International Action Organization

 

 

Ikuba - Remember

 By Lila Schow
April, 2004

Every day, Emanuel Nyrangira wakes early and struggles to the Parish and College of Kibeho in Gikongoro.  It sits empty and silent atop a hill surrounded by green waves of grass.  He chases away any dogs looking for an easy meal and grabs his bucket of lime.  The college may be abandoned, but it is not forgotten.  Much like the 800 bodies resting in its classrooms that Emanuel covers with the lime to preserve.  The stench is overpowering, the sight gruesome.  Bones with hair and flesh still clinging to them, many of them children. But Emanuel isn’t repulsed.  These bodies are his loved ones. 

They were exhumed from mass graves in the area and left in the school as a memorial and a reminder. Emanuel’s family of 60 are among the dead. Francois Gurambe, the chairman of the national survivor group Ibuka says, “[Y]ou can't have a united society without justice. Justice means first of all truth and truth is not possible without remembrance.”30

“They killed my wife and children, my brothers and sisters. Then they started saying there was no genocide. The bodies we've left in these classrooms are the proof. The world needs to see this,”1 Emanuel turns his head, showing the concave patch of skin where a bullet smashed into his skull during the killing spree.  He was supposed to be among the dead here at Gikongoro.  Instead, he survived the worst genocide imaginable. 

 Rwanda genocide survivor, and caretaker, Emmanuel Murangira at a genocide memorial

     Emanuel Murangiyra, and a class filled with genocide victims.

Rwanda.  April 6, 1994, unknown assailants shot down President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane sparking a 100 day killing spree that claimed the lives of 1,074,017.5  One out of every eight people. April 6, 2004 marks the ten year anniversary.  There is a saying in Rwanda.  Mwaramutse.  It means “did you wake?”15 

Today, residents in Gikongoro are still under attack.  In an effort to prevent testimony against leaders of the genocide who are now on trial, four witnesses have been kidnapped and tortured to death in the past three months.2  In 1997, Hutu terrorists murdered Canadian priest and genocide witness, Guy Pinard, while he was delivering mass.4  Ibuka, an organization representing survivors of the genocide, claims that on average, two genocide survivors are killed each month.  They cite their “most recent case [in which] a man was killed and dismembered in front of his family as a warning to other potential witnesses.”3 

This is Rwanda on the diamond anniversary of the genocide.  Like the hills of Gikongoro, the post genocide society appears peaceful, growing from the tragedy.  How have the ten years of recovery shaped the people and politics of Rwanda?  What changes have been made to prevent another outbreak of violence? 

In the seven years since its creation, the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda), has handed down only eight convictions and one acquittal.15 Three of the most infamous Rwandan’s currently on trial for masterminding the genocide are Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, Colonel Simba Aloyis, and Pauline Nyiramasuhuko.  The ICTR Tribunal has issued indictments against 52 individuals; 42 of them are in custody at Arusha Tanzania. (For more information read about the Individuals currently being held in Arusha.)

According to Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire, during the 1994 genocide, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, “held the real power. He even overshadowed higher-ranked officers.”19  Alleged to be the key mastermind behind the genocide, in 1993, Bagosora sketched out plans to create a civilian defense force, trained by seasoned soldiers and police to attack the enemy within their communities.  The Tutsis.  Later Bagosora proposed arming the Interahamwe with machetes as a cheaper alternative to Kalashnikovs (AK-47s). 

In charge of the Crisis Committee, the illegal interim administration during the genocide, Bagosora installed “a regime of extremists masquerading as a legitimate government.”18 This was only after his proposal to take power himself was rejected. The soldiers, the UN, and the international community eventually accepted the Crisis Committee.  Bagosora has pleaded not guilty in his trial which began January of 2004.18

Though retired in 1994, Colonel Simba Aloyis headed “civil defense in Gikongoro and Butare between May and June," and "had authority over the military, police and Interahamwe.”17  Colonel Aloyis actions led to the massacre at the Parish and College of Kibeho in Gikongoro where Noel preserves the dead with lime.  Colonel Aloyis’ trial has been dragging on since March 18, 2002 when he pleaded not guilty to charges of “Genocide, Complicity in Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity (murder and extermination).”17 

In her early career Pauline Nyiramasuhuko held the position of social worker.  She spent her time delivering lectures on female empowerment.  In 1994, Pauline served as Minister of Family and Woman’s Affairs.  Now, [w]ith her hair pulled neatly back, her heavy glasses beside her on the table, she looks ... like someone's dear greataunt."14 Instead, she is charged with rape as a war crime and crimes against humanity. She is the first woman indicted by the ICTR.

