Citation
i
LEGACY OF THE PAST
WERE BULLDOZED & PERISHED IN NYANGE CHURCH DURING 1994 GENOCIDE AGAINST TUTSI
WRITTEN BY NIZEYIMANA EMMANUEL
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Table of Contents
ABOUT THE AUTHOR .............................................................................................................................. iv
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................ v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................ vi
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. vii
CHAP. I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
CHAP. II. OVERVIEW ON GENOCIDE ......................................................................................................... 4
II.1. SCHOLARLY DEFINITIONS OF GENOCIDE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER ........................................... 4
II.2. THE PROCESS OF GENOCIDE .......................................................................................................... 8
II.2.1.SOME RWANDA’S CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PAST .................................................................. 8
II.2.1.1.Kingship ........................................................................................................................... 8
II.2.1.2.Colonialisme..................................................................................................................... 9
II.2.1.3.Independence ................................................................................................................ 11
II.2.1.4.Genocide ........................................................................................................................ 12
II.2.1.5.Rebuilding ...................................................................................................................... 12
II.2.2.EIGHT STAGES OR OPERATIONAL PROCESS OF GENOCIDE ..................................................... 14
II.2.2.1. Classification ................................................................................................................. 14
II.2.2.2. Symbolization ................................................................................................................ 14
II.2.2.3. Dehumanization ............................................................................................................ 15
II.2.2.4. Organization .................................................................................................................. 15
II.2.2.5.Polarization .................................................................................................................... 15
II.2.2.6.Preparation .................................................................................................................... 16
II.2.2.7. Extermination................................................................................................................ 16
II.2.2.8. Denial ............................................................................................................................ 17
CHAP.III. NATIVE OF PAIN AMONG RWANDANS..................................................................................... 18
CHAP.IV. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET ................................................................................................... 25
CHAP.V. SAD HUNDRED DAYS TO MY FAMILY ........................................................................................ 29
CHAP.VI. LEAVE NO ONE TO CLAIM FOR ASSETS .................................................................................... 44
VI.1. LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN PRE-COLONIAL RWANDA ................................................................... 44
VI.2 LAND TENURE SYSTEM DURING COLONIZATION ......................................................................... 45
VI.3 LAND TENURE SYSTEM AFTER INDEPENDENCE............................................................................ 47
CHAP.VII. LIFE AFTER GENOCIDE ............................................................................................................ 51
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CHAP.VIII.JUSTICE AFTER GENOCIDE ...................................................................................................... 57
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 63
ANNEX: publication authorization.......................................................................................................... 65
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NIZEYIMANA Emmanuel is native of Nyange area-Rwanda, he is genocide survivor of 1994
genocide against Tutsi, and he lost almost his entire family which had been perished in Nyange
church including mother, sister, 4 brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends
while he had only six years old. During the demolition of Nyange church he was hidden in
Hutu’s household near the church where he was able to hear noise, movement and events at
that time. In few days after bulldozing the church he was moved to church to stay with dead
and after one week he was rescued by priests ‘cook. Emmanuel was a father of Ururabo
Samaza; family of AERG Ingeri operating at Groupe Scolaire de Shyogwe and in charge of AERG
Ingeri’s discipline in 2006-2007 academic year, the mobility track to National University of
Rwanda in 2009 inspired him to join AERG-UNR where he was a child of Icyeza family and that
mobility track helped him to get his bachelor’s degree with honors in Agricultural Economics
and Agribusiness in 2012 which permitted him to become a consultant where he participates in
many researches and agribusiness related activities as an assistant researcher and agribusiness
facilitator both for boosting the country’s economy where Rwanda like other developing
nations is struggling for its economic transition from small to middle income country.
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DEDICATION
This book was written in memory of all people who lost their life in churches during 1994
genocide against Tutsi.
It is also dedicated to all people who took the risk to hide Tutsis in 1994 genocide against Tutsi
and all kinds of orphans all over the world.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks are to the almighty God for granting me life and energy to accomplish my work. I would
like also express my profound gratitude to my regretted parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grand
parents, brothers and sister; without their culture, love and discipline I would not be able to live
with my tutors and of course to accomplish this legacy of the past.
I would like to extend my gratitude to the government of Rwanda firstly for sponsoring my
studies and their system of giving equal right to all Rwandans to attend schools, secondly for
giving Rwandans to commemorate each year the 1994 genocide against Tutsi; Without this
commemoration I would not be able to remember some events during the genocide. Thirdly for
adopting gacaca court because I got useful testimonies which made some parties of this book.
My special thanks are also expressed to all people helped me to survive the 1994 genocide
against Tutsi, particularly GASIGA and Marie Agnes families.
I say thanks GASHAGAZA Gabriel and my late second mother MUKAKAMANZI Victoria for their
financial support in many ways and their care after genocide.
Thanks to friends who read this book before the publication; Theodore, Ibrahim, Vianney, Luc,
Shema, Mugenzi, Manzi and CNLG’s researchers for their advisory services and publication
authorization.
Lastly but not the least I would like to extend to my friends and my survived family members
the deepest gratitude for their encouragement and support in one or other way; you have
been nice to me and I wish you all the best.
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ABSTRACT
This book” Legacy of the Past” and its subtitle “were bulldozed and perished in Nyange church
during 1994 genocide against Tutsi” highlights the history of Rwanda focusing mainly on 1994
genocide against Tutsi, its causes, consequences and traces of this genocide.
The qualitative Information used in this book were obtained using data collection instruments
which are desk review, observation and key informant interviews; were used in both genocide
survivors and perpetrators, also the author’s personnel testimony were used in this book
because he is Rwandan who experienced that atrocity and he attended Gacaca court activities
were killers and survivors were brought together in order to testimony what had happened.
This legacy of the past is made of 8 chapters; where the chapter one gives a brief description of
Rwanda and its history, chapter two highlights the meaning of genocide and the strategic
processes which lead to it, chapter three describe the native of pain between Hutu and Tutsi
and their social relations before 1994, chapter four and five show the author personal
testimony and killing of Tutsis of Nyange area especially in Nyange church as case study of this
research where bulldozers killed more than 2500 peoples including author’s families, also at
that place there is a site memorial where more than 7500 bodies are buried even though this
number keep increasing due to fact that there are other bodies which still to be discovered in
villages, chapter six show the history of land tenure because the land and Tutsi’s assets were
important incentives to killers in most rural areas where more than 91% of them were farmers
and they wanted to own Tutsi’s properties after their disappearing, chapter seven highlights the
author’s survival life as an orphan whereas chapter eight say about justice after genocide and
author’s thoughts.
In short this book say about the genocide in rural areas, traces of that massacres using pictures,
testimonies and writings, it also describe life of orphans after genocide and their thoughts. The
author encourage genocide orphans to rely heavily on their families values where the most
important among them is “not to shade blood of people”; these will help them in their daily life
and will have significant impact to them without neglecting the future generations.
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LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABREVIATIONS
AERG : Associations des Élèves Rescapes du Génocide
CNLG: Commission National de Lutte Contre Le Génocide
CODECOKI: Kivumu Development Cooperative
DRC: Democratic Republic of Congo
FAR: Force Arme Rwandais
MINAGRI: Ministry of Agriculture
NISR: National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda
NUR: National University of Rwanda
NURC: National Unity and Reconciliation Commission
PARMEHUTU : Parti du Mouvement de L’émancipation des Bahutu
RPF: Rwanda Patriotic Front
RTLM: Radio Television Libre de Mille Collines
UN: United Nations
1
CHAP. I. INTRODUCTION
Rwanda is Landlocked between Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Geographically, Rwanda is situated east of Central Africa between 1004’ and
2051’latitude south and between 28053’ and 30053’ longitude east. The shortest distance to the
ocean is 1,200 km long. Rwanda’s economy is based mainly on Agriculture. In fact, around
genocide period precisely in 1993, this sector occupied 95% of the active population whereas
the population was 7.7 million people (Magnarella, 2002)1. Land resource is therefore, the most
important factor of production and survival for the nation and the entire population.
Violent conflicts marked Rwanda’s transition from colonial rule to independence in the early
1960s, and continuing episodes of violence created a large refugee population in surrounding
countries. The 1994 genocide against Tutsi led to the murder of more than one million
(1,000,000) Rwandans against 309,368 Tutsi genocide survivors among them 42% are male and
58% are female (NISR, 2008)2. Beginning in October 1990, members of the Rwandan Patriotic
Front (RPF) based initiated attacks on northern Rwanda. Composed primarily of the
descendants of Rwandans Tutsi refugees and few Hutu who had fled the violence associated
with decolonization 30 years earlier, the RPF was fighting to ensure the right of return for all
exiles and to install a more democratic regime in Rwanda. In early 1993, the RPF advanced with
vigorous offensive and occupied large portions of northern Rwanda. Almost a million people
fled from these areas to seek refuge in displaced persons’ settlements north of Kigali and
elsewhere in the country. The Rwandan government of President Juvénal Habyarimana,
dominated by Hutu from the north of the country, used the war to provoke fears among
Rwandans that the RPF wished to reimpose the Tutsi monarchy overthrown in the
decolonization struggles of 1959–61.
By disseminating ethnicity ideology and began the political debates within the country, this
political debates undercuted the growing opposition from internal political opponents of Hutu
from south and central Rwanda, who were wishing greater democratization.
1
2
Explaining Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide, Paul Magnarella, 2002
Recensement des Rescapes du Genocide de 1994, NISR, 2008
2
As result of this policy, the government imprisoned many Tutsi and moderate Hutu at the
beginning of the war predicting that those people are ibyitso meaning that are RPF
intelligences, that policy of hating Tutsi by Hutu majority aggravated until it reached rural areas
composed of many illiterate people, and tried to instill ethnic hatred through the mass media
like RTLM, Kangura journal,hutu artists like Bikindi Simon, and many others, those campaigns
resulted by considering Tutsi minority as common enemy of Rwanda precisely Hutu majority
and the power-holder . On the night of 6 April 1994, The plane was shot down by extremists
regime as it prepared to land at the airport in Kigali that killed President Juvenal Habyarimana,
Ntaryamira; the president of Burundi, and several members of Habyarimana’s government,
miraculously Habyarimana, ntaryamira bodies, and crashed air were fallen in Habyarimana’s
residence! that action was designed secretly by juvenal Habyarimana’s team; extremists
associated with his regime who didn’t want the implementation of Arusha agreement; as a sign
in whole country but also as stimulus for ordinary people and civilian militias recruited, armed,
and trained by the political and military officials who planned the genocide to implement it.
In a period of 100 days, more than 1,000,000 Rwandans, most of them Tutsi, were massacred.
In July 1994, the genocide against Tutsi ended by the RPF headed by Paul Kalama defeated the
FAR and the militias, and put in place a new anti-ethnic government that established control
over the country. Most of the perpetrators of the genocide and many militia members fled
Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of Hutu fled with them, as they were pressured and
encouraged by their leaders to do. In the areas near Goma in North Kivu, Ex-Zaire now in DRC,
thousands of refugees died of cholera, malnutrition, and exhaustion before international aid
could provide water, adequate food, and sanitary facilities as consequences of the war.
After the genocide, Rwandan economy had been destabilized due to the perpetrators motto of
kill-rape-theft-destroy; money had been stolen, government current and long term assets had
been destroyed, no competent labor force due to genocide and exile.
As union make strength, RPF government installed unity and reconciliation rather than division,
encouraged all kinds of refugees to come back to their country rather than insisting that
Rwanda was already too crowded and had too little land, jobs, and food for outsided Rwandans
as it was said by Habyarimana’s regime without taking care on the surrounding countries were
3
also poor and insufficient resources to accommodate both their own citizens and refugees from
Rwanda (Magnarella, 2002)3. In 2012 the country had a total resident population of 10,537,222
people (NISR, 2012)4 compared to the enumerated population in 2002 census of 8,128,553 this
implies an increase of about 29,6% and an annual growth rate of 2,6%, the population density
was 416 persons while in 2002 it was 310 persons per square kilometer (MINAGRI, 2004)5. Now
Rwanda has a democratic system of government, and the first country which has boasted the
largest percentage of female law makers of any nation in the world. But the government has
also improved the economy and strengthens the private sector and in 2002 it has implemented
a system of local courts called gacaca in an attempt to promote reconciliation while also
addressing the problem of how best to deal with over 100,000 alleged perpetrators and this
Gacaca court had ended its mandate.
3
Explaining Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide, Paul Magnarella, 2002
2012 census, National institute of statistic of Rwanda
5
national agricultural policy, MINAGRI, 2004
4
4
CHAP. II. OVERVIEW ON GENOCIDE
Many writers had written on the Genocide, the author was interested on genocide definitions
and genocide procedures in this chapter in order to answer the question; what is the genocide?
II.1. SCHOLARLY DEFINITIONS OF GENOCIDE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
Peter Drost (1959)
“Genocide is the deliberate destruction of physical life of individual human beings by reason of
their membership of any human collectivity as such.”
Vahakn Dadrian (1975)
“Genocide is the successful attempt by a dominant group, vested with formal authority and/or
with preponderant access to the overall resources of power, to reduce by coercion or lethal
violence the number of a minority group whose ultimate extermination is held desirable and
useful and whose respective vulnerability is a major factor contributing to the decision for
genocide.”
