rwanda: the genocide remembered

THE HISTORY OF THE GENOCIDE IN SECTOR GISHAMVU
A Collective Account

January 2003

Background:

As part of its work in monitoring the implementation of the gacaca trials, African Rights has compiled a written record of the history of the 1994 genocide in the 12 original pilot sectors. This first report is devoted to sector Gishamvu, Nyakizu district in Butare, which began hearings in June 2002. Based upon the collective testimony given by groups of residents who were present during the genocide—prisoners, survivors and local people who witnessed how the killings unfolded—this report aims to reflect a broad consensus on what happened.

In an effort to facilitate an open discussion and to obtain a balanced account, African Rights interviewed genocide suspects separately from survivors and witnesses, presenting the groups with a series of general questions and encouraging them to discuss them. They then appointed a spokesperson to deliver a shared recollection of events in their presence to ensure those involved agreed upon the final version.

In many cases, there are discrepancies with regard to times or dates. To a large extent, these may be attributed to the length of time which has elapsed and to the turmoil of the period itself. Inevitably, survivors and perpetrators focus on distinct aspects of the violence and from the opposite perspective. As a result, individual facts may remain contested. However, remarkable consistencies also emerge, providing a strong testament to many of the atrocities of the genocide in these pilot sectors.

In many respects, this endeavour on the part of African Rights corresponds to that of the gacaca trials themselves in uncovering the truth, as expressed by local residents. Indeed many of the voices that contributed to it have also spoken in the gacaca courts. The need to provide an independent report to stand alongside that which the court will submit is, however, in our view, essential. Practical concerns such as delays in gacaca hearings, difficulties in attending, intimidation and the fact that some court secretaries are semi-literate affect the progress of the courts in some areas. Moreover, as this report notes, the limited remit of the cellule courts delivers a segmented account of the genocide. The courts begin with the lists of known victims and perpetrators, a lengthy process, and then gather testimony relating to these specific deaths and abuses. Particularly given the redrawing of the commune boundaries, some of the events which locals regard as part of their experience, are necessarily omitted. The prosecutions require specific evidence, but the bigger picture can slide from view in the process.

This series of reports seeks to provide a background against which the results of the trials can be measured and to exist as a shared point of reference for all the residents. In this sense it is intended to support the gacaca trials and their emphasis upon justice and the fostering of mutual understanding.