Witnesses, one after another, tell harrowing stories of [Pauline] personally encouraging Hutu gangs known as Interahamwe to “select the nicest” women and rape these victims before killing them. From morning until evening, [Pauline] sits there, earphones on, listening to the proceedings. Some 70 others wait to testify. The trial is expected to last for at least two more years and, if convicted, [Pauline] faces life in jail.”14

The UN has reported that an unprecedented 250,000 women were raped during the genocide.  Though most were killed afterward, Butare (adjacent to Gikongoro) has 30,000 rape survivors. The brutality of the rapes included penetration with “spears, gun barrels, bottles or the stamens of banana trees. Sexual organs were mutilated with machetes, boiling water and acid; women's breasts were cut off.”15

After the genocide, Rwanda “declared that rapes committed during the genocide were the highest category of crime; those convicted are sentenced to death.”15  This may prove little consolation to the survivors, 70% of whom are infected with HIV/AIDs. 15

Pauline is being tried with her son and four senior officials from the Butare region.13  The brutality of those that carried out the genocide may be what ends up sealing their fates in court.  During the slaughter it was not unusual for one member of a family to be spared as a witness “who could deliver a progress report to God.” 15 

One of these witnesses, Rose, will be testifying against Pauline.  Rose was forced to watch as twenty members of her family were executed in front of her in one day.  Her mother was stripped and raped with a machete before being killed.  Rose is haunted by the particular attention the men paid to the women “'I saw them rape two girls with spears then burn their pubic hair. . .Then they took me to another spot where a lady was giving birth. The baby was halfway out. They speared it.” 15  What makes her testimony crucial is that Rose repeatedly heard the soldiers say, ''We are doing what was ordered by Pauline Nyiramasuhuko.''15  

No one alive in Rwanda in 1994 escaped the blade of the genocide.  Children and women were some of the hardest hit. UNICEF reports that “96% of children interviewed in Rwanda had witnessed the massacres and 80% of the children had lost at least one family member,”6 concluding “The level of trauma among children is unprecedented.”6  The U.N. discovered that 31% of Rwandan children of war witnessed a rape or sexual assault.15 

The aftereffects of the genocide are crippling to adults, but in Rwanda there are 300,000 households headed by child survivors. “[S]ome of the most vulnerable and marginalized are those struggling to survive and recreate a family life without the support of adults.”23 In fact, adults often prey on the vulnerability of child-run households, taking land and using the kids as a source of cheep labor. 25   

This has changed the fabric of family structure where brothers and sisters, some no older than six and seven took the roles of mother and father to help their siblings stay alive.23 

Nowhere can this victimization be more clearly seen than in the children without households to care for them. These homeless kids collect in major cities like Kigali and scratch out a life wherever they can.  Even in Kigali’s dump they are preyed upon.  Children scouring the trash must obtain permission to collect the refuse -- or they are beaten by adults.  Sadly, 85% off Rwanda’s homeless children took to the streets after genocide separated them from their parents and communities.  In December 1998, Rwandan soldiers rounded up all homeless children they could find and delivered them to the Gikongoro Street Children Solidarity Camp, hoping to reunite them with any living relatives.22 

In this postage stamp sized country, barely larger than Maryland, resources are strapped.  Money that could go to children’s programs is siphoned to another problem straining society. While millions of guilty and innocent fled the country in 1994, the government imprisoned more than 130,000 for their involvement in the exterminations.  Though Rwanda’s prisons are so overcrowded that is not uncommon for detainees to suffocate, security remains light.7

Indeed, in Rwanda, life in prison might be safer than living in a society where Hutus and Tutsis are still killing one another. At Gikongoro Prison, many inmates spend their days unguarded and outside prison walls.  There is little chance they will try to escape.7

The mass numbers of suspects waiting for trial backlogged the courts and in October of 2001, Rwanda decided to revive their traditional system of gacacas, courts where civilians judge their peers, to help ease the strain on the judicial system.8 

The gacaca system faces criticism from both the citizens of Rwanda and the international community. Traditionally used to solve marital disputes, the gacacas have no precedent for these types of crimes. Hutus feel the trials could be used as revenge attacks. Tutsis fear the gacacas could release murdering killers back into their towns. 16

