JUBILEE ACTION REPORT
October 2004
RWANDA
The Killing Continues – The Legacy of
the Rwandan Genocide
1.0 Purpose
1.1
Between Sept 26th to Oct 1st 2004, a Jubilee Action delegation
including Lord Alton, and journalist Becky Tinsley travelled to Rwanda.
1.2 The purpose of the trip was to gain a fuller understanding of the cause and legacy of the 1994 genocide, to visit sites where an estimated 800,000 people were killed over a period of 100 days and to assess the prospects for Rwanda’s future. We listened to the testimony of survivors, and visited projects for widows, abandoned children, orphans and people with HIV/AIDS. We also met NGOs, leaders of civic society, religious leaders and politicians to discuss the process of achieving reconciliation and justice, and rebuilding the nation. We learnt more about the residual problems in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo where genocidal militias remain in exile with dire consequences for all concerned.
Above: Jubilee Action delegation with President Kagame
2.0 Narrative and History
2.1 As Rwanda’s colonial power, the Belgians instituted identity cards
classifying most of the population as either Hutu, who made up the majority, or
as Tutsi. After independence in 1962 Rwanda was ruled by Hutu-dominated
governments, including a period of one-party rule under the Hutu President
Habyarimana between 1972 and 1994. During this time the Tutsi minority (making
up 15%) were excluded from power, denied university education, and restricted to
a few professions like teaching and nursing. Consequently many Tutsi became
businessmen, and comprised a large part of Rwanda’s middle class.
2.2 Discrimination and ethnic hatred resulted in widespread massacres of
Tutsi in 1959 after which many Tutsi went into exile, particularly in Uganda.
Further violence followed, and as a reaction some Tutsi in Uganda, including the
current President, Paul Kagame, formed the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and its
armed wing, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA).
2.2 The RPA invaded Rwanda in 1990 but were halted by the Forces Armee
Rwandaises (FAR). Unrest and dissatisfaction continued, and in April 1994
President Habyarimana signed a power-sharing agreement in Arusha, but on his way
back from Tanzania his plane was shot down.
2.3 This event is widely understood to have been the pre-arranged signal the
Hutu militia, the Interahamwe, had been waiting for: roadblocks went up across
the nation, and the systematic and coordinated killing of Tutsi and moderate
Hutu began. It is thought 100,000 Interahamwe spearheaded the genocide,
supported by Hutu peasants who had been indoctrinated with ethnic hate
propaganda against their neighbours. Between 800,000 and a million people were
murdered, and it is believed at least 200,000 Tutsi women were raped.
2.4 From their base in Uganda the RPA invaded and reached Kigali by July,
fighting off a coalition of FAR, Interahamwe and supporting Zairean troops who
retreated into Zaire. Since 1994 they have used their bases in exile to menace
local ethnic Tutsi in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as
well as Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi. Their presence in eastern DRC has also
contributed to the continuing violence and massive bloodshed there (see previous
Jubilee Action report on DRC).
2.5 Meanwhile, in 1994, a government of national unity was formed with
Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, as president, and Paul Kagame, the Tutsi commander of
the RPA, as his deputy. In effect the RPF have since dominated Rwandan
government and institutions, and when Bizimungu resigned in 2000 Kagame became
president. He was later sentenced
to 15 years in prison by the Kagame Government on allegations of inciting
genocide.
2.6 In late 1996 the RPA backed a rebellion in eastern DRC (then still called
Zaire) which destroyed the Hutu/Interahamwe/ex-FAR refugee camps, and
precipitated the downfall of Mobutu Sese Seko. A million refugees returned to
Rwanda, but many ‘genocidaires’, as they are known, escaped. They remained
in eastern Zaire from which they continued to attack northwest Rwanda.
2.7
In 1998 Rwanda and Uganda together backed rebel militia in DRC ostensibly to
eliminate the Interahamwe/ex-FAR. They defeated the combined forces of Zimbabwe,
Chad, Angola and Namibia who were supporting DRC, leading to a stand-off with
Mobuto’s successor Laurent Kabila. By the time a ceasefire was signed in
Lusaka in autumn 1999 the rebels had taken large parts of the north and east, at
the cost of millions of civilian lives. A further agreement, brokered by South
Africa, was needed in 2002 before Rwandan forces began to withdraw from DRC.
Left: David Alton pays his respects at the Murambi
Genocide site
2.8 Rwanda continues to have interests in the vast mineral wealth of eastern DRC, and it is accused of using local militias to impose their will in the area and to fight against remaining Interahamwe/ex-FAR groups who are believed to number about 8,000. Equally Rwanda accuses DRC of arming and supporting Interahamwe/ex-FAR militia and their allies who have been killing and terrorising the ethnic Tutsi population in eastern DRC. We used most of our one hour meeting with President Kagame to raise Rwanda’s continuing conflict with the DRC.
2.9 The Rwandan economy is based almost completely on agriculture (coffee,
sugar cane, bananas) of which the majority is peasant subsistence farming. It
lacks the huge mineral wealth of neighbouring DRC, or an industrial base. It
currently imports goods it could be manufacturing for itself, and there is
potential to develop a more value-added agricultural export business, given
effort and imagination.
2.10 Rwanda suffers from deforestation (another consequence of the war) and soil erosion. Its economy is vulnerable to both world commodity prices, and the cost of oil. The continuing violence in DRC restricts regional trade and discourages inward investment.
3.0 The Consequences of Genocide:
Political Freedom and Human Rights in Rwanda
3.1 The Rwandan Government is currently struggling
to strike a balance between allowing free speech, and defeating once and for all
the genocidal ideology responsible for inspiring millions of people to
participate in the murder, betrayal, and looting of their fellow Rwandans.