EXTRACT FROM: THE HISTORY OF THE GENOCIDE IN SECTOR GISHAMVU - A Collective Account
Before the attack of 1 October 1990 by the Inkotanyi, there was an atmosphere of understanding between the Hutus and Tutsis of Gishamvu cellule. When the war broke out in October, if a Tutsi was taking his cows to graze at the pasture, the Hutus would say to him: “Look after them for us.” It even happened that the Hutus would refuse to farm saying that they were going to benefit from what the Tutsis would do. Those from our cellule had especially planned to benefit from the inheritance of Mukimbiri, a rich Tutsi from the cellule who was in business.
With the advent of multipartyism, certain Tutsis described as accomplices of the Inkotanyi, were mistreated. It was said that Mukimbiri was using his car to help young boys to join the Inkotanyi who had invaded Rwanda. They exhumed the grave of his wife on the pretext that there were weapons inside it, which had come from his children who had joined the Inkotanyi. This shows to which point political pluralism had brought conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis.
On the morning of 7 April 1994, the death of President Habyarimana was announced on the radio. The next day roadblocks were erected. The councillor of our sector, Célestin Kubwimana alias “Cyuma” held meetings across the whole of Gishamvu sector with the aim of making people aware of the need to carry out patrols to thwart the enemy. They said that the Inyenzi were going to attack the whole country. The term Inkotanyi wasn’t used in our area; instead they used the insulting term of Inyenzi. Gishamvu cellule was divided into three zones. Each zone had at least ten people who were supposed to go on patrol each night. There were three roadblocks, of which the most important was set up in front of the office of Gishamvu sector. It’s just along the road leading to the former commune office of Nyakizu.
During the patrols, men took turns on the team. The cellule responsables supervised how the patrols were made up. Hutus and Tutsis went on patrol together. A few days later, we saw Tutsi refugees coming from Gikongoro and the commune of Runyinya. They told us that at home, their houses had been burned down and that the arsonists had been dressed with bags over their head so that it was difficult for them to identify them. Some of these refugees had cows, carried little children and a few possessions, notably radios. When they arrived at the roadblock, their radios were taken from them.
In the week when the refugees arrived, probably between 14-18 April, some of the Tutsis from Gishamvu were not asked to take part in the patrols. Evariste Murindwa is a survivor from Gishamvu.
Between 15 and 16 April, my elder brother, Pascal Ntandayera, who was killed during the genocide, went to patrol. He and some other Tutsis like Murenzi and Bosco Gakwandi (who are all deceased) were told to go back home because no one had invited them.
This happened after councillor Kibwimana had held a meeting at Busoro, where he told the Hutus to get rid of their Tutsi enemy. Not one Tutsi had been invited to the meeting. Moreover, a Tutsi tried to edge his way in but was chased away. This was Théoneste Hakizimana who is currently a soldier of the RPA. At the time of the patrols, they were armed with spears, massues, and machetes. Those who went on patrol also had to have torches because it was forbidden to light a fire so as not to give directions to the “enemy.”
Between 15 and 16 April, the Tutsis of Gishamvu began to leave their houses. They left their belongings at home. Some of them took refuge in the mountains; in particular they occupied the hill called Gishamvu at a place called Gasyankingi. Meanwhile the others chose to remain to try and see if the situation would return to normal.
On 18 April, they began to burn the Tutsis’ houses. Before they lit the fires, they ransacked everything they found there. Everyone took something for himself. The household utensils, foodstuffs and crops which hadn’t yet matured were looted. In short any object that could be used was taken away. Cows, chickens, pigs, goats and rabbits were killed on the spot. They removed the tiles and the metal sheeting. Once only the structures were left, they set them on fire and finished by demolishing the walls. The wood which the trunk of the house was made of was taken away to use as firewood. By razing the houses to the ground, their aim was to deny the Inyenzi a hiding place. Throughout the cellule of Gishamvu, the Tutsis’ houses were left in ruins. Moreover, it’s difficult to specify where a house had stood except those built with cement, where the pavement remains as a trace. The arsonists were men, women, even children.
After they finished the looting and destruction, they went after the Tutsis who were in the mountains. On 19 April, these Tutsis refugees in the mountains had linked up with those from Gikongoro and Runyinya who were camping in the Grand Seminary of Nyakibanda and at Nyumba parish.
On 20 April, the militiamen came to ravage Nyumba parish. So as not to be confused with the others, they were dressed in banana leaves. At the parish, they looted rice, beans, potatoes, sorghum, money and a generator, etc. As the looting was being carried out in a chaotic fashion, one of the workers at the parish, Nicodème Ruvugabigwi, and the elder brother of councillor Kubwimana, pointed out to them where the property of value was to be found. This looting was the work of the people of Nyakibanda and Gishamvu.
