mchambawima1
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 16, 2014
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Youth Activist| PanAfricanist | Community Helper |Positive Thinker | Change Maker | #Rwanda-n Co-Founder Youth Civic Engagement Program @YouthCivicRw
4 days ago5 min read
I. #Rwanda 22 years on: Dead are silent, the living struggle on, and #Kwibuka22 is a Duty of Memory
During the genocide, I was in a preschoolers ages. Indeed it’s not easy to understand how I have kept some of these memories (photos) that hardly scroll in my mind. Passing over dead bodies, hiding and camping in the jungle, separating from my parents and having to meet them after some days; no matter how old I was such memories will never fade. In the genocide I lost many of my family members, but from my mother’s family, the slaughter was merciless because none of in her family survived including her. Sometimes I find it hard to imagine if her village was once a home where people lived. Down this traumatic road, Rwandans have been able to forgive those who killed all those innocent lives to better our future. This is one of the most valuable gift one can contribute to the healing story of Rwanda; one does so with humility, because thousands of young and brave men Inkotanyi Cyane risked their lives to save me and my country for the good of all of us, sometime you can’t manage to understand what our life will be like.
Rwanda’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame interacting with elderly and needy genocide widows and widowers.
Today it is over 22 years after this shade of darkness we experienced; everyone has their way they want to embrace it. Either as short or long depending on where one stands though this can’t restore what we lost. Ultimately, hard choices still need to be made as well as to strengthen an inclusive unit and reconciliation through home grown solutions like “Ndi Umunyarwanda Program.” In 1994 more than one million Rwandans were tortured to death; it started with one person, then 10,000 people each day, 400 each hour, 7 each minute, and 24 hours in a day, nonstop.
Official figures published by the Rwandan government, estimated the number of victims of the genocide to be 1,174,000 moreover massacred in 100 days, where ordinary people were hurt by machetes thus making it easy for the killings to occur in every corner of the country. However, these massacres which swept over Rwanda in the 1990’s were not a surprise to the nation, conflicts had sporadically occurred in 1912, 1959, throughout the 1960s, 1973 and 1990, thus setting a pattern for the 1994 eruption.
Anyone who gets a chance to pay a visit to one of the Genocide Memorials in Rwanda isn’t able to control the tears that well up and the pain that strikes in their hearts, you can’t bear the thought of it. The more you move from section to section looking at the pictures of those unfortunate souls, you cry at every person’s pain.
However, it is so horrible when one moves to the children’s section at Kigali Genocide memorial, where one sees the faces of those innocent babies and the imagination of how these children were killed with axes, smashed on the ground, and cut in pieces by their own neighbours, is terribly heart-breaking.
One cries at every child who was killed, for every family which lost its future and a country whose future generation was almost exterminated. “Every female who was not killed, at least was raped. Moreover, even some of them, were both raped and killed.” These estimated war time pregnancies are considered to be between, 2000 to 5000.
When I ponder on this atrocity, I realize that those innocent souls never got a chance to decide and choose when and where to give life. Thousands of widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. In addition, the genocide left thousands of orphans who have managed to survive without a family and have started their own lives in many ways. However, the year 1994, saw unprecedented violence, systematic and wilful killings.
Genocide ideology is ever present, Some countries like France which were in full support of the Hutu militia, participated in the genocide against the Tutsi, by training and providing military support still a home to the genocidaire regime. Although France, through its district Judge Jean Louis Bruguierre, released an arrest warrant against 40 high ranking former RPA who had ousted the genocidaire regime that was under umbrella of France government.
Although, Rwandans were once betrayed by the international community, they were able to sustain a resilient spirit which has helped them build the cornerstone of a new Rwandan story. Today, Rwanda’s annual growth is averaged at 7% per year since 2001. 96% of young Rwandans have enrolled in school, 90% Rwandans have their healthcare covered and 64% women take part in the Nation Assembly. More than 1.6m, Rwandans have been lifted out of poverty since 2006 from the 56.7% down to 39.1% in 2014.
During the official launch of last EICV4:2014 survey, President Kagame was quoted saying, “The only fitting response to remaining challenges is to get back to work and speed up progress towards the Rwanda we want and deserve. Good numbers, like good people, don’t lie. But we still have to keep improving.” Rwanda has broadly met the MDGs for example, extreme poverty alleviation to 16%, strengthening education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, reduction in maternal deaths and mortality rates.
Everything has a cost, we owe all this success to those who live in the sorrow of having lost their beloveds one and have accepted to endure the unbelievable act of forgiveness, and those who live door to door with those who massacred their relatives. The women and girls who were raped and left with unwanted pregnancy during the genocide against Tutsi, and the children were born in sexual violence but are nevertheless, committed to building their country. Inasmuch, all of these people, are living heroes to me. They have one purpose, one vision and one dream towards the future they deserve.
If it wasn’t for the President Paul Kagame’s political vision and the amazing resilient people of Rwanda who pursued unity and reconciliation in anticipation of Gacaca, Rwanda wouldn’t be where it is today. I owe the renewal of our country to them, because they defied their emotions for revenge and hatred, to forgiveness and reconciliation. Their humanity and patriotism prevailed over their grief and loss, their sacrifices are a gift to the nation and its future hence, this is the seed from which the new Rwanda grows.
Let no one have any illusions about this, when it comes to the issue of genocide ideology we fight it hard, to ensure that their lives were not lost for nothing. We will not rest until every murderer, rapists and criminal, especially the ringleaders, involved in the orchestrating, execution and supervising of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi brought to justice.
