Rwandan Genocide

In another book, "Machete Season," award-winning French journalist Jean Hatzfeld attempted to explain, through the perpetrators' own words, the unexplainable: the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by their Hutu neighbors in 100 days. Now, Hatzfeld is back with the survivors' stories. Both books were published earlier in France and in England; the interviews were done in the late 1990s, five years after the genocide. In an effort to complete the puzzle, Hatzfeld returned to the same killing fields that he explored in "Machete Season.

A Rwandan woman who used fraudulent documents to enter the United States and then lied in immigration court about "her activities and associations during the Rwandan genocide" was convicted of several federal charges Monday, according to the office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. Prudence Kantengwa, 47, of Boston, was convicted of fraud in immigration documents, visa fraud, perjury during testimony before an immigration judge, and obstruction of immigration proceedings, Ortiz's office said.

ARUSHA, Tanzania -- The former peacekeeping commander during the Rwandan genocide told a UN tribunal yesterday that world leaders allowed the deaths of more than 500,000 people by feigning ignorance of what was taking place. Retired Canadian Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire told the court he could do little to stop the killing because his UN force had a limited mandate and an insufficient number of troops and weapons, and that his appeals for reinforcements were rejected. He specifically mentioned France, Belgium, and the United States "as being uncooperative . ....

IN HIS Aug. 4 op-ed "A new day for blacks in Boston," Robert L. Turner makes good points about reasons to celebrate the Urban League's recent national conference in Boston. He is also right to mention national data on the growing breach between the wealth of whites and blacks, and the need for further action. As an educational consultant to a documentary on the Rwandan genocide - I am the learning director of the film "Coexist" - I show the film to youth in Boston. A disturbing sentiment has been voiced by teenage viewers who say that they, too, are living through genocide.

A Rwandan woman who used fraudulent documents to enter the United States and then lied in immigration court about "her activities and associations during the Rwandan genocide" was convicted of several federal charges Monday, according to the office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. Prudence Kantengwa, 47, of Boston, was convicted of fraud in immigration documents, visa fraud, perjury during testimony before an immigration judge, and obstruction of immigration proceedings, Ortiz's office said.

OSLO — Abdul Ruzibiza, a former captain of a Tutsi rebel group and key witness in a French judge’s investigation into a 1994 attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide, has died, Norwegian police said yesterday. He was 40. Mr. Ruzibiza died in a Norwegian hospital Wednesday after a lengthy illness, said Reidun Brekke, who was Ruzibiza’s supervisor at staffing company Adecco Norway. A former captain of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Mr. Ruzibiza released a book in 2005, saying the group was behind the 1994 attack that shot down President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane.

IN HIS Aug. 4 op-ed "A new day for blacks in Boston," Robert L. Turner makes good points about reasons to celebrate the Urban League's recent national conference in Boston. He is also right to mention national data on the growing breach between the wealth of whites and blacks, and the need for further action. As an educational consultant to a documentary on the Rwandan genocide - I am the learning director of the film "Coexist" - I show the film to youth in Boston. A disturbing sentiment has been voiced by teenage viewers who say that they, too, are living...

THE HAGUE — A Rwandan rebel accused of orchestrating a humanitarian catastrophe against Congolese villagers in a scheme to leverage more political power for his group in Rwanda was arrested in Paris yesterday, the International Criminal Court said. Callixte Mbarushimana, a leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, was taken into custody on a secret warrant issued two weeks ago by the Hague-based tribunal. Alain Gauthier, who heads an advocacy group for Rwandan genocide survivors, praised the arrest but said Mbarushimana also should...

KIGALI, Rwanda — Police arrested the country’s most prominent opposition leader yesterday and accused her of being involved in the formation of a terrorist organization, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election. Human rights groups have accused the Rwandan government of using terrorism allegations to stifle opposition in the country, where the campaign leading up to the August vote was marred by a series of attacks on outspoken government critics.

‘Munyurangabo,’’ a contemplative film about the ongoing aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, tells the story of two young Rwandan men - one Hutu, the other Tutsi - on the road. Among the first images we see is that of a machete, and it stays with you because the person holding it, Ngabo, couldn’t be more than 15. And for a stretch of the movie’s opening minutes, he’s so unself-consciously affectionate with Sangwa, his roadmate, caressing his face and ears, their spindly arms entangled as they walk, that the machete presents a looming incongruity.

