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'''''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 of Canada]]; it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes [[war crimes]] by the [[Rwandan Patriotic Front]] (RPF) that occurred before, during, and after the [[Rwandan genocide]] (against [[Tutsi]]), based on hundreds of interviews and unpublished reports by the [[International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda]]. Rever supports the [[double genocide theory (Rwanda)|double genocide theory]], classifying the RPF crimes as [[genocide]] against [[Hutu]]. |
'''''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 of Canada]]; it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes [[war crimes]] by the [[Rwandan Patriotic Front]] (RPF) that occurred before, during, and after the [[Rwandan genocide]] (against [[Tutsi]]), based on hundreds of interviews and unpublished reports by the [[International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda]]. Rever supports the [[double genocide theory (Rwanda)|double genocide theory]], classifying the RPF crimes as [[genocide]] against [[Hutu]]. |
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Although many of the crimes discussed in Rever's book were already known to specialists, the book is highly controversial. Praised for thorough investigation at considerable personal risk to the author, the book was also criticized for [[sensationalism]] |
Although many of the crimes discussed in Rever's book were already known to specialists, the book is highly controversial. Praised for thorough investigation at considerable personal risk to the author, the book was also criticized for [[sensationalism]], relying on unreliable sources, and making false or unverifiable claims. Some accused Rever of genocide denial, even though she acknowledges the Rwandan genocide as a historical fact. According to historian [[Gerald Caplan]], the book "had an immediate, destabilizing influence on the world of orthodox Rwandan scholarship".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=168}} |
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==Background== |
==Background== |
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==Content== |
==Content== |
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{{quotebox|width=25em|The truth, no matter what aid donors seem to believe, is that the RPF has never stopped the violence. [[Kagame]] killed before the genocide. He killed during the genocide. And he killed after the genocide. The West’s unbridled support only fed the regime’s sense of impunity. Journalists from outside the country rarely perceived the truth. And journalists inside the country could not report on RPF violence. If they tried, they faced injury or death.|source=—Judi Rever<ref name="lancet">{{cite journal |last1=Garrett |first1=Laurie|author-link=Laurie Garrett |title=Rwanda: not the official narrative |journal=The Lancet |date=2018 |volume=392 |issue=10151 |pages=909–912 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32124-X}}</ref>}} |
{{quotebox|width=25em|The truth, no matter what aid donors seem to believe, is that the RPF has never stopped the violence. [[Kagame]] killed before the genocide. He killed during the genocide. And he killed after the genocide. The West’s unbridled support only fed the regime’s sense of impunity. Journalists from outside the country rarely perceived the truth. And journalists inside the country could not report on RPF violence. If they tried, they faced injury or death.|source=—Judi Rever<ref name="lancet">{{cite journal |last1=Garrett |first1=Laurie|author-link=Laurie Garrett |title=Rwanda: not the official narrative |journal=The Lancet |date=2018 |volume=392 |issue=10151 |pages=909–912 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32124-X}}</ref>}} |
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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.<ref name="Vidal" /> She conducted hundreds of interviews with RPF defectors, humanitarian workers, witnesses, and others.<ref name=nybooks/> 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".<ref name=lemarchand/>{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=172}} Rever supports the [[double genocide theory (Rwanda)|double genocide theory]], classifying the RPF crimes as [[genocide]] against [[Hutu]].<ref name=cbc>{{cite news |title=Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book {{!}} CBC Radio |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-full-episode-1.4602119/canadian-journalist-challenges-rwandan-genocide-narrative-in-new-book-1.4602122 |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=CBC}}</ref> Historian [[Gerald Caplan]] writes that "almost every one of her 250 pages of text contains extremely damning accusations"{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=171}} 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".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=168}} |
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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.<ref name="Vidal" /> She conducted hundreds of interviews with RPF defectors, humanitarian workers, witnesses, and others.<ref name=nybooks/> The acknowledgements include several defense lawyers for ICTR indictees and writers such as [[Barrie Collins]] who are considered to be deniers of the genocide against the Tutsi.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=169}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melvern |first1=Linda|authorlink=Linda Melvern |title=Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi |date=2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-328-1 |language=en|pp=185–186}}</ref> 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".<ref name=lemarchand/>{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=172}} Rever supports the [[double genocide theory (Rwanda)|double genocide theory]], classifying the RPF crimes as [[genocide]] against [[Hutu]].<ref name=cbc>{{cite news |title=Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book {{!}} CBC Radio |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-full-episode-1.4602119/canadian-journalist-challenges-rwandan-genocide-narrative-in-new-book-1.4602122 |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=CBC}}</ref> Historian [[Gerald Caplan]] writes that "almost every one of her 250 pages of text contains extremely damning accusations"{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=171}} 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".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=168}} |
