Hope for Rwanda : Conversations with Laure Guilbert and Herve Deguine

Andre Sibomana was one of Rwanda's leading human rights activists and one of the very few independent voices speaking out against the excesses of both past and present governments in Rwanda.

His outspoken views led to his murder in Rwanda in March 1998. Based on interviews with Sibomana, this is the first substantial account of the holocaust in Rwanda to come from a Rwanda national.

Sibomana was in Rwanda throughout the genocide and was naturally outraged, but in his writing he avoids simplistic labels of victims versus perpetrators or good guys versus bad, a trap into which many foreign writers have fallen.

Unlike most other recently published works on Rwanda, this volume covers not only the genocide of 1994 but also the events leading up to and after the massacres, including controversial issues such as the role of the church during the genocide. Since the massacres the climate of fear has intensified within Rwanda.

Intimidation, censorship, insecurity and the fear of more a widespread armed conflict all prevail.

Unsurprisingly few people are brave enough now to speak honestly: it is unlikely that another account of the atrocities written by a Rwandan national will be published.