In early April we commemorated the 12th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which an estimated 937 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by 2 extremist Hutu militias. The Jewish connection to this horror is obvious. The similar mass suffering endured by two peoples has created a connection built on the ashes of lost brothers and sisters. We mentioned that a group of Rwandans recently visited Israel where they learned how the Jewish people have coped with their tragedy and educated the future generations to never forget what happened. Now a group of Jewish students has visited Rwanda to learn their story.
Justin Blend, a member of the South African Union of Jewish Students represented South African on the tour and he has sent us his tour diary in order to share his experience.
Justin, thank you for being so willing to share your thoughts and experiences with us. Below is the cover letter to Justin’s diary. There are 8 days to his diary and we will publish one day a week. I hope this feature will help in teaching all South Africans a little bit more about a tragic loss of life that often doesn’t get the attention that it deserves.
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I am a 22 year old Jewish man, who lives in South Africa. I am part of the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) committee. I am a 5th year law student and have completed a B-com. I am also a director in a property redevelopment company.
When I was first told about the opportunity to go to Rwanda to learn about the genocide that occurred there, I felt mixed emotions - one of excitement, the thought of visiting a new, completely unknown place within Africa intrigued me (it often frustrates me that I have visited such far away places but have not yet seen countries within my own continent); another feeling of uncertainty of what lay ahead of me was also prevalent; but the feeling of guilt due to my own ignorance was what frustrated me the most - how could I not really know what happened in Rwanda, a country so close to my own? (Only a 4 hour direct flight!). I knew that genocide had occurred in this country, but I did not really understand the deeper meaning/story to this loosely used word.
The fact finding mission was organized by European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) with the support and sponsorship of the World Jewish Congress Future Generations programs division. The name of the program was: "Shared Memories – Collective Action: A Fact Finding Mission to Rwanda".
The trip comprised of Jewish students from: Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, England, France, Denmark, the USA, South Africa (myself) and Israel- all of whom are active in their respective Jewish organisations in their countries. The group also consisted of 8 Rwandan students from Belgium. A group of French academics, journalists, artists, film makers and psychologists also took part.
The program was quite extensive and included – visiting the sites where genocide occurred; meeting the country’s prime minister and other influential leaders in the country; speaking to people who lost family. Every night we were debriefed by psychologists.
An exert from a diary that I kept whilst in Rwanda-
“Today we went to view mass grave yards in Murambi, where over 17,000 people were murdered. Survivors told us how they were tricked into coming to the area and then weakened through food and water deprivation. The Hutus then killed them with Machetes, guns and blades. The Tutsis tried to fight back but all attempts were useless. Once the bodies were buried in the mass grave a volleyball court was built over the grave site and used by the murderers!
Today the bodies have been taken out of the mass grave and chemically preserved. We saw the bodies in the same position that they were in at the moment of death, it was shocking to see the people’s facial expressions and body language at their moment of death, one is even able to see the clothes that the people were wearing. We saw bodies of babies and adults; it was extremely frightening and emotional to see these thousands of bodies ‘frozen’ in a moment of time.”
My preparation for the trip-
My research began with a simple search of the definition ‘genocide’- the result was- “the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this”. Being Jewish this immediately ignited a will to learn more about what happened in Rwanda, as it was evident that ties between the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide could easily be drawn.
I then started to read up on the Internet about Rwanda’s history. The very fact that 900,000 people were killed within a 90 day period intrigued me. How could such a tragedy take place while the rest of the world just sat back and watched the genocide unfold? Also bothering me was the fact that to this day the genocide is barely ever mentioned, compared to tragedies like the Tsunami where XX people were killed in a natural disaster (issue- in the Tsunami many countries lost their own people, therefore people were more sympathetic and interested; in Rwanda only Rwandans were killed, do people only care about their own??).
I then rented the Oscar nominated movie “Hotel Rwanda” and after watching this movie I felt almost ashamed that I had such little knowledge of what had happened, my only comfort and consequently discomfort was that almost all my friends (all well educated people) barely knew anything themselves about the situation.
Before I left for Rwanda I sent off emails to various media representatives in the hope that upon my return the story of Rwanda will be broadcast to the greater population. I think that my trip will be successful if I can pass on my experiences to others.
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