ABSTRACT
Between October and December 1996, troops across central Africa forced 1.4 million refugees back to their home country of Rwanda. This forcible refugee repatriation was undertaken by Zaire and Tanzania with the acquiescence of the international community. The forcible repatriation in late 1996 was probably the largest in modern times. Certainly, it was the largest since the Allies forced refugees back to Soviet-dominated countries in the period 1945–47. Superlatives dominated discussion of the Rwanda refugee crisis from the start. For the world, the Rwandan refugee crisis started on April 28–29, 1994, with "the largest and fastest refugee exodus in a single day." Capping the drama and requiring more superlatives was the killing preceding and during the refugee exodus, which underlay all analyses. The genocide was "the largest since the Holocaust," and killing in Rwanda proceeded at a pace faster than even Auschwitz was able to achieve. Pity and revenge are of course two very different emotions.