Irving Louis Horowitz (1976)
“Genocide is a structural and systematic destruction of innocent people by a state bureaucratic
apparatus; Genocide represents a systematic effort over time to liquidate a national
population, usually a minority and functions as a fundamental political policy to assure
conformity and participation of the citizenry.”
Leo Kuper (1981)
“I shall follow the definition of genocide given in the UN Convention. This is not to say that I
agree with the definition. On the contrary, I believe a major omission to be in the exclusion of
political groups from the list of groups protected. In the contemporary world, political
differences are at the very least as significant a basis for massacre and annihilation as racial,
national, ethnic or religious differences.
Then too, the genocides against racial, national, ethnic or religious groups are generally a
consequence of or intimately related to political conflict. However, I do not think it is helpful to
create new definitions of genocide, when there is an internationally recognized definition and a
Genocide Convention which might become the basis for some effective action, however limited
5
the underlying conception. But since it would vitiate the analysis to exclude political groups, I
shall refer freely to liquidating or exterminatory actions against them.”
Jack Nusan Porter (1982)
“Genocide is the deliberate destruction, in whole or in part, by a government or its agents, of a
racial, sexual, religious, tribal or political minority. It can involve not only mass murder, but also
starvation, forced deportation, and political, economic and biological subjugation. Genocide
involves three major components: ideology, technology, and bureaucracy/organization.”
Yehuda Bauer (1984)
He tried to distinguish between “genocide” and “holocaust”:“Genocide is the planned
destruction, since the mid-nineteenth century of a racial, national, or ethnic group as such, by
the following means: (a) selective mass murder of elites or parts of the population; (b)
elimination of national (racial, ethnic) culture and religious life with the intent of
‘denationalization’; (c) enslavement, with the same intent; (d) destruction of national (racial,
ethnic) economic life, with the same intent; (e) biological decimation through the kidnapping of
children, or the prevention of normal family life, with the same intent. Holocaust is the planned
physical annihilation, for ideological or pseudo-religious reasons, of all the members of a
national, ethnic, or racial group.”
John L. Thompson and Gail A. Quets (1987)
“Genocide is the extent of destruction of a social collectivity by whatever agents, with whatever
intentions, by purposive actions which fall outside the recognized conventions of legitimate
warfare.”
Isidor Wallimann and Michael N. Dobkowski (1987)
“Genocide is the deliberate, organized destruction, in whole or in large part, of racial or ethnic
groups by a government or its agents. It can involve not only mass murder, but also forced
deportation (ethnic cleansing), systematic rape, and economic and biological subjugation.”
Helen Fein (1988)
“Genocide is a series of purposeful actions by a perpetrator(s) to destroy a collectivity through
mass or selective murders of group members and suppressing the biological and social
reproduction of the collectivity. This can be accomplished through the imposed proscription or
6
restriction of reproduction of group members, increasing infant mortality, and breaking the
linkage between reproduction and socialization of children in the family or group of origin. The
perpetrator may represent the state of the victim, another state, or another collectivity.”
Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn (1990)
“Genocide is a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to
destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator.”
Helen Fein (1993)
“Genocide is sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collectivity
directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction of group
members, sustained regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim.”
Steven T. Katz (1994)
“Genocide is the actualization of the intent, however successfully carried out, to murder in its
totality any national, ethnic, racial, religious, political, social, gender or economic group, as
these groups are defined by the perpetrator, by whatever means.” (N.b. Modified by Adam
Jones in 2010 to read, “Murder in whole or in part.”)
Israel Charny (1994)
“Genocide in the generic sense means the mass killing of substantial numbers of human beings,
when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under
conditions of the essential defenselessness of the victim.”
Irving Louis Horowitz (1996)
“Genocide is here in defined as a structural and systematic destruction of innocent people by a
state bureaucratic apparatus emphasis in original. Genocide means the physical
dismemberment and liquidation of people on large scales, an attempt by those who rule to
achieve the total elimination of a subject people.”
Barbara Harff (2003)
“Genocides and politicides are the promotion, execution, and/or implied consent of sustained
policies by governing elites or their agents or in the case of civil war, either of the contending
authorities that are intended to destroy, in whole or part, a communal, political, or politicized
ethnic group.”
7
Manus I. Midlarsky (2005)
“Genocide is understood to be the state-sponsored systematic mass murder of innocent and
helpless men, women, and children denoted by a particular ethno-religious identity, having the
purpose of eradicating this group from a particular territory.”
Mark Levene (2005)
“Genocide occurs when a state, perceiving the integrity of its agenda to be threatened by an
aggregate population defined by the state as an organic collectivity, or series of collectivities
seek to remedy the situation by the systematic, en masse physical elimination of that
aggregate, in to or until it is no longer perceived to represent a threat.”
Jacques Sémelin (2005)
“I will define genocide as that particular process of civilian destruction that is directed at the
total eradication of a group, the criteria by which it is identified being determined by the
perpetrator.”
Daniel Chirot and Clark McCauley (2006)
“A genocidal mass murder is politically motivated violence that directly or indirectly kills a
substantial proportion of a targeted population, combatants and non combatants alike,
regardless of their age or gender.”
Martin Shaw (2007)
“Genocide is a form of violent social conflict, or war, between armed power organizations that
aim to destroy civilian social groups and those groups and other actors who resist this
destruction.”
Donald Bloxham (2009)
“Genocide is the physical destruction of a large portion of a group in a limited or unlimited
territory with the intention of destroying that group’s collective existence.”
As it had been written by Gregory H. Stanton, The International Convention for the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines "genocide." "In the present Convention,
genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b)
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on
8
the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring
children of the group to another group."
CNLG
According to CNLG Genocide was first defined by the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of Genocide as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial
or religious group. Genocide is never spontaneous. In Rwanda, the Genocide against the Tutsi
was a planned and systematic attempt at exterminate the Tutsi. The 1994 Genocide against the
Tutsi was one of the fasted known to history with one million men, women and children killed
in three months. By the end of the genocide, over 80% of the Tutsi population had been killed
(CNLG, 2013)6.
II.2. THE PROCESS OF GENOCIDE
It is evident that all Rwandans are able to certify that “divided we fall, united we stand” and
“win-win political system is more efficient than win-lose political system “based on thoughts
and perspective of the author the following characters of the past history of Rwanda show
some legacies of the past in chronological order and each stage had significant effect to the
next one:
II.2.1.SOME RWANDA’S CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PAST
II.2.1.1.Kingship
•
Socio-political classes. Hutu. Tutsi
Before colonization the Tutsi and Hutu were not racial or ethnic distinction but the word
“Tutsi,” which apparently first described the status of an individual a person rich in cattle
became the term that referred to the elite group as a whole and the word “Hutu” meaning
originally a subordinate or follower of a more powerful person came to refer to the mass of the
ordinary people. Most people married within the occupational group in which they had been
raised. This practice created a shared gene pool within each group, which meant that over
6
http://www.cnlg.gov.rw/-Genocide-.html accessed on 16/6/2013
9
generations, pastoralists came to look more like other pastoralists tall, thin and narrowfeatured and cultivators like other cultivators shorter, stronger, and with broader features
(desforges A. 1999)7.
•
Social values and Culture
Before Rwandans rely a lot on their culture and social values, these were destroyed by arrival of
catholic missionaries and people began to think that their values were abolished by those
missionaries by saying that “Kiliziya yakuye kirazira”
•
Patriotism and Nationalism
People of kingship period were more patriot, their wishes were to increase the size of their
country; Rwanda and It was the patriotic duty of every man and woman to die for his country.
This is proved for example by their Ability to conquer other neighboring kingdoms and
Resistance to slave trade, which ruined many other parts of Africa.
Really in the pre-colonial Rwanda, patriotism was an essential cultural ingredient in Rwanda
society. This culture had a number of expressions like: Sacrifice; wima igihugu amaraso imbwa
zikayanywera ubusa. Pride; Urwanda ruratera ntiruterwa and Love: Urwanda rw’amata n’ubuki
II.2.1.2.Colonialisme
The Europeans precisely German came to Rwanda From 1894 until the end of World War I, the
next was the Belgium from 1924 to 1962, during their colonial tenure, the Germans and
Belgians ruled Rwanda indirectly through Tutsi monarchs and their chiefs. Apart from
christianism Europeans brought other sophisticated aspects which resulted to 1994 genocide
against Tutsi:
•
Racialism. Hutu. Tutsi .Twa
Europeans believed Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa were three distinct, long existent and internally
coherent blocks of people, the local representatives of three major population groups, the
Ethiopid, Bantu and Pygmoid. Unclear whether these were races, tribes, or language groups,
7
Leave no one to tell the story, desforges A. 1999
10
the Europeans were nonetheless certain that the Tutsi were superior to the Hutu and the Hutu
superior to the Twa, just as they knew themselves to be superior to all three. Because
Europeans thought that the Tutsi looked more like themselves than did other Rwandans, they
found it reasonable to suppose them closer to Europeans in the evolutionary hierarchy and
hence closer to them in ability. Believing the Tutsi to be more capable, they found it logical for
the Tutsi to rule Hutu and Twa just as it was reasonable for Europeans to rule Africans.
Unaware of the “Hutu” contribution to building Rwanda, the Europeans saw only that the ruler
of this impressive state and many of his immediate entourage were Tutsi, which led them to
assume that the complex institutions had been created exclusively by Tutsi (des forges A.
1999)8.
•
Dictatorship and Harassment
Under Belgian rule Rwanda developed into a politically centralized, neo-traditionalist and
overwhelmingly Catholic society. Prunier writes that:
“Between 1920 and 1940, the burden of taxation and forced labor by the native population
increased considerably. Men were almost constantly under mobilization to build permanent
structures, to dig anti-erosion terraces, to grow compulsory crops (coffee for export, cassava
and sweet potatoes for food security), to plant trees or to build and maintain roads. These
various activities could swallow up to 50–60% of a man’s time. Those who did not comply were
abused and brutally beaten. The result was a manpower exodus towards the British colonies,
especially Uganda where there was plenty of work (Prunier G., 1995)9.” and this resulted by
creation of inequality and pain among Rwandans because some Tutsi were chiefs in those
forced works and Hutu were direct workers.
•
Hutu manifesto
In 1957 with growing support from the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda, issued a manifesto
(known as the Hutu Manifesto and gregoire kayibanda was an author) that called for greater
8
9
Leave no one to tell the story, des forges A. 1999
. The Rwandan Crisis: History of Genocide, Prunier G., 1995.
11
Hutu voice and political power. In November 1959, the pro-Hutu PARMEHUTU (Parti du
mouvement de l’émancipation des Bahutu) party led a revolt that resulted in bloody ethnic
clashes and the falling of King Kigeri V. By 1963, these and other Hutu attacks had resulted in
thousands of Tutsi deaths and the flight of about 130,000 Tutsi to the neighboring countries of
Burundi, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Uganda. The land and cattle
that the fleeing pastoral Tutsi left behind were quickly claimed by land-hungry, horticultural
Hutu. The Hutu revolution lasted until the country gained its independence from Belgium in
July, 1962. Gregoire Kayibanda, a Hutu from southern Rwanda, became the president and
prime minister of the new country (Karol Boudreaux, 2009)10this period was marked by win-lose
political system where the winners where the Bahutu and pushed away batutsi; the losers.
•
History and Culture distortion
•
social injustice, etc
II.2.1.3.Independence
Historically Rwanda was declared independent on 1 July 1962, due to Hutu revolution in 1961
and it was the end of monarchy at that time Tutsi were driven away many take refugees in
foreigner countries as writes Alison desforges; the Hutu, as the “great majority,” the
“rubandanyamwinshi,” had the right to rule over the minority. In their eyes, the ethnic majority
was necessarily the same as the democratic majority (des forges A. 1999)11.Really it was not a
real independence but a period characterized by:
•
Segregation
o In education
o In public works like army
o in religion and at that time Habyarimana’s regime had Regulations
prohibited army members from marrying Tutsi girls
10
11
•
Civil Conflicts
•
More refugees
•
Denationalization of some people
land conflict and genocide in Rwanda, Karol Boudreaux, 2009
leave no one to tell the story: genocide in Rwanda, des forges A. 1999
12
•
Individual tax ( ibarate y’umusoro)
•
social injustice,etc
II.2.1.4.Genocide
Due to the loss of value inherited in our culture of oneness, the end state of this situation was
1994 Genocide against Tutsi and the motto was:” kill- rape- theft and destroy” this resulted by:
•
Unbelievable Deaths
•
Great number of Refugees in neighboring countries
•
Many Orphans and widow(er)s
•
Traumatism to survivors and guilt perpetrators created a situation of hopelessness to a
big section of our population
•
Infrastructure loss
•
manpower loss
•
Moral loss, etc
II.2.1.5.Rebuilding
After the capturing of Kigali by RPF inkotanyi headed by Paul Kalama, In July 1994 the RPF
created a coalition national unity government, in late 1996, hundreds of thousands of refugees
from Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania returned to the country. International war
crimes trials began in Tanzania in 1997; the RPF political system was totally win-win because
since 1994, the government of Rwanda has established a number of mechanisms aimed at
constructing the Rwanda society.
o Enhancing security, and order in the country.
o Repatriating refugees many of whom were held hostages by criminals
o Establishing NURC (National Unity and Reconciliation Commission), Gacaca
court.
o Mobilizing people to come to the sense of togetherness for development, which
establish confidence and belonging of Rwandan people to their country
•
Poverty reduction strategies
13
Aiming to the development of all economic sectors contrary to Juvenal Habyarimana’s policy as
it has been written by Philip Verwimp who summarized the Habyarimana regime’s economic
ideology in the following way: “Habyarimana’s macro-economic ideology, as derived from his
speeches, is as follows. Rwanda is a peasant economy and should remain so; in fact, all
Rwandans should be peasants. Agricultural manual labor is the only source of value and thus all
human and physical activity should be concentrated in rural areas.” (Karol Boudreaux, 2009)12
•
one cow per poor family
This program aims at enabling every poor household throughout the country to own and
manage an improved dairy cow which would help the family to better their livelihood through
increased milk and meat production and to improve soil fertility of their land for their crops
using the available manure. This initiative has improved nutrition, and helped increase the
earnings of beneficiaries from milk, milk products, meat and sale of manure. According to Dr.