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According to Rever, the RPF's [[Directorate of Military Intelligence (Rwanda)|Directorate of Military Intelligence]] began to infiltrate both Hutu and Tutsi groups and assassinate Hutu moderates in the early 1990s.<ref name="lancet" /> 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.<ref name="lancet" /> |
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According to Rever, the RPF's [[Directorate of Military Intelligence (Rwanda)|Directorate of Military Intelligence]] began to infiltrate both Hutu and Tutsi groups and assassinate Hutu moderates in the early 1990s.<ref name="lancet" /> 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.<ref name="lancet" /> [[Luc Marchal]], the senior Belgian peacekeeper in Rwanda at the time, told Rever, "Not only did the RPF not show the slightest interest in protecting Tutsis, it fuelled the chaos. The RPF had one objective. It was to seize power and use the massacres as stock in trade to justify its military operations. This is what I saw."<ref name="lancet" />{{efn|Other Western observers made similar observations. In ''[[Shake Hands with the Devil (book)|Shake Hands with the Devil]]'', [[Romeo Dallaire]] writes, "The deaths of Rwandans can also be laid at the door of the military genius, Paul Kagame, who did not speed up his [military] campaign when the scale of the genocide became clear, and even talked candidly with me at several points about the price his fellow Tutsi might have to pay for the cause."{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=154–155}} Caplan is convinced that "Kagame always intended to conquer the entire country, and was prepared to see large numbers of his fellow Tutsi suffer atrocious deaths in order to reach that end".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=155}} Maartje Weerdesteijn writes that "Des Forges (1999, 698–9) notes that the RPF’s aims were not just to stop the genocide, but also to win the war, and at times the latter took precedence over the former."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weerdesteijn |first1=Maartje |editor1-last=Smeulers |editor1-first=Alette |editor2-last=Weerdesteijn |editor2-first=Maartje |editor3-last=Hola |editor3-first=Barbora |title=Perpetrators of International Crimes: Theories, Methods, and Evidence |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-882999-7 |language=en |chapter=The Rationality and Reign of Paul Kagame|p=235}}</ref>}} |
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⚫ | Rever estimates that there were about 500,000 victims of RPF killings,<ref name=ja/> and that the organization can be considered a [[joint criminal enterprise]].<ref name="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.<ref name="lancet" /> 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 (1993)|Arusha Accords]] and pave the way for an RPF takeover.<ref name="nybooks" /> 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<ref name=ja>{{cite news |title=Génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda : le livre controversé de Judi Rever paraîtra en France |url=https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1011771/politique/genocide-des-tutsi-au-rwanda-apres-un-premier-echec-le-livre-controverse-de-judi-rever-paraitra-en-aout/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=[[Jeune Afrique]] |date=9 July 2020 |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref name="lancet" /> She states that the RPF systematically killed Hutu in northwest Rwanda in order to make their land available for Tutsi refugees.<ref name="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.<ref name=nybooks/> An anonymous ICTR investigator |
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⚫ | Rever estimates that there were about 500,000 victims of RPF killings, although her sources for this claim were questioned,{{sfn|Caplan|2018}}<ref name=ja/> and that the organization can be considered a [[joint criminal enterprise]].<ref name="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.<ref name="lancet" /> 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 (1993)|Arusha Accords]] and pave the way for an RPF takeover.<ref name="nybooks" /> 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<ref name=ja>{{cite news |title=Génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda : le livre controversé de Judi Rever paraîtra en France |url=https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1011771/politique/genocide-des-tutsi-au-rwanda-apres-un-premier-echec-le-livre-controverse-de-judi-rever-paraitra-en-aout/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=[[Jeune Afrique]] |date=9 July 2020 |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref name="lancet" /> She states that the RPF systematically killed Hutu in northwest Rwanda in order to make their land available for Tutsi refugees.<ref name="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.<ref name=nybooks/> An anonymous ICTR investigator 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.<ref name="lancet" /> (The ICTR never indicted a RPF leader.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Haskell |first1=Leslie |last2=Waldorf |first2=Lars |title=The Impunity Gap of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Causes and Consequences |journal=Hastings International and Comparative Law Review |date=2011 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=49 |url=https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol34/iss1/2/ |issn=0149-9246}}</ref>) |
