HouseOfChange (talk | contribs) fix orphaned reference "lancet" due to renaming one citation "Garrett" Tag: Reverted |
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==Publishing history== |
==Publishing history== |
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The book was published by [[Random House of Canada]] in March 2018<ref name="Vidal" /><ref name=ja/> and in Dutch by [[Amsterdam University Press]] in 2018.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rever |first1=Judi |title=De waarheid over Rwanda: het regime van Paul Kagame |date=2018 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-94-6372-360-2 |language=nl}}</ref> 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).<ref>{{cite news |title=Judi Rever’s disputed book on Tutsi genocide to be published in France |url=https://www.theafricareport.com/33006/rwanda-revers-disputed-book-on-tutsi-genocide-to-be-published-in-france/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=The Africa Report.com |date=10 July 2020}}</ref |
The book was published by [[Random House of Canada]] in March 2018<ref name="Vidal" /><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> and in Dutch by [[Amsterdam University Press]] in 2018.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rever |first1=Judi |title=De waarheid over Rwanda: het regime van Paul Kagame |date=2018 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-94-6372-360-2 |language=nl}}</ref> 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).<ref name="ja"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Judi Rever’s disputed book on Tutsi genocide to be published in France |url=https://www.theafricareport.com/33006/rwanda-revers-disputed-book-on-tutsi-genocide-to-be-published-in-france/ |accessdate=10 November 2020 |work=The Africa Report.com |date=10 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rever |first1=Judi |title=Rwanda : L’éloge du sang: L’inconnu |date=2020 |publisher=Max Milo |isbn=978-2-315-00987-9 |language=fr}}</ref> |
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==Reception== |
==Reception== |
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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.<ref>{{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> |
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.<ref>{{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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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" /> Investigative journalist [[Linda Melvern]] notes that in her acknowledgements, Rever thanks several defence lawyers and known genocide deniers for their help.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melvern |first1=Linda |title=Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi |date=2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-328-1 |language=en}}</ref> |
Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide,<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|date=2 April 2018 |accessdate=10 December 2020 |work=CBC}}</ref>{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=169}} but she is a "[[historical revisionism|revisionist]]" because she questions existing historical narratives.<ref name="cbc" /> Investigative journalist [[Linda Melvern]] notes that in her acknowledgements, Rever thanks several defence lawyers and known genocide deniers for their help.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melvern |first1=Linda |title=Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi |date=2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-328-1 |language=en}}</ref> |
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==Awards== |
==Awards== |
Revision as of 00:56, 11 December 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 and relying on unreliable sources. 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]
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]
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.[6]
After writing in 2010 about a leaked United Nations investigation into RPF war crimes and reaching out to exiled RPF officials, 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.[7] (The document has since been published online.[8])
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.)[9] The book also describes in detail the claim that Paul Kagame's forces, not extremist Hutus, had shot down the plane of President Habyarimana.[10]
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.[5]
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:[11]
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."[5]
Publishing history
The book was published by Random House of Canada in March 2018[12][13] and in Dutch by Amsterdam University Press in 2018.[14] 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).[13][15][16]
Reception
The book was publicized in a media campaign and quickly received international attention.[12] Caplan credits Helen Epstein's favorable two-part piece in The New York Review of Books for popularizing Rever's work.[17] 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."[18] 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".[12]
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.[19] The book convinced scholar Filip Reyntjens of the accuracy of the double genocide theory, which he had previously rejected.[20][21] Researchers Bert Ingelaere and Marijke Verpoorten refer to Rever's revival of the double genocide theory as based on "flimsy and mostly unverifiable sources".[22] 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".[23] 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."[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 journalist Laurie Garrett: "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.[24]
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.[25] 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".[4]
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.[26] 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.[27] Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide,[28][29] but she is a "revisionist" because she questions existing historical narratives.[28] Investigative journalist Linda Melvern notes that in her acknowledgements, Rever thanks several defence lawyers and known genocide deniers for their help.[30]
Awards
The book received the 2018 Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction[31] and the 2018 Huguenot Society of Canada Award.[32] It was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction[33]
References
- ^ a b Caplan 2018, p. 168. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCaplan2018 (help)
- ^ a b c 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 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 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
- ^ Cronin-Furman, Kate (16 May 2018). "The Insistence of Memory". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
Rever argues that Hutus were systematically slaughtered in RPF-controlled territory, just as Tutsis were elsewhere. Her account suggests that the Rwandan state's narrative of the genocide is not just one-sided and simplistic, but fundamentally false
- ^ 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.
- ^ Rever, Judi (2018). In Praise of Blood. Random House of Canada. p. 230. ISBN 9780345812117.
- ^ a b c d e 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 "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.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 181. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCaplan2018 (help)
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 184. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCaplan2018 (help)
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Ingelaere, Bert; Verpoorten, Marijke. "How trust returned to Rwanda, for most but not for all". African Arguments. Retrieved 17 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.
- ^ 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, pp. 170–171. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCaplan2018 (help)
- ^ "Rwanda: pétition contre des conférences révisionnistes sur le Rwanda". LeSoir (in French). 9 October 2019. 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.
- ^ a b "Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book | CBC Radio". CBC. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
- ^ Caplan 2018, p. 169. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCaplan2018 (help)
- ^ Melvern, Linda (2020). Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78873-328-1.
- ^ "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.