Philemon Mbayisha
4 days ago5 min read
I. #Rwanda 22 years on: Dead are silent, the living struggle on, and #Kwibuka22 is a Duty of Memory
During the genocide, I was in a preschoolers ages. Indeed it’s not easy to understand how I have kept some of these memories (photos) that hardly scroll in my mind. Passing over dead bodies, hiding and camping in the jungle, separating from my parents and having to meet them after some days; no matter how old I was such memories will never fade. In the genocide I lost many of my family members, but from my mother’s family, the slaughter was merciless because none of in her family survived including her. Sometimes I find it hard to imagine if her village was once a home where people lived. Down this traumatic road, Rwandans have been able to forgive those who killed all those innocent lives to better our future. This is one of the most valuable gift one can contribute to the healing story of Rwanda; one does so with humility, because thousands of young and brave men Inkotanyi Cyane risked their lives to save me and my country for the good of all of us, sometime you can’t manage to understand what our life will be like.
Rwanda’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame interacting with elderly and needy genocide widows and widowers.
Today it is over 22 years after this shade of darkness we experienced; everyone has their way they want to embrace it. Either as short or long depending on where one stands though this can’t restore what we lost. Ultimately, hard choices still need to be made as well as to strengthen an inclusive unit and reconciliation through home grown solutions like “Ndi Umunyarwanda Program.” In 1994 more than one million Rwandans were tortured to death; it started with one person, then 10,000 people each day, 400 each hour, 7 each minute, and 24 hours in a day, nonstop.
Official figures published by the Rwandan government, estimated the number of victims of the genocide to be 1,174,000 moreover massacred in 100 days, where ordinary people were hurt by machetes thus making it easy for the killings to occur in every corner of the country. However, these massacres which swept over Rwanda in the 1990’s were not a surprise to the nation, conflicts had sporadically occurred in 1912, 1959, throughout the 1960s, 1973 and 1990, thus setting a pattern for the 1994 eruption.
Anyone who gets a chance to pay a visit to one of the Genocide Memorials in Rwanda isn’t able to control the tears that well up and the pain that strikes in their hearts, you can’t bear the thought of it. The more you move from section to section looking at the pictures of those unfortunate souls, you cry at every person’s pain.
However, it is so horrible when one moves to the children’s section at Kigali Genocide memorial, where one sees the faces of those innocent babies and the imagination of how these children were killed with axes, smashed on the ground, and cut in pieces by their own neighbours, is terribly heart-breaking.
One cries at every child who was killed, for every family which lost its future and a country whose future generation was almost exterminated. “Every female who was not killed, at least was raped. Moreover, even some of them, were both raped and killed.” These estimated war time pregnancies are considered to be between, 2000 to 5000.
When I ponder on this atrocity, I realize that those innocent souls never got a chance to decide and choose when and where to give life. Thousands of widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. In addition, the genocide left thousands of orphans who have managed to survive without a family and have started their own lives in many ways. However, the year 1994, saw unprecedented violence, systematic and wilful killings.
Genocide ideology is ever present, Some countries like France which were in full support of the Hutu militia, participated in the genocide against the Tutsi, by training and providing military support still a home to the genocidaire regime. Although France, through its district Judge Jean Louis Bruguierre, released an arrest warrant against 40 high ranking former RPA who had ousted the genocidaire regime that was under umbrella of France government.
Although, Rwandans were once betrayed by the international community, they were able to sustain a resilient spirit which has helped them build the cornerstone of a new Rwandan story. Today, Rwanda’s annual growth is averaged at 7% per year since 2001. 96% of young Rwandans have enrolled in school, 90% Rwandans have their healthcare covered and 64% women take part in the Nation Assembly. More than 1.6m, Rwandans have been lifted out of poverty since 2006 from the 56.7% down to 39.1% in 2014.
During the official launch of last EICV4:2014 survey, President Kagame was quoted saying, “The only fitting response to remaining challenges is to get back to work and speed up progress towards the Rwanda we want and deserve. Good numbers, like good people, don’t lie. But we still have to keep improving.” Rwanda has broadly met the MDGs for example, extreme poverty alleviation to 16%, strengthening education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, reduction in maternal deaths and mortality rates.
Everything has a cost, we owe all this success to those who live in the sorrow of having lost their beloveds one and have accepted to endure the unbelievable act of forgiveness, and those who live door to door with those who massacred their relatives. The women and girls who were raped and left with unwanted pregnancy during the genocide against Tutsi, and the children were born in sexual violence but are nevertheless, committed to building their country. Inasmuch, all of these people, are living heroes to me. They have one purpose, one vision and one dream towards the future they deserve.
If it wasn’t for the President Paul Kagame’s political vision and the amazing resilient people of Rwanda who pursued unity and reconciliation in anticipation of Gacaca, Rwanda wouldn’t be where it is today. I owe the renewal of our country to them, because they defied their emotions for revenge and hatred, to forgiveness and reconciliation. Their humanity and patriotism prevailed over their grief and loss, their sacrifices are a gift to the nation and its future hence, this is the seed from which the new Rwanda grows.
Let no one have any illusions about this, when it comes to the issue of genocide ideology we fight it hard, to ensure that their lives were not lost for nothing. We will not rest until every murderer, rapists and criminal, especially the ringleaders, involved in the orchestrating, execution and supervising of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi brought to justice.
Philemon Mbayisha
