I am reading 'An Ordinary Man', an autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who saved the lives of thousand Rwandans during the mad genocide in 1994. The real event went on to big screen last year as "Hotel Rwandan" 20 more pages to go... I have never finished any book in so little time before.
Genocide - a word coined in 1948 by Polish-born lawyer, Raphael Lemkin as part of his effort to persuade UN to pass a resolution, forbidding the destruction of a group of people because of their religion, nationality or ethincity. The word comes from Greek word for race (genus) and Latin word for kill (cide)
The word is adopted and used by UN, which happened to be the same organisation who failed to intervene in 1994, when 800,000 Rwandans were killed within 100 days (that is about five people per minute). Kofi Annan said much later after the massacre, using the words 'it was a bad mistake' to describe UN's inaction.
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