Under gacaca, accused killers are brought to the villages where the crimes they allegedly committed took place. They will face genocide survivors and witnesses who have gathered in informal, open-air tribunals. Anyone can speak out against or in favor of those charged. They, in turn, can defend themselves, confess or seek forgiveness . . . A 19-member panel of locally elected judges will hand out sentences, ranging from community service to prison terms.16

The genocide targeted leaders of civil society and most of Rwanda’s trained judges were either exterminated or fled the country.  Many of the judges available are illiterate, have no legal training and have lost family members. “They may end up trying suspects who have slaughtered the judges' own families, making impartiality impossible.”16  Even more alarming is that those going through the gacacas have no access to lawyers and are not able to cross-examine their accusers. 

While the communities struggle under the enormity of the gacacas, Rwanda struggles under the sheer number of prisoners, some who have been waiting ten years for their trials. In September 1996, those who confessed to taking part in the three month genocide were released from prison.  Of the 60,238 confessions, 57,385 have confessed since January 2003. This still leaves an overwhelming 90,000 detained. 9 

A provision for confessing was included in a 1996 law that defined several degrees of genocide. The most severe, category one, is for planners of genocide. It carries a mandatory death sentence. The law also introduced the novel concept, for Rwanda, of plea bargaining.  Those charged with category-one crimes who plead not guilty but are later convicted face the firing squad. But those who plead guilty have their charge downgraded to a category-two crime - a life sentence. Those prisoners who confess are also promised a speedier trial. Most of the confessions were suddenly offered after the government publicly executed 22 people . . . despite protests from human-rights organizations. The executions appear to have driven home the point that the government was serious about dispensing punishment. 7         

In March 2004, the Rwandan government extended a deadline for detainees to confess their role in the 1994 genocide by one year.”9  As numerous Hutus still believe the genocide was justifiable, confession is unusual in Rwanda.  When asked about regrets, one prisoner replied, “I killed this man under orders from the soldiers and the authorities in my sector.” 7 Officials add that few prisoners have expressed shame or contrition. Gerald Gahima, secretary-general of the justice ministry explains, “They're prepared to say they're sorry, but there's no remorse at all.” 12

And confession offers no guarantee that a community has healed.  BBC reporter Andrew Harding visited the town of Nyagukombe where a released prisoner struggles to rebuild his life.  Noel was freed after confessing to hacking a woman and fifteen-year-old girl to death.  Hutu soldiers brought the victims to his house.  “First they told Noel's brother to kill the woman. When he refused, the soldiers shot him. Then they bayoneted Noel.” 12 

He did not know his victims, but Noel feared for the lives of his family, “I had no choice.  So I took my machete and I killed the girl and then I killed the woman.” 12  Though ordered to remain in Nyagukombe, Noel fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo with his wife and seven-year-old son.  When his wife and child succumbed to starvation, Noel returned to Rwanda and prison.  Having witnessed countless tragic stories like his, the townspeople of Nyagukombe welcomed him home.  “[I]t is OK now for men like Noel to come back. So long as they ask for forgiveness.” 12  But their acceptance may exist on the surface only.

[T]he genocide has left a complicated legacy. You can't just wish away generations of ethnic rivalry. Nor can you ignore the moral ambiguities which still fester in every village. Noel points down the hill to a small banana grove. “That's my land,” he says. He is shaking with anger. “It was stolen from me when I was in prison. By a Tutsi. I've offered to share it with him, but he says no.”12

Given the horrific trauma to the victims of the genocide, it is hard to imagine that the country can ever recover.  Victims and perpetrators live as neighbors in a land decimated by conflict. Some areas of Rwanda have had additional suffering under a two year drought. Food is scarce and clean water is unavailable. For some, the nearest source of water, normally drawn from nearby swamps, can be a 90-minute walk. 25  In 2002, the average Rwandan made $1200 a year or about nine dollars a day.20

Ten years later, the hatred simmers below the surface.  Lacking the resources or international interest of other nations, Rwandans are left to heal themselves in a poverty stricken nation. Unlike the former Yugoslavia, who “pacified their ethnic or religious animosities by segregating themselves into enclaves.”12  Rwandans have chosen to live together as a nation. Victims and killers are neighbors. “Vigilante justice is not unusual. [In August 1998, fourteen] people were hacked to death in Nyamagana in what authorities described as a revenge killing.”7  

