Author Kevin O’Halloran’s book Rwanda UNAMIR 1994/95 is the first in the new Australian Army History Units Australian Military History Series focusing on the nuts and bolts on this type of support missions.

Rwanda is no stranger to violence. In 1994, an orgy of killing swept across the tiny land-locked nation and genocide - the size and magnitude unseen since the Hitler horrors of WWII, erupted. Around one million men, women and children were mercilessly shot, hacked to death or burnt alive.

To alleviate the suffering and restore order, a group of Australian UN peacekeepers was sent to Rwanda under a United Nations’ mandate. These Australians would be exposed to a lack of humanity they were not prepared for and found hard to fathom.

On 22 April 1995, the daily horror and tragedy they had witnessed escalated out of control. At a displaced persons’ camp in Kibeho, in full view of the Australian soldiers, over 4,000 unarmed men, women and children died in a hail of bullets, grenades and machete blades at the hands of the Rwandan Patriotic Army. Constrained by UN peacekeeping Rules of Engagement, these Australians could only watch helplessly and try to assist the wounded under the gaze of the trigger-happy killers.