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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.<ref name="Hintjens"/><ref name="larev">{{cite news |last1=Cronin-Furman |first1=Kate |title=The Insistence of Memory |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-insistence-of-memory/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]}}</ref> She criticizes the United States and other countries for overlooking the RPF's crimes.<ref name=nybooks/> 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."<ref name="lancet" /> |
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.<ref name="Hintjens"/><ref name="larev">{{cite news |last1=Cronin-Furman |first1=Kate |title=The Insistence of Memory |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-insistence-of-memory/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]}}</ref> She criticizes the United States and other countries for overlooking the RPF's crimes.<ref name=nybooks/> 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."<ref name="lancet" /> |
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==Reception== |
==Reception== |
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The book was publicized in a media campaign and quickly received international attention.<ref name="Vidal"/> Caplan credits [[Helen Epstein]]'s favorable two-part piece in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' for popularizing Rever's work |
The book was publicized in a media campaign and quickly received international attention.<ref name="Vidal"/> Caplan credits [[Helen Epstein]]'s favorable two-part piece in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' for popularizing Rever's work.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=181}} 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".<ref name="Vidal" /> According to Caplan, the book "had an immediate, destabilizing influence on the world of orthodox Rwandan scholarship", even though many of the accusations are not new.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=168}} In 2019, Rever gave talks at three Belgian universities.<ref name=Petition/> |
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Political scientist [[René Lemarchand]] calls the book a "path-breaking inquest |
Political scientist [[René Lemarchand]] calls the book a "path-breaking inquest". He praises Rever for thorough investigation and taking risks in order to gather as much information as possible. He states that "never before has a such sustained effort been made to establish the scale of such crimes, their contextual circumstances, locales, and the responsibility of the individuals and organizations involved" in RPF crimes.<ref name=lemarchand>{{cite journal |first=René |last=Lemarchand |author-link=René Lemarchand |title=Rwanda: the state of Research |publisher=[[Sciences Po]]|journal= Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche |date=25 June 2018 |url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/rwanda-state-research |issn=1961-9898 |access-date=13 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119173416/https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/rwanda-state-research |archive-date=19 November 2018 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The book convinced scholar {{ill|Filip Reyntjens|fr}} of the accuracy of the double genocide theory, which he had previously rejected.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Reyntjens |first1=Filip |title=Un " second génocide " au Rwanda : retour sur un débat complexe |url=https://theconversation.com/un-second-genocide-au-rwanda-retour-sur-un-debat-complexe-98269 |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Reyntjens |first1=Filip |title=De dubbele genocide van 1994 |url=https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20190110_04093175?hash=71E5A0F0DD36478F85427AD19142668531B2F0F3300B3E0F22A65C8FDCA96273&adh_i=&imai= |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=De Standaard |language=nl-BE}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Straus |first1=Scott|authorlink=Scott Straus |title=The Limits of a Genocide Lens: Violence Against Rwandans in the 1990s |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=2019 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=504–524 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2019.1623527}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Vidal"/> 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.<ref name="Vidal">{{cite news|author-link=Claudine Vidal |last1=Vidal |first1=Claudine |title=Debate: Judi Rever will not let anything stand in the way of her quest to document a second Rwandan genocide |url=https://theconversation.com/debate-judi-rever-will-not-let-anything-stand-in-the-way-of-her-quest-to-document-a-second-rwandan-genocide-98662 |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref> |
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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."<ref name=nybooks>{{cite news |last1=Epstein |first1=Helen |author-link=Helen Epstein|title=The Mass Murder We Don’t Talk About |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/06/07/rwanda-mass-murder-we-dont-talk-about/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |date=2018 |language=en|work=[[The New York Review of Books]]}}</ref> ''[[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.<ref name="Braeckman" /> According to journalist [[Laurie Garrett]] |