3.2 Everyday, in every encounter we had, we were
reminded that people have good reason to be apprehensive to the point of
paranoia about allowing people to make derogatory comments about the ethnic
minority Tutsis, or to deny the genocide occurred. We are also sensitive to
fears that the exiled Interahamwe and ex-FAR wish to destabilise the country by
force. We met many people who either fear for their lives, or are receiving
threats, or have actually been attacked by those who believe their testimony
will put them in prison. We took
evidence of genocidaires released under the Gacaca and returning to their
communities to commit revenge attacks on those who testified against them. 30
Tutsi survivors were reported to have been killed in June 2004 in Butare.
3.3 The aspiration of the Government, recited by
all and sundry in positions of power and by many NGOs, is that the Gacaca system
will bring about justice and reconciliation, given time.
We were constantly told that the future lies in all people regarding
themselves as Rwandans first, and Hutu and Tutsi second. Although we agree with
the importance of national identity, history suggests that trying to wish away
ethnic awareness is futile and counter-productive.
You can remove ethnic identity from ID cards (good) but not from memory.
Co-existence , mutual respect and power sharing would be a more productive
course.
3.4 There has been criticism of the dominant role
taken by the Tutsi minority in government, the army and throughout society. We
would question whether the Hutu majority has a big enough stake in Rwanda’s
future, and if there is a role for power-sharing structures, and confidence
building measures to bring about reconciliation through practical, everyday
cooperation in rebuilding Rwanda. Although acutely conscious that Britain failed
the Rwandan people in 1994, we suggest that we might now make a small
contribution by sharing our experiences of building cross-community institutions
in Northern Ireland (see: recommendations).
3.5 Human Rights Watch recently catalogued its concerns about the suppression of the free press, the imprisonment or exile of political opposition figures, and the 96% (sic) President Kagame received in recent elections. Our impressions, from speaking to people as varied as 14 year old rape victims, Hutu genocidaire prisoners, town mayors, social workers, and government ministers, was that the Kagame administration is determined to silence criticism or divergence from the agreed path forwards. One local health worker in Butare claimed that political dissidents are first warned and then imprisoned for criticising the government.
3.6 A vital element in this strategy is eliciting confessions of guilt from
prisoners, and encouraging them to provide information on who planned the
genocide, in exchange for their freedom: the Gacaca process. In every province,
citizens are being trained to chair Gacaca tribunals, to ensure victims are able
to confront their attackers, and that witnesses can give testimony. Whilst the
planners of the genocide and those who raped are considered category one
prisoners, and do not qualify for parole, the rest have the chance to confess.
Left: Category 1 prisoners in
Nyanza prison responsible for the worst acts of genocide in 1994.
3.7 We visited Nyanza prison and watched in
admiration as the country’s Prosecutor General, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, urged the
five thousand genocidaires (male and female) gathered before him in the prison
yard, to confess their guilt, submit to the Gacaca process, and go home to their
families. Given his own personal
loss during the genocide, his commitment to resolving the future of the
prisoners was doubly impressive. On a practical level Rwanda cannot afford to
keep 70,000 genocidaires in prison indefinitely, and if they want to reconcile
their shattered nation, we concluded there are worse ways to go about it than
the Gacaca process.
3.8 Some doubts remain about the validity of the
confessions from the point of view of the victims and survivors. The President
of the Rwandan Survivors Fund (SURF) told us of her disappointment when she was
able to confront the killer of her husband and children, only to find he felt no
remorse. We also heard prisoners say they were under pressure from fellow Hutu
not to confess or implicate genocidaires who have avoided punishment so far.
Some less skilled Hutu freely admitted they preferred to stay behind bars where
they were given three meals a day, rather than to face the economic hardships in
the outside world.
3.9 Whether the Government will succeed in
persuading the majority Hutu population that the genocide was wrong remains to
be seen. Tutsi unease at the true intentions of their fellow Rwandans is
understandable, given the undercurrent of genocide denial, and threats to
witnesses and survivors. They are not allowed to keep weapons at home, but the
tension within the community was apparent.
3.10 We note the importance of learning from experiences in the former Yugoslavia, where the International War Crimes Tribunal has been careful to hold each community to account for the atrocities perpetrated on each other. Croatian and Bosnian generals allegedly responsible for war crimes against Serbians have been arrested and put on trial at The Hague.
3.11
Until 2003, Carla del Ponte was the Prosecutor for the International War Crimes
Tribunal responsible for both Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
She believes there was political pressure from the Rwandan Government for
her removal because she was urging the investigation of the members of the RPA
suspected of reprisal killings.
Left: David Alton with the
Prosecutor General - Mr. Mucyo.
3.12 If this indicates a subjectivity or an
unwillingness to accept that there was retaliatory violence on Hutu civilians,
then this would not bode well for the Rwanda’s future.
3.13 Being even handed, and being
seen to be even-handed, could be an important element in trying to assure one
part of the community in Rwanda that even though the other part of the community
bore the greater brunt of the horrors of genocide, they have not been absolved
of atrocities they in turn committed, even if they were smaller in scale. We
were struck by testimony from Hutus who suffered greatly in 1994 when up to
100,000 were killed by the RPA when they invaded the country. We also heard of
mass reprisal killings in1996, and we believe that until these events are
acknowledged openly and justice is delivered, the level of resentment in the
Hutu community will severely damage attempts to unite and reconcile the nation.
3.14 We urge President Kagame to embrace the
political benefits that could accrue from an admission that atrocities,
reprisals, and large scale revenge killings were carried out by the RPA in 1994
and 1996. We were pleased to read an interview given by President Kagame to the
BBC during the tenth anniversary commemorations in which he accepted RPA
responsibility for killings of Hutu. We urge him to build upon this by bringing
to justice those responsible for atrocities in 1994 and 1996, and so to assure
the whole community of his government’s intention to apply justice evenly,
irrespective of ethnic background.
3.15 We were concerned to learn that six
well-respected NGOs who are the subject of a Parliamentary Report have had no
opportunity to defend themselves against the extremely serious charges of
inciting genocidal ideology. To accuse an organisation of using
‘divisionist’ language damages the credibility of the NGO concerned, and the
rules of natural justice require there to be a transparent and fair means of
examining the evidence and presenting a legal defence.
