Gourevitch’s Argument Essay

Gourevitch’s main points center on how bad political decisions can devastate a country and result in numerous fatalities. Gourevitch discussed the tragic 1994 genocide in Rwanda and how Hutu dominance was the main culprit. He conducts an exhaustive investigation of the humanizing incidents that show how the Rwandan people endured the tragedy of genocide, politics, and war in 1994. The information that Gourevitch gathers from survivors of the genocide, including politicians, humanitarian assistance workers, military officials, and individuals who were accused of murder, strengthens his analysis of the genocide. The slaughter in Rwanda was horrifying and terrifying. In 1994 April, the Rwandan government called on everyone who was in the Hutu majority to murder every person from the Tutsi minority. The ultimate goal of the Hutu power was to exterminate every Tutsi. The unforgettable account resulted into the death of approximately one million Tutsis and Hutu. Gourevitch harshly condemns the Western nations and the UN for their failure to stop the genocide. The inaction of the Western nations and the UN facilitated the conflict along with other international actors such as the France. The book also describes the role of the local religious leaders in the genocide. Many individuals trusted their pastors and gathered in congregations where they were slaughtered in an efficient manner. Gourevitch portrays Rwanda to being a place that is unified through one religion, language and territory which are compelling aspects. Gourevitch clearly indicates how the Rwanda genocide was a gratuitous crime which was planned by the Hutu government and executed by the state channels. He writes that “the genocide was the product of order, authoritarianism, decades of modern political theorizing and indoctrination, and one of the most meticulously administered states in history” (Gourevitch 51). The book reveals the massive killings in an imagery way. Gourevitch provides a full form to cadre small individuals that fueled the massacre and the use of radios in killing the poorly armed villagers along with the role that France in backing the genocide regime.

How the Book Fits in other Readings

The book presents to be inapplicable due to its sole focus on the genocide of Rwanda and the uninviting title of the book. However Gourevitch book indicates how important Western nations and the UN are important in the resolution of international conflicts. The book is informative and powerful correctly illustrating the tragic and sad stories of the genocide. It evokes both fear and anger in the reader due to the frustrating politics of Rwanda that culminated into the acts of terror. Gourevitch’s book correctly fits into the other historical readings due to the author’s articulate and reaction towards the genocide. It demonstrates the violation of human rights where it precisely and carefully pinpoints the aspects of grief, sorrow, revulsion and humanization. The book forms the heart of the Rwandan genocide and established an overwhelming contemporary of classic political reportage with the central arguments remaining to be powerful in the entire reading. Typically, the book fits into the course of human rights having a wide application into political science disciplines. Gourevitch demonstrates the depressing individual experiences that imply the violation of human rights. Gourevitch does not interest himself in telling the chronological narrative of the genocide but evokes distress when he employs an inventively horrific structure. The book echoes bureaucratic movements to be one of the leading violation of human rights and a good study for the international human rights.

Work Cited

Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. 1st ed., New York, Picador/Farrar, Straus, And Giroux, 1999.