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."<ref name=nybooks>{{cite news |last1=Epstein |first1=Helen |author-link=Helen Epstein|title=The Mass Murder We Don’t Talk About |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/06/07/rwanda-mass-murder-we-dont-talk-about/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |date=2018 |language=en|work=[[The New York Review of Books]]}}</ref> ''[[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.<ref name="Braeckman" /> According to human rights scholar Jeff Bachman, the book "is investigative journalism at its finest" and "offers readers the most in-depth account yet of suspected crimes committed by Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front".<ref>{{cite web |title=Judi Rever, "In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front" |url=https://newbooksnetwork.com/judi-rever-in-praise-of-blood-the-crimes-of-the-rwandan-patriotic-front-random-house-2018/ |website=New Books Network |accessdate=10 November 2020 |language=en|date=14 January 2020|first=Jeff |last=Bachman }}</ref> According to journalist [[Laurie Garrett]], writing in ''[[The Lancet]]'', the book "is expertly crafted, riveting, though often gruesome, names names... As journalism and creative writing ''In Praise of Blood'' is excellent".<ref name="lancet" /> ''The Lancet'' later published a letter critical of Garrett's review, which disputes the book's conclusions and accuses Rever of [[victim blaming]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Binagwaho |first1=Agnes |last2=Hinda |first2=Ruton |last3=Mills |first3=Edward |title=Rwanda and revisionist history |journal=The Lancet |date=2019 |volume=393 |issue=10169 |pages=319–320 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30121-7 |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30121-7/fulltext}}</ref> |
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Caplan states that Rever's book relies heavily on interviews with anonymous and anti-Kagame sources, as well as unpublished reports, meaning that the book's references are of little use in corroborating her claims.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=170}} He criticizes Rever's book for sensationalism (for example, the title is not a quote from an RPF leader: "Rever made it up").{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=168}} Caplan notes that none of the foreigners who were present in Rwanda during the genocide noticed an equivalent crime committed by the RPF.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=171, 184}} He is troubled by the book because "if Rever is right then the story so many of us have been telling these past decades—certainly including me—has been little more than a distorted whitewash".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=168}} In his view, the main contribution of the book is in reminding scholars of the previously known facts about RPF crimes and the need to integrate the RPF's dark side into historical narrative.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=186–187}} |
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⚫ | 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.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=170–171}} 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 |
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⚫ | 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.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=170–171}} Researchers Bert Ingelaere and [[Marijke Verpoorten]] criticize Rever's use of what they characterize as "flimsy and mostly unverifiable sources".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ingelaere |first1=Bert |last2=Verpoorten |first2=Marijke |title=How trust returned to Rwanda, for most but not for all |url=https://africanarguments.org/2020/09/02/how-trust-returned-to-rwanda-for-most-but-not-all/ |accessdate=17 November 2020 |work=African Arguments |language=en}}</ref> 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. Overall, they state that "Rever's book does little more than recycle... earlier denial narratives and sources".<ref name="Hintjens"/> |
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⚫ | Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide,<ref name="cbc" />{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=169}} but she is a "[[historical revisionism|revisionist]]" because she questions existing historical narratives.<ref name="cbc" /> |
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⚫ | A group of sixty scientists, researchers, journalists, historians and eye-witnesses such as [[Romeo Dallaire]] published an open letter in ''Le Soir'' criticizing the Belgian universities that invited her and accusing Rever of genocide denial.<ref name=Petition>{{cite news |title=Rwanda: pétition contre des conférences révisionnistes sur le Rwanda |url=https://plus.lesoir.be/252615/article/2019-10-09/rwanda-petition-contre-des-conferences-revisionnistes-sur-le-rwanda?referer=%2Farchives%2Fre%E2%80%A6 |accessdate=17 November 2020 |work=LeSoir |date=9 October 2019 |language=fr}}</ref> An open letter which accused the book of [[genocide denial]] was published in ''[[Libération]]'' in 2020, signed by organizations such as [[Ibuka (organisation)|Ibuka]], an association of Tutsi genocide survivors, and [[SOS Racisme]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Rwanda: "L’éloge du sang", ouvrage polémique sur le rôle du FPR pendant le génocide |url=https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20200927-rwanda-l%C3%A9loge-sang-ouvrage-pol%C3%A9mique-le-r%C3%B4le-fpr-pendant-le-g%C3%A9nocide |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=RFI |date=27 September 2020 |language=fr}}</ref> |