3.16 In discussions with officials at the
Commission for Human Rights, and with Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the Prosecutor
General, we raised this issue, and urged them to allow a full and open judicial
process, giving the NGOs concerned the right to defend themselves. Officials
were unwilling to explain exactly what the individuals at the NGOs are alleged
to have said or done, and we remain concerned that well-intentioned NGOs or
other groups in civil society will be subject to harsh and arbitrary punitive
measures. We hope Rwanda will study the ways in which Britain is currently
legislating against the incitement to racial and religious hatred. We also trust
that reference to our anti-discrimination laws, evolved and refined over
decades, might be of some use. We were also concerned that if every criticism of the
government were to be labelled as inciting genocide, it would devalue the use of
the word and minimise the enormity of what actually took place.
3.17 Similarly, we are alarmed by reports from
Human Rights Watch about opposition politicians, who have not previously
promoted ethnically divisive views, now being accused of ‘divisionism’. The
most startling example of this is the former president of Rwanda, who is in
prison awaiting Gacaca, although he was a military supporter of President Kagame
during the Genocide. We have also
heard of other long-standing members of the RPF and RPA, who faithfully served
their cause throughout the years of struggle, and whose credibility has suddenly
been challenged, and who are now accused of promoting genocidal ideology.
3.18 Human Rights Watch has catalogued the cases
of a number of democratic politicians who have expressed criticism of the
Government, and who are now in exile, fearing for their safety and liberty. HRW
also questions the reported crackdown on press freedom, and the suppression of
healthy, pluralist dissent.
3.19 We were told by the authorities that they
come down on genocidal ideology swiftly and surely. While we are sensitive to
the reasons why any ethnic slurs or genocidal denial must be firmly dealt with,
we are concerned that genuine free speech may be sacrificed, and a system of
informing and the censorship of well-intentioned political criticism and debate
may arise as a consequence.
3.20 We are pleased there are now several
independent radio stations in Rwanda, but were dismayed to learn each station
had been required to sign a commitment to avoid political subjects. We are
acutely aware of the role played by the media in disseminating hate ideology and
propaganda during the genocide. For the future, we hope Rwanda will gradually
appreciate the benefits of allowing free speech within a framework of legal
guarantees for the respect of minority rights, human rights, anti-discrimination
and mutual tolerance.
3.21 As friends and admirers of Rwanda we hope our
concerns about the slide towards repressing free speech will be taken as they
are meant: constructively. We are hugely impressed by the way in which Rwanda is
being reconstructed, by the lack of corruption, and by the efficiency of the
Government which is an example to all in the region. We share the Government’s
aspirations to pull all Rwandans together, emphasising what they share, rather
than what divides them. But we are also concerned about the potential backlash
from an overzealous rewriting of history, and from denying fair comment. From
our meetings with politicians, religious leaders and activists across Rwanda, we
are confident Rwanda is strong enough to allow full and informed national
political debate.
3.22 In Butare we were deeply impressed by the
personal friendship and public leadership of the Catholic and Episcopal
(Anglican) bishops, Bishop Msgr. Philippe Rukamba and Bishop Venuste Mutiganda.
They are both involved in reconciliation and social projects. In Kigali we
visited the Catholic Cathedral, met with Protestant church leaders and talked
with faith-led individuals and groups about a whole host of impressive
initiatives.
3.23 As mentioned above, we met Antoine Rutayisire
of African Enterprise whose book, “Faith Under Fire”, details the stories of
individual Christians who resisted the genocide. We heard of pastors who lost
their lives , and of a group of nuns who refused to abandon the children in
their care, and were brutally murdered.
3.24 Antoine Rutayisire is involved in a coalition
seeking to encourage Christian dialogue and engagement. He also told us that
“the position of the church is very complex: it has taken many different
positions and reconciliation is not a popular concept. It often sits on the
fence.”
3.25 It is also clear that during the genocide
individual pastors, priests, and Christian leaders either collaborated in the
killing or failed to speak out prophetically against the slaughter.
3.26
Fatuma Ndagije, Executive Secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation
Commission, alleged that the deceased Catholic Archbishop, Nsengungiyuva, had
been involved in planning the Hutu attacks on the Tutsis. At Nyanza Prison we
talked to one of two Episcopal priests who are prisoners, Musominali Paulin, who
was accused by a parishioner of betraying her husband. He has been waiting for
seven years to be tried for a charge he strenuously denies. He told us that at
Nyanza there is a Baptist pastor, and two Seventh Day Adventist pastors, and
that a Catholic priest had been in the prison, but under the Gacaca system he
had been released (and is back in his post in his parish). Musominali raised an
interesting aspect of Gacaca when he said, “some confess to things they have
not done in order to secure release. Why should a man confess to a crime he did
not commit?”
Left: Murambi Genocide site in South-West Rwanda.
3.27 Notwithstanding individual acts of bravery during the genocide, the failure of the church to be more outspoken is partly to do with the over-identification of individual denominations with one ethnic group of the other, and the failure to inform individual believers and parishes/fellowships in the duties that go with Christian citizenship. In facing the future the church must learn hard lessons from this experience.
3.28 Our visit to the Murambi Genocide Site in the
south west of Rwanda served to remind us of the hellish reality of Rwanda’s
recent past. Murambi was a technical college, to which children from a nearby
orphanage, went there to take shelter. They believed the French garrison there
would protect them. Instead, so we were told, the French soldiers stood by and
watched as the Interahamwe hunted down local Tutsis, as they are reported to
have done throughout the country, delivering them to what became the mass graves
of Murambi.
3.29 Fifty six thousand bodies were found there,
and we walked from classroom to classroom, viewing 852 remains that have been
disinterred. Within a few days of the massacre, a volleyball court had been
built on top of one of the mass graves which, we were told, the French then used
in their leisure time. We saw the site of where the French raised their flag
while the killings proceeded without impediment. Meanwhile, at the UN, French
diplomats were working in concert with Secretary General Boutros Ghali (cf
family connections) to withhold any information about the genocide from the
Security Council as it occurred.
