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In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front

Author	Judi Rever
Publisher	Random House of Canada
Publication date	March 2018
ISBN	978-0-345-81210-0

In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front is a 2018 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Judi Rever and published by Random House of Canada; it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes war crimes by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that occurred before, during, and after the Rwandan genocide (against Tutsi), based on hundreds of interviews and unpublished reports by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Rever supports the double genocide theory, classifying the RPF crimes as genocide against Hutu.

Although many of the crimes discussed in Rever's book were already known to specialists, the book is highly controversial. Praised for thorough investigation at considerable personal risk to the author, the book was also criticized for sensationalism and relying on unreliable sources. According to historian Gerald Caplan, the book "had an immediate, destabilizing influence on the world of orthodox Rwandan scholarship".

Background

Since 1994, a variety of scholars and other investigators have published studies unflattering to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), stating among other things that it started the Rwandan Civil War and is responsible for mass killings of Hutus.

Judi Rever is a Canadian journalist who has covered African affairs since the First Congo War, which she covered for Radio France Internationale. During her journalistic work, she reported on the RPF tracking down and killing Hutu in eastern Congo in 1997. At the time, US officials claimed that these Hutu were genocide perpetrators, but Rever found and interviewed malnourished women and children who told her about RPF massacres. She also wrote for The Globe and Mail, whose Africa correspondent, Geoffrey York, is a Kagame critic, and contributed the foreword to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's 2017 book Between 4 Walls of the 1930 Prison: Memoirs of Rwandan Prisoner of Conscience. While writing the book, Rever faced death threats against herself and her family. She separated from her husband and children to protect them from anonymous callers who repeatedly threatened to kill them.

Content

The truth, no matter what aid donors seem to believe, is that the RPF has never stopped the violence. Kagame killed before the genocide. He killed during the genocide. And he killed after the genocide. The West’s unbridled support only fed the regime’s sense of impunity. Journalists from outside the country rarely perceived the truth. And journalists inside the country could not report on RPF violence. If they tried, they faced injury or death.

In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front describes war crimes that, according to Rever's sources, were committed during the 1990s by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) under the leadership of Rwanda's current president Paul Kagame. Based largely on Rever's own experiences, including interviews with Rwandan dissidents and army deserters living in exile, the book also draws heavily on files of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which were leaked to Rever by an anonymous source.

The book discusses three periods during which these crimes took place: The Rwandan civil war of the early 1990s, the 1994 genocide against Tutsis with its aftermath as the RPF took control of Rwanda, and finally Rwandan massacres of Hutus during the First Congo War and other war crimes during the Second Congo War.

During the Rwanda Civil War, the book says the RPF systematically killed Hutus in areas that it conquered. In regions governed by Rwanda's then-president Juvénal Habyarimana, the RPF used "technicians" to spread fear and dissension. Some of these technicians worked to inflitrate Hutu militia groups. According to the ICTR report and Rever's informants, the infiltrators encouraged and took part in killing Tutsi civilians, including at roadblocks. Rever devotes a chapter to evidence that the RPF, not Hutu extremists, shot down President Habyarimana’s plane on 6 April 1994. The RPF used the ensuing chaos to gain power, permitting the genocide against Tutsis to continue as their troops advanced slowly on the capital.

RPF massacres of Hutu civilians described in the book include Byumba, Kibeho, Karambi, Gabiro, Gikongoro. Hutu corpses were hidden by various means: thrown into rivers, mingled with the bodies of Tutsi genocide victims in mass graves, or incinerated with their ashes spread on lakes. Rever writes that the RPF secretly transported hundreds of thousands of Hutus to death camps in remote areas such as the Akagera National Park where they were killed and incinerated, leaving barely a trace.

Her discussion of RPF massacres of Hutus during the First Congo War began with her experience accompanying humanitarian aid workers in Zaire. Rever met Hutu women and children who had fled RPF soldiers but were then hunted down when they fled into the jungle. She describes the Second Congo War as a "looter's war."

In the book's conclusion, Rever stresses that bad actions by the RPF did not in any way justify or diminish the horror of the Rwanda genocide against Tutsis, saying:

There is no part of this book that denies the genocide...There is no question that after Habyarimana's death, the hardliners chose genocide...But this book is not an examination of the dynamics of that 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

But she says that RPF "policy of ethnic murder" against Hutus should be considered a genocide as well. Her final message is that Rwanda cannot have true reconciliation as long as its government enforces secrecy about crimes committed by the RPF.

Publishing history

The book was published by Random House of Canada in March 2018 and in Dutch by Amsterdam University Press in 2018. A French translation of the book was originally to be published by Fayard in 2019, but this company withdrew after controversy. Subsequently Max Milo published it in 2020 as Rwanda: L’éloge du sang (Rwanda: In Praise of Blood).

