in French). 27 September 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book | CBC Radio". CBC. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  18. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 169.
  19. ^ Melvern, Linda (2020). Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78873-328-1.
  20. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 5.
  21. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 1–6.
  22. ^ Rever 2018, p. 3.
  23. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 65–67.
  24. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 67–68.
  25. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 177–198.
  26. ^ Rever 2018, p. 233.
  27. ^ Rever 2018, p. 103.
  28. ^ Rever 2018, p. 87.
  29. ^ Rever 2018, p. 4.
  30. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 7–44.
  31. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 44–53.
  32. ^ a b c Rever 2018, pp. 230.
  33. ^ Epstein, Helen (June 28, 2018). "A Deathly Hush". New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 5, 2020. ... it's worth asking why the fiction has persisted that Kagame's RPF rescued Rwanda from further genocide when much evidence suggests that it actually helped provoke it by needlessly invading the country in 1990, massacring Hutus, probably shooting down the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994, and failing to move swiftly to stop the genocide of the Tutsis, as Roméo Dallaire—commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda at the time—suggested in his memoir Shake Hands with the Devil.
  34. ^ Epstein, Helen (June 7, 2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 5, 2020. Rever's ... book draws on the reports of UN experts and human rights investigators, leaked documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and hundreds of interviews with eyewitnesses, including victims, RPF defectors, priests, aid workers, and officials from the UN and Western governments. Her sources are too numerous and their observations too consistent for her findings to be a fabrication.
  35. ^ Rever, Judi; Moran, Benedict (November 29, 2020). "Top-secret testimonies implicate Rwanda's president in war crimes". Mail and Guardian. Retrieved December 4, 2020. Mail & Guardian is publishing 31 documents based on testimonies the witnesses provided to UN investigators. The documents were leaked to M&G by various sources with extensive experience at the tribunal. The witness statements, which contain identifying information, have been redacted by the tribunal and by the M&G to protect the informants' privacy and safety
  36. ^ Caplan, Gerald (2018). "Rethinking the Rwandan Narrative for the 25th Anniversary". Genocide Studies International. 12 (2): 152–190. doi:10.3138/gsi.12.2.03. But we need to change the conventional narrative. The negative aspects of the RPF record need to be integrated throughout the narrative, not simply lumped in at the end. One cannot tell the story of the plane crash without at least noting the large number of sources who believe the RPF was responsible. One cannot speak of the murder of Tutsi once the genocide began without raising the issue of those killed by the RPF before the genocide was triggered.
  37. ^ Rever, Judi (2018). In Praise of Blood. Random House of Canada. p. 230. ISBN 9780345812117.

What the article says now

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Rever's book draws in part on unpublished reports of the Bureau of Special Investigations, part of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, sent to her unofficially.[6 Vidal] She conducted hundreds of interviews with RPF defectors, humanitarian workers, witnesses, and others.[2 Epstein1] The appendices contain information on "Structure of RPF violence from 1994 through the counterinsurgency" and dozens of biographical sketches of "The criminals of the Rwanda Patriotic Front".[7 LeMarchand][8 Caplan] Rever supports the double genocide theory, classifying the RPF crimes as genocide against Hutu.[9 CBC] Historian Gerald Caplan writes that "almost every one of her 250 pages of text contains extremely damning accusations"[10] and that Rever has "only one story to tell: The deplorable, bloody record of the RPF from the day it was founded, as it invaded Rwanda from Uganda, through the genocide, and on to the ferocious wars in the Great Lakes area of Africa thereafter".[1 Caplan]

According to Rever, the RPF's Directorate of Military Intelligence began to infiltrate both Hutu and Tutsi groups and assassinate Hutu moderates in the early 1990s.[5 Garrett] She writes that in 1994, RPF leader Paul Kagame escalated the civil war by ordering the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana; his plane was shot down using surface-to-air missiles obtained from Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. After the plane was shot down, Hutu extremists killed Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and the Belgian peacekeepers defending her, starting the genocide.[5 Garrett]