3.30 The French position was unquestioningly
supported by Britain’s representative to the UN and in the House of Commons by
the Foreign Secretary at the time.
3.31 France’s role in allegedly training FAR, and supplying them with satellite telephones with which to coordinate the killing from community to community, deserves special mention, but equally we were constantly aware on our trip around Rwanda that Britain’s record in 1994 is nothing to be proud of. However, while the UK is now the biggest donor to Rwanda (£37m in 2003-4), France has given very little, has refused to examine its role in the run up to the genocide and during it, and denies any moral responsibility. We agree with President Clinton’s reflection that the failure to act in the Rwanda genocide was ‘the greatest regret of my Presidency’ – a view shared by the British Aid Minister of the time, Baroness Chalker.
4.0 The Consequences of Genocide: HIVAIDS
4.1 “We are a generation in
transition, carrying the wounds of the past, and trying to shape the future.”
(Antoine Rutayisire)
4.2 With every personal connection we made in Rwanda we were reminded that
the consequences of the 1994 genocide are still making a profound mark on almost
all aspects of life. There is great continuing hardship for widows who survived
the war, in particular those who were raped and are now HIV positive. However,
because of the genocide women in Rwanda are more aware of HIV/AIDS than
elsewhere in the region, and we trust this will assist the spread of awareness
about the need for testing. In many respects, the fatalities of HIV/AIDS
represent a continuing genocide in Rwanda.
4.3 There are 260,000 orphans in Rwanda, of whom 65,000 are HIV positive, and
the President’s office told us they classify one million children as
vulnerable. Given that the total population of Rwanda is eight million, it is
clear the country faces an enormous challenge. Every
year, 40,000 children are born to HIV-infected mothers.
4.4 Of the 100,000 Rwandans who need HIV treatment, only 4,000 are currently
receiving anti-retro viral (ARV) medicines.
Disgracefully the international community decided to prioritise the
treatment of HIV positive prisoners, most of whom participated in the genocide,
as their victims died of AIDS or struggled to survive, the perpetrators of the
genocide received three meals a day and ARV.
This perverse situation was compounded by the knowledge that those who
could testify against them would die before they could go to trial. This
grotesque iniquity is finally being corrected, and the President’s office told
us they hope to have virtually everyone who needs treatment receiving ARVs
within five years. However there are only 274 doctors serving a population of
eight million in Rwanda, and we applaud efforts to train survivors and victims
to administer home-based care.
4.5 In our meeting with the Minister for Health for HIV, Dr Innocent
Nyaruharira, we agreed that a campaign to help school children become AIDS-aware
would provide a great opportunity to explain that in the case of consenting sex,
AIDS is 100% preventable but 100% fatal.
We gave the Minister to “Towards an Aids-free generation”, a primary
school level book produced in Africa. It was agreed this book would be highly
appropriate for distribution to every pupil in Rwanda. We also gave the Minister
a copy of the secondary school level book, “Aids and You” with the same
purpose in mind.
4.6 We also met Colette Cunningham of World Relief who is responsible for
delivering World Relief’s portion of the US President’s Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Colette told
us that ‘for once, thanks to the US, there is money. It will change the face
of AIDS in Africa.’
5.0 The Consequences of Genocide: Orphans
5.1 Forty per cent of all 10-14 year olds in Rwanda are orphans. 26% of all children in Rwanda are orphans and the UN forecasts this will rise to 32% in 2005. There are 6000 child-headed households in Kigali alone. The Rwandan Government is encouraging a policy of allowing extended orphan families to live together and manage their own lives, with modest financial support, rather than putting children in orphanages. Many live a hand-to-mouth existence, and are burdened with remarkable responsibilities at a young age, but we were impressed by how optimistic and ambitious the children we met were.
Left: Two orphans at Kabuga.
5.2 We spoke to children as young as 14 who were running households of four or five, at the same time as attending school, earning money to support their families, and coping with the legacy of having lost their parents either to AIDS or the genocide.
We visited the Peace Village, just outside Kigali, where 52 children
live in a community of ten simple but well-built homes. Gratien Gatete, age 24,
told us his “mission” was to have a career in which he could create jobs for
as many people as possible. During the genocide Gratien’s life was saved by a
Hutu man who recognised him and told the Interahamwe he was his brother. The man
hid Gratien and five other people for days until he could escape. Of Gratien’s
nine siblings, three survived. One of his sisters, Marie Rose, has saved when a
Hutu priest rescued her and took her to a doctor: she had been cut with a
machete twice on her head, and on her back and arms, and left for dead. The
priest’s mother took the girl over the border into DRC, cared for her for two
years and on her return re-united her with her brother. Gratien now lives with
his surviving siblings and cousins, and they help each other to solve daily
problems and to make sense of their experiences, he said. “We have formed a
community, and we stick together”.
5.3 Gratien spoke for many we met when he told us he was glad the truth was
finally coming out through the Gacaca system of local truth and reconciliation
trials. “At least now I know where my parents were killed, and where they are
buried.” However it disturbs him to see his brother’s killer on the streets,
and wishes the ‘genocidaires’ were still in prison. (Under the Gacaca
system, prisoners who confess before village trials are released from prison,
unless they are the highest category of killer who planned the genocide or
committed rape).
5.4 When we met Jean-Pierre Kanyandekwe at his home in the Peace Village he
was still badly bruised from a beating the previous week. He feared his mugging
was part of a pattern of attacks on Tutsi survivors who know the identities of
genocidaires and might therefore testify against them at Gacaca hearings. The
shy, thin 26 year old told us he had faith that the rule of law would deter wide
scale reprisals, but, as he said, “We live together in our country but we
don’t love each other.”
5.5 Jean-Pierre was 13 during the genocide. He escaped by carrying a sack of
cooking charcoal on his back for miles, past Interahamwe checkpoints, pretending
to be a trader heading for Burundi. Jean-Pierre does not know who killed his
parents, but he understands that the man who killed his brother is in prison,
waiting to be released. “He confessed at Gacaca, and he told them how and
where he killed my brother, but he did not apologise or ask for forgiveness.”
