An Ordinary Man

The Rwandan Patriotic Front move people from the hotel, including Paul and his family, to a camp in Kigali’s Kabuga neighborhood. The Tutsi rebel soldiers loot food from the shops, dig up unharvested potatoes from the fields, and slaughter goats. During war, these survivalist thefts create permanent resentments that could again boil over into conflict: this “casual disrespect for other people and their property was what helped create the genocide we had just lived through” (166).

In the camp, Paul reunites with the children of his wife’s brother. The camp holds many such portions of families: children with no parents, and parents who have lost their children. The rebel RPF soldiers treat the refugees like prisoners of war and tell them to take a few days of military training to help fight against the Rwandan Army.

Meanwhile, with UN Security Council sponsorship, the government of France dispatches a humanitarian peacekeeping mission to western Rwanda, basically supporting the Hutus carrying out the genocide. The United States also decides to act, announcing a $320 million aid package for refugee camps at Goma, on the border of Zaire. These humanitarian efforts will eventually be known as The Great Lakes Crisis because the Hutu “refugees” comforted at these camps will join militia groups attempt to fight the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).