Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780299204945)

Though the world was stunned by the horrific massacres of Tutsi by the Hutu majority in Rwanda beginning in April 1994, there has been little coverage of the reprisals that occurred after the Tutsi gained political power. During this time hundreds of thousands of Hutu were systematically hunted and killed.

Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire is the eyewitness account of Marie B饌trice Umutesi. She tells of life in the refugee camps in Zaire and her flight across 2000 kilometers on foot. During this forced march, far from the world's cameras, many Hutu refugees were trampled and murdered. Others died from hunger, exhaustion, and sickness, or simply vanished, ignored by the international community and betrayed by humanitarian organizations. Amidst this brutality, day-to-day suffering, and desperate survival, Umutesi managed to organize the camps to improve the quality of life for women and children.

In this first-hand account of inexplicable brutality, day-to-day suffering, and survival, Marie B饌trice Umutesi sheds light on a backlash of violence that targeted the Hutu refugees of Rwanda after the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front in 1994. Umutesi's documentation of the flight and terror of these years provides the world a veritable account of a history that is still widely unknown. After translations from its original French into three other languages, this important book is available in English for the first time. It is more than a testimony to the lives and humanity lost; it is a call for those politicians, military personnel, and humanitarian organizations responsible for the atrocious crimes--and the devastating silence--to be held accountable.

Author: Marie Beatrice Umutesi
ISBN-10: 0299204944
ISBN-13: 9780299204945
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Language: English
Published: 10/05/2004
Pages: 284
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.94h x 6.08w x 0.64d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/30/2004 pg. 43
Multicultural Review 12/01/2005 pg. 82