5.6 Life has been particularly harsh for orphans like Jean-Pierre who were
between the ages of 10 and 15 during the genocide because they had to quit
school to care for their remaining young family members. Now they have no skills
to sell, and cannot afford to go back to school to get an education. Jean-Pierre
sells cabbages in the market, but when he was younger he had wanted to be a
teacher.
5.7 At the Peace Village we also met Gihozo Christian (aged 4) who is the
first child in the village to be born to an orphan. Perhaps Gihozo represents
new life for such a traumatised country.
5.8 Every person we met had their own traumatic story of bereavement. Nineteen year old Constance works at a garage during the day to provide for her four siblings. At night she attends computer classes and hopes to one day have an information technology career. Constance was nine at the time of the genocide, and she survived by hiding beneath the body of a dead boy. As she was escaping the militia, she came across the corpses of her father, aunt and two sisters, but she never found her mother’s body. Constance and her four siblings lived with another aunt after the war, but the aunt got married and the new husband beat the children and eventually threw them out. Constance had heard about the work of the Solace Ministries in Kigali and approached them for advice. They found her a house where she now lives with her family.
5.9
Constance is grateful for having a roof over her head, but she told us it was
more important that she had dependable adults she could come to for support. She
also finds it invaluable to discuss everyday problems with other child heads of
households, although she insisted the most ‘healing’ benefit of her
involvement with the Solace Ministry was finally being able to tell her story.
5.10 Another orphan survivor, John Bosco Gasangwa, from Butare, agreed. “After the genocide no one wanted to talk about what had happened, and we children went around with a huge pain in our hearts. For years I felt so depressed and despondent, and I didn’t know what the point of living was. Then I was able to talk to others who had experienced the same horrors, and it was amazingly healing.”
Left: Constance was nine years old when she survived the genocide.
5.11 Although the Rwandan Government favours the creation of
child-headed households, the scale of the orphan problem means there are still
many orphanages, some of which cater for abandoned babies too. Despite the
difficult circumstances at Reverend Ngondo’s Foundation in Kigali, we were
struck by the determination of the children to make the most of school and
become professionals such as lawyers and doctors. Ngondo’s orphanage has 41
children, most of whom are genocide survivors or the offspring of people who
have died of AIDS. A few of the children are HIV positive, and we were concerned
that there appears to be no special provision in Rwanda for dealing with the
medical problems of child AIDS sufferers, or their eventual demise. Although the
other children at the orphanage are supportive of the ones with AIDS, we
wondered how they were expected to cope with their medical needs.
5.12 There is currently only one hospice in Rwanda with just 10 beds and no
children’s hospice, something World Relief’s Colette Cunningham hopes to
change in the future. However next year World Relief hopes to train church
volunteers in palliative care and to support Home based palliative care with HBC
kits and volunteer training. She explained that $28m from the PEPFAR has been
allocated to the Community Based NGO partners in Rwanda, one of which being
World Relief. Initially the church, which is still greatly respected in Rwandan
life, was reluctant to get involved in AIDS, but it has now committed itself to
using its pivotal position in the community to ‘mobilise for life’.
Increased financial assistance is being used to train pastors and volunteers in
each province to identify orphans and vulnerable children and to make sure they
are tested, given nutrition, support and treatment within the community. However
Colette Cunningham warned us that Rwanda has a very young population, growing
rapidly, and already 16% of the 20-24 age group are HIV positive.
5.13 Another challenge presented by the growing population, and the huge
number of orphans, is in education. Before the war teaching was one of the few
professions open to Tutsi, and they were wiped out en masse during the genocide.
As a consequence there is a now a severe shortage of both educators and school
places. Rwanda recently made primary education free for all, and classes of 30
suddenly became classes of 200.
5.14 Many people we spoke to expressed reservations about the quality of the
state system. “If you pay $2 a year to go to the village school, what do you
expect?” said one parent who prefers to make sacrifices to send her children
to private schools. There are not enough places in state schools, so there is a
large private sector. We were told a reasonable education would cost $200 a
year, a huge sum, given that average earnings are $280 a year in Rwanda.
5.15 Church groups running orphanages or supporting child headed households
had no choice but to pay for their children to go privately, and to supply
uniforms, books and transportation costs. This is a financial burden on already
overstretched NGOs caring for orphans, and we hope the international community
will earmark funds to enable the Rwandan Government to provide free education of
orphans, a vulnerable group which, as has been mentioned, often selflessly put
the needs of their extended families before their desire to go to school.
5.16 The Government ministers we met, such as Angelina Muganza, Minister of
State for Public Service, Skills Development, Vocation training and Labour, were
acutely aware of the need to skill their young people and encourage them away
from the belief that they can work on the land as their parent’s generation
had. “Educate the women and you educate the nation,” she said, describing
initiatives to get girls to study science subjects in particular.
5.17 The United Nations estimates that 98% of children witnessed someone
being killed during the genocide. We cannot begin to adequately evaluate the
long term repercussions for both the survivors and those who perpetrated the
murders. Ben Kayumba of Solace Ministries put it, “I used to look at every
face I passed on the street or in a crowds and wonder if they had killed my
family. It took me a long time to stop thinking everyone was evil.”
5.18 Antoine Rutayisire believes many young people are burdened by feelings
of great anger that they have been unable to express, not least because others,
particularly adults, have wanted to avoid the subject. Groups like Solace
Ministries organises forums where survivors can give testimony, but generally
there are very few arenas in which young people can confront the past, grieve or
express their resentment.
5.19 “How are the children of the generation who committed the atrocities
going to make sense of the behaviour of their parents?” Rutayisire wonders.
“What are we going to do with children who were so brainwashed by propaganda
that they killed their own mothers and desecrated their bodies?”