Ingabire (2012), Girinka program provide other benefits (change process) among them Unity
and Reconciliation is on the top “Girinka program promoted unity and social cohesion among
Rwandans in their respective communities there by mitigating genocide ideology that led to
genocide in Rwanda in 1994 (N.Emmanuel, 2012)13
12
•
Education for all
•
Strong institutions
•
Site memorials
•
New infrastructures and economic growth in all sectors
•
Never again
•
More touristic sites
•
land titling and registration
•
Mutuel health insurance (mutuelle de sante)
•
New universities and vocational schools
•
Social Justice
Land Conflict and Genocide in Rwanda, Karol Boudreaux, 2009
Impact assessment of one cow per poor family and its mutual health insurance in socio-economic development
of rural areas. Case study of umubano-nsibo cooperative, Nizeyimana E., NUR, 2012
13
14
•
ICT development
•
Gender balance, etc
II.2.2.EIGHT STAGES OR OPERATIONAL PROCESS OF GENOCIDE
These eight stages of genocide had been mentioned by Professor Gregory H. Stanton in 1998;
he said that Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal
process.
The first stages precede later stages, but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process.
Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each
process. The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization, dehumanization,
organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.
II.2.2.1. Classification
All languages and cultures require classification - division of the natural and social world in to
categories. We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have categories to
distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and others. We treat
different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic classifications may be defined by
absurdly detailed laws - the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the "one drop" laws of segregation in
America, or apartheid racial classification laws in South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit
mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation. Bipolar societies are the most likely to have
genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu.
No one is mixed. Mixed marriages do not result in mixed children.
II.2.2.2. Symbolization
We use symbols to name and signify our classifications. We name some people Hutu and others
Tutsi, or Jewish or Gypsy, or Christian or Muslim. Sometimes physical characteristics - skin color
or nose shape, height - become symbols for classifications. Other symbols, like customary dress
or facial scars, are socially imposed by groups on their own members. After the process has
reached later stages (dehumanization, organization, and polarization) genocidal governments in
the preparation stage often require members of a targeted group to wear an identifying symbol
15
or distinctive clothing - e.g. the yellow star. The Khmer Rouge forced people from the Eastern
Zone to wear a blue-checked scarf, marking them for forced relocation and elimination.
II.2.2.3. Dehumanization
Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps
of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the
step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members
of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to
genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names - Nazi propaganda called Jews
"rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted
group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic.
Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such
atrocities then become the justification for revenge killings, because they are evidence that the
killers must be monsters, not human beings themselves.
II.2.2.4. Organization
Genocide is always collective because it derives its impetus from group identification. It is
always organized, often by states but also by militias and hate groups. Planning need not be
elaborate: Hindu mobs may hunt down Sikhs or Muslims, led by local leaders. Methods of killing
need not be complex: Tutsis in Rwanda died from machetes; Muslim Chams in Cambodia from
hoe-blades to the back of the neck ("Bullets must not be wasted," was the rule at Cambodian
extermination prisons, expressing the dehumanization of the victims.) The social organization
of genocide varies by culture. It reached its most mechanized, bureaucratic form in the Nazi
death camps. But it is always organized, whether by the Nazi SS or the Rwandan Interahamwe.
Death squads may be trained for mass murder, as in Rwanda, and then force everyone to
participate, spreading hysteria and overcoming individual resistance. Terrorist groups will pose
one of the greatest threats of genocidal mass murder in the future as they gain access to
chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons.
II.2.2.5.Polarization
Genocide proceeds in a downward cycle of killings until, like a whirlpool, it reaches the vortex
of mass murder. Killings by one group may provoke revenge killings by the other. Such
16
massacres are aimed at polarization, the systematic elimination of moderates who would slow
the cycle. The first to be killed in genocide are moderates from the killing group who oppose
the extremists: the Hutu Supreme Court Chief Justice and Prime Minister in Rwanda, the Tutsi
Archbishop in Burundi. Extremists target moderate leaders and their families. The center
cannot hold. The most extreme take over, polarizing the conflict until negotiated settlement is
impossible.
II.2.2.6.Preparation
Preparation for genocide includes identification. Lists of victims are drawn up. Houses are
marked. Maps are made. Individuals are forced to carry ID cards identifying their ethnic or
religious group. Identification greatly speeds the slaughter. In Germany, the identification of
Jews, defined by law, was performed by a methodical bureaucracy. In Rwanda, identity cards
showed each person's ethnicity. In the genocide, Tutsis could then be easily pulled from cars at
roadblocks and murdered. Throwing away the cards did not help, because anyone who could
not prove he was Hutu was presumed to be Tutsi. Hutu militiamen conducted crude mouth
exams to test claims of Hutu identity. Preparation also includes expropriation of the property
of the victims. It may include concentration: herding of the victims into ghettos, stadiums, or
churches. In its most extreme form, it even includes construction of extermination camps, as in
Nazi-ruled Europe, or conversion of existing buildings – temples and schools – into
extermination centers in Cambodia. Transportation of the victims to these killing centers is
then organized and bureaucratized.
II.2.2.7. Extermination
The seventh step, the final solution, is extermination. It is considered extermination, rather
than murder, because the victims are not considered human. They are vermin, rats or
cockroaches. Killing is described by euphemisms of purification: “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia,
“ratonade” (rat extermination) in Algeria. Targeted members of alien groups are killed, often
including children. Because they are not considered persons, their bodies are mutilated, buried
in mass graves or burnt like garbage.
17
II.2.2.8. Denial
Every genocide is followed by denial; the mass graves are dug up and hidden. The historical
records are burned, or closed to historians. Even during the genocide, those committing the
crimes dismiss reports as propaganda. Afterwards such deniers are called “revisionists.” Others
deny through more subtle means: by characterizing the reports as “unconfirmed” or “alleged”
because they do not come from officially approved sources; by minimizing the number killed;
by quarreling about whether the killing fits the legal definition of genocide (“definitionalism”);
by claiming that the deaths of the perpetrating group exceeded that of the victim group, or that
the deaths were the result of civil war, not genocide. In fact, civil war and genocide are not
mutually exclusive. Most genocides occur during wars.
18
CHAP.III. NATIVE OF PAIN AMONG RWANDANS
The perceived ethnic differences made a strong impression on early European colonists who
wrote histories of the region in which the Tutsis were identified as superior Nilotic outsiders
who brought a sophisticated kingship system to Rwanda. When the Tutsis, who were primarily
pastoralists, arrived in the area that became Rwanda they found settled farmers. These farmers
were Bantus who tended to be poorer (or have fewer cattle) than the Tutsis (Uvin P., 1997)14.
Whereas, Schoenbrun notes that people in western Great Lakes region near Lake Kivu in
western Rwanda were grazing and breeding dairy cattle more than 2,000 years ago
(Schoenbrun, David L., 1998)15, so the distinction between Tutsi pastoralists and Hutu farmers
may well have been over emphasized in some literature; most writers on the subject trace the
recent Hutu-Tutsi distinction to the Belgians’ use of the 10-cow rule for the 1933-34 census and
identity cards Supposedly, any male who owned 10 cows was classified as a Tutsi; those with
fewer than 10 cows were classified as Hutu, no explanation for Twa is usually given. Relying on
a doctoral dissertation by Tharcisse Gatwa, Mamdani writes that the Belgians actually used
three major sources of information for their census classification: “oral information provided by
the church, physical measurements, and ownership of large herds of cows (mamdani,
2001)16.The fact is,” writes Mamdani, “the Belgian power did not arbitrarily cook up the
Hutu/Tutsi distinction. What it did do was to take an existing sociopolitical distinction and
racialize it. “The origin of the violence is connected to how Hutu and Tutsi were constructed as
political identities by the colonial state, Hutu as indigenous and Tutsi as alien” (mamdani,
2001)17. During their colonial tenure, the Germans and Belgians ruled Rwanda indirectly through
Tutsi monarchs and their chiefs, the colonialists developed the so-called Hamitic hypothesis or
myth, which held that the Tutsi and everything humanly superior in Central Africa came from
14
prejudice, crisis and genocide in Rwanda, Uvin P. 1997
A Green Place, A Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th
Century Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, Schoenbrun, David L. 1998.
16
When victims become killer: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press , mamdani, 2001
17
When victims become killer: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, mamdani, 2001
15
19
ancient Egypt or Abyssinia (mamdani, 2001)18. The Europeans regarded Hutu and Twa (about 3%
of the population) as inferior to Tutsi. Sixty years of such prejudicial fabrications inflated Tutsi
egos inordinately and crushed Hutu feelings, which coalesced into an aggressively resentful
inferiority complex. During 1933-34, the Belgians conducted a census and introduced an
identity card system that indicated the Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa “ethnicity” of each person. The
identity card “ethnicity” of future generations was determined patrilineally; all persons were
designated as having the “ethnicity” of their fathers, regardless of the “ethnicity” of their
mothers. This practice, which was carried on until its abolition by the 1994 post-genocide
government, had the unfortunate consequence of firmly attaching a sub-national identity to all
Rwandans and thereby rigidly dividing them into categories, which for many people, carried a
negative history of dominance-subordination, superiority inferiority, and exploitation-suffering.
In their “Hutu Manifesto” of 1957, Hutu leaders referred to the identity card categories as
“races,” there by evincing how inflexible these labels had become in their minds (Paul
19
Magnarella, 1999) .
Nonetheless, by the 19th century a strong, centralized Tutsi kingdom existed in and most Hutus
were subservient to Tutsi masters. In the late nineteenth century, Germans colonized this Tutsi
kingdom, and incorporated it into German East Africa in 1890. Following the end of World War
I, a League of Nations mandate transferred control of Rwanda and Burundi (Rwanda-Urundi)
from Germany to Belgium.
As it is difficult to recall the history of the past when you weren’t there, I preferred to use the
experience of Dr. SEBARENZI Joseph in his book entitled God sleeps in Rwanda (p11-15); before
European colonizers arrived in Rwanda at the turn of twentieth century, Rwandans thought
their country was the center of the world. They thought their kingdom was the most civilized
and their monarchy the most powerful. When Europeans arrived, they were impressed by the
efficient and organization of its government, its politics, and it’s military. It was that organized
and obedient military that so fiercely protected the nation. Slave traders were pushed back
18
When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, MahmoodMamdani2001.
19
Explaining Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide, Paul Magnarella, 1999
20
from the borders. Few immigrants settled there. It was one of the few African nations to live
virtually in isolation from other cultures. Rwandans spoke one language (Kinyarwanda)
worshipped one god, and answered to one king. That king was a Tutsi. It is unclear when Tutsi,
Hutu, and twa, the native hunting and gathering pygmy populace, first arrived in Rwanda. Most
historians estimate the cattle- raising Tutsi arrived sometime between the tenth and fourteenth
centuries. Somehow Tutsi established a monarchy led by an all-powerful mwami, or king, who
was not mortal, but a divine creation. The mwami not only ruled Rwanda, he was Rwanda. If he
was sick, it was believed that Rwanda would suffer. If he was threatened, the entire country
was thought to be at risk.
The king appointed both Hutu and Tutsi to positions of authority in his administration and in
local communities, but Tutsi enjoyed more power, social status, and influence than Hutu.
Despite this, the two groups lived peacefully working together, marrying one another, having
children together. The only large-scale violence in the country was within the ruling Tutsi clan,
specifically during a coup d’état at Rucunshu in 1896. But relations between Hutu and Tutsi
were peaceful. Unlike other tribal nations that have endured centuries of sectarian violence,
the people of Rwanda-whether Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa-saw themselves first and foremost as
Rwandans. There is an ancient Rwanda saying, Turibenemugabo umwe, meaning we are the
sons and daughters of the same father.”For centuries, Rwandans believed this and lived
accordingly. Then in 1885, in a distant land no Rwandan even knew existed, white men sat
down with a map of Africa and pencils and started drawing borders and writing names. It was
the Berlin Conference, and although no European had ever set foot on Rwandan soils, the
country a German official who politely informed the surprised mwami that his kingdom had
been under German rule last nine years.