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==Awards== |
==Awards== |
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The book received the 2018 [[Quebec Writers' Federation Awards|Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction]]<ref>{{cite web |title=The Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction – Quebec Writers' Federation |url=https://qwf.org/prize/the-mavis-gallant-prize-for-non-fiction/ |website=[[Quebec Writers' Federation]] |accessdate=11 November 2020}}</ref> and the 2018 [[Huguenot Society of Canada]] Award.<ref name="ontariohistoricalsociety">{{cite web|url=https://ontariohistoricalsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018-Huguenot-Society-Award-In-Praise-of-Blood-Judi-Rever.pdf|date=19 June 2019|title=OHS Huguenot Award Recognizes Judi Rever for ''In Praise of Blood''|publisher=Ontario Historical Society|accessdate=10 November 2020}}</ref> It was a finalist for the [[Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Judi Rever {{!}} Writers' Trust of Canada |url=https://www.writerstrust.com/authors/judi-rever/#:~:text=Rever's%20harrowing%20narrative%20isn't,by%20a%20remarkably%20brave%20writer.%22 |website=Judi Rever {{!}} Writers' Trust of Canada |accessdate=10 November 2020 |language=en}}</ref> |
The book received the 2018 [[Quebec Writers' Federation Awards|Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction]]<ref>{{cite web |title=The Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction – Quebec Writers' Federation |url=https://qwf.org/prize/the-mavis-gallant-prize-for-non-fiction/ |website=[[Quebec Writers' Federation]] |accessdate=11 November 2020}}</ref> and the 2018 [[Huguenot Society of Canada]] Award.<ref name="ontariohistoricalsociety">{{cite web|url=https://ontariohistoricalsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018-Huguenot-Society-Award-In-Praise-of-Blood-Judi-Rever.pdf|date=19 June 2019|title=OHS Huguenot Award Recognizes Judi Rever for ''In Praise of Blood''|publisher=Ontario Historical Society|accessdate=10 November 2020}}</ref> It was a finalist for the [[Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Judi Rever {{!}} Writers' Trust of Canada |url=https://www.writerstrust.com/authors/judi-rever/#:~:text=Rever's%20harrowing%20narrative%20isn't,by%20a%20remarkably%20brave%20writer.%22 |website=Judi Rever {{!}} Writers' Trust of Canada |accessdate=10 November 2020 |language=en}}</ref> |
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Revision as of 23:25, 27 November 2020
Author | Judi Rever |
---|---|
Publisher | Random House of Canada |
Publication date | March 2018 |
ISBN | 978-0-345-81210-0 |
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 of Canada; it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes war crimes by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that occurred before, during, and after the Rwandan genocide (against Tutsi), based on hundreds of interviews and unpublished reports by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Rever supports the double genocide theory, classifying the RPF crimes as genocide against Hutu.
Although many of the crimes discussed in Rever's book were already known to specialists, the book is highly controversial. Praised for thorough investigation at considerable personal risk to the author, the book was also criticized for sensationalism, relying on unreliable sources, and making false or unverifiable claims. Some accused Rever of genocide denial, even though she acknowledges the Rwandan genocide as a historical fact. According to historian Gerald Caplan, the book "had an immediate, destabilizing influence on the world of orthodox Rwandan scholarship".[1]
Background
Since 1994, a variety of scholars and other investigators have published studies unflattering to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), stating among other things that it started the Rwandan Civil War and is responsible for mass killings of Hutus.[2]
Judi Rever is a Canadian journalist who has covered African affairs since the First Congo War, which she covered for Radio France Internationale.[3] During her journalistic work, she reported on the RPF tracking down and killing Hutu in eastern Congo in 1997. At the time, US officials claimed that these Hutu were genocide perpetrators, but Rever found and interviewed malnourished women and children who told her about RPF massacres.[2] She also wrote for The Globe and Mail, whose Africa correspondent, Geoffrey York, is a Kagame critic,[1] and contributed the foreword to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's 2017 book Between 4 Walls of the 1930 Prison: Memoirs of Rwandan Prisoner of Conscience.[4] While writing the book, Rever faced death threats against herself and her family. She separated from her husband and children to protect them from anonymous callers who repeatedly threatened to kill them.[5] Before the book was published, she was largely unknown.[1]
The book was published by Random House of Canada in March 2018[6][7] and in Dutch by Amsterdam University Press in 2018.[8] A French translation of the book was originally to be published by Fayard in 2019, but this company withdrew after controversy. Subsequently Max Milo published it in 2020 as Rwanda: L’éloge du sang (Rwanda: In Praise of Blood).[9][7][10]
Content
The truth, no matter what aid donors seem to believe, is that the RPF has never stopped the violence. Kagame killed before the genocide. He killed during the genocide. And he killed after the genocide. The West’s unbridled support only fed the regime’s sense of impunity. Journalists from outside the country rarely perceived the truth. And journalists inside the country could not report on RPF violence. If they tried, they faced injury or death.