5.20 John Bosco Gasangwa is a survivor, now at university, who found it
changed his life to meet with other orphans to talk about his experiences. He
felt profoundly empty and alone until he heard what another boy his age went
through. “This boy hid behind a fence when the Interahamwe came for his
father. His father was a very tall man, and so the militia first cut off his
legs, then cut him in half at the middle, and finally cut off his head. Then the
boy watched as the same men attacked his pregnant mother and cut her open.”
5.21 In Rwanda every orphan has a similar horror story, but Rutayisire, who
runs African Enterprise in Rwanda, is optimistic, and believes young people are
now growing up in a much less corrosive environment, without ethnic labels.
“Now they may discriminate in private, but hopefully the next generation will
put it behind them. We are a generation in transition, carrying the wounds of
the past, and trying to shape the future.”
6.0 The Consequences of Genocide: Widows
6.1 The story of one woman we met represents the dire consequences of the genocide still being visited upon Rwanda’s women. The past ten years of Bertrude Mukandigo’s life encapsulate all that has flowed from the 100 days of murder. On the day when the genocide reached her town of Guro, Bertrude was raped by eight different men. On subsequent days she was raped again repeatedly by soldiers who tormented her as if returning and violating her were a game. She became pregnant and HIV positive as a result, and the baby she gave birth too was also HIV positive.
6.2
The men who raped her escaped across the border. One of them returned from the
refugee camps in 1996, and when she passed him in the street he was initially
afraid she would report him to the authorities. Due partly to the stigma
attached to rape in Rwanda and due to her decision to forgive her perpetrators,
Bertrude told him he had nothing to fear.
Left: Bertrude's story encapsulated the plight of
Rwanda's widows.
6.3 She married a man who, it emerged was also HIV positive, and they had two children, one of whom has Downs Syndrome, and other of whom is HIV positive. Her husband has now died, leaving her with three children, and no extended family nearby. As if that were not bad enough, the man who raped her began to threaten her, fearing she would go to the Gacaca to denounce him. His threats have become more frequent and frightening, made worse for her by the knowledge that genocide survivors across Rwanda are being hunted down and intimidated and in some cases killed.
6.4 An example of this intimidation is the story of one of Bertrude’s
friends who was attacked and raped with a stick and who is still in hospital.
Bertrude is terrified because she is receiving threatening letters, and wants to
move to an area where she is among friends and feels safer. Sadly she lacks the
money to relocate at will. When asked what the police were doing about the
intimidation, she explained that in country areas there are too few police to
respond. Jubilee Action has committed to raise the funds to re-house her, but we
are acutely aware her plight is shared by many thousands of genocide survivors.
6.5 The Interahamwe systematically used rape as a weapon of war throughout
the genocide period, knowing it would shame and humiliate their victims,
particularly in a traditional society in which rape stigmatises the female
victim. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 200,000 women were raped in
the course of the 100 days, and many more were made widows. The rate of HIV/AIDS
among widows is twice the national average as a result of the genocidaires
programme of ethnic extermination.
6.6 At Solace Ministries in Kigali we attended a widows’ support meeting at
which women listened to each others’ testimony about their experiences during
the genocide, and the hardships since. Many had scars on their arms, heads and
faces from machete cuts, and some were missing hands. Each had an extraordinary
story: witnessing their husbands, siblings and children killed; hiding from the
murderers who were often their neighbours and friends who had suddenly turned on
them, calling them snakes and cockroaches; travelling across country to try to
find refuge; and being raped by genocidaires. Since the killing stopped, some of
them they have suffered from the stigma of rape; some have become HIV positive,
infected by the men who raped them; most have had trouble finding somewhere to
live and work; and all have struggled financially.
6.7 Another feature common to the widow’s lives is the difficulty in coming
to terms with what they saw, and talking about their experiences. Solace
provides a supportive forum for widows to come together, as well as practical
help, training women in handicrafts such as soap-making, toy-making and weaving
to help them generate income. They also have a bakery and a pineapple plantation
producing 12,000 fruit a year currently, and aiming for 50,000 next year. In
addition Solace has fields outside Kigali in which they grow mushrooms, beans
and sweet potatoes.
6.8 We met Patricia, a tall, elegant woman with a quick smile, who is the
president of the community association of 35 widows in Kabuga. There the widows
make soap and weave baskets to support themselves. They said they feel safer
living together in the same community, and they were very aware of the threats
to genocide survivors who witnessed killings and are potential witnesses at
Gacaca hearings. As she said, “The devil of death is still operating in this
region.”
6.9 Jean Gakwandi, who started Solace in 1995, recognised an enormous need
for comforting and understanding, putting people in touch with deeply suppressed
emotions. He now runs special camps for the most profoundly traumatised, and has
found it is only with time that the widows are able to admit what had happened
to them. Often it takes months or years before it emerges they were raped, and
them Solace arranges HIV testing.
6.10 Those who test positive receive nutrition, and as much medical treatment
as Solace can afford. Currently, 23 out of a total of 350 HIV positive widows
are getting ARV, with 49 on the waiting list. They all attend twice monthly
meetings to share their problems, fears and experiences of living with HIV or
AIDS. The cost of treating people is falling, and will be further reduced due to
Kenyan-produced generics, but the current $160 a month for ARV alone is a
fortune in a country where the average annual income is $280.
6.11 Solace is also training widows to provide counselling and health
education to other women in the same situation. In addition they have collected
testimony, an activity we increasingly realised is vital to countering
genocide-denial charges (see below: Human Rights). Solace make a point of
integrating HIV positive sufferers with healthy women in each of their work and
training areas, aiming to build support mechanisms for when they become ill and
need help. They have found that HIV
sufferers survive longer when they live and work with uninfected people, and
healthy people in turn lose their fear of HIV and AIDS. Solace also has a
home-based programme of support for AIDS sufferers. We were both moved and
impressed by the work being done at Solace, and by the commitment, efficiency
and humanity of Jean Gakwandi, Ben Kayumba and the others.
6.12 Women have a tough enough time in Rwanda because in their traditional
role they carry the burden of working in the fields, walking miles twice a day
to fetch water, raising the family and taking care of their house and husband.
