Genocide
I have struggled with my Rwanda visit since I was there in early August. As I was entering the country, I was quite concerned about what kind of people I was going to meet. Basically, we have two groups – Hutus and Tutsis. Many of the Hutus massacred many of the Tutsis as well as Hutus that supported Tutsis (“moderate Hutus”) only twelve years earlier. Somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 people were murdered mainly by machete in a hundred day period. If you think modern technology is needed to carry out a genocide, think again!
I grilled most Africans I met about their lives and countries because I was very hungry to learn what it is like to be African in such a short period – coincidentally, about one hundred days. This seemed to work well until I got to Rwanda. After hearing the third person tell me their first-hand account of what the genocide was like, I stopped asking. I have never had such difficult conversations. I went to the Genocide Memorial and Museum in Kigali (this is a MUST for anyone traveling to Rwanda – an absolute world-class institution even if the topic is so difficult) and had a guide who is one of the most beautiful women I have ever met. She is Tutsi. Tutsis talk about the slaughter – I guess it is therapy for them. She told me about her family being murdered – all of her family. She told me about who did it – neighbors. She told me about how she escaped and lived in the bush on the run nearly getting caught multiple times herself for two months before getting to Burundi. I have never been told such a horrible story and I cried. She is past crying. She works at the memorial because it is healing.
The memorial walks you through the story. It starts a hundred or more years ago with two tribes that get along nicely – Hutus and Tutsis. They intermarry, they have a lot of the same traditions and they are indistinguishable (there is the classic Tutsi look of being tall with oval faces whereas Hutus are short and round, but it is not possible to say which group one belongs to due to the intermarrying). The Europeans set up a system where Tutsi became a higher socio-economic group. The Colonialists decided to only deal with Tutsis giving them all of the main functions including the best jobs. They started a quota system – 15% Tutsi, everyone else Hutu. In 1959, the genocide started. Yes, that’s right, 1959 – 35 years before the 1994 genocide that you know about.
So, for years the genocide would flare up and countries like France supported it. The UN supported it! The animosities between the two “groups” only got worse. I won’t belabor the French government’s active involvement, but I will say that if I ever get into a conversation with someone about the superiority of the French civilization or foreign policy, I will ask them to explain Rwanda. I saw huge books in Rwanda documenting what the French did to encourage and support the genocide. They went so far as to protect the Hutu perpetrators and help them escape! Rwandans, Tutsis and Hutus, do not miss what the French did to their country. By 1994, the country was ripe for the genocide that you know about to take place. And obviously it did!
I followed the genocide in 1994 closely. I watched the videos coming out daily (Hotel Rwanda covers the video journalists that got the story out to the world) and I watched the Clinton Administration as well as the UN claim that there was no genocide taking place. They decided that the only way legally to not get involved is to claim that there was no genocide because we belong to a UN agreement that says we must stop genocide. I was so disgusted by all of it and I remember this being the time when I realized that the UN was a pretty useless group of bureaucrats. The only positive thing I can say about America for the genocide is that Clinton and Albright everntually declared that this was their biggest mistake and Clinton went as far as apologizing to the Rwandan government when he stopped over at the Kigali airport in the late 1990s. My guess is that his conscience is still bothered by all of this since he and the UN could have stopped it. And probably would have stopped it if it had been Europe (Bosnia) or if some US interest was at stake (like oil). The 1949 genocide agreement that we belong to seems like a joke even today given Darfur.
Kofi Annan is the most guilty and he received a promotion to head of the UN. He is the one that was responsible for denying/ignoring his general’s request for more troops and to take action to halt the genocide when it started to bubble over. His response caused Belgium troops to be murdered and for Belgium (almost as guilty as the French) to pull out of Rwanda as the genocidaires planned. I have nothing good to say about him, a corrupt crook, and look forward to his final day as head of the UN over the next few months.
When you drive around Rwanda, there are reminders about the genocide. First, there are signs marking the mass graves and sites where the murders took place in large numbers. Many of those places are schools and churches where people took refuge thinking they were safer until the perpetrators just had an easier time killing more at once. Catholic priests actually helped the perpetrators! I would love to ask the Vatican about that one. Some of the sickest stories I have ever heard. None of which make me feel good about being Catholic. And I don’t think the other religious groups were any better.
Second, there are signs that say the people must not forget the genocide, but they also must move beyond it. Paul Kigame led the RFP troops that came to the rescue of their Tutsi breathren from outside of Rwanda. He eventually became president of Rwanda, a position he still has today. I liken him to Nelson Mandela. He could have led his troops to retaliate and slaughter all of the Hutus. But after freeing the country of the genocidaires (a subset of the Hutus), he convinced his people to forgive. He stopped the violence and promoted the idea that they are all Rwandans and they are not Hutus and Tutsis. At the same time, he promoted the healing process of prosecuting the perpetrators. This process continues today.
Twice a month, every town is mandated to meet and discuss who amongst them are guilty. People are accused and the stories are told. If the “judges” decide the stories are true then the case is forwarded to a real judicial system and the person is tried. Some get five years in jail while the most serious offenders, the leaders, get the death penalty. The real leaders fled the country and they get it easy – UN tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania where there is no death penalty. I saw a lot of prisoners – they wear pink jumpsuits and you see them doing manual labor outside of the prisons. I guess it is a humbling experience for all. I saw two towns having their fortnightly meetings. They take place outdoors near the center of the village and it looked like everyone is present. They are all dressed up. I wanted to stop and see what the festivities were about and take pictures of all of the beautifully dressed up people… until I learned why they were meeting. We had just come down from a meeting with the gorillas and the reality was very hard to deal with. Luckily, before turning into the property where I was staying we saw a wedding party walking down the road and that lifted my spirit – maybe not as high as after being with the gorillas, but certainly higher.
I’m a huge fan of Rwanda. I love that country and I love the people there. I can only recommend that you go. It might sound crazy because I guarantee that there is ample opportunity for you to cry and feel shitty about humanity, but there is also ample opportunity for your spirit to fly high and have faith in our future, in Africa’s future. Do not go to Rwanda to just see the gorillas. Go and learn about what makes us so good and so bad juxtaposed to what the gorillas represent – the best of us. Go see one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Go see some of the most beautiful people on Earth. Go see some of the friendliest people on Earth. Read about the genocide, talk to people as much as you can about it – they are certainly willing to tell you their stories. And then know how complicated life is. I will go back to Rwanda and it won’t be just to see the gorillas as I had originally planned it to be this first time.
Tags: Africa, Travel
vagabondrick
In 1994, the President Clinton’s spokeswoman was talking about “acts of genocide” referring to the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda. She was not allowed to say the word “Genocide”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68XlAMy0k-s