Quite simply, it is most likely that they simply did not feel remorse or the full impact of their actions as the genocidal discourse had remained intact during their time in prison and nothing had been done to separate the men or break down these beliefs. Mention is made in the closing chapter of the book of the men being sent to a re-education camp at Bicumbi before the majority of them were released back into the community in May 2003, but the interviews in the book took place before this occurred. Hatzfeld's final book in this trilogy, The Strategy Of Antelopes: Rwanda After the Genocide picks up where the killers have been released into the community and details their difficulty in settling back down in the communities and how their Tutsi neighbours must tolerate them.
I would certainly recommend this book, but I would certainly not recommend that this be the only book that you read on the Rwandan genocide. These are the top books that I would recommend on the Rwandan genocide:
- Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
- An Ordinary Man: The True Story Behind Hotel Rwanda by Paul Rusesabagina
- Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey by Fergal Keane
- Into the Quick of Life: The Rwandan Genocide - The Survivors Speak by Jean Hatzfeld
- The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff
Despite the difficulties presented with the subject matter, I would still give this book five out of five stars.
Article comments
1 - Aimable
Since the author is interested in reading about Rwanda, the author can then read the recently leaked UN draft report about how extremist Tutsi soldiers committed genocide against Hutu civilians (women, children and the elderly). The only problem that I find with the UN report is that it only covers the crimes committed by extremist Tutsis after 1994. If only an independent investigation about Rwanda was to start in 1990, the investigation would unravel the horrible crimes that were committed by extremist Tutsi soldiers against Hutu civilians, crimes that went a long way towards provoking the extremist Hutus.
2 - Emm
I have in fact got hold of a copy of the full 508 page report and posted about it on my own blog yesterday. The report details how RPF soldiers went into Zaire after the genocide and hunted down Hutu refugees and how civilians were indeed killed along with former Interahamwe militants.
Have you read the ful report or have you depended on watered down summaries in the main stream press? I only ask because the copy that I downloaded from GenocideWatch.org is not just about crimes committed against Hutu refugees. Indeed, the main purpose of the report is to systematically map the many crimes and atrocities that have taken place against Congo civilians during the period 1993-2003. The only problem with the report, so to speak, is that it only runs up to the period up to 2003 and does not include the violence that is taking place right now, today. You are aware, of course, of the Hutu power rebel group DFLR and the rape campaign that they are currently committing across the DRC? Of how they have teamed up with the Mayi Mayi to attack anything and everything relating to Tutsi power in Rwanda?
And why only go back to 1990? There were claims of massacres and genocides committed in the Great Lakes region against the Tutsis from the 1960s and even earlier. The evens leading up to 1994 were surely in place before 1990.
Nothing can change the fact that a genocide was committed in Rwanda against the Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 1994. That is the purpose of this review and in fact, in the book, none of the men tries to deny that they committed genocide. "The Tutsis made us do it" is one of the less popular theories as to why the genocide occurred but that is an opinion and you are entitled to it.
Your organisation seeks to obtain a fair and free Rwanda for all people, including Hutus. But what about the citizens and civilians of the DRC? When do they get a fair deal?