Meticulously the genocide had been prepared in Rwanda, at the end of almost a Million people were dead. Also today, the 25. Anniversary shows, how hard the country is dealing with the genocide.
on the day before the official commemoration events in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali is very quiet. It seems as if the whole country is already preparing for this now, the Horror of 1994 once more. Some of them are monosyllabic. Others are talking about. But the pain in the eyes, you can see if the Survivors of the genocide tell of in Rwanda, as in the case of Alphonse Habimana. He was five years old when the killers came.
A supposedly safe place
Alphonse Habimana has witnessed the massacre as a small Boy.
What happened in April 1994, has burned forever in his memory: “We fled to the Church, because we hoped that nothing would happen. You had even said ‘if you go to the Church, will follow you no enemy’ there’. My mother took me and my brothers and sisters brought here. My father was not there, he had arranged to meet with other men in the village to fight against the militias.”
On the grounds of the Catholic Church of Ntarama, a small town South of the capital, on 15. April 1994 came to more than 5000 people.
“A mixture of noise, crying and screaming,”
“It must have been around 11 o’clock in the morning. Many Tutsi families had come with their animals, chickens, goats, cows. We were so many. Some were in the house of the priest, some in the kitchen, some of them were hiding even in the water tank. Then we saw two big buses. The killer got out and surrounded the site. They began to kill us. Also, the animals. It was a mixture of noise, screams and crying of people and animals. I didn’t understood what happened. I only saw that it was like the end of the world.”
Hutu militias killed in this Church in Kigali 5000 Tutsi. After the end of the genocide, the place to the memory of the blood-to-noise unchanged. (Archive image 2014)
“perpetrators of the devil
For Alphonse obsessed”, it was the end of the world, others describe the time as a hell, the perpetrators as possessed by the devil. Unimaginable, at least from the 7. April 1994, one hundred days in the small East African country of Rwanda was going on. Over the decades, the hatred of the hardliners of the Hutu ethnic group against the minority Tutsi accumulated. As early as 1959, there had been massacres, many Tutsi in the neighboring countries had to flee. In 1994 it was again.
Many were murderers
Meticulously the genocide had been prepared for months, even through the Anti-Tutsi Propaganda of the Radio station Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (Radio-television of the 1000 hills). In the night of 6. on the 7. April was shot down the plane of then Rwandan President Habyarimana, a Hutu, Kigali – directly after that, the murders began. Who is responsible for the Downing of the aircraft responsible was never clarified officially. It was as if the Hutu militia only waited. And not only you.
ordinary people – men, women, teenagers – murderers. To neighbors, to colleagues, to children, to Old.
photos of children killed in the genocide, are on display in the memorial center in Kigali.
From the Church in the death of
“My mother’s children said: ‘I think that we can escape or you can escape us. Let us go out, so at least we’ll die outside of the Church,'” recalls Alphonse. “All who have left the Church, had to show your ID. Only those who had the Hutu to stand in the passport, was spared. My mother has tried to tell them that she was Hutu. But they said: ‘shut up, we know that you’re a Tutsi’. Then you have to cut off her head with a Machete. My little brother wore them on the back, and shattered it on the wall.”
The five-year-old Alphonse was hard to escape hurt. His father died shortly after the genocide to health consequences. Like so many others, grew up Alphonse as an orphan.
No help for the people
The international community has failed miserably in the case of Rwanda. The commander of the UN peacekeeping mission, which was at that time stationed in Rwanda, canadian General Dallaire, begged several times to no avail. Instead of supporting, withdrew almost all the countries of their soldiers. Rwanda as a stand alone.
From Uganda of the rebel army RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front), under the leadership of the current President Kagame of Rwanda against the Hutu-dominated army and the Killer commandos in the war. After 100 days of the genocide of the Tutsi was stopped, the RPF had taken Kigali. Almost a Million people, the majority of Tutsis, but also members of the opposition Hutu were dead.
In Rwanda, have been discovered since April of 2018, hundreds of other mass graves, after the then-attackers had informed the authorities about the places.
the community by regulation
Back to the trauma remained with flavored country. Not a person in Rwanda who has not been directly or indirectly victims of the genocide. In addition to the Survivors and their children, the descendants of the perpetrators. Rwanda’s government summons today, the unit in the country, peace and reconciliation. The Hutu and Tutsi no longer exist, officially. All should be easy to Rwandans.
The country is doing everything in his past behind and to look forward. Rwanda is considered to be one of the cleanest countries in Africa, the road network is excellent, access to the Internet and mobile network also. In addition, the government runs a strict anti-corruption policy, the without example, in a Region that is built on bribes.
dissent is not tolerated
On the other side of the medal, the suppression of political Opposition and freedom of expression. So we hear not a critical word about the government or the President. Of anyone. It almost seems as should the Rwandans hold interior and Rwandans to the stability of the country and the flawless surface, to the past, finished.
Accept what happened
“How am I? When I speak about the genocide, it is very difficult,” says Alphonse. “But it is a part of my history and I lived and still live. I have accepted what has happened. I have no other choice.”
Some of the perpetrators of the time life after prison in his neighborhood. It was okay, says the 30-Year-old, but over the past he wanted to speak not with you. “My goal is to have a good life. I would like to in any case, that the murderers of my family, that I would be poor or sad. I could not endure it well, if you were to defeat me.”
children of Survivors and perpetrators of the genocide sit in the reconciliation village of Mbyo in Nyamata together in front of a house.
Stigmatized for generations
Even if nobody talks about it, everyone knows who comes from the Perpetrator and who the victim page. Only the Generation that was born after the genocide, is perhaps to be real Rwandans inside and Rwandans.
A woman who works at the memorial to the Church in Ntarama, tells the story of her cousin that was her life, convinced that never a Hutu to marry. In the past year, she married a Hutu. Some in the family were appalled. The answer of the young woman was clear: “I love him!”
genocide in Rwanda: “The world was not there” 07.04.2014 commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda 25 years ago |video Atlas |Rwanda |Kigali