We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (44 page)

—Sir Brian Urquhart

“Shocking and important … clear and balanced … the voice in this book is meticulous and humane.”

—Michael Pearson,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Astonishing … [Gourevitch] is masterful at placing the unspeakability of mass murder into actual peoples’ mouths and inhabiting it in actual peoples’ stories.”

—Mark Gevisser,
Newsday

“A harsh but elegant moral reckoning.”

—
The New Yorker

“Thoughtful, beautifully written, and important …we want to pass it along to our friends, and to insist that they read it because the information it contains seems so profoundly essential.”

—Francine Prose,
Elle

“Extraordinary …rich …Gourevitch is a morally serious writer, and he’s at his very best when listening to ordinary Rwandans, especially the survivors, and trying to make sense of their stories. These voices haunt the book, and they haunt the reader afterward.”

—George Packer,
The Nation

“Literary journalism at its very best.”

—John Corry,
The American Spectator

“[An] amazing chronicle …
We Wish to Inform You
takes the unimaginable and renders it disturbingly, unavoidably real. For that reason alone, this book should be widely read.”

—Michael Maren,
The Village Voice Literary Supplement

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted above all to the hundreds of Rwandans in all walks of private and public life who generously entrusted me with their stories.

To supplement my own reporting, I consulted a great variety of writings on Rwanda, published and unpublished. I wish to acknowledge the authors of some of the standard works, representing diverse perspectives, which helped to inform me: Colette Braeckmann, Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Alain Destexhe, Alison des Forges, André Guichaoua, René Lemarchand, Louis de Lacger, Catherine Newbury, Rakiya Omaar, Gérard Prunier, and Filip Reyntjens. I’m also grateful for the United Nations IRIN electronic news bulletins.

My reporting from Rwanda first appeared in
The New Yorker,
and the support of its editors has been essential in writing this book. I am especially grateful to Tina Brown for her unflagging commitment to this distant and difficult story, to Bill Buford, who first sent me to Rwanda, and to my superb editor, Jeffrey Frank, whose advice, friendship, and sanity have buoyed me through my work. Jennifer Bluestein, Jessica Green, and Valerie Steiker helped with research and as anchors during my long absences from home; Henry Finder, William Finnegan, and David Remnick gave good counsel; John Dorfman, Ted Katauskas, and Liesl Schillinger in the fact-checking department, along with Eleanor Gould and an army of back-up readers, saved me from many errors and infelicities.

Many thanks to the editors of
The New York Review of Books, Transition, DoubleTake, The New York Times Magazine
and its Op-Ed Page, for publishing pieces of my work from central Africa. And special thanks to Seth Lipsky, at
The Forward,
who first put me to work as a reporter.

Many thanks to Elisabeth Sifton, my editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her intelligence, humor, and rigor—always invigorating—make it an honor to work with her.

Many thanks for the kindness and guidance of Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency, whose commitment has been a boon to my writing life. And thanks also to Chris Calhoun for his dedication and friendship at the outset.

Many thanks to the Corporation of Yaddo, where part of this book was written; to the echoing green foundation and The United States Institute for Peace, for essential financial support; and to The World Policy Institute for institutional support.

Many thanks for the generous hospitality in Kigali of Richard Danziger, Aline Ndenzako and their daughter Daisy, and of Peter Whaley, Kate Crawford and their daughter Susan. On the road in Rwanda and Zaire, Alison Campbell, Thierry Cruvelier, and Annick van Lookeren Campagne were great company. At home, in New York, Vijay Balakrishnan provided a crucial pillar of friendship and a sharp ear for work in progress. I am especially fortunate to have wise parents, Jacqueline and Victor Gourevitch, and a true brother, Marc, who are my most demanding and rewarding readers, great companions, and a constant stimulus. I also thank my grandmother, Anna Moisievna Gourevitch; my memory of the stories she told me presides over this book. Finally, Elizabeth Rubin, by her example, her intelligence and her pluck, her wit and her warmth, has inspired and sustained me throughout this work. For her company, from near and from far, I am truly grateful.

Notes

1

Because Rwanda and Burundi were administered as a joint colonial territory, Ruanda-Urundi; because their languages are remarkably similar; because both are populated, in equal proportions, by Hutus and Tutsis; and because their ordeals as postcolonial states have been defined by violence between those groups, they are often considered to be the two halves of a single political and historical experience or “problem.” In fact, although events in each country invariably influence events in the other, Rwanda and Burundi have existed since precolonial times as entirely distinct, self-contained nations. The differences in their histories are often more telling than the similarities, and comparison tends to lead to confusion unless each country is first considered on its own terms.

WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES. Copyright © 1998 by Philip Gourevitch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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eISBN 9780374706487

First eBook Edition : March 2011