Germany established a few government offices in Rwanda, but largely ignored it, having little
interest in this small landlocked farming country. Because Germany governed through the
existing monarchy, few changes were imposed on the day-to-day lives of Rwandans. More
changes were brought by the incoming Catholic and Protestant missionaries who established
schools and hospitals and of course churches.
21
Then came World War I, after which Rwanda was taken from the defeated Germans and given
to Belgium. Belgium took a keener interest in this country of rich soil and mild weather that sits
just below the equator. The Belgians marveled at Rwanda’s cohesive government and strong
national identity. In the 1950s, the missionary monsignor Louis de Lacger wrote in his history of
Rwanda, “One of the most surprising phenomena of Rwanda’s human geography is surely the
contrast between the plurality of races and the sentiment of national unity. The natives of this
country genuinely have the feeling of forming but one people. ’’
Belgian colonizers put an end to that. They were fascinated by the physical differences between
Tutsi and Hutu and decided to make a “scientific’’ study of them: their height, their weight,
their eye color, the width of their noses, and even the texture of their hair. Using rules and
calipers, scientists set about classifying these differences, determining that not only were Tutsi
physical features more European but they were nobler and more intelligent than Hutu, and
therefore the natural rulers of the country. While stereotypically Tutsi are taller, thinner, and
lighter-skinned than Hutu, in reality not many Rwandans fit these portraits. But the Belgian
colonizers didn’t see it this way.
As a result of the data they collected, Belgians stripped Hutu of any authority they had been
granted by the Tutsi king, and all leadership positions in the colonial government were given to
Tutsi. Admission to school to prepare for government jobs was reserved predominantly for
Tutsi; only a handful of Hutu could go. The only truly accessible education for Hutu was the
seminary. As if this weren’t enough, in 1935, Belgium institutionalized ethnic identity cards in
one of history’s first incidences of large scale, state-sponsored racial categorization. Ethnicity
descended from the father, so a person with a Tutsi father was a Tutsi, even if his mother was
Hutu. Despite this imposed ethnic division, Hutu and Tutsi continued to live an integrated
existence, sharing the same neighborhoods, the same schools, the same churches. But the
seeds of discrimination and resentment were sown, and Rwanda’s strong national identity
began to erode. It eroded further when decolonization spread throughout Africa in the 1950s.
In the latter part of the decade, the Tutsi elite claimed Rwanda’s independence from Belgium.
Out of anger at their Tutsi subjects- and out of a desire to extend their stay in the country- the
22
Belgian colonists shifted their support to Hutu. Under the guise of social justice, the Belgian
government systematically took away power from Tutsi and gave it to Hutu. The colonists
helped Hutu leaders take political and military power-often by force-in the years leading up to
Rwanda’s independence in 1962.
While Hutu leaders had every right to seek equality and compete for power, their methods-and
the complicity of the colonists- were unjust. Between 1959 and 1967, twenty thousand Tutsi
were killed and three hundred thousand fled to neighboring countries to escape death. The
worst massacres occurred in the space of just two months, between December 1963 and
January 1964, leading British philosopher Bertrand Russell to describe it as” the most horrible
and systematic massacre we have had occasion to witness since the extermination of the Jews
by the Nazis.”
Violence would erupt periodically, usually in retribution for the attacks of Tutsi rebel forces
living in exile in neighboring countries. The state would paint the victims as the aggressors,
telling Hutu that the Tutsi planned to exterminate them, and if they didn’t kill them first, then
they would be killed themselves. “Clear the bush” was the call to Hutu to incite them to kill- and
without fail, some did.
These rounds of massacres used to be called muyaga, meaning “wind” it was a fitting
description of the nature of the violence. It would come suddenly and forcefully and then, just
as suddenly as it came, it would stop. Those who were killed were gone, and those who
survived would continue to live with their persecutors as if nothing had happened. Part of this
was because those who survived had no other choice. But it also demonstrated Rwandans’
strong obedience to authority. Rwandans kill when they are asked, and stop as soon as they are
told.
In addition to periodic ethnic massacres, as state-sponsored system of discrimination was put in
place. Hutu leaders had taken the injustice they suffered during colonization and replaced it
with another injustice. Tutsi could make up no more than 10 percent of a business’s work force.
Their access to military service and the government was also severely limited. Members of the
military were unofficially forbidden to marry Tutsi. Intermarrying among nonmilitary citizens
23
still existed, but the Belgian practice of establishing ethnic identity based on paternity
continued, and discrimination persisted. In schools, teachers were tasked with taking a census
of all the Hutu and Tutsi students in the classroom. They would ask all Tutsi children to stand or
raise their hands, and then ask all Hutu to do the same. Hutu children who were old enough to
understand ethnicity would stand to be counted with a beaming sense of pride, backs and
shoulders straight, heads held high. When the Tutsi children stood or raised their hands, they
looked ashamed.
History lessons were biased and politically motivated. Instead of honestly recounting events in
a way that would foster reconciliation, the lessons fueled against them mentality. I believe that
children can be taught in a way that prepares them to live in peace with each other and to
become good leaders. Sadly, in most schools, teachers would teach the heroism of Hutu
revolutionaries who helped Rwanda gain its independence from Belgium and topple the Tutsi
monarchy. They would dehumanize the Tutsi and deify the Hutu, making all Tutsi into
aggressors and all Hutu in to victims. This message was reinforced through radio and
newspapers, particularly on national political holidays. Tutsi were referred to as inyenzi,
meaning “cockroaches”. The discrimination in the classroom extended to the accessibility of
education. Rwanda didn’t have enough schools to educate its population. While all Rwandan
children, regardless of their ethnicity, could receive a primary school education, only about 10
percent of the population could go on to secondary school. Of that 10 percent, the government
made certain that virtually all were Hutu. Rare was the Tutsi child who received the great honor
of attending secondary school (Sebarenzi J., 2009)20
One day my mother told us the history of violence inside our neighboring family; before April
1994, the adopted child Rugaga who lived together with us went to Kigali to search for job, then
my mother told us the history of his parents and himself; “in 1973, Hutu group came to their
home at night they had a house made by trees covered by clay soil. The mob burn the house,
Rugaga and his father escaped the killers whereas Rugaga’s mother dead inside, so their house
was in ashes, they had no food, furniture and clothes. Their cows and calves were taken. There
20
God sleeps in Rwanda, Sebarenzi J., 2009, Oxford
24
was no humanitarian assistance, because according to the government, nothing had happened.
They couldn’t report the crime to the local authorities, because those crimes were in support by
government.”
After that history she told us important thing as Christian” you have to love each other, you
have to respect every one older than you, you have to love each person as God creature, never
hate Hutu, never hurt them, to shed blood is sacrilege; not pardonable sin”
She knew we were polite children who can’t shed blood because of values enacted from our
family, this discipline has root from our family because if any of us did something wrong he/she
would lie down on the ground and being hit by one of older man or woman even by my mother
using stick on our backsides, the times with the stick varied based on intensity of the mistakes
and the characters of the punisher but women have high emotions upon their kids than men
due to the fact that most of the time they beg pardon for us saying that we will never repeat
the mistake again.
25
CHAP.IV. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET
Nyange sector is now in Ngororero district, western province, but in 1994 it was in Kivumu
commune and kibuye was the province. Before the genocide the Kivumu local administration
offices and Nyange parish were based there whereas Nyabarongo River separate Nyange and
Muhanga district of southern province.
26
Before genocide I had a large family, my father dead early in 1992 consequence of respiratory
disease from industry where he worked as public worker of former industry called RWANDEX
Shillington which made machetes, hoes, machines and other metal materials, after the death of
my father we stayed home as 9 including my mother; Uwamariya Patricie, one adopted called
Rugaga Elias Habimana son of Ngirabega who had already fled to Uganda after losing his wife
and house due to the Hutu bad actions of burning his solely own house in 1973, my sister
Musabyimana, my two elder brothers; Twahirwa and Hakorimana, I, Musabyamahoro and
twins(Gakuru and Gato).
In our culture to lose a chef of family like parent is a big challenge to children, due to that my
mother worked hard to find the way to satisfy our basic needs like paying school fees, clothes,
food, medicines and so on; with the help of Rwanda social security fund former caisse social du
Rwanda, she has been given some amount of money to satisfy household basic needs, she
bought many things including cows because investing in cattle at that time was sustainable
business due to its importance in social, culture and economic of Rwandans and the rest of
money were deposited to bank account.
I remember our life style at home as family, my mother, my elder sister Musabyimana,
Twahirwa and Hakorimana always wake up early in the morning to help my mother in some
jobs before they went to school after that my mother wake us up as little children, wash us on
faces and hands, we sat down on the mat in the front of house but inside of our traditional
enclosure made of woods called urugo while our cow boy milking cows one by one, after the
action my mother took the part of milk to give us, she gave everyone his own quantity basing
on her wishes, so milk was our breakfast, in few hours after the sun rise she gives us food to
help us to reach midday food (lunch), it was rarely to lose milk to feed her little children, even
in dry period of our cows, my grandfather’s house supply milk for us to prevent malnutrition
disease for their descendent like kwashiorkor because it was shame for a whole family to have
such disease. Also when our cow were dry my mother send us to our grandparents, to stay
there and our grandmothers took care of us, for me when I was there they wash me twice a
27
day, they use cow oil to feed my skin and my return at home my skin shine like sun and that
make my mother, brothers and sister very excited and happy.
Almost every month my mother prepare traditional medicine for intestinal worms (inzoka zo
munda) because I hate those medecine due to their tasteless, I sometimes escape home to my
maternal grandmother who where far in 2km and I stay there a while, until my mother forget
the issue; giving me traditional medecine.
Their words keep coming to my mind: during my six years old, I remember the figure of Jesus
hung up to our destroyed house, I passed there every day and every hour, I thought the figure
turned the eyes to see me as I changed the directions and I called my brother Hakorimana to
verify the fact, I continued to change directions as I moved, I saw the same things but my
brother told me that he didn’t see that, instantly my mother came in behalf of disputes and
heard our disputes because she was a Christian of roman catholic church she told us that what I
was saying was true “Jesus follow you always because he loves you as his son, so my boy he will
do special things for you during your life.” From that day I felt strong at home as one child in
our family loved by Jesus, followed by him in my directions, so these words increased my
confidence and belief.
Another thing during my six years old, my mother took me to primary school in 1994; Nyange
primary school; after few days our teacher (woman) told us to separate ourselves in to two
parties Hutu on one side Tutsi on another side, me and other two we stayed on chairs and she
came to ask us our ethnicity and then we told her that we did not know and gave us a home
work of asking our parents our ethnicity, at the following day she asked us, I said” I’m Hutu”
because my mother had bought by bribery Hutu identity card, but other kids; neighbors denied
and said that they knew my family “they are Tutsi” she immediately sent me out to bring one of
my parent, next day my mother came with her identity card and the teacher denied; saying that
she wanted my father’s identity card and I was ranked in Tutsi minority of the class and in the
break, I was humiliated by my classmates, from that time I decided to leave school and I begun
to follow our cow boy in farm in order to customize with that job of pastoralism because in our
28
family we really like cows, my mother told me that I would return to school in the following
year also my grandparents.
Some actions keep coming to my mind: sometimes in evening after eating my mother gather
some materials; clothes, casseroles, radio and other valuable materials including cows, she told
my two elder brothers and my sister Musabyimana to carry them to our neighbor friend-Hutu
for one night and in the early morning they went to bring them back again, she sent my young
brothers twins, my young sister Musabyamahoro and I to her mother-Hutu in baptism called
Kanyenzi for a night too and in the morning they came to bring us back home, I was told by
them that they were in our banana plantations, this seemed ridiculous to me, we had a nice
house I couldn’t imagine why they would sleep in banana plantation, where snakes and
chameleons hid. I asked why? But as day after day passed, I was told by one by one that”
because we are Tutsi” by whispering as if they wanted no one around to hear. This means that
they have fear of being killed and their properties including cows to be damaged by Hutus
power holders. Due to my previous experience at school I started to understand the situation,
even though we had always lived peacefully with our Hutu neighbors in day’s period. We
celebrated wedding ceremonies and births together; we gave food and drink each other. Hutu
would come to our aid and we would come to theirs. We felt welcome in each other’s homes.
29
CHAP.V. SAD HUNDRED DAYS TO MY FAMILY
One of the ten principles of economics is that people respond to incentives: land, off-farm
activities, Tutsi assets, meat of Tutsi’s livestock, being admired in community, and so on… were
some incentives to perpetrators.
Agatha Radoli, a Catholic sister writing in the preface to a book called, The Rwanda Genocide
and the Call to Deepen Christianity in Africa ‘If Rwanda, a country where 70% of the people
claimed to be Christians, exhibited such an unchristian attitude in time of crisis then Christ’s
message of love and fellowship has fallen on deaf ears completely. In spite of a century of
evangelization, Christianity has not taken root in Rwanda and many other parts of Africa’’
(Agatha Radoli, 1998)21.
By the middle of the first week of the genocide, organizers began implementing different
strategies: driving Tutsi out of their homes to government offices, churches, schools or other
public sites, where they would subsequently be massacred in large-scale operations.
