Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire

Though the world was stunned by the horrific massacres of Tutsi by the Hutu majority in Rwanda beginning in April 1994, there has been little coverage of the reprisals that occurred after the Tutsi gained political power. During this time hundreds of thousands of Hutu were systematically hunted and killed. Surviving the Slaughter is the eyewitness account of Marie Béatrice Umutesi who tells of life in the refugee camps in Zaire and her flight across 2000 kilometers on foot. In this first-hand account of inexplicable brutality, day-to-day suffering, and survival, she sheds light on a backlash of violence that targeted the Hutu refugees of Rwanda after the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front in 1994. [Publisher]