KIGALI, Rwanda — Police arrested the country’s most prominent opposition leader yesterday and accused her of being involved in the formation of a terrorist organization, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election. Human rights groups have accused the Rwandan government of using terrorism allegations to stifle opposition in the country, where the campaign leading up to the August vote was marred by a series of attacks on outspoken government critics.

THE HAGUE — A Rwandan rebel accused of orchestrating a humanitarian catastrophe against Congolese villagers in a scheme to leverage more political power for his group in Rwanda was arrested in Paris yesterday, the International Criminal Court said. Callixte Mbarushimana, a leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, was taken into custody on a secret warrant issued two weeks ago by the Hague-based tribunal. Alain Gauthier, who heads an advocacy group for Rwandan genocide survivors, praised the arrest but said...

OSLO — Abdul Ruzibiza, a former captain of a Tutsi rebel group and key witness in a French judge’s investigation into a 1994 attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide, has died, Norwegian police said yesterday. He was 40. Mr. Ruzibiza died in a Norwegian hospital Wednesday after a lengthy illness, said Reidun Brekke, who was Ruzibiza’s supervisor at staffing company Adecco Norway. A former captain of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Mr. Ruzibiza released a book in 2005, saying the group was behind the 1994 attack that shot down President...

CONCORD, N.H. — Beatrice Munyenyezi brought her three daughters to the United States from war-ravaged Rwanda in 1998 and focused on the American Dream: private schooling for her girls, a home with a swimming pool, a sport utility vehicle. Before long, she had a $13-an-hour job at Manchester’s Housing Authority in New Hampshire, her children were enrolled in Catholic school, and she was on her way to financing a comfortable American lifestyle through mortgages, loans, and credit cards.

ARUSHA, Tanzania - A UN appeals court overturned the conviction yesterday of the former Rwandan president’s brother-in-law, who had been sentenced to 20 years for organizing a massacre that left about 1,000 dead during the 1994 genocide. The judge said that serious errors had been committed during Protais Zigiranyirazo’s 2008 conviction and sentencing, and ordered him to be released immediately. Zigiranyirazo, 71, stood in disbelief in the courtroom yesterday. “God is great and justice has been done,’’ he told the Associated Press after the...

Near the beginning of “The Overwhelming,’’ a white academic named Jack Exley, newly arrived in Rwanda in early 1994, wastes no time in lecturing his hosts about the need to throw off the shackles of history. “We’re the ones that have to be willing to stand up and make a difference,’’ he tells Rwandans during an embassy party, making presumptuous use of the first-person plural. “This is how history moves forward. One pebble redirects the river!’’ A party guest has a question for the glib American: “But what if the river becomes an ocean?

Let's face it. Now is probably not the time for the movie about a Red Sox fanatic who fatally hits a 10-year-old boy then speeds off. But is there ever a good time for that movie, especially one as cheap as "Reservation Road"? The film is a dead-child drama that devolves into a parental revenge thriller that happens to be set during those happy fall baseball days of 2004. Professor Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix), his wife, Grace (Jennifer Connelly), and their daughter, Emma (Elle Fanning)

"Beyond the Gates" ends with an extra-special thanks to the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who helped make this well-meant drama. Assistant directors, someone from wardrobe, someone else from props, an electrician, a nurse: most of them lost a family member or several. While it's a powerful, optimistic way to end a picture about the start of genocide, it raises a major problem: Why have we spent almost two hours watching how this atrocity affected the lives of a British Roman Catholic priest and a British teacher?

‘Munyurangabo,’’ a contemplative film about the ongoing aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, tells the story of two young Rwandan men - one Hutu, the other Tutsi - on the road. Among the first images we see is that of a machete, and it stays with you because the person holding it, Ngabo, couldn’t be more than 15. And for a stretch of the movie’s opening minutes, he’s so unself-consciously affectionate with Sangwa, his roadmate, caressing his face and ears, their spindly arms entangled as they walk, that the machete presents a looming incongruity.

RADIO HIGHLIGHTS Member Concert 6 a.m. WUMB-FM (91.9) Vance Gilbert from May 1996. Guest Mix 7 a.m. Brooks Williams from March 2004. Kids Classical Hour 9 a.m. WCRB-FM (99.5) Musical Families . . . All in the Family classical style. Mountain Stage 2 p.m. WUMB-FM (91.9) Jerry Douglas Band and Amy MacDonald. Boston Symphony Live From Tanglewood 8:30 p.m. WCRB-FM (99.5) Kurt Masur conducts Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture, Violin Concerto in E, with violinist Gil Shaham, and Symphony No. 4, Italian.