—Judi Rever[5]
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] She conducted hundreds of interviews with RPF defectors, humanitarian workers, witnesses, and others.[2] The acknowledgements include several defense lawyers for ICTR indictees and writers such as Barrie Collins who are considered to be deniers of the genocide against the Tutsi.[11][12] 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".[13][14] Rever supports the double genocide theory, classifying the RPF crimes as genocide against Hutu.[15] Historian Gerald Caplan writes that "almost every one of her 250 pages of text contains extremely damning accusations"[16] 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]
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] 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] Luc Marchal, the senior Belgian peacekeeper in Rwanda at the time, told Rever, "Not only did the RPF not show the slightest interest in protecting Tutsis, it fuelled the chaos. The RPF had one objective. It was to seize power and use the massacres as stock in trade to justify its military operations. This is what I saw."[5][a]
Rever estimates that there were about 500,000 victims of RPF killings, although her sources for this claim were questioned,[20][7] and that the organization can be considered a joint criminal enterprise.[6] 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] 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] 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[7][5] She states that the RPF systematically killed Hutu in northwest Rwanda in order to make their land available for Tutsi refugees.[6] 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] An anonymous ICTR investigator 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] (The ICTR never indicted a RPF leader.[21])
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][22] 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]
Reception
The book was publicized in a media campaign and quickly received international attention.[6] Caplan credits Helen Epstein's favorable two-part piece in The New York Review of Books for popularizing Rever's work.[23] 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".[6] According to Caplan, the book "had an immediate, destabilizing influence on the world of orthodox Rwandan scholarship", even though many of the accusations are not new.[1] In 2019, Rever gave talks at three Belgian universities.[24]
Political scientist René Lemarchand calls the book a "path-breaking inquest". He praises Rever for thorough investigation and taking risks in order to gather as much information as possible. He states that "never before has a such sustained effort been made to establish the scale of such crimes, their contextual circumstances, locales, and the responsibility of the individuals and organizations involved" in RPF crimes.[13] The book convinced scholar Filip Reyntjens of the accuracy of the double genocide theory, which he had previously rejected.[25][26] 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".[27] 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".[6] 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.[6]
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."[2] 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.[3] According to human rights scholar Jeff Bachman, the book "is investigative journalism at its finest" and "offers readers the most in-depth account yet of suspected crimes committed by Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front".[28] According to journalist Laurie Garrett, writing in The Lancet, the book "is expertly crafted, riveting, though often gruesome, names names... As journalism and creative writing In Praise of Blood is excellent".[5] The Lancet later published a letter critical of Garrett's review, which disputes the book's conclusions and accuses Rever of victim blaming.[29]
Caplan states that Rever's book relies heavily on interviews with anonymous and anti-Kagame sources, as well as unpublished reports, meaning that the book's references are of little use in corroborating her claims.[30] He criticizes Rever's book for sensationalism (for example, the title is not a quote from an RPF leader: "Rever made it up").[1] Caplan notes that none of the foreigners who were present in Rwanda during the genocide noticed an equivalent crime committed by the RPF.[31] He is troubled by the book because "if Rever is right then the story so many of us have been telling these past decades—certainly including me—has been little more than a distorted whitewash".[1] In his view, the main contribution of the book is in reminding scholars of the previously known facts about RPF crimes and the need to integrate the RPF's dark side into historical narrative.[32]
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.[33] Researchers Bert Ingelaere and Marijke Verpoorten criticize Rever's use of what they characterize as "flimsy and mostly unverifiable sources".[34] 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. Overall, they state that "Rever's book does little more than recycle... earlier denial narratives and sources".[4]
A group of sixty scientists, researchers, journalists, historians and eye-witnesses such as Romeo Dallaire published an open letter in Le Soir criticizing the Belgian universities that invited her and accusing Rever of genocide denial.[24] 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.[35] Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide,[15][11] but she is a "revisionist" because she questions existing historical narratives.[15]
Awards
The book received the 2018 Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction[36] and the 2018 Huguenot Society of Canada Award.[37] It was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction[38]
Notes
- ^ Other Western observers made similar observations. In Shake Hands with the Devil, Romeo Dallaire writes, "The deaths of Rwandans can also be laid at the door of the military genius, Paul Kagame, who did not speed up his [military] campaign when the scale of the genocide became clear, and even talked candidly with me at several points about the price his fellow Tutsi might have to pay for the cause."[17] Caplan is convinced that "Kagame always intended to conquer the entire country, and was prepared to see large numbers of his fellow Tutsi suffer atrocious deaths in order to reach that end".[18] Maartje Weerdesteijn writes that "Des Forges (1999, 698–9) notes that the RPF’s aims were not just to stop the genocide, but also to win the war, and at times the latter took precedence over the former."[19]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Caplan 2018, p. 168.
