The body of Rwanda was tortured and assaulted, but its spirit never died

As stated by President Paul Kagame, “The body of Rwanda was tortured, assaulted, and succumbed but the spirit never died. Rwanda will not perish for a second time”. Illustration/John Nyagah 

By Pierre Damien Habumuremyi

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In Rwanda, April 1994 and April 2014 represent two extremes. For those who experienced the 1994 genocide that systematically claimed more than a million Rwandan lives, the way the country has been able to recover its unity, dignity and prosperity within 20 years is almost unimaginable.

The scale of atrocities committed against Rwandans by their fellow citizens remains vivid in the collective memory of our society. Today, we remember, with bitterness, the victims of the killing machine manipulated by supporters and cronies of the regime of president Juvenal Habyarimana.

At the same time, Rwanda is proud that it did not perish. Instead, under the guidance of innovative political leaders, driven by the imperative of inclusion, it rebuilt itself.

It is not a miracle as many would claim, but rather a result of the commitment of the new leadership to shaping Rwanda into a reconciled, inclusive and resilient society. To sustain what we achieved from scratch, we must always be mindful of our history and learn from it.

Rwanda of April to July 1994 was a period of madness. The 1994 genocide was not spontaneous. It was pre-trialled in episodes of Tutsi killing starting in the 1960s.

The 1994 Genocide against Tutsi was the apocalypse predicted by Col Theoneste Bagosora in August 1993. On April 6, 1994, around 8pm, immediately after the announcement of the crash of the plane carrying president Habyarimana, killings targeting Tutsi started in the capital Kigali.

That same night, a statement from the high command of the army called upon everyone to remain at home. Subsequently, meetings to mobilise Hutu peasant to participate in hunting down Tutsi were held by civil and military authorities, ranging from the top down to village leaders commonly known as Nyumbakumi.

To ensure that no Tutsi survived, roadblocks were set up and guarded by Interahamwe militia trained for this purpose. Tutsi of all ages, from infants to the elderly, died a horrible death.

They were killed either by machetes, clubs, or sharpened wooden sticks. Formerly sacred places such as churches were transformed into human abattoirs, sometimes with the complicity of the ordained shepherds.

The Genocide against the Tutsi is the most horrendous crime of the past century; neighbours who had lived peacefully together in the same village turned into wolves who eliminated their neighbours.

Spouses killed their partners, parents killed their children and vice versa, either willingly or through coercion from their neighbours, because they were thought to be somehow related to the Tutsi.

Bodies of victims were thrown in mass graves and septic tanks or into lakes and rivers while others piled up in streets across the country. Human evil had exceeded the limits of understanding. The Hutu killers were recruited from all classes, from peasants to intellectuals, and included political and military leaders.

The genocide left the country completely ruined. The country’s social fabric was destroyed. Genocidaires lived alongside genocide survivors and this made reconciliation difficult.

Over two million people, mainly Hutu, lived in refugee camps scattered in neighbouring countries at the mercy of Interahamwe militia and the defeated Rwandan army, FAR, for Forces Armees Rwandaise.

Almost all these refugees have since been repatriated. However, remnants of Interahamwe and ex-FAR have formed an alliance to destabilise the country under the umbrella of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, FDLR.