A people betrayed : the role of the west in Rwanda's genocide

Rwanda, 1994: around one million people die in a deliberately orchestrated campaign of murder.

For five years, Linda Melvern has worked on the story of this great crime, and this book of investigate journalism is the result.

It demonstrates how the great powers ignored clear signs of the coming catastrophe, refused to recognise the genocide when it began, and ignored obligations under international law, specifically the genocide convention.

Secret documents leaked from within the UN Security Council prove that the circumstances of the genocide were suppressed or ignored.

The author gained access to documents in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, that include the precise details of how international funding was used to pay for the huge quantities of machetes, hoes, razors, and axes which were imported, stockpiled and distributed throughout the country before the genocide began.

Not only did the major world powers fail to stop the slide towards genocide, they helped make it possible. The book also contains a detailed account of how the genocide unfolded and tells the stories of two vital eyewitnesses, Major-General Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian Force Commander of the UN peacekeepers, and Philippe Gaillard, the Swiss Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only agency to stay behind in Rwanda when the genocide began.