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Robert Krueger and Kathleen Tobin Krueger. From Bloodshed to Hope in Burundi: Our Embassy Years during Genocide. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007. xviii + 308 pp. Photographs. Notes. Index. $26.00. Cloth.
The book is very well written, and it captures the attention of the reader from the first page. Burundi's recent history has been marked by the October 1993 assassination of Pierre Ndadaye, the country's first Hutu president, who had been elected six months earlier. The Kruegers' description of the tragic night of that coup d'état, along with the events that preceded and followed it, is particularly dramatic. The events unfold like a thriller in which the killers ruthlessly hunt for their victims as they desperately try to escape. Only a few will succeed.
The goal of the army was not only the physical elimination of President Ndadaye, but also the elimination of all those who could legitimately succeed him. It was seemingly a ritual murder whose intent was to wipe out the results of elections and to exorcize the spirit of democracy. The killers succeeded in their criminal attempts, but they failed in their political objectives. The response of the international community prevented them from completely taking over; they had to share power with the survivors. But the game was not over. The army persisted: the bloody coup d'état was followed by a continuing "creeping coup d'état" executed by regular military troops supported by paramilitary gangs of young Tutsi targeting Hutu political leaders and the innocent civilian population.
The mandate of Ambassador Krueger covered the most dramatic phase of this "creeping coup" - perhaps the most abominable period of Burundi's recent history. Despite the obstacles presented by the political and military authorities and the intimidation of the paramilitary gangs (culminating in an ambush attempt in June 1995), the ambassador made various excursions to the most remote areas of the country. The stories gathered...