At 6:00 a.m. in the morning, on 21 April, they went back to Nyumba parish. Because we were on the field, they threw stones into the crowd. They had arrived in the cars belonging to the commune of Gishamvu, driven by Evariste Gatabazi, the man who looted Mukimbiri’s house, who is now in exile. We tried to defend ourselves, but in vain. We didn’t have enough strength as we were hungry. Some of us managed to escape. Firearms were also used. Among those who were shooting us, there was the former councillor of Gishamvu, Kibwimana, (in exile); a communal policeman, Joseph Nyamwasa, (in exile); Damascène Ruzibiza, (detained in Gishamvu prison) and Emile Ntagugura, a communal policeman held in Butare central prison. That day, none of the refugees were killed by the stones. But the firearms claimed a lot of victims. The refugees came from all the corners of the country and there were many of them. By the time we reached the parish, some of the refugees were beginning to look for another place to hide.
On the morning of 22 April, the murderers returned to perfect their plan of extermination. The work was easily accomplished since the refugees were completely starving. The massacre began at 8:00 a.m. The gunmen were helped by people armed with double-edged machetes and massues. Some had come from sectors neighbouring Gishamvu. The people armed with traditional weapons killed those who were trying to flee, while those who had firearms killed the refugees where they had gathered together. The killing spree lasted the whole day and finished at 5:00 p.m. However, the militiamen continued to surround us so that no one could escape them. In defending themselves, the refugees murdered one of the killers who tried to climb onto the roof to reach the inside of the priests’ enclosure. The refugees first threw stones before finishing him off with a machete. He had come from sector Gikunzi, situated in Gishamvu commune. In the night some of us were able to leave at around 11:00 p.m. so as to get to Burundi, with all the risks that were there. The death toll of the victims was estimated at more than 2000 because all the parish buildings were full of bodies.
A few Tutsis escaped the killings in Nyumba, but they moved after the genocide, for instance Alphonsine Yankulije who is now staying in Kigali. When we left Nyumba, we were troubled by the fear of dying on the way like the refugees who had been killed along the way without ever reaching their destination. We were in single file; those who were at the front couldn’t know what was happening behind them. When we arrived in Burundi, we noticed that our number had diminished appreciably. There were other refugees there who had arrived before us.
Apart from the parish of Nyumba and the Grand Seminary of Nyakibanda, other people were killed on the hills when they were still at home, for example Marcianne Karubera, her daughter-in-law Immaculée Mukakayonde and her child who died on 19 April. They were thrown into an anti-erosion pit. Others were left on the hills where they had been murdered. This was the case for Ngiziyabyo, Béatrice Mukankusi, François Mukimbiri and his son Lambert, Jean-Baptiste Bwana, Anastase Ntawiha, Alexis Ntawuyirushamaboko, Suzanne Muhimpundu, who had given birth the day before, and her three children. The victims are numerous and traditional weapons were used to finish them off. The first victim of Gishamvu cellule to be killed was named Nyabyenda Ngiziyabyo.
The bodies were thrown in the toilets, in the mass graves or anti-erosion pits. Other corpses were abandoned on the hills and were devoured by dogs or crows. The best-known mass graves were at Mukimbiri’s house, where more than 1000 bodies were exhumed after the genocide and at Nyirabagibumba’s house in Busoro, where a significant number of Tutsis met their deaths. The mass grave at Mukimbiri’s house was a toilet which had not yet been finished. The killers said that this pit had been intended to bury the bodies of Hutus. Another mass grave was found at a place named “ku ibagiro” at the abattoir near to the market of Busoro, where a lot of people were dumped. The victims thrown into the latrines or the mass graves were either dead or almost dead.
The belongings looted in Gishamvu include armchairs, chairs, fridges, tables, washbasins, motorbikes, bicycles…There was also a Tutsi whose car and grinding machines were taken. The looters left nothing behind. They stripped the homes not only of the grinding stone, but also of the three stones which normally support the cooking pot in the homes of Rwandese peasants living in a rustic setting.
Women also joined in the massacre. Espérance Nyandwi; Primitive Mukagasana; Clotilde Mukarurangwa and Agnès Akimana (who all live in the cellule); Chantal Mukankusi, (we don’t know where she lives) and lastly Agnès Mukasoni (who lives in cellule Muboni) were among the criminals who attacked the parish of Nyumba. The women and girls were as nasty as the men.
Young girls or women were not raped in Nyumba and Nyakibanda while we camped there. However, they were said to have been raped in the village.
The authorities played a leading role in the massacres. The day when President Sindikubwabo arrived in the sous-préfecture of Busoro marks the beginning of the massacre in our commune. After his departure, the hunt for Tutsis began immediately. The sous-préfet Assiel Simbarikure supplied weapons to the killers. He even went to seek reinforcements from the people of Kigembe. Bourgmestre Kambanda went to the border post of Kanyaru to prevent the refuges who were trying to cross into Burundi.
In general, the Tutsis of Gishamvu were massacred by policemen, ordinary people and certain ex-FAR reservists who had guns, for example Jean Karambizi of ESO in Butare, and Jean Mukurarinda who lives in Kigali.
EXTRACT ENDS

