Rwanda and genocide in the twentieth century

by Alain Destexhe

In this slim, passionately argued volume - first published to great acclaim in France and considerably updated during the translation process - a deeply involved witness of the massacres takes an unflinching look at recent events in Rwanda and what they can tell us about the nature of genocide. Drawing on his experiences in the killing fields, Destexhe illustrates how genocide is trivialized by superficial contemporary definitions and by modern media and its compulsion to describe any mass killing as genocide. Genocide, Destexhe argues, is the most evil of all crimes as it is directed at the very heart of what it is to be human. Reviewing the three most destructive genocidal campaigns of the twientieth century - the Turkish mass murder of Armenians; the Nazi Holocaust; and the Rwandan cataclysm - the book discusses such central issues as culpability and collective responsibility, the limits of humanitarian intervention, and the complexities of punishing genocidal agents after the fact.