The thin line between information and disinformation blurs in times of conflict and war, all the more so when fighting restricts access to regions and their people. Journalists, commentators and observers, and those reading their reports, must then weigh the credibility of ‘stories’ that are difficult and sometimes impossible to verify. Sifting through these stories, they must seek out conflicting narratives and ask why they exist.

In this chapter, which draws from press reports that appeared in the US, Britain, France, Belgium and The Netherlands, we review three episodes in the recent history of the Great Lakes during which narratives about society, politics and history have been ‘at work’. We ask how these narratives are structured, and will consider the gap between dominant narratives and established academic perspectives. The episodes covered relate to the end of the war in Rwanda (July 1994), the Kibeho massacre in south Rwanda (April 1995) and the Banyamulenge/ADFL campaign in eastern Zaire in late 1996.

As with other chapters in the book, we shall discover how the research-based script on society and history in the Great Lakes region, specifically Rwanda and eastern Zaire, came to be reconsidered under the influence of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) and Rwanda's first post-genocide government.