We were told on many occasions that women are not given enough say in whether or
not they consent to sex or marriage or the use of condoms. In some areas custom
has it that a widow can be claimed by the male relatives of her dead husband’s
family and forced to marry one of them. There is also pressure on young girls to
become sexually active at puberty, with little consideration given to their
wishes. The fight against AIDS in Rwanda has not been helped by hostile male
attitudes to abstinence, monogamy and condoms, nor by a reluctance to discuss
such previously taboo subjects.
6.13
Josephine Uwamariya of Health Unlimited runs a weekly radio soap opera, called
Urunana (hand in hand) which is modelled on the Archers, in which social
problems such as HIV/AIDS, rape and domestic violence are dramatised. It is a
hugely popular programme – reaching 60% of the population - although men are
known to confiscate the household radios in annoyance at its message.
Left: Rwandan Warriors in Butare.
6.14 A member of our delegation, Dr Richard Rowland of Judah Trust, has run AIDS
awareness programmes across Rwanda in which sensitive subjects are broached
through drama. Despite these excellent initiatives, and the wholehearted
commitment of the Rwandan Government to tackle AIDS, general ignorance and
truculent male attitudes make it an uphill struggle at a grassroots level. It is
very encouraging that Rwanda leads the world in female parliamentary
representation (48%) and women government members (30%), and we trust and
believe their influence is already being felt throughout society.
This partnership of men and women will be required to re-shape attitudes
and behaviour.
6.15 When we met President Kagame we asked him if he would spearhead a public
information campaign to educate Rwandan men about HIV/AIDS and sexual health.
Given the respect in which President is held across the country, we felt it
could be invaluable to use his standing to get the message across. He agreed
with this suggestion. He was also supportive of an initiative to put primary
school books designed to teach children about HIV/AIDS in schools. Dr Richard
Rowland gave him an example of the book produced and used in Zimbabwe towards an
AIDS-Free generation.
7.0 The Consequences of Genocide:
the Democratic Republic of Congo
7.1 Another lasting and devastating consequence of
the genocide is the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see
opening narrative). Our meeting with the Rwandan president was timely because
Prime Minister Bernard Makusa had just signed an agreement with DRC’s
President Kabila at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly in
New York.
7.2 When we met President Paul Kagame at his
offices in Kigali, we encouraged him to pursue and persist with his attempts to
build a personal bridge to DRC’s President Joseph Kabila. We referred to the
lessons of Northern Ireland peace process, and urged him to put in place
confidence building measures such as exchanging diplomatic representatives with
Kinshasa. He was receptive to attempts to establish and maintain dialogue with
Kabila personally, and DRC, and we hope to propose a tri-partite Inter
Parliamentary Union dialogue, bringing politicians from DRC and Rwanda to
Britain.
7.3 We also met the Hon. Evariste Kalisa, a member
of the Rwandan Parliament who chairs the Human Rights Committee. He told us of
the Amani Forum (the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace) which he helped
found in 1998. Based in Nairobi,
the Forum includes Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzinia, Kenya, Zambia and Burundi – but
not yet DRC. President Kagame told
us that he strongly welcomed such initiatives and said that the ideal way
forward would be a bilateral DRC/Rwandan military force to deal with the militia
and to assist DRC restore sovereignty over its territory.
We were impressed by the President’s commitment to forging a personal
and close working relationship with President Kabila.
7.4 Although we are acutely conscious the UK did nothing to help Rwanda when it needed it in 1994, President Kagame made it clear to us that he values the friendship and active help of the United Kingdom.
8.0 Recommendations:
8.1 Conflict
8.1.1 Rwanda deserves the support of the
international community in their concern for the rights of the ethnic Tutsi
population in eastern DRC. We call upon the DRC (as we have Rwanda) to commit
itself to stopping the flow of arms and support to militia within eastern DRC
which continue to harass and kill the ethnic Tutsi population. We also call upon
the international community to respond to Rwanda’s concerns.
Specifically we urge the UK government to use its
role as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to demand the
clarification of MONUC’s mandate in DRC. We call for a consistent mandate to
be acted upon and publicised sufficiently to let the local population know what
they can expect from UN peacekeepers.
8.1.2 We urge Rwanda and DRC to establish
embassies in each other’s countries as soon as possible. We also urge them to
begin a process of constructing confidence building measures and joint
institutions between the two nations, their politicians, business leaders, civil
society groups and churches. Moreover we urge the leadership of both Rwanda and
DRC to develop the personal relationships from which so much reconciliation and
practical progress can flow.
8.1.3 We welcome the Amani Forum initiative and
hope the DRC will support it. We believe it provides a very helpful model of
building multinational institutions which can further mutual understanding, air
differences and lead to constructive engagement.
8.1.4 We commend Rwanda for being the first nation
to send peacekeeping troops to Darfur. We urge the Rwandan army to maintain its
high levels of professionalism.
8.1.5 We commend the British Government for its
overall support for Rwanda, and for maintaining relationships between the two
countries through regular ministerial visits. However we think it is vital for
the Foreign Office to recognise the scale and impact on the region of the
conflict in DRC, and therefore to visit DRC and establish equally strong ties.
8.1.6 Leading on from recommendation 5) above, we
believe Britain is uniquely placed to act as an honest broker between DRC and
Rwanda. Just as an outsider, Senator George Mitchell, helped to make the
Northern Ireland peace process work, so it may be that Britain could play a
useful role in facilitating dialogue between DRC and Rwanda. The British
Government should commit itself to playing this role, recognising how
interconnected so many of the region’s problems are.
8.2 Advocacy:
8.2.1 We applaud the training of judges and court
officers throughout Rwanda to handle the huge backlog of Gacaca trials. We
recognise the enormous strides that have been made in rebuilding the nation’s
system of justice. We therefore urge the Rwandan Government to strive to protect
the human rights of all its citizens through a legal system that is transparent
and fair.