Reception

The book was publicized in a media campaign and quickly received international attention. Caplan credits Helen Epstein's favorable two-part piece in The New York Review of Books for popularizing Rever's work. Caplan acknowledges that Rever’s book "... presses all of us to give the uglier aspects of the RPF’s record the prominence they deserve," but he concludes: "... there are too many unnamed informants; too many confidential, unavailable leaked documents; too much unexamined credulity about some of the accusations; too little corroboration from foreigners who were eyewitnesses to history."

Political scientist René Lemarchand calls the book a "path-breaking inquest", "destined to become required reading for any one claiming competence on the Rwanda genocide". He praises Rever for thorough investigation and taking risks in order to gather as much information as possible. The book convinced scholar Filip Reyntjens of the accuracy of the double genocide theory, which he had previously rejected. Researchers Bert Ingelaere and Marijke Verpoorten refer to Rever's revival of the double genocide theory as based on "flimsy and mostly unverifiable sources". Political scientist Scott Straus, a critic of the double genocide theory, calls the book "irresponsible" and states that Rever's "title is unnecessarily provocative, her tone breathless and conspiratorial, and her account of 'there is a conspiracy of silence that I broke, even if it destroyed my family,' is misleading and narcissistic". Vidal writes that "Rever’s work blurs the line between investigation and indictment" and "reads like a prosecutor's closing argument". In particular, Rever describes massacres "in such a way as to classify them as genocide". Vidal states that there are no new revelations in the book, but that Rever accumulates more evidence for charges that have already been made in earlier publications.

In The New York Review of Books, Epstein writes that Rever's "sources are too numerous and their observations too consistent for her findings to be a fabrication." Le Soir journalist Colette Braeckman praises Rever for her on-the-ground investigation but criticizes her for examining only one side of the coin, concluding that she appears in the end to be an ally of the revisionists that preceded her. According to journalist Laurie Garrett: "As journalism and creative writing In Praise of Blood is excellent". The Lancet later published a letter critical of Garrett's review, which disputes the book's conclusions and accuses Rever of victim blaming.

Regarding the new allegations raised in Rever's book, genocide scholar Samuel Totten wrote to Caplan that Rever's book fails to answer many important questions, starting with: whether other researchers heard the same rumors and tried to investigate them, and if the ICTR heard any testimony related to them. Researchers Helen Hintjens and Jos van Oijen focus on Rever's claim that the RPF operated Nazi-style extermination camps without leaving any trace. Specialists they consulted, including the Netherlands Forensic Institute, concluded that the methods described by Rever "would certainly have left significant traces of mass murder", and a Belgian journalist who visited the site when it was supposed to be in operation did not notice anything unusual. On Rever's "infiltrations"-theory, that the RPF was pulling the strings of every relevant organization, they recall a comparable suggestion by the Rwandan ministry of defence published in 1991. Overall, they state that "Rever's book does little more than recycle... earlier denial narratives and sources".

During a promotional tour in Belgium which included speeches at three universities, a group of sixty scientists, researchers, journalists, historians and eye-witnesses such as Romeo Dallaire, published an open letter in Le Soir criticizing the universities for giving the impression that by promoting Judi Rever's book they supported her conspiracy theories and denial. An open letter which accused the book of genocide denial was published in Libération in 2020, signed by organizations such as Ibuka, an association of Tutsi genocide survivors, and SOS Racisme. Rever says she is not a genocide denier because she accepts that the killing of Tutsi was indeed a genocide, but she is a "revisionist" because she questions existing historical narratives. Investigative journalist Linda Melvern notes that in her acknowledgements, Rever thanks several defence lawyers and known genocide deniers for their help.

Awards

The book received the 2018 Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction and the 2018 Huguenot Society of Canada Award. It was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

