Eyewitness to a Genocide

Michael Barnett argues that the indifference of the UN to events in Rwanda was driven not by incompetence or cynicism but rather by reasoned choices cradled by moral considerations.

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Michael Barnett, who worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1993 to 1994, covered Rwanda for much of the genocide. Based on his first-hand expeiences, archival work, and interviews with many key participants, he reconstructs the history of the UN's involvement in Rwanda. Barnett's new Afterword to this edition includes his reaction to documents released on the twentieth anniversary of the genocide. He reflects on what the passage of time has told us about what provoked the genocide, its course, and the implications of the ghastly events of 1994 and the grossly inadequate international reactions to them.