8.2.2 We urge the Human Rights Commission to
establish and maintain a proper dialogue with human rights NGOs, recognising
that an exchange of views can be invaluable for both sides, and that Rwanda’s
friends around the world need to be reassured about the country’s commitment
to democracy, human rights, and fostering an open society.
We also urge the Human Rights Commission to
demonstrate its independence from government by questioning the suppression of
constructive dissent and political opposition within Rwanda, and by pressing for
the prosecution of those responsible for crimes against all parts of the
community during and after the genocide.
We urge them to benefit from decades of trial and
error in Europe by examining existing European Union and British laws which
guarantee human rights, and balance freedom of speech with the need to prevent
ethnic hatred and discrimination.
8.2.3 We applaud the decision by the international
community to provide funding to develop an infrastructure to provide HIV/AIDS
treatment for women who were raped and infected during the genocide, however
late it might be.
8.2.4 We commend President Kagame for agreeing to
spearhead a public information campaign to educate Rwanda’s men about HIV/AIDS
and sexual health.
8.2.5 We applaud NGO’s such as World Relief for
providing books appropriate for secondary schools.
8.2.6 We urge the Prosecutor General and the
Ministry of Justice to bring to justice perpetrators of genocide from all parts
of the community and to apply justice, and what is more, be seen to apply
justice equally. We commend the work of the International War Crimes Tribunal in
the former Yugoslavia in striving to hold to account members of all sections of
the population who violated the human rights of others, and we believe their
work should be of interest to the Rwandan Government in its attempts to bring
true reconciliation to Rwanda.
8.2.7 The central role of the church in promoting
national cohesion, reconciliation, and a recognition of human dignity should
both be recognised and encouraged. The courage of those who resisted the
genocide should be celebrated and taught as an inspiration to others, and where
the church failed, appropriate public admission should be made and lessons
learnt.
As a priority, western churches should devote
resources to helping the Rwandan church, and parish-to-parish,
fellowship-fellowship relationships should be forged.
8.2.8 The Governor of Butare province told us that
he would like to see Butare city to twin with a British city. Since an admirable
proportion of the Rwandans we met are ardent supporters of Liverpool Football
Club, Liverpool would make a good choice. Its
association with Africa and its own suffering during World War II commend it but
there are other obvious cities such as Coventry. The Foreign and Commonwealth
Office might like to facilitate this request.
8.2.9 We commend the efforts by SURF and the
Solace Ministries to compile an archive of testimony from genocide survivors, so
long as they reflect the suffering and experiences of the whole community.
8.3 Children:
8.3.1
We encourage NGOs to actively promote African solutions to Rwanda’s problems,
pointing out African success stories and projects appropriate to Rwanda. For
instance we commend the Scripture Union of Zimbabwe’s primary school textbook,
“Towards an Aids-free generation”. On women’s issues, we also urge that
the success of projects run by African women should be a model for initiatives
in Rwanda. For instance we commend the work of Dr Phylista Onyango in Nairobi as
a model to create self-help commercial initiatives.
Left: Child born inside
Nyanza Prison.
8.3.2 We commend to Dfid the application of the
women’s organisation MOGAR, whose President is Josephine Irene Uwarmariya of
the proposed project to redress and prevent acts of sexual gender violence.
8.3.3 We applaud the Rwandan Government for making primary education free to all. We urge the international community to direct its resources to programmes aimed at providing free education, books and uniforms to Rwanda’s orphans. We believe this would remove a great financial burden from overstretched NGOs and church groups struggling to provide for orphans.
8.3.4 We applaud the enthusiasm of the
Rwandan Government for cultivating computer literacy. We urge the international
community to focus its programmes on supporting and enhancing the teaching of
information technology to both children and adults in Rwanda.
8.3.5 We recognise that the genocide and the fast
rate of population growth have placed great burdens on the Rwandan education
system. The decision to make primary education free has meant that classes of 30
have grown to 200. We urge the international community to direct its aid at
programmes for training many more teachers, retraining existing teachers, and
enhancing the quality of education.
8.3.6 We recognise that the medical profession was
decimated in the genocide and we urge the international community to prioritise
programmes aimed at training new doctors and retraining existing medical
professions to prepare for the challenges of a rapidly growing population,
HIV/AIDS etc.
8.3.7 We recommend that World Relief incorporates
the cost of printing “Towards an Aids-Free generation” into the current
PEFFAR programme, so that every schoolchild in Rwanda may receive a copy; and
that the proposal for a children’s AIDS hospice in Rwanda and the development
of palliative care be made an urgent priority.
8.3.8 We welcome the Rwandan Government’s
commitment to provide AIDS treatment to street children, and we will be
recommending to Jubilee Action that they support the work of the Catholic and
Episcopal Bishops of Butare in relation to their work with street children and
commercial sex workers.
8.3.9 We recommend Jubilee Action responds practically to assist the orphans of genocide by supporting education, health, housing and IT projects; in addition should continue to promote dialogue internally in Rwanda and externally in the DRC.
9.0 Conclusion
9.1 We re-iterate our enormous gratitude to our
hosts and for their commitment in facilitating our visit and in patiently
answering our inquiries.
9.2 We were visiting the country just after Rwanda had commemorated the 10th Anniversary of the genocide.
Left: David Alton with the
first child of an orphan at the Peace Village.
9.3 At many of the sites where the killings
occurred, we saw the words “Never Again”.
9.4 Rwandan people need to forgive one another, if the country is to be healed
and enabled to move on, and if such shocking events are not to be repeated in a
future bloodbath. But Rwanda should
never be asked to simply “Forgive and Forget”.
Rwanda does need to forgive but it must also remember. The international
community also needs to remember.
9.5 If we learn nothing from our failure to prevent the deaths of 800,000 people – and from what we saw in DRC and later in Darfur that seems to be the case – it truly will be unforgivable. It would also make a mockery of the cry of the dead that such crimes against humanity should never be allowed to happen again.
10.0 Contact Information
Jubilee Action
St. Johns, Cranleigh Road
Wonersh, Surrey
GU5 0QX
Tel 00 44 1483 894 787 Fax 00 44 1483 894 797