- ^ a b c d e f g Epstein, Helen (2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ a b Braeckman, Colette (30 September 2020). ""L' Eloge du sang", une enquête fouillée mais controversée sur les crimes commis au Rwanda". Le Soir Plus (in French). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ a b c Hintjens, Helen M.; van Oijen, Jos (2020). "Elementary Forms of Collective Denial: The 1994 Rwanda Genocide". Genocide Studies International. 13 (2): 146–167. doi:10.3138/gsi.13.2.02.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Garrett, Laurie (2018). "Rwanda: not the official narrative". The Lancet. 392 (10151): 909–912. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32124-X.
- ^ a b c d e f g h 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.
- ^ a b c d "Génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda : le livre controversé de Judi Rever paraîtra en France". Jeune Afrique (in French). 9 July 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ Rever, Judi (2018). De waarheid over Rwanda: het regime van Paul Kagame (in Dutch). Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-94-6372-360-2.
- ^ "Judi Rever's disputed book on Tutsi genocide to be published in France". The Africa Report.com. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ Rever, Judi (2020). Rwanda : L’éloge du sang: L’inconnu (in French). Max Milo. ISBN 978-2-315-00987-9.
- ^ a b Caplan 2018, p. 169.
- ^ Melvern, Linda (2020). Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi. Verso Books. pp. 185–186. ISBN 978-1-78873-328-1.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 172.
- ^ a b c "Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book | CBC Radio". CBC. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 171.
- ^ Caplan 2018, pp. 154–155.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 155.
- ^ Weerdesteijn, Maartje (2019). "The Rationality and Reign of Paul Kagame". In Smeulers, Alette; Weerdesteijn, Maartje; Hola, Barbora (eds.). Perpetrators of International Crimes: Theories, Methods, and Evidence. Oxford University Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-19-882999-7.
- ^ Caplan 2018.
- ^ Haskell, Leslie; Waldorf, Lars (2011). "The Impunity Gap of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Causes and Consequences". Hastings International and Comparative Law Review. 34 (1): 49. ISSN 0149-9246.
- ^ Cronin-Furman, Kate. "The Insistence of Memory". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 181.
- ^ a b "Rwanda: pétition contre des conférences révisionnistes sur le Rwanda". LeSoir (in French). 9 October 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
- ^ Reyntjens, Filip. "Un " second génocide " au Rwanda : retour sur un débat complexe". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ Reyntjens, Filip. "De dubbele genocide van 1994". De Standaard (in Flemish). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Bachman, Jeff (14 January 2020). "Judi Rever, "In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front"". New Books Network. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 170.
- ^ Caplan 2018, pp. 171, 184.
- ^ Caplan 2018, pp. 186–187.
- ^ Caplan 2018, pp. 170–171.
- ^ Ingelaere, Bert; Verpoorten, Marijke. "How trust returned to Rwanda, for most but not for all". African Arguments. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "The Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction – Quebec Writers' Federation". Quebec Writers' Federation. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
- ^ "OHS Huguenot Award Recognizes Judi Rever for In Praise of Blood" (PDF). Ontario Historical Society. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ "Judi Rever | Writers' Trust of Canada". Judi Rever | Writers' Trust of Canada. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
Sources
- 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.
Further reading
- Rever, Judi (2018). In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. Random House of Canada. ISBN 978-0-345-81210-0.
- Rever, Judi (2020). "The Legacy of RPF Violence and Why Rwandan Refugees Refuse to Return". Repatriation, Insecurity, and Peace: A Case Study of Rwandan Refugees. Springer. pp. 37–51. ISBN 978-981-15-2850-7.
- Robertson, Tim (2018). "Cows for peace: The aftermath of the Rwandan genocide". Meanjin. 77 (4): 194.