According to Desforges A. in his famous book entitled leave no one to tell the story; authorities
declared a campaign of “pacification” which meant not an end to killing, but greater control
over killing. Sensitive to criticism from abroad muted though it was authorities ended most
large-scale massacres. They also sought to rein in assailants who were abusing their license to
kill, such as by slaying Hutu with whom they had disputes or who were allowing Tutsi to escape
injury in return for money, sexual favors or other considerations. They ordered militia and other
citizens to bring suspects to officials for investigation and then murder instead of simply killing
them where they found them. Authorities used “pacification” also as a tactic to lure Tutsi out of
hiding to be killed (Desforges A., 1999)22.
For Nyange village, it was on 7th April 1994 after the death of the president Juvenal
Habyarimana, my mother, my sister; Musabyimana and my two elder brothers went to hide in
their banana plantation as usual whereas I, my young sister; Nyisabyamahoro and my young
brothers (twins) we were sent to our neighbors friends; Hutu, we came back in the morning but
21
22
The Rwanda Genocide and the Call to Deepen Christianity in Africa, Agatha Radoli, 1998, preface
Leave no one to tell the story, Des forges A. 1999
30
the situation had been changed we heard the death of some Tutsis in our neighboring village.
At the evening of the following days we continued the same ways as at 7th April 1994, the
situation came very dangerous on the 10th in the morning when we came back home, the young
brother of my paternal grandfather; Kayijuka was secretly killed at his home. The next day, the
councilor of our village; Nyange sector, went to Kivumu commune office to ask the
bourgmestre; Grégoire Ndahimana and the IPJ (police); Kayishema, to open an enquiry into this
killing. Due to their plan of exterminating Tutsis, they forced him to return back home and bury
the victim, adding that the death of Tutsi shouldn’t require any inquiry. We went to kayijuka’s
house to bury him after that in the evening my mother fed us and told us to not come back
home in the morning of the following day, from that time they ceased to go in banana
plantations they tried to go in the houses of our Hutu’s friends, based on the fact that my young
brothers; twins were still very young they went together with my mother, the left including I we
scattered in other families, it is that time I saw for the last time the face of my mother and all
my brothers.
Between 10th and 15th another young brother of my paternal grandfather; kageruka has dead
and His throat was cut on the spot by his neighbor to whom they had disputes on land and the
man drank his blood to show the others that he was his first enemy. After the burial of
kageruka certain Tutsis who were still alive in our area were forced to return to Nyange church
on the orders given by the councilor (leader) also the commune authorities called upon the
other Tutsis hiding on their hills using microphones in the car to come to the parish for their
security. It was a means of gathering them in one place so as to carry out the genocide in what
Desforges A. called “PACIFICATION”; on the side of Tutsis; thinking that they had no chance of
survival, and having heard that Nyange church had become a centre of refugee, several Tutsi’s
families decided to join others at the parish, so my grandparent’s families, aunts, uncles,
cousins; almost all my family, neighbors, my mother and my brothers went there whereas I and
my two sisters remained in rural area with our friends; Hutu families.
Concerning history of Nyange sector; now (2013)is in Ngororero district, western province, but
in 1994 it was in Kivumu commune. Before the genocide the Kivumu local administration offices
31
were based there. There was Kivumu district court; the business centre; the Kivumu Sisters of
Assumption convent; Kivumu development cooperative CODECOKI which had flourished in the
region; and Nyange parish run by the priests under the leadership of Nyundo diocese, At the
time of the massacres, Nyange was small city and centre of Kivumu commune. There weren’t
competition between the different political parties. The educated and leaders had told the
peasants to leave aside the differences between the parties so as to combat the common
enemy; the Tutsis.
From 11 April, commune authorities, called a meeting by predicting that it was security
meeting. This meeting gathered together all the leaders of Kivumu commune, all intellectuals of
commune, those present demanded that Tutsis assemble in one place; pacification!. Nyange
church was identified as an enormous building which could accommodate them because in the
entire commune there was no other big house like Nyange parish. During the meeting, the
participants gave the order to all the councilors in Kivumu to force all the Tutsis who were still
hiding with their neighbors or in the bush, to join the others. To facilitate this, the police were
to go right across the commune, passing this message on. Lastly, the participants in the meeting
were delighted by the plans for gendarmes (soldiers) to come to their cell. Those present at the
meeting were: the heads of services in Kivumu commune like school’s masters, commune staff
including bourgmestre, all the sector councilors (cell leaders), and Father Athanase Seromba;
the priest of Nyange parish. The decision to bring together all the refugees in Nyange church
was implemented a few hours after the meeting ended. Most of the refugees were taken to the
parish the next day. A Toyota Stout van, stolen from a Tutsi: Rwamasirabo by his driver, helped
with the mass transport. That day, a person who was in charge of the health centre in Nyange
was taken by the bourgmestre to join the other Tutsis in church. The activity of gathering
together the refugees in the church was supervised by the bourgmestre, Father Athanase
Seromba and the gendarmes (soldiers) who came from Kibuye province. After gathering those
refugees there was many interahamwe who followed them to the parish but those killers had
feared due to the strong partnership of refugees, commune staff followed by priest Seromba
entered inside the church by counting refugees but it was a strategy to take away their
traditional weapons by promising them full security and telling them that they had brought
32
weapons in the God’s house which is sin due to the fact that almost of all refugees were
Christians, they took in value the words of priest and gave their weapons to the authorities, at
the following day perpetrators began fights with innocent refugees by throwing stones on them
but refugees tried to defend themselves. During the invasion of the parish, certain
interahamwe got the opportunity to carry out killings, as the group selected to invade the
church had failed on 14 April, a considerable force was mobilized, composed of interahamwe
militiamen from all the sectors of Kivumu and those from the neighboring communes of Rutsiro
in Kibuye and Kibilira and Satinsyi in Gisenyi province.
On 15thApril 1994 at 9:00 a.m., nearly a third of the Hutu population of Kivumu was present at
Nyange parish. They had come to confront the Tutsis taking refuge there. Ndungutse,
Kayishema, the bourgmestre, Gaspard Kanyarukiga, the judge, Joseph Habiyambere and the
gendarmes mentioned above met with Father Athanase Seromba within the parish enclosure.
They continued their meeting in the house used by CODECOKI (the Kivumu development
cooperative). After the meeting, they left and came to tell the perpetrators that the people
inside the parish, whom they called inyenzi (cockroaches), must be massacred. It was the
bourgmestre himself who said these words. They gathered stones and began throwing them
into the crowd of Tutsi refugees. The gendarmes told the refugees to find a way to defend
themselves. The Tutsis retaliated effectively and once again killers were forced back. What
saved perpetrators was that a policeman intervened by throwing at least three grenades into
the crowd and I was told that my mother was killed by grenades at that day. As many of them;
refugees were beginning to give up, some chose to go inside the priests’ houses. By seeing that
refugees are more efficient than them they delegated a man called Rushema, who was a
teacher at Kivumu secondary school, to go to bring the caterpillar bulldozers from the ASTALDI
(the large Italian road construction company). It was driven by a Congolese named Maurice,
and Mitima drove a lorry. They had the idea of transporting the victims’ remains and throwing
them in the Nyabarongo River which is in 5 kilometer from Nyange parish in order to reach
their given origin country; Abyssinia or Egypt. But they thought that this was hard work because
the number of bodies was incalculable so much so that they couldn’t transport them. They
chose to bury them instead. They dug three mass graves with the help of the machine;
33
bulldozer and threw the bodies in. To bury them, the bodies were loaded into the lorry. After
this task, they used guns and arrows to kill the survivors who remained in the church. This time,
in addition to the gendarmes who were there, the communal police and reservists intervened.
The use of firearms allowed the civilian population to go inside the church so as to kill the
refugees using machetes, wooden materials, stones, arrows and so on. At the following day
they threw in dynamites which were normally used by ASTALDI Company to breakdown high
stones or hills. Seeing that they didn’t get the expected results, the perpetrators brought some
liters of petrol to burn the remaining refugees. They used a watering-can to fling it into the
crowd with the help of long banana leaves to help the petrol light easily; with the help of rain
the plan of petrol had been failed. As it was late, they didn’t manage to finish what they had
begun meaning that their wishes of leave no one to tell the story didn’t achieved in that day,
they decided to leave and to return the next morning. Killers from Kibilira and Satinsyi; Kivumu
neighboring communes who had came to help, remained at the parish to control the survivors
to not escape at night, The commune authorities promised them a cow to slaughter that night
and they kept their promise. Very early on the morning of the 16th April, returned to Nyange
parish. They found the church shut except for a few holes from grenade explosions.
Nonetheless it was surrounded by fires lit by the people of Kibilira. The bourgmestre was the
first to take the lead, shooting in the church.
He was helped by the gendarmes. First they smashed down the doors and windows of the
church. People threw stones in. The Tutsis had put up a strong resistance so much so that the
authorities again sought the support of the bulldozer used the day before. The final solution
was to bulldoze the church completely. The drivers who had worked the day before; Maurice
and Anastase Nkinamubanzi set to work again. They began with the side bordering the main
road from Nyabarongo River to Kibuye town. Father Seromba had told them to bulldoze it as
in future they would rebuild another to the level where they were going to build the diocese.
The perpetrators completely destroyed the church and the Tutsis perished inside. Those who
tried to get out were killed by civilians who were surrounded the parish using traditional
weapons like machetes, clubs, arrows, etc. The bodies were loaded into machines and
transported to the graves they had dug. On 16thApril, at around 3:00 p.m., the time at which
34
the destruction of Nyange church was completed, many killers divided themselves in to groups
to go and round up a few Tutsis who were scattered around Nyange sector like Nyamiyugiri
forest and bushes.
On 17th April, they returned to their respective cells and had a village party. They drank banana
beer which had come from the Tutsis’ banana plantations. In their return they brought bloody
clothes of the deaths, meat of Tutsi’s cows as reward, their clothes also were bloody. I was told
the death of my mother again because she was well known by many people; they said she has
been cut in to pieces by grenades during she was trying to throw stones to perpetrators; I
thought they were lying because I couldn’t imagine how my beloved mother can die! I
immediately asked them about my brothers but they said that they didn’t know, I thought they
had escaped or they were not inside during the invasion. According to this Agatha Radoli has
reason to say that “The Christian message received in Rwanda was not one of “love and
fellowship,” but one of obedience, division, and power.”(Agatha Radoli, 1998)23
On the same day; 17th of April it was on Sunday, some Christians composed by large number of
women came to church as usual but the church was down, they went to another house near
parish, the priest Seromba came across, he told them about the victims at that time by replying
that” IMANA YARI YABATANZE” meaning that the God delivered Tutsis, but he didn’t celebrated
the mass and Christians returned at their home.
In few days the good people who managed to hide me during the massacres of parish knowing
that almost all my family were dead, immediately changed the mentality, he took me at the
parish, I was received by sisters of assumption convent; they imprison me in a house where I
met with other children with many machetes in their heads; hurts, crying without rest, very
hungry, thirsty and they were astonished to see me without injury or bloody clothes like them, I
stayed there over than one week, sometimes interahamwe militiamen came to pick few of us
and went to kill them or throwing them alive in toilet, when my time came, they open the door
and they told me to went out, I refused; I thought it was better to be killed in house rather than
being thrown alive in toilet, one of sister of assumption heard the disputes and shouts of killers,
23
The Rwanda Genocide and the Call to Deepen Christianity in Africa, Agatha Radoli, 1998
35
she came to see what was happening, she saw my face full of fear because she was the mistress
of Nyange primary school and my history was well known by her because I refused to return to
school as consequences of being humiliated by my classmates, she tried all she could to save
my life replying that I was his good student even my mother Uwamariya Patricie was generous.
The mob left me there and a priest’s cook told the mistress that one day she came to our house
to beg water to drink and my mother gave her sorghum beer. So she decided to take me to his
home during the night. I reached her home but it was not easy for her because every day she
went to work to the parish, she decided to displace me to another family which we where
friends, to reach there I met with one of their son; he was government’s soldier who had
escaped fights in Kigali city but because the family were friends he decided to not shedding my
blood, he took me to the commune office for being killed by policemen to arrive there, we saw
no one to carry the action we stayed there almost 2 hours, he searched even gangs in center to
be paid but there was no one, we returned home and he told his parents that I was luck one
and I might be together with God! Hearing that I immediately remembered the words of my
mother;”God will help you in your life, because you are his son”. That family knew the
information concerning my elder sister which lived together with his fiancé: Hutu; they took me
there saying that there is no security in their home. To arrive there my sister became
astonished, fearful, full of wonderings, real she had no security at his fiancé’s house, she told
me that even his fiancé could kill me, and she told me to go at Marie Agnes house; a widow
who was a friend of my mother, at that time it was very dangerous, they wanted to leave no
one to claim for assets.
