Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide.

• Author: Pavon, Beatriz
• Position: Book Review

Conspiracy to Murder

The Rwandan Genocide

By Linda Melvern

Published by Verso, 2004 358 pp., ISBN 1-85984-588-6

Linda Melvern, a journalist and former consultant to the Military One prosecution team at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, portrays in her latest book entitled Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide one of the most appalling acts in modern history. Published in April 2004 to coincide with the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 1994 genocide, which caused the death of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, the book attempts to recapitulate the events that took place right before and during the hundred days that followed the plane crash which killed both Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi.

The author writes of preparations for a "final plan" to eliminate the entire Tutsi race. She describes the long path, beginning in 1959, that preceded the Rwandan genocide, leading to the escalation that culminated in the explosion of violence in 1994, during which the international community failed to act. The book details the participation of political leaders in the training of militia and the stockpiling of machetes and other weapons, and shows how government authorities orchestrated prior to the genocide a racist propaganda campaign that incited the population with misinformation. It also outlines the political decisions...