The barbarity of the genocide which began ten years ago this month remains an ugly and traumatic blot in contemporary world affairs. It continues to be a source of enduring guilt for the international community, which was fully conscious of the events taking place and could have prevented them. At Rwanda’s moment of gravest crisis, many of those best positioned to help displayed an impassivity that bordered on the wilful abandonment of a people threatened with extinction.
It is easy to recall the stupefying headlines and terrible images of that year – one million killed, mutilated bodies floating in lakes and rivers, corpses left to rot in fields and streets, or blown to pieces by terror squads in schools and churches – but despite all this the aftermath of the genocide has received relatively little attention.