Best and worst actions are unforgettable; Some people neglect illiterate people, they think they
are idiot or foolish but this mentality is outdated; based on their actions which are very
intellectual, respectful, full of love and risk-taking: “in 1994 genocide against Tutsi I arrived to
the house of Marie Agnes, she was a friend of my mother before genocide period, she was
astonished to see me at this night at her home, she thought I was dead with my mother in
Nyange parish, she hid me a while because the aim of perpetrators was to exterminate all
Tutsis in the area, they hunted all Tutsis during the day and at night they went to roadblocks,
they hunted us with their dogs from village to village, outside the houses and inside, one day
36
they arrived at the village of illiterate widow; Marie Agnes, It was sun day around 10: 00 am,
their neighbors were around, Hutu mob was around, I had no other option rather than waiting
mob to kill me with their machetes or arrows, but she thought more than all neighboring
villagers, she made a giant fodder from her sweet potatoes plot and she told me to carry it on
my head, my head was totally hidden, she took hoe and followed me like someone who is
going to plant that fodder of sweet potatoes in another field far from home, no one among
neighbors who had discovered nor in the mob that it was me. We had even pass inside the
mob, the chef of the mob told the woman’’ why are you going to waste your time by planting
potatoes! Don’t you know that Tutsi’s cows and their plantations are many!’’ the woman
answered ‘’ yes I know but they will end!’’ we reached her friend widow’s house in the
neighboring village, she hid me there, at the night she came to pick me and I survived that day
due to Marie Agnes hard thinking.” At that time I didn’t recognized the good work of that
woman but as I grew, I really thought of those good actions, may God bless Marie Agnes!
In few days, my sister came to see me at Marie Agnes’s house, she told me that tomorrow
morning the mob would come to kill me, maybe she got information from his fiancé, she
advised me that it is better to throw myself in Nyabarongo River rather than being killed by
machetes or being thrown alive in toilet, suddenly one woman came, maybe she had been sent
by angels, she knew my parents but she was close friend of Rugaga (adopted one in my family)
she thought Rugaga joined RPF-inkotanyi, she told my sister that she is going to hid me in
reward that when inkotanyi take power Rugaga will secure her and her family, my sister agreed
without hesitation, she promised her a plot of land and 20,000 Rwandan francs; this money had
high value because at that time it had almost a value of 2 cows. I stayed with that family but
sometimes mobs of interahamwe militiamen came to put end to my life due to the fact that his
husband called Gasiga was strong in the village they feared to enter in his house fearing of
being killed by the husband and sons. At that time, the Hutu women married to Tutsis were
afraid of seeing their children killed before their eyes by People who were searching for
inkotanyi (those people of neighboring communes).They decided to take them to their
maternal grandparents. At that time some Hutus were given weapons, these guns were used,
amongst other things, to kill the children born of Hutu mothers and Tutsi fathers. They were
37
also used to control the roadblocks. These roadblocks had been set up after the massacre in
Nyange.
The strategies of sending those children born to Hutu mother and Tutsi father to their maternal
parents helped a lot due to the fact that many survived the genocide by the help of the
maternal family, on my side kayijuka’s children said above survived because his wife was Hutu
also in whole village such kind of families survived and represent large number of genocide
survivors.
Even though it was very hard because most of the rural people reacted like killers intelligences,
their duties were to see if neighbors had no Tutsis hidden in their houses. Due to that fact it
was very difficult to hide in one location in 100 days of genocide period, on my side I was
helped by many households; around 6 families.
In May, 1994 I was helped by Gasiga family to leave the Nyange village to another village
located at 15 km, I was given the new name; Pascal at that period by a daughter of Gasiga who
were married there, but this name didn’t came hazardly, she had his little brother called pascal
which we had same age and size. From that time I didn’t hidden again, I was free at that time
however some people guessed on my ethnicity; I had right as other Hutu children. I saw
perpetrators of that area wearing banana leaves with machetes, dogs and other materials to
hunt Tutsis everywhere, when they discovered her/him they run on him/her by making noises
with their dogs, all people came out their houses except the sicker! To assist the event by
throwing the stones to the victim called cockroach at that time. After killing her/him in the eyes
of all villagers including little children who didn’t fear even to throw stones to the dead body.
Some people believed that Tutsi die hardly! They said that Tutsis are venim snakes that they
had to kill faster before they eat them and the universal law of killing a venim snake was
known” break the head or cut it” when perpetrators discovered the Tutsi little children,
sometimes those children were given to other children Hutu as know-how to kill snakes; Tutsis.
At the end of June, I was joined by Gasiga family in that area to take refuge in democratic
republic of Congo; ex-Zaire, they feared that inkotanyi would revenge, we were many in roads
carrying sacks, clothes, food, and others things, and we were like large herd of cows from farm
38
to another. I met with people of Nyange village, that time I became again Tutsi, they attempted
to kill me but due to the fact that Gasiga was good person and strong in village, I was pardoned
by many killers, luckily in two kilometers from Congo border we met with inkotanyi, they told
all people to return at their home by promising them a full security, Gasiga family were given
three cows by inkotanyi as reward of saving my life, in few days with other few people we
returned at our native village of Nyange; the village was safe.
Testimony of Nyange genocide survivor: Charles Kagenza who was in the parish during the
invasion.
He said:
Father Seromba, Ndungutse, Kanyarukiga and some priests were upstairs in the presbytery and
watched how the militia threw grenades at us. When the bulldozers arrived, the driver didn’t
know that they were coming to destroy the church. It was Father Seromba who ordered the
driver Athanase Nkinamubanzi, from Kibilira; neighboring commune, to destroy the church. He
asked the priest:
“Father, is it true that you are ordering me to destroy this church?” And the priest replied:
“We Hutus are numerous and will build another one.” The authorities and Father Seromba
were up stairs. They watched us like spectators during the demolition of the church. On 16 th
April there were about 1000 of us in the church before its total collapse.
After the atrocities committed at the parish, the killers pursued people who had escaped the
massacre at the parish and those who were related to Tutsis.
We can state firmly that the people who were responsible for the killings in our village were the
educated, and our local officials had an undeniable role. If they had given good advice to the
peasants, there wouldn’t have been killings in our area in particular or in Kivumu commune in
general. Participants in the meeting, including Father Seromba arranged to pay the drivers for
the service, and Kanyarukiga agreed to provide fuel for the machines. Habiyambere and
Kayishema were in charge of convincing the drivers. So it was immediately agreed that two
39
bulldozers (caterpillar bulldozer and a lorry) with two drivers would be put into action. The
drivers are well known.
Paying no attention to the shouts of the innocent people and without any scruples about
destroying a “house of God,” the drivers crushed the walls upon the human beings and knocked
down the building. The interahamwe had the job of picking out those who were dying to put an
end to their life. The leaders of the massacres stayed on the first floor of the priests’ residence
with Father Seromba and all carried guns.
During the two days of carnage at the parish, the interahamwe were fierce because they
wanted to eliminate the Tutsis in such a short time. They acted with so much brutality that
some of them got hurt. A man called Kanyarukiga had put his pharmacy exclusively at the
disposal of the killers to get free treatment.
However, there were Tutsi girls who had been taken hostage by the gendarmes for their sexual
pleasure. As they passed through the hands of several rapists it was expected that the girls
would fall sick. As they were chosen to satisfy the gendarmes, and leaders of the genocide
round the clock, they got them treatment at Nyange health centre with a handful of refugees,
no more than ten, who the interahamwe had refused to kill. These girls were kept in the priests’
residence.
Most genocide survivors argue that: On 14th April, gendarmes came to Nyange parish; they
ordered people not to give any food to the refugees. They were accompanied by the IPJ
(police); Kayishema, the bourgmestre, Ndahimana, and others. They said they were going to
look after the refugees. They said that whoever was still providing food to the refugees would
be killed. That evening there was a meeting for the intellectuals and heads of services in Kivumu
commune as well as for the sector councilors.
The aim was to work out their criminal plan. Present were: Ndahimana; Kayishema; Father
Seromba; Gaspard Kanyarukiga; Joseph Habiyambere; and Ndungutse. The meeting must have
first been held in the office of CODECOKI, and then in Nyange parish. It took place in the
afternoon this time round it comprised of a restricted group of participants. The next day, we
40
noticed everyone who had taken part had guns. The previous night there had been an attempt
to attack the refugees, but it failed.
On 15 April, Lorries full of stones arrived. Immediately, the peasants and other militiamen
began throwing stones at refugees. Nearly all the Hutu population was present, including
children, women and girls, except perhaps those who were
seriously ill. The gendarmes
advised refugees to come out and defend their selves, but it was a way of enabling the
criminals to annihilate them.
Every day that the refugees spent at the parish, the head of the communal police force called
Mbakirirehe, Kayishema, Ndahimana, and Munyantarama; the communal policemen,
supported the gendarmes and civilians in throwing stones and grenades at refugees. That
allowed them to break through to the refugees. They took the opportunity to search the
refugees. They were looking, they said, for weapons that the Tutsis might possess. The sticks
and other things that the refugees had were seized. While they were doing this they counted
the refugees and identified Tutsis who weren’t there. Father Seromba’s watchman, named
Canisius joined the group of criminals who were searching. Seeing that it was impossible for
them to fight back against grenades and machetes, the refugees decided to leave the church.
About 1500 people were massacred that day. The main weapons used were grenades and
machetes. Guns were used by the gendarmes, policemen, and reservists.
They thought of destroying the church because they hadn’t managed to get inside it. When the
church was crushed, numerous refugees lost their lives. Others were killed by the walls that fell
on them. Those who hadn’t yet died were finished off with machetes and arrows.
Not satisfied, the leaders of the killers asked people to group themselves by cell. They ordered
them to hunt down anyone who had escaped the massacre in the church. The houses were
quickly searched. Victims had to be searched all over for any money in their clothes before
being murdered. They were undressed. The perpetretors had no shame in leaving with the
worn-out clothes, though it’s difficult to determine how much they were worth. A committee
was appointed with the aim of tracking down the survivors of the massacres in the church. The
weapons used in the massacres of Tutsis included, among others, machetes, clubs, hatchets
41
and hoes. Guns, grenades and petrol were also used. People who died at home were usually
thrown into the toilet. The bodies of others were left at the scene of the crime, put in antierosion pits or thrown in rivers. Others who were devoured by dogs; some victims were buried
with dignity by their friends and it’s believed that more than 2500 Tutsi lost their life in Nyange
church during 1994 Genocide against Tutsi (African Rights, 2003)24.
Back part of new church built after 1994 genocide against Tutsi, February 2014
24
African Rights, THE HISTORY OF THE GENOCIDE IN NYANGE SECTOR: A Collective Account, 2003, Kigali
42
The front part of new church built after1994 genocide against Tutsi, February 2014
Bulldozer, December 2013
43
Bulldozed church in 1994
44
CHAP.VI. LEAVE NO ONE TO CLAIM FOR ASSETS
The main asset of rural area’s people of Rwanda such as Nyange peasants was land, at that
time, 91% of Rwandan population depended on subsistence agriculture.
Prunier writes that poor Rwandan farmers, who lived in a highly centralized, authoritarian
society, had a tradition of obeying superiors. These superiors told them that Tutsis were evil
and a very real threat to their own lives. Farmers would have believed such assertions, but also
another element might have been involved in convincing people to kill: “all these people who
were about to be killed had land and at times cows. And somebody had to get these lands and
those cows after their owners were dead” (Prunier G., 1995)25. And Pottier writes that “ordinary
people also killed for economic gain, often for access to a victim’s land.” (Pottier
Johan,2006)26Based on following history of land in Rwanda, we can deeply know the related
problems of land rights in this country of thousands hills.
VI.1. LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN PRE-COLONIAL RWANDA
The land tenure system in pre-colonial Rwanda was characterized by the collective ownership
of land, where there was complementarily between agriculture and livestock. This system
promoted economic production and was a factor of stabilization and harmony in production
social relationships. Families were grouped in lineages, and these were in turn grouped in clans.
Each clan had a chief. Clans were spread all over the national territory: in different proportions
according to regions. Land ownership relationships were thus based on free land use and on the
complementarities of the modes of production. The main aspects of land tenure were as
follows:
“Ubukonde” or clan rights, held by the chief of the clan, who was the first land clearer,
The chief could own vast tracts of land on which he would resettle several families, known as
“Abagererwa”. The latter enjoyed land rights, subject to some customary conditions.
“Igikingi “ or right to grazing land, granted by the king or one of his chiefs known as “Umutware
w’umukenke”, to any family that reared livestock. Right up to the advent of the colonialists,
25
26
The Rwanda crisis: history of a Genocide, Prunier G., 1995
“Land Reform for Peace? Rwanda’s 2005 Land Law in Context,” Journal of Agrarian Change, Pottier Johan, 2006.
45
“Igikingi” was the most common land tenure system, especially in the central and southern
parts of the country.
“Inkungu” or custom, enabling and authorizing the local political authority, on his own or on
others’ behalf, to own abandoned or escheated land. These lands were considered as a sort of
land reserve which the ruler of the time could grant to anybody who needed one.
¨“Gukeba” referred to the process of settling families onto the grazing land or fallow land.
Gukeba, or Kugaba, as it was sometimes called, was an exercise within the province of the local
authority.
As the socio-political and administrative structure became stronger and better organized, land
resources likewise became more important. The need for good management of these resources
was symbolized by the presence of a chief in charge of the land, “Umutware w’ubutaka”, and a
chief in charge of livestock, “Umutware w’umukenke”, both considered being at the same level
as the chief of the army, “Umutware w’ingabo”.
Land rights were respected and passed on from generation to generation according to
Rwandan tradition and custom. These rights were enjoyed under the supreme protection of the
King, the guarantor of the well-being of the whole population. Land ownership was more
community-based than individual. This is the system that the colonial rulers found in place, and
it is over this same land tenure system, which was governed by custom and officially recognized
by the King.