Still, there are signs of hope. For the children in one of Rwanda’s twelve provinces, a chance can be found in the UNICEF facilitated Bamporeze Association.  Bamporeze provides what they can in the way of school materials, psychosocial care and income generating activities like “training in . . . carpentry, metal welding and soap making.”25

Progress has emerged from the ten year aftermath of the genocide. Trocaire’s project Cocof, started in 1994 and run mostly by women, exists as an umbrella organization, helping communities come together through cultivation, agriculture and animal husbandry. One member of Cocof explains the deeper roots of the organizations actions, “Before the genocide women had a very low status but projects like Cocof give women the status they deserve. They are empowered by our work because they get support without judgment and they learn to think differently about themselves and their lives. This can only be a good thing.”24

The Red Cross has proven invaluable, in addition to providing basic humanitarian needs, the organization has begun reuniting families through photo albums taken by workers in aid camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. “I had forgotten the name of my parents and my own name. I had forgotten everything.” Recounts one child, separated from her mother when she was three-years-old.  Her reunion is one of Rwanda's shamfully few the happy endings.32

Though not Secretary General of the UN in 1994, Kofi Annan admits that as head of the UN peacekeeping department he botched his job to end the genocide. “I believed at that time that I was doing my best.  But I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support.” 27

In 2003, Rwandans voted in a constitution hoped to prevent a repeat genocide. The constitution will prevent domination of the government by any one faction.  It requires the president and prime minister to belong to different parties.29 

Even with these precautions, the current administration’s actions are unsettling, “President Kagame's government has used the recent memories of hate media to justify keeping a tight reign.”11 Some of the harshest sentences awarded by the ICTR fall on members of the media who incited the public with their hate talk.  One witness recalls how important the radio became as the fighting broke the telephone lines, isolating communities. “People were listening to RTLM which was telling them, ‘You people, ordinary people, the Tutsi killed your president. Save yourselves. Kill them before they kill you too.’”10 RTLM (Radio Millie Collins), even broadcasted lists of people to be killed and where they could be found. RTLM’s top executives Jean-Basco Barayagwiza and Ferdinand Nahimana were both found guilty and sentenced (respectively) to 35 years and life.11 

Despite the lessons learned of the danger of using the media as propaganda, Kagame’s government controls most media outlets and their exists no private radio station in Rwanda.  “This helped ensure landslide election wins for the RPF during the first post genocide multi-party elections this year.”11 

Some see the election of Kagame, a Tutsi who garnered 90% of the vote,12 as proof that the government’s aggressive campaign of “de-ethnicisation” as a success. The campaign focuses on encouraging people “to think of themselves not as Hutus or Tutsis, but simply as Rwandans.”12 But how much did his control over the medial play into his re-election?

Most disturbing are new allegations by French police unveiled in Le Monde “that Rwanda's current President, Paul Kagame, gave direct orders for the rocket attack on Mr. Habyarimana's plane [in 1994].”28  Kagame and his administration scoff at these claims and counter with one of their own, that France was directly involved in the genocide.31  Tensions between the two countries has heightened since the discovery of a flight recorder misfiled and forgotten in a UN filing cabinet.  Preliminary tests show that it is not the black box from Habyarimana's plane crash.28

Back in Gikongoro, Emmanuel’s recovery remains stymied, unable to progress until the dead he cares for are preserved with dignity. “Once a proper memorial centre is here I will be released, I can move to another part of Rwanda, get a job - start a new life.”30

His feelings of incompleteness are echoed by the man in charge of the UNAMIR mission in Rwanda during the genocide.  “I still believe that if an organization decided to wipe out the 320 mountain gorillas there would be still more of a reaction by the international community to curtail or to stop that than there would be still today in attempting to protect thousands of human beings being slaughtered in the same country,”27 says Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire. “I will never be finished with Rwanda.  Those who have experienced it will never be finished.”26

Rwandan Charities:

Aegis Trust

Ibuka

Read the LATEST NEWS from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Listen to NPR’s program on Rwanda’s gacaca system

American Prof. William Mitchell Erlinder: Lead Defense Attorney for International Tribunal for Rwanda

