A review by misspalah
In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front by Judi Rever

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

3.0

In Rwanda, death is generally not regarded as the end. If the spirits of the dead are dishonored, many believe evil will befall those responsible. The soldiers would have believed that the intentional disturbing of a corpse was sure to unleash malevolent spirits. They had to tamp down their fears and overcome their cultural prohibitions about the respect due the dead since a program of ethnic cleansing was under way, At twilight's darkest hour, they transported the corpses southeast to Akagera park, a vast wilderness area near the border with Tanzania, far from the scrutiny of the United Nations peacekeepers and the few NGOs still in Kigali. There, they dumped the bodies in pits, and incinerated them with a mixture of gasoline and gas oil. Soon the smell of smoke with death in it issued from the RPF's improvised "ovens." When the genocide broke out, Kagame's forces already controlled a large swath of Byumba, having seized it during the war of invasion that began in late 1990, and they had pushed up to a million Hutus into displacement camps such as Nyacyonga, where disease and hunger were rife.

• Getting away with mass murder - In Praise of blood : The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front by Judi Rever

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"In Praise of Blood" presents a controversial perspective on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Author, Judi Rever, challenges the  narrative of a single genocide primarily targeting the Tutsi minority and proposes the occurrence of two genocides. This theory, known as the Double Genocide Theory, suggests that alongside the well-documented genocide against the Tutsi, a second genocide was perpetrated by the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) against the Hutu majority. Many actually acknowledged that the concept of a double genocide is not entirely new but for me, it is. The last book i read about Rwanda’s Genocide was written by Joseph Saberanzi titled ‘God sleep in Rwanda’ which pretty much highlight the conventional timeline of what entailed between Hutu Majority and Tutsi Minority. Now that i finished this book, i have more questions than answers to what happened exactly during those time. BUT i also have to highlight that this book was awarded a lot of prize for its credible reporting when it was published. Over the years, people started to find inconsistency and inconclusive evidence presented by her. This includes witness testimonies on the alleged death camps by The RPF. Some forensic anthropologists and scholars also raises questions the feasibility of mass cremations and acid disposal methods described in the book. Some even accused her to be Genocide denier. Just in case you wanted to read this book, i hope my review might help you determine whether it’s worth reading it or not. Now back to the concept of double genocide and how it applied in the Rwanda History. It was previously propagated by Hutu hardliners and genocide perpetrators as a means of deflecting blame from their own atrocities. The author argues that accusations of RPF genocide against the Hutu were used as a smokescreen by the extremist Hutu regime to divert international attention from their own genocide against the Tutsi. She further highlighted that the RPF's alleged genocide against the Hutu was conducted in secrecy. She also establishes the link that Western allies may have been complicit in covering up these atrocities. The fact that it was United States, United Kingdom and Canada is the one that turning blind eye on this is not surprising given the current situation on Gaza. Overall, this book has been eye-opening and illuminating in demonstrating another angle of the bloodiest event in the Rwanda History. This was not an easy read considering how graphic the crime was particularly on what they inflicted on women specifically. I think it’s time to find another book written by the Rwandan that could help shed light on the premise of ‘Kagame is the one orchestrating the whole thing to claim the power’ which heavily denotes by Judi Rever and offered the perspective of civilian when this massacre happened.