References

1. ^ Caplan 2018, p. 168.
2. ^ Epstein, Helen (2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
3. ^ Braeckman, Colette (30 September 2020). ""L' Eloge du sang", une enquête fouillée mais controversée sur les crimes commis au Rwanda". Le Soir Plus (in French). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
4. ^ Hintjens, Helen M.; van Oijen, Jos (2020). "Elementary Forms of Collective Denial: The 1994 Rwanda Genocide". Genocide Studies International. 13 (2): 146–167. doi:10.3138/gsi.13.2.02.
5. ^ Garrett, Laurie (2018). "Rwanda: not the official narrative". The Lancet. 392 (10151): 909–912. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32124-X. Since 1997, Canadian journalist Judi Rever has dedicated her life to tracking down evidence of what she characterises as a massive cover-up, orchestrated by Kagame, some of his RPF colleagues, and Rwandan Government officials. Rever's book, In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, is expertly crafted, riveting, though often gruesome, names names, and provides 33 pages of references and interview notes.
6. Rever 2018, p. 223. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
7. Rever 2018, p. 5. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
8. Rever 2018, pp. 1–6. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
9. Rever 2018, p. 3. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
10. Rever 2018, pp. 65–67. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
11. Rever 2018, pp. 67–68. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
12. Rever 2018, pp. 177–198. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
13. Rever 2018, p. 233. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
14. Rever 2018, p. 103. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
15. Rever 2018, p. 87. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
16. Rever 2018, p. 4. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
17. Rever 2018, pp. 7–44. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
18. Rever 2018, pp. 44–53. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
19. ^ Rever 2018, pp. 230. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRever2018 (help)
20. ^ Vidal, Claudine. "Debate: Judi Rever will not let anything stand in the way of her quest to document a second Rwandan genocide". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
21. ^ "Génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda : le livre controversé de Judi Rever paraîtra en France". Jeune Afrique (in French). 9 July 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
22. Rever, Judi (2018). De waarheid over Rwanda: het regime van Paul Kagame (in Dutch). Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-94-6372-360-2.
23. "Judi Rever's disputed book on Tutsi genocide to be published in France". The Africa Report.com. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
24. Rever, Judi (2020). Rwanda : L’éloge du sang: L’inconnu (in French). Max Milo. ISBN 978-2-315-00987-9.
25. Caplan 2018, p. 181.
26. Epstein, Helen (June 7, 2018). "The Mass Murder We Don't Talk About". New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 5, 2020. Rever's ... book draws on the reports of UN experts and human rights investigators, leaked documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and hundreds of interviews with eyewitnesses, including victims, RPF defectors, priests, aid workers, and officials from the UN and Western governments. Her sources are too numerous and their observations too consistent for her findings to be a fabrication.
27. Epstein, Helen (June 28, 2018). "A Deathly Hush". New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 5, 2020. ... it's worth asking why the fiction has persisted that Kagame's RPF rescued Rwanda from further genocide when much evidence suggests that it actually helped provoke it by needlessly invading the country in 1990, massacring Hutus, probably shooting down the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994, and failing to move swiftly to stop the genocide of the Tutsis, as Roméo Dallaire—commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda at the time—suggested in his memoir Shake Hands with the Devil.
28. Caplan 2018, p. 184.
29. Lemarchand, René (25 June 2018). "Rwanda: the state of Research". Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche. Sciences Po. ISSN 1961-9898. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
30. Reyntjens, Filip. "Un " second génocide " au Rwanda : retour sur un débat complexe". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
31. Reyntjens, Filip. "De dubbele genocide van 1994". De Standaard (in Flemish). Retrieved 10 November 2020.
32. Ingelaere, Bert; Verpoorten, Marijke. "How trust returned to Rwanda, for most but not for all". African Arguments. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
33. Straus, Scott (2019). "The Limits of a Genocide Lens: Violence Against Rwandans in the 1990s". Journal of Genocide Research. 21 (4): 504–524. doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1623527.
34. Binagwaho, Agnes; Hinda, Ruton; Mills, Edward (2019). "Rwanda and revisionist history". The Lancet. 393 (10169): 319–320. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30121-7.
35. Caplan 2018, pp. 170–171.
36. "Rwanda: pétition contre des conférences révisionnistes sur le Rwanda". LeSoir (in French). 9 October 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
37. "Rwanda: "L'éloge du sang", ouvrage polémique sur le rôle du FPR pendant le génocide". RFI (in French). 27 September 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
38. ^ "Canadian journalist challenges Rwandan genocide narrative in new book | CBC Radio". CBC. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
39. Caplan 2018, p. 169.
40. Melvern, Linda (2020). Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78873-328-1.
41. "The Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction – Quebec Writers' Federation". Quebec Writers' Federation. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
42. "OHS Huguenot Award Recognizes Judi Rever for In Praise of Blood" (PDF). Ontario Historical Society. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
43. "Judi Rever | Writers' Trust of Canada". Judi Rever | Writers' Trust of Canada. Retrieved 10 November 2020.

Sources

• Caplan, Gerald (2018). "Rethinking the Rwandan Narrative for the 25th Anniversary". Genocide Studies International. 12 (2): 152–190. doi:10.3138/gsi.12.2.03.

Further reading

• Rever, Judi (2018). In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. Random House of Canada. ISBN 978-0-345-81210-0.
• Rever, Judi (2020). "The Legacy of RPF Violence and Why Rwandan Refugees Refuse to Return". Repatriation, Insecurity, and Peace: A Case Study of Rwandan Refugees. Springer. pp. 37–51. ISBN 978-981-15-2850-7.
• Robertson, Tim (2018). "Cows for peace: The aftermath of the Rwandan genocide". Meanjin. 77 (4): 194.

External links

• Interview about writing the book

• 2018 non-fiction books
• Books about Rwanda
• Canadian non-fiction books
• Rwandan Patriotic Front
• Random House books