Sources 

  1. BBC The guardians of Rwanda's dead Monday, 26 January, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3430205.stm
  2. The Monitor (Kampala) Rural Killings Rock Rwanda By Nasra Bishumba Kigali
          January 14, 2004, http://www.rwanda.net/english/News/2004/news012004/news01142003.htm
  3. BBC Genocide witnesses 'being killed' Tuesday, 16 December, 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3324871.stm
  4. PBS A Historical Chronology (Compiled from Fergal Keane's Season of Blood and Alain Destexhe's Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/cron.html
  5. IAO In Africa Only the Innocent Are Weeping  by Lila Schow, August 2002 http://www.interactorg.com/rwanda.htm
  6. New York Times Children of Rwanda’s Genocide http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/index-rwanda-children.html
  7. The Philadelphia Inquirer Rwanda: Aftermath of Genocide Last of five parts: Andrew Maykuth  September 10, 1998 http://www.maykuth.com/Projects/rwan5.htm
  8. BBC Timeline: Rwanda A chronology of key events: Saturday, 13 March, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1070329.stm
  9. AllArfrica.com Government Extends Deadline as Tens of Thousands Confess to Genocide Crimes March 18, 2004 http://allafrica.com/stories/200403180004.html
  10. Human Rights Watch GIKONGORO http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno8-10-01.htm
  11. BBC The impact of hate media in Rwanda By Russell Smith  Wednesday, 3 December, 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3257748.stm
  12. BBC Rwanda tries to heal its wounds By Andrew Harding Saturday, 30 August, 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3191489.stm
  13. Rwanda Information Exchange Witness Says That Nyiramasuhuko Ordered Militia To 'Rape All Tutsi Women And Girls And Kill the Rest'
    Hirondelle News Agency (    Lausanne) February 3, 2004 Arusha http://www.rwanda.net/english/News/2004/news022004/news02042004.htm
  14. Christian Science Monitor A woman on trial for Rwanda's massacre By Danna Harman March 07, 2003 edition  http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0307/p09s01-woaf.html
  15. NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE A Woman's Work By PETER LANDESMAN September 15, 2002 http://www.genocidewatch.org/MinisterofRape.htm Knight
  16. Ridder Newspapers Rwandan genocide criminals to be tried by gacaca By SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN Wed, Jun. 19, 2002 http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/3504215.htm
  17. AllAfrica.com Simba Aloys Again Pleads Not Guilty to Genocide Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) March 17, 2004 http://allafrica.com/stories/200403170611.html
  18. Human Rights Watch The Genocide The Strategy of Ethnic Division http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-02.htm
  19. Hironelle News Agency Arusha 02/12/2004 ICTR/MILITARY I - SYNTHESIS: GENERAL ROMEO DALLAIRE’S TESTIMONY
  20. World Facts and Figures GDP per capita http://www.worldfactsandfigures.com/gdp_country_desc.php
  21. New York Times Orphans and Detainees : Children of Rwanda’s Genocide  http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/rwanda-genocide-institute.html
  22. New York Times Surviving on the Streets :Children of Rwanda’s Genocide  http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/rwanda-genocide-street.html
  23. New York Times Families without Parents :Children of Rwanda’s Genocide http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/rwanda-genocide-family.html
  24. Trocaire Women play a key role in rebuilding Rwanda by Joanna Branniff
  25. AllAfrica.com Rwanda: Focus On the Struggle for Survival in Child-Headed Households UN Integrated Regional Information Networks PRESS RELEASE
    March 10, 2004      http://allafrica.com/stories/200403100008.html
  26. Toronto Star Dallaire gives rival final glare Retired general wraps up testimony by ALLAN THOMPSON Jan. 28, 2004
  27. BBC UN chief's Rwanda genocide regret Friday, 26 March, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3573229.stm
  28. BBC No Rwanda flight recorder link Thursday, 18 March, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3522598.stm
  29. IRIN RWANDA: Rwandans vote on draft constitution May 26, 2003 http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34302&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes
  30. BBC The Guardians of Rwanda’s Dead Monday, 26 January, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3430205.stm
  31. BBC Rwanda plans new genocide probe Thursday, 25 March, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3569209.stm
  32. BBC Rwanda's faces from the past Tuesday, 30 March, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3580151.stm

Political violence is an act of force, intimidation or abuse by a group or individual aimed at influencing, maintaining or seizing political power. The time has come to end such illegitimate violence perpetrated by our own United States government.
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