The photographs of one dead terrorist mastermind carry no real news or information about the nature or horror of war. They just create sensation instead of deeper understanding.
Philip GourevitchThe people are living seperately together," he said. "So there is responsibility. I cry, you cry. You cry, I cry. We all come running, and the one that stays quiet, the one that stays home, must explain. Is he in league with the criminals? Is he a coward? And what would he expect when he cries? This is simple. This is normal. This is community.
Philip GourevitchWhat distinguishes genocide from murder, and even from acts of political murder that claim as many victims, is the intent. The crime is wanting to make a people extinct. The idea is the crime.
Philip GourevitchIn 1933-34, the Belgians conducted a census in order to issue โethnicโ identity cards, which labelled every Rwandan as either Hutu (85%) of Tutsi (14%) or Twa (1%). The identity cards made it virtually impossible for Hutus to become Tutsis, and permitted the Belgians to perfect the administration of an apartheid system rooted in the myth of Tutsi superiorityโฆ Whatever Hutu and Tutsi identity may have stood for in the pre-colonial state no longer mattered; the Belgians had made โethnicityโ the defining feature of Rwandan existence.
Philip Gourevitch