When Evil Triumphed - Remembering the Victims of Rwanda

Today is the date chosen for the commemoration of the victims of the Rwandan Genocide. In 1994 over a period of one hundred days, an estimated 900 000 Tutsi’s and moderate Hutu’s were massacred by two extremist Hutu militia groups.

Last year we wrote about the lessons that could be learned from the Rwandan genocide, namely that we cannot rely on multilateral institutions like the UN to prevent persecution.

This year, we have looked through some of the testimonies of the survivors of the genocide.

The Rwandan Survivors Fund has a collection of testimonies on their website.

Name: Assumpta Muhoraceye Born: 1977 My name is Assumpta, I was eighteen at the time of genocide. I lost my mother, father, brothers and sisters and other 30 relatives, and suffered rape and beatings. My surviving sister went back to my home village after genocide and was attacked again with machete by the killers of my family, who feared that she would denounce them to authorities. She was in a coma for months and slowly gained consciousness. She lost her hearing ability and she lives with constant headache and mental problems. I have tried to commit suicide twice but failed to die. I live in the shadow of genocide, sometimes I imagine meeting my mother on the street. Sometimes I see people wearing similar clothes like my dead relatives and I follow them and tape on their shoulders. I believe one day I will get a surprised when they return. I have never recovered their bodies,, that is why I think that one day they will come back. A Hutu I knew told me my family were dead. He was laughing. He just bumped into me in the street and said: You know what?. "They sent two big buses to your town to kill all the people." From that day, I didn't care if I lived. Before my family died, I was always frightened, but then I felt nothing. One day, I was hiding with my friend, another girl, in an open sewer. She ran out to get some food and the soldiers caught her and shot her. When I saw what happened, I screamed. I got up and said: "Kill me too, I don't want to stay alive." I wanted the soldiers to shot me rather than be killed by machete. One of them held a gun on my head but he didn't shot me. Instead, they raped me, beat me, took off all my clothes and threw me into a mass grave. Because people had been chopped, my body was covered with other people's blood. Many people were still alive - I saw one woman with her legs chopped off, lying there morning and dying. A man came by the grave, he saved me, kept me in a shade and raped me. He gave me food and water but only so that he could keep on raping me. He said: "It doesn't matter you are going to die anyway." I managed to escape when this man went on his daily routine killing spree, and meet a man who was kind to me. He also used me, afraid that he would be found with a Tutsi woman, he smuggled me in a petrol drum and took me on a hired lorry to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). I survived the genocide but sometimes I wish I were dead. Before genocide, I was a teenage, very feminine and beautiful. I used to dress up with my mother and feel pretty. I used to really like myself. Now people tell me I am nice, but I have no feelings about it. I hate men. "Sometimes I watch women walking around, being happy, and wonder why I can't be like that. Then I'd remember that I am different. It makes me fell so sad." I miss my mother and family a lot. I wake up and wonder who killed them. Sometimes I sit and cry and cry for no reason. I remember the people who raped me and killed my family and friends. I see their faces in my dreams. They are always running after me, and, when I wake up, it's as if they are still there. Life will never be the same again for me.

Yom Hashoah, the day on which Jews commemorate the memory of the 6 million Jews that were slaughtered by the Nazis, is next Sunday. I find it fitting that these two important dates are so close together. The shared and painful history between Jews and Rwandans is obvious and the importance for Jews to understand and share the pain with the victims in Rwanda needs no further elaboration especially after Rwanda co-sponsored a UN resolution this year condemning Holocaust denial (a resolution which South Africa failed to support). The similarities between the propaganda used by the Nazis and extremist Tutsis is striking as this excerpt from a Hutu propaganda magazine illustrates

Foreign invaders, plundering the rich earth of Rwanda. Bloodthirsty parasites, who prefer exploitation to honest labor. An elite minority, enjoying influence out of all proportion to their numbers—ferreting their way into the highest-paying jobs, monopolizing the banking system, the educational system, even the very government to ensure the soft life for themselves and their kin.

This year the South African Jewish Board of Deputies sent a public message recognizing their commemoration of the Rwandan genocide and I hope it’s a signal of future efforts to educate more South Africans about the Rwandan genocide.

The UK based Rwandan Survivors Fund (SURF) has a PDF version of an exhibition entitled Heroes of Our Time: Rwandan Courage & Survival. ‘It presents a history of the genocide and focuses on the plight of survivors today through the stories of four heroic survivors.’

SURF also has a catalogue of educational materials which schools can use to teach about the genocide.

You can also make a online donation to SURF from this page. Before donating you can find out more about SURF from this page which details their projects, aims and goals.

Comments

[Gary]

And to think there are those who want to dismember Israel into a Rwanda style unitary state, which they know will lead to the genocide of millions of Israeli Jews (HALF OF THEM CHILDREN).
If there is anything we can learn from Rwanda it is to resist and fight the so-called one-state solution pushed by anti-Israel hate-mongers like Virgina Tilley, Ronno Einsten, Steven Friedman and Allister Sparks.

[THE DICTATOR / EMBITTERED CORRESPONDENT]

The world turned its attention away from Rwanda and allowed a genocide
to occur. Has anything changed? Are South Africans doing as much as
they can to stop the evil that has consumed the state of Zimbabwe?
Please read the following blog about Zimbabwe:
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/ .

It is our duty to keep ourselves informed and to do everything in our
power to alleviate the appalling suffering that is occurring in
Zimbabwe. As a starting point, I suggest that IT"S ALMOST SUPERNATURAL
should ally itself to SOKWANELE (The Zimbabwean Civi Action Support
Group)

[Gary]

What would be funny if it wasn't so tragic, is that those who are the loudest in condemmning Israel, always support or are silent about Zimbabwe.

[Mike]

Anthony, we have been extremely outspoken on Zimbabwe and will continue to be. I am actually in the process of writing another post on my visit there.

[THE DICTATOR / EMBITTERED CORRESPONDENT]

The FXI was silent about Zimbabwe until I subtly persuaded Jane Duncan
to issue a critical press release. Funny and tragic?
But it has shown me that you can "encourage" the most unlikely people
to partially correct the error of their ways!

[THE DICTATOR / EMBITTERED CORRESPONDENT]

The FXI was silent about Zimbabwe until I subtly persuaded Jane Duncan
to issue a critical press release. Funny and tragic?
But it has shown me that you can "encourage" the most unlikely people
to partially correct the error of their ways!

[mike]

Anthony, there is nothing subtle in your interactions with the FXI!