VI.2 LAND TENURE SYSTEM DURING COLONIZATION
Colonization introduced new elements in the Rwandan society, both exogenous and
dominating, that were going to bring in changes and distortions in domestic social balances.
German colonization started right after the end of the 19th century. The German colonial
authorities recognized the King’s authority over land. The first Catholic and Protestant missions
bought land and became land owners. While political management in pre-colonial Rwanda was
based on the control of the economic system which was founded on 3 pillars, namely land
ownership for agricultural purposes, livestock and security in order to guarantee prosperity;
Belgian colonization introduced deep changes in the management of the country which were
later to destroy the traditional system. This traditional trilogy, which represented a system of
46
national social balances, was therefore dismantled and transformed into a centralized
administration. The 1926 reform divided the country into chieftainships and abolished the
system by which a chief could own several land properties in different parts of the country,
which characterized his importance in the country’s hierarchy. And yet this form of the
management of the country had been a factor of national unity and cohesion. The abolition of
these traditional structures for the purpose of exercising better control of the country and get
colonial orders accepted caused a lot of disturbances to the Rwandan society. Nonetheless,
land management maintained aspects of traditional practices.
Belgian colonization introduced also the written law appearing in the “codes and laws of
Rwanda”, particularly in order to guarantee land tenure security for settlers and other
foreigners wishing to invest in land in Rwanda. The Belgian colonial administration established
the 1885 decree concerning land use. The following are the two main doctrines of this decree:
- Only the Colonial Public Officer could guarantee the right to use the land taken from
indigenous Rwandans. Settlers or other foreigners intending to settle in the country were to
apply to the colonial administration, follow its rules for obtaining land, and conclude settlement
agreements.
- Land use should be accompanied by a title deed. The natives should not be dispossessed of
their land. Vacant land was considered as state-owned land. This provision introduced the
duality of systems in the country’s land tenure system.
All occupied land remained subject to customary law, and only settlers and other foreigners
could benefit from the new written law system that was protected by the colonial
administration. The written law applied also to Catholic and Protestant Missions owned land
(decree of 24/01/43 concerning free transfers and concessions of land to scientific and religious
associations as well as to parastals), urban districts, as well as trading and business centers.
Owing to the high population density and the need to exploit new areas, the colonial
administration introduced the system of grouped homesteads called paysannats, which was
similar to the traditional system of “Gukeba”. This system was developed in those regions with
grazing land and other land reserves, and consisted of giving each household two hectares
mainly for cultivating cash crops such as cotton in Bugarama and coffee in Mayaga. This
47
practice was introduced after the abolition of the Ubuhake system and the distribution of cattle
in grazing areas (Ibikingi), and it promoted the extension of cultivated land to the detriment of
livestock. A new aspect of national development was thus introduced, putting emphasis rather
on agriculture and disrupting ipso facto the balance that had always existed between
agriculture and livestock. This development gave rise to conflicts; both latent and real. Even
though in this system where agriculture dominated over livestock, there were no open conflicts
between the government and the local population, real tensions could nevertheless be felt at
that time. Thus, large sections of the population among cattle breeders migrated to Umutara,
Uganda and Congo.
Between 1952 and 1954, King Mutara III Rudahigwa abolished the system of “Ubukonde” and
decreed that all the “Abakonde” would henceforth share their land property with their tenants,
known as” Abagererwa”. From 1959 onwards, the land tenure system became a factor of real
conflict among the population. It was during this period that, with the eruption of the political
crisis, the first ever wave of refugees went into exile, leaving behind both their landed and real
estate properties.
VI.3 LAND TENURE SYSTEM AFTER INDEPENDENCE
Compared to the colonial period, the situation has not changed much after independence. As a
matter of fact, 90% of the country’s arable land is still governed by customary law. The written
land law still applies to a small number of persons and religious congregations. It applies more
often in urban areas and business communities.
During the first and the second republics, the government gave an important role to the
“communes” in the administration of land. Through the ‘Loi Communale’ of 23/1/63, the
protection of rights relating to registered land under the customary law became the
responsibility of the commune. However, the provisions of this law were virtually nullified by
Decree No. 09/76 concerning the purchase and sale of customary land rights or land use rights.
While at the beginning of the 60’s the Government banked on abolishing the system of
“Ibikingi” to put them under the authority of the “communes” and on recovering the land
abandoned by the 1959 refugees to acquire new agricultural land, the 1970-1980 decade was
characterized by intensive migration from the already densely populated regions of Gikongoro,
48
Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Kibuye to the semi-arid savannas of the East (Umutara, Kibungo and
Bugesera) in search for vacant land. It is during this period that the Government attempted to
transform the existing human settlement system into one of grouped homesteads, known as
the “paysannats”. The purpose was to make more rational the occupation and use of land
which was becoming more and more scarce.
In 1976, decree No. 09/76 of 04/03/76 concerning the purchase and sale of land customary
rights, or the right of soil use, authorized individuals to purchase and sell customary land after
application to the competent authorities, and subject to retaining at least 2 ha of land. The
buyer was also to justify that he did not have land property equal to at least 2 ha. Ever since,
the Government recognized only the right of ownership based on land registration and became,
therefore, the eminent land owner.
At the beginning of the 80s, there were no more new lands, and problems began to emerge
bluntly; reduction of soil fertility and of the size of land for cultivation, family conflicts
stemming from land ownership, food shortages, etc. From 2 ha in 1960, the average area of a
family’s cultivation plot was reduced to 1.2 ha in 1984, according to the agricultural survey
carried out at the time.
Since the beginning of the 90s, the country found itself in a land-related deadlock.
Problems included insufficient agricultural production, increasing population pressure on
natural resources, growing number of landless peasants, and conflict between agriculture,
livestock and natural reserves. Through agricultural projects, particularly forestry and grazing
land projects, the government strengthened its role as the owner of vast stretches of land.
Reforestation became an important factor in land accumulation by the State and private
individuals. Forests extended even in lands fit for crops as well as marshlands. Reforestation
became thus a simple form of long-term land ownership. from that time land became serious
problem in Rwanda, many disputes, conflicts among families, land cases in courts increased
without forget decrease in soil fertility, in 1994, due to the high number of population, which
had increased at an increasing rate, it was impossible to afford 1,2 ha for every household and
the poverty were high in population, so Tutsi’s land, Tutsi’s off-farm activities, Tutsi’s livestock
49
and other Tutsi’s assets were incentives to the perpetrators, to justify that, I used the following
testimony of Nyange village during the Tutsi genocide period and many people argued that:
•
The properties of Tutsis including land went into the hands of looters on the day of the
killings.
•
The destruction and looting of the property of people who went to Nyange parish took
place immediately after they left.
•
After the destruction of parish as for the victims’ belongings, the cows were killed in
the first place. They served as a reward for the bravest in the massacres.
Innocent Uwimana; Nyange peasant detailed what happened: After the killing of the Tutsis,
there were arguments about their properties, during which one person died. Towards the end
of May, we went back to Isidore Birarura’s house, the responsible (authority) for Cyambogo
cell. He was building a house on a plot of land belonging to his Tutsi neighbor. We wanted to
know why he was building houses first without distributing nice patches of land to his followers
who distinguished themselves in the killings. In reply, he said that everyone had to fend for
themselves, since the plots of Tutsis were scattered all over. Suddenly we took our hoes and
began to prepare the ground in Kamegeri’s plot, a Hutu suspected of being a Tutsi. When she
noticed, his wife went to warn him. Kamegeri reacted by saying that once law and order
returned to the country, he would reclaim his property. When we heard this, we went back to
the responsable to tell him about Kamegeri’s reaction.
Immediately Isidore (cell responsable) authorized us to kill him. We took him to the ruins of
Gashamayoro where Muhizi felled him with a blow from a large stone. What followed was the
destruction of the Tutsis’ houses. Previously we had taken the roofs off. You really needed
strength to get tiles, otherwise you’d come back empty-handed. Those who managed to find
tiles quickly used them to build their own houses. After looting came the destruction. It was as
if people weren’t sleeping because they got up very early in the morning. The principal targets
were cows, Secondly the looters hurried to seize the tiles, doors and windows. They didn’t
leave the walls intact; they were also demolished.
50
The household utensils were stolen in front of their owners. Nothing was left in the houses;
mats, beans, sheets, and mattresses were taken. The houses were totally destroyed. The
perpetrators left with tiles, bricks and wood. They didn’t hesitate in eating the goats, chickens,
rabbits and pigs. The killers bravest were the first to appropriate a goat or sheep. Women and
children looked after the crops which weren’t yet ripe due to the crop season period, including
cassava, sweet potatoes and peas. Observing that no Tutsi had escaped, the men went on to
sharing out the victims’ plots of land. No house was spared.
Many killers were poverty stricken so they took everything they found in the house. Cups, pots,
tables and beds were taken. The boldest took the lion’s share. The women whose husbands
were Tutsi removed their own property. They took it with them to their families. The things
were shared between these women and the killers. The crops in the fields were also harvested
and the remains were fed to their livestock. The roofs of Tutsis’ houses were taken off.
51
CHAP.VII. LIFE AFTER GENOCIDE
Really when a child born their parents have to take care of him/her until he/she grows to the
maturity stage, in Rwandan culture when a child reach the maturity stage he has to be given
his/her heritage most of the time on rural area like Nyange, he has to be given plot(s) of land,
so on my side I was abandoned by my parents when I was 6 years old as consequences of
genocide, in daily life in Rwanda it can happen to lose parents but the orphan has to go to their
grandparent’s house when they are unable to take care of or to feed themselves, for me it was
not the case due to the fact that also my grandparents were dead together with my parent. So
my God sent angels to take care of me ; to pay school fees ; to feed me; to give me shelters;
medicines and so on.
For that reason, after genocide in July 1994 there was no other option rather than rural exodus
for searching security and another family because mine were exterminated, I was moved to
Kigali by my survived cousin; the policeman, to arrive at Kigali city I was given to a widow of
1994 genocide against Tutsi who had 5 children all exterminated in 1994 Genocide against
Tutsi, the journey from Nyange to Kigali was good due to the fact that it was my first time I saw
electricity lamps every where even in the road! I thought there was no Genocide! I thought it
was a peaceful land even tough roads were full of crashed cars! I thought everyone had car due
to their large number in the roads; like cows displacement from home to graze on farm!
I reached a Genocide widow’s house during the night almost at 10 PM, they were eating fishes,
I was given food, they tried to help me as rural one to separate meat-fish and fish-born; it was
my first care again after 100 days. The following day I got up in the morning as usual, I looked
very shy and citizen’s children tried to frustrate me as new comer in their region, luckily in few
days I became civilized, but the life was totally different from rural area of Nyange, every
morning I took tea and bread in Kigali whereas in Nyange village I took milk at almost 7 AM and
food at almost 10 AM, we went in to bed very late at almost 11 PM whereas in rural it was
almost 6 H 30’PM but life in town was better than rural due to electricity and various activities.
Due to that I remember every night we played as children, games of fights using kid-guns, we
played games of hid and midday we played football. in the same year, 1994 my second mother
bought for me khaki; uniform of primary school, took me to primary school, I studied at that
52
school; Rugando primary school until I ended primary school level to the secondary school
precisely ordinal level.
Even though I ended primary school without any complications, I was not brilliant pupil in
primary school sometimes my second mother told me that in the night dreams I made noises by
kicking legs and arms like someone who is fighting , she thought it was Genocide consequences,
thanks to my second mother who took care of me during all these nights , she used to wake up
and tried to make me feel okay, as nothing was happening, so her careers made me a person as
days followed each other and I entered secondary school without any complications because I
was intern student but before entering secondary school my second mother took me to the
hospital and told a physician about my behavior during the night , the physician advised me to
practice sport regularly in order to build my body and to be strong enough against
consequences of Genocide, I thought it was a way of making me busy and create new life with
friends rather than focusing on my late family even though it was difficult to live without them
but it’s supportable and it’s not the end of life but a way of behaving like a mature and take
certain responsibilities. I believe that attending prayers in the church and burring ceremonies
increased conscience to me whereas practicing sport made me physical and mindly strong,
because the earth is not a paradise, prayers reminded me what I ought to do accordingly in
order to live with others peaceful, showed me good way or right path leading to the heaven,
helped me beg pardon on wrong things I committed and taught me to not redo it whereas
burring and commemoration ceremonies reminded me that I will also die, it helped me see or
know the good things the dead person has done in order to go in his/her line of doing things; in
order to make the world the best than it is, in few words the philosophy of dead person can be
a basis to build mine.