Rever estimates that there were about 500,000 victims of RPF killings,[11 Jeune Afrique] and that the organization can be considered a joint criminal enterprise.[6 Vidal] According to Rever, the difference between Hutu killings and RPF killings is that the latter were executed with more stealth and careful planning for disposing of the bodies, whereas during the genocide Tutsi victims were left outside to be eaten by wild animals.[5 Garrett] RPF defectors told Rever that the RPF organized mass killings of Hutu in the parts of Rwanda that it controlled as early as April in order to provoke the anti-Tutsi killings to a level such that no political compromise could be reached. This would eliminate the relevance of the Arusha Accords and pave the way for an RPF takeover.[2 Epstein] Another of Rever's theories is that RPF elements had infiltrated the extremist militias that carried out the genocide of Tutsi and were complicit in those killings[11][5] She states that the RPF systematically killed Hutu in northwest Rwanda in order to make their land available for Tutsi refugees.[6 Vidal] Defectors also told her that killings of Congolese Tutsi refugees in Rwanda in 1997, blamed on Hutu insurgents, were actually a false flag attack by the RPF.[2 Epstein] An anonymous ICTR investigator allegedly told her that "In my life I’ve never seen a situation where so much evidence was collected and no indictment was issued", regarding the April 1994 Byumba stadium massacre of Hutu by the RPF.[5 Garrett]

Rever describes RPF units as "death squads" which operated "open-air crematoriums" in Akagera National Park and compares them to the Einsatzgruppen, gas vans, and extermination camps of Nazi Germany.[4 Hintjens][12 LARB] She criticizes the United States and other countries for overlooking the RPF's crimes.[2] Rever writes that the reason RPF crimes remain less well-known than the Rwandan genocide is that "most people simply wished to believe a more palatable construction of history. The story of a morally disciplined RPF rescuing Rwanda from the brink, to save Tutsis from a genocide…This story was easier to comprehend than what actually happened."[5 Garett]

References used in previous version that need to be rescued because not in current version

[edit]
  • Lemarchand
  • LARB
  • Jeune Afrique
  • Hintjens

What RS say is the book's topic

[edit]
  • HKFP 2018: This book tells the story of the numerous crimes against humanity if not outright genocide, perpetrated by Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front.
  • RFI Sept 2020: "L’éloge du sang de la Canadienne Judi Rever est un livre d’enquête sur les crimes commis par l’armée patriotique rwandaise de Paul Kagame, rébellion devenue armée nationale au Rwanda. Publié depuis la mi-septembre aux éditions Max Milo, des organisations comme Ibuka, l’association de rescapés ou SOS racisme, ont qualifié l'ouvrage de négationniste dans une tribune publiée dans le journal Libération. " (The Praise of the Blood of Canadian Judi Rever is a book investigating the crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army of Paul Kagame, a rebellion turned national army in Rwanda. Published since mid-September by Editions Max Milo, organizations such as Ibuka, the survivors' association or SOS racisme, described the work as negationist in an article published in the newspaper Liberation."
  • Colette Braeckman 2020: "De Bukavu et Goma jusque Mbandaka en passant par Kisangani, Judi Rever a suivi la piste sanglante partie du Rwanda et se poursuivant à travers le Congo. C’est de là que part sa quête: durant des années, la journaliste canadienne, horrifiée par les crimes de guerre dont elle avait été témoin, a voulu en savoir plus. Ce qui l’a menée à enquêter sur le Front patriotique rwandais, libérateur du Rwanda et bourreau du Congo." From Bukavu and Goma to Mbandaka via Kisangani, Judi Rever followed the bloody trail that started out from Rwanda and continued through Congo. This is where her quest begins: For years, the Canadian journalist, horrified by the war crimes she had witnessed, wanted to know more. This led her to investigate the Rwandan Patriotic Front, liberator of Rwanda and executioner of Congo.
  • Claudine Vidal: "Published in March 2018, Judi Rever’s investigative work, In Praise of Blood, quickly garnered international attention. It is an indictment of both the Rwandan patriotic front (RPF) and its leader, current Rwandan president Paul Kagame, and foreign governments and international institutions – the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), in particular – that allowed crimes committed against Hutu civilians to go unpunished. Yet these crimes had been documented."
  • Garrett, Lancet" Over the years, less valiant portraits of Kagame and the RPF have appeared in academic monographs and self-published accounts by Western and Rwandan academics, journalists, and independent researchers...Taken together, they suggest that the RPF actually provoked the war that led to the genocide of the Tutsis and committed mass killings of Hutus before, during, and after it. In Praise of Blood is the most accessible and up-to-date of these studies."
  • Reyntjens, De Standaard: "The truth about Rwanda: that is the daring title of a book that has already been awarded several times, but which has also sparked controversy. The latter is understandable, because Canadian investigative journalist Judi Rever questions the way in which Rwandan history of the last quarter century is read....much research by UN agencies, international NGOs, journalists and academics has long shown that the RPF has also committed crimes against humanity and war crimes on a large scale. This happened in Rwanda in 1994, in Congo at the end of 1996-early 1997 and again in Rwanda in 1997-1999. The culprits have never been prosecuted, let alone punished. Judi Rever has thoroughly explored this side of the story for twenty years, sometimes at the risk of her own life."
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