My arrival at secondary school was not good for me, Rwanda government transferred me at
Nyange secondary school near a destroyed parish, and I used to see every Sunday the blocks of
bricks of destroyed parish. I thought of my mother, my elder brothers, my sister and almost my
family were under those blocks. every Sunday I felt very bad, full of wonderings, I sometimes
saw some perpetrators came to pray with us, I felt very angry, I asked myself why the
53
government of Rwanda didn’t transferred me in other region because in Rwanda at the end of
primary cycle the national education conseil prepare exams, the brilliant students are
transferred at government schools while the left go to private ones or repeat the last year of
primary level in order to pass other exams for the following year. I thought I was unlucky even
though I believe that every bad event can have indirect benefit to me. I remember how my
second mother tried to visit me almost every visit at Nyange secondary school, she gave me
courage, she was surprised by my performance in the ordinary level; I remember her smiling,
most of the time she bought many things for me like cakes, fanta, orbit, roasted chicken,
fashion shoes, fashion clothes as reward of scoring first place in class, so from 2001-2004 were
years of my brilliant in secondary school. I kept playing football as advice of physician and I
believe that practicing sport without neglecting careers of my regretted second mother;
Victoria, made me strong and reduced my wonderings, hard thinking about my late family
including my beloved mother and feeling of being lonely in society because sport helped me to
make friends and being known and also being admired in student community.
After losing my second mother Victoria in 2004, I felt discouraged; I asked myself why God let it
happen? I thought my family did something wrong to God and I asked myself what? I felt
abandoned by my creator! I thought God didn’t take care of me! I thought how my father dead
in 1992, my mother and almost my family in 1994 Genocide against Tutsi and my second
beloved mother Victoria in 2004! Due to above events I thought being hated by my own God;
creator. Even sometimes I thought my family had done wrong thing to my God, in what is called
sacrilege in Roman Catholic Church! But I asked what?
I suffered after losing my second mother Victoria, from that time the consequences of genocide
had increased because at that time my best place in class shifted from top 5 to 25th place and
my highest grade was 65%.
most of the time in difficult events, I remembered worries of my second mother Victoria; I
thought she exactly knew that one day she will die and leave me alone, her worries keep
coming to my mind; ”you have to train yourself to do everything including domestic jobs
because we don’t know what future reserves for us, you have to take care of these properties;
54
our home properties, because they will help you in the future; the time in which we will not be
together, don’t rely on a member of you family but try to make friends; poors and riches
because it is difficult to know who will exactly help you”
All these worries of my second mother had reasons because she knew that one day she would
die, one day she told me that she is going to find an orphanage that will take care of me but I
denied, I thought my cousin would help me and it was not necessary to find an orphanage. But
as we say in Kinyarwanda,”iryamukuru riratinda ntirihera” meaning that the truth behind the
word of old (wo) man can came late but must occur, almost all things told by my second mother
happened, after her death I sold some properties to get school materials and ticket, I was not
helped by my cousin as I believed, friends had significance importance to my life and vice-versa
from my second mother disappearing until now (2014).
After death of my regretted second mother; Victoria I started new life, I continued to study as
intern student, in 2004 I scored ordinary level examination, I was transferred at Groupe Scolaire
de Shyogwe by the examinational conseil, in the same year I found another guardian to take
care of me in holidays, I spent holidays there and he gave me all basic materials which I have
used during 3 years spent at Groupe Scolaire de Shyogwe but the performance in class had
highly decreased, I think were due to the loss of my second mother; Victoria. In 2008 I won a
Rwandan government scholarship at National University of Rwanda as a reward of scoring A2
level diploma with high grade in bio-chemistry option, in 2009 I entered in university where I
won after 4 years a bachelor’s degree with honor in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness in
2012.
All the above mentioned performances are the results of hard working because I had no other
options due to the fact that I had no family to help me, I thought if I didn’t work hard, I would
not win a scholarship in Rwandan first university and my life would be in danger, so I worked
hard because I knew exactly that there was no other force to support my study, I spent time at
schools with no parent visits, no parent congratulations, no parents rewards, no parents
punishments, I thought sometimes to act differently from other people, I thought all have
55
significant influence to my behavior upon my friends or will have positive and negative impact
to my future kids and wife, if God wills.
But I believe that however my family was dead in church, church has significant impact on my
behavior of humanity because I saw some justifications in my life which are written in bible
among them I can mention one:
“I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink or
wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or
harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your father in heaven takes care of them.
Aren’t you worth more than birds? Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about clothes?
Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that
Solomon with all his wealth wasn’t as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to
everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire
tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?” (Youth
Bible, 2000)27
On my side I did school from primary to university with my zero money as school fees, I wore
clothes and shoes made in china; America, Japan; England; South Africa; and son on from third
persons, I was fed with my parent zero participation, I wrote my undergraduate dissertation
with computer of others, I certify that I had almost all basic needs during my childhood. All
these were not for chance but are justification of my creator words as Written in Mathew
chapter 6, 25-29, Youth Bible.
In human being daily life, tangible assets are not enough but also social life and moral are
necessary needed; during 20 years of orphan, I met with many struggles for life which socioeconomic constraints was the major; I thirsted of financial support from my family precisely my
parents, sister, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and moral but also wills of
offering something to the members of my family; where one time in 2008 after ending my
secondary school level; I got a job as restaurant manager in one of Kigali city pub, I was very
27
Youth bible: holly bible contemporary English version, Mathew chapter 6(25-29), 2000
56
lucky to get a job meaning that I was also very happy! But something that I had never thought
before arose! I was paid my first salary after the end of the month as other workers, I put the
money in my pocket, I turned back to leave the place, I took taxi but after having a seat my
mother came in my mind rather than being happy of my salary immediately I started to cry, my
heart was full of pain and I felt lonely; my wishes were to buy a gift for my mother, for that I
began to think of my family concerning parties like anniversaries, some celebrations, graduation
ceremonies, weddings, Christmas-days, Easters, new year and so on.
Secondly I remarked the irreplaceable importance of having a family in 2012; during my
graduation day, I was planning to go to the national university of Rwanda for my graduation
ceremony but one day before, the image of my first mother kept coming to my mind,
immediately I started crying, my thoughts were that my parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sister,
grand parents and others would be happy to see my graduation ceremony. For that reason I
lost incentives to go to my graduation, fearing to cry in public. But I believe that future reserves
good change for us;
I believe that my second generation will be able to enjoy life with their grandparents, if God
wills.
I believe that no one will measure the height of the nose of my kids to predict their ethnicity.
I believe that no one will call them again cockroach or snake.
I believe that our future kids will never again hid in banana plantation due to their ethnicity.
I believe that all humanity crimes against my future generation will get inquiry or investigation.
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CHAP.VIII.JUSTICE AFTER GENOCIDE
The gacaca court begun in 2002, Offenders and victims were brought face-to-face in the
presence of the community to share their perspectives with each other on what has happened.
Its main objectives and goals respectively were reconciliation and healing, reestablishing
community relationships and reintegrating offenders into their communities. Gacaca offered a
profoundly participatory form of justice that had promoted democratic decision-making in the
community by involving community members in dispensing justice, thus re-creating their
communities.
So, on my side, before genocide my family had assets and properties including livestock,
precisely cows which are important in Rwandan culture, important symbol in human relations,
sign of money value, sign of richness and prosperity, so our household had more than five cows,
one big house, kitchen, cow sheds, banana plantations, various crop plantations (cassava,
beans, sweet potatoes, maize, peas, bananas,…..), some money at bank and other household
materials (current assets and long-term assets) after the genocide in June 1994 all above
mentioned properties were all endomaged, with my six years old I was not able to reclaim and
manage the remained properties, so my properties went in hand of my cousin; policeman, my
mind was not concerned about properties. as gacaca court began operating in Rwanda in 2002
and its main objective were unity and reconciliation between Rwandans; killers and genocide
survivors, so for effective unity and reconciliation looters had to return some Tutsi’s properties
or pay the endomaged by the participant himself, with help of my neighbors, the people who
displaced our home properties were identified. Their value also had been calculated, we
submitted the detailed document of all assets and people concerned in the deal of displacing
them or damaging them. The assets value were above 2.5 million Rwandan francs; note that
time the value of one good cow were almost 15.000 Rwandan francs. In few months, I was
called by gacaca court of Nyange area and I was told that all my properties had been paid
before gacaca court began to operate, and the money were given to my cousin in 1994 even in
1995 and the damagers had transaction papers signed by my cousin however the total value of
which he had given is not even equal to one fourth (1/4) of 2.5 million. It was my first time to
hear that, but I was convinced by some villagers that the man had received the money. I had no
58
other option I thought being deprived the right of ownership to my parent properties by a
member of my family.
Concerning dead people in genocide almost my family had dead in Nyange parish, so I didn’t
got chance to see someone who killed even one of my relatives in order to pardon him /her, I
didn’t even got chance to see the body or born of my relatives in order to be buried with honor
but I used to respect or give honor all bodies in Nyange site memorial because I believe that my
family bodies are included in Nyange site memorial, their belief of christianisme put an end to
their life because they believed a lot priests of Roman Catholic church as persons who know the
value of human being in front of God creator and that make me ask myself if priests who teach
God commandments are the first persons who are not enable to practice them, who will be
able to do so! it make me also to remember the speech of priest; Seromba Athanase by
predicting that” Imana yari yabatanze” meaning that the God delivered Tutsis in hands of Hutu
perpetrators in 1994 genocide against Tutsi after the destruction of Nyange Parish by
interahamwe militias where in the middle of the action the priest Seromba himself told the
public that the Hutu are many in Rwanda they will build another parish which is higher than the
first even at the level of diocese not at the level of the parish as the first one!
The reactions of Hutu priests in genocide make me ask myself if the Catholic Church changed
their curriculum for their priest’s students on the value of human being black, white, Métis and
so on. I ask if they had changed their participation in politics, briefly their reactions in 1994
Genocide against Tutsi made worrying about their teachings, if are really enacted from God
creator? I sometimes think that my family penitentiary in front of priests were secretly putted
out to the concerned Hutu due to the priests Hutu actions in 1994 genocide against Tutsi, I
regretted the offerings of my parents in church; make me remember how my mother carry
baskets of season A and season B well sorted harvests (beans, sorghum, bananas, sweet
potatoes, maize,…..) to the parish to repair the bricks of parish that will destroy their heads, to
give to the priests who will deliver their life in hands of killers who didn’t even respect them as
God creator, to the priest who didn’t care the life of Christian, to the priest who didn’t respect
social value of their followers and of their relatives.
59
I sometimes think about the heaven but it’s beyond my thinking, what will happen between
killers and killed people? What will happen between my family and the killers? What will be
their reactions if it will be possible for them to meet? What will be the reactions of dead
families and survived families who didn’t helped orphans? What will happen between the
people who had eaten orphans properties and their family in the heaven if they will get chance
to meet?
I think about the heaven as it is written in holly bible but is beyond my thinking! I think of the
first meeting with my family! I always pray God to offer a chance to see again my family in my
usual prays by saying” thank you God for your protection, firstly I beg pardon for my sins, I ask
you to protect me again, thank you God to give me daily basic needs, help poors, orphans,
widow(er) s, make me polite like my father, make me generous like my mother, help me to
meet them because I believe that they are in heaven, AMEN! “
Nyange site memorial (former Catholic Church bed or pavement), February 2014
60
Some blocks and some monuments of former Nyange church destroyed by bulldozer & killers,
February 2014
The rests of Nyange church (window, bricks, clothes of dead people; on the window), February 2014
61
Monument of Nyange site memorial, February 2014
Each year in march, I leave urban to rural for commemoration of my family, the 15th of March is
the unforgettable day in my life because it is the exact day of the destruction of Nyange parish
and almost my family dead at that day, so I spend a day and night on fire commemorating 1994
Genocide against Tutsi in Nyange village including my family each year, on the following day;
16thApril we celebrate the mass in new church made of sheet-metal and eucalyptus trees
because the good one closed in all sides, with beautiful windows, doors and made by bricks had
been bulldozed, in that church it is very hot in dry season whereas in rain season it is very cold,
to the same day the discovered bodies of Tutsi remained in bushes and plot of land of people
have to be buried with honor; after the action of burring I fell good as someone who has
accomplished his job, I fell not neglecting my entire family, I feel honoring them, I feel
responsible of giving value to my family but sometimes due to some circumstances I can miss in
commemoration; but my heart trembling, I feel disappointing my family; dead and alive, a feel
ashamed, so commemorating my family make me remember their social values, their culture,
their thoughts, their wishes like being a patriot and a strong family and so on. Commemorating
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remind me the human responsibility upon others, it throw away wild spirit and bring back
humanity spirit.
I always ask myself why United Nations didn’t intervene in 1994 genocide against Tutsi during
hundred days! I think that if they had intervened I would had had a large family, on my view
their no intervention as someone who know something concerning economics and someone
who had observed something on intervention in Iraq, Libya, Ivory Cost, Mali, central Africa and
so on, so I think the no intervention in Rwanda was due to the fact that Rwanda had no natural
resources; my family, neighbors, friends dead due to the few natural resources of their country,
may be if Rwanda had natural resources like petrol or diamond, my family would be large and I
would not being called orphan.
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Account, Kigali
3. Agatha Radoli, “Preface” in Mario I. Aguilar, The Rwanda Crisis and the Call to
DeepenChristianity in Africa (Nairobi: AMECEA Gaba Publications, 1998)
4. Alison Desforges, 1999 Leave None to Tell the Story, Washington
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Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
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17. ministry of agriculture, 2004 national agricultural policy, Kigali
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Umubano-nsibo Cooperative, NUR
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19. Paul Magnarella, 2002 Explaining Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide, Washington
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23. SEBARENZI Joseph,2009 God sleeps in Rwanda, Oxford
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25. youth bible, 2000 holy bible contemporary English version,
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ANNEX: publication authorization
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