AFRICAN RIGHTS - TACKLING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

African Rights is a human rights organisation that advocates on behalf of those suffering injustice and oppression, with a focus firmly on the interests of the ordinary people whose lives have been damaged by violence.

Through participatory research and publications programmes focused on core countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, African Rights brings the voices of victims, and sometimes those of former perpetrators, to the centre of the debates on how to secure rights, focusing on the areas of Justice, human rights, political analysis, and truth telling. “In the process we aim to move these debates forward, but also to restore people's faith in their own human dignity and their capacity to contribute to change. We believe Africans must find and implement solutions to their own problems, entering into partnerships for positive change with each other and outsiders,” says the organisation.

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Books are reserved for the most substantial work likely to be of enduring importance, either from an analytical or historical perspective.

· African Rights produced the earliest detailed account of the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and the murder of Hutu opponents in Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance (Revised Edition), August 1995. This immediately became a standard reference text. It reproduces verbatim the testimonies of hundreds of survivors and analyses the motives and activities of the extremists, naming leading genocide suspects.

· Acts of individual heroism in the face of genocide are the subject of Rwanda: Tribute to Courage, a collection of remembrances from survivors and witnesses of the genocide, told publicly for the first time. The book names men and women from all walks of life who risked their lives to save others and tells the compelling stories of their achievements. Many of them were killed with the people they sought to defend. They are moving accounts of fear and gratitude, of human triumphs in the face of catastrophe.

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· African Rights’ inaugural report Operation Restore Hope: A Preliminary Assessment, May 1993 revealed the inadequacies of the military intervention in Somalia in 1992. It challenged preconceptions, demonstrating that military intervention can create at least as many humanitarian and political problems as it solves. The report made a number of recommendations with the imminent arrival of the United Nations Operation for Somalia (UNOSOM II) in mind, including regarding its mandate. The validity of these was borne out by subsequent events.

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· In Zimbabwe: In the Party’s Interest, June 1999, African Rights examined the growing constraints upon opposition political parties, civic organizations and the media and noted the rising popular discontent with the Zanu (PF) government. It expressed concern about the enduring social injustice experienced by black rural communities, the failure of land redistribution policies and the political manipulation of this issue by the government at the expense of much needed reforms. At a time when few voices were raised on an international level, African Rights warned of the impending crisis in Zimbabwe.

The Witness to Genocide Journals

These expose the identities of individuals responsible for mass murder in Rwanda, selecting cases which have been neglected or particularly difficult to prosecute.

· The allegations of genocide against two Rwandese nuns, Sister Gertrude Mukangango and Sister Julienne Kizito in Sovu, Butare, were detailed in Issue 11. This report provided the most comprehensive account of these events at the time and gained wide media coverage. In April 2001 both nuns were tried in a Belgian court. They were convicted of violating humanitarian law and sentenced to 15 years and 12 years respectively.

The Charge Sheets Series

These summarise allegations against individuals accused, by survivors, witnesses and perpetrators, of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. They make public information gathered by African Rights and either call for investigations, or are intended to support them. In each case, African Rights makes direct contact with the relevant authorities to encourage them to act and several of those named are now in custody.

· Charge Sheets bring new evidenced into the public domain, often helping to build pressure. This can be particularly important when a genocide suspect has found a welcome and a measure of support in exile, as did Father Athanase Seromba, the subject of Charge Sheet No 2 of November 1999. Father Seromba's priestly status helped to shield him from justice while he lived and worked in Italy. African Rights published the results of its investigation into his case in November 1999. Father Seromba was arrested and placed in custody at the ICTR in Arusha on 6 February 2002.

Supporting Gacaca

African Rights is seeking to contribute to the impact and authority of the work of the Gacaca courts by producing research into the history of the genocide in the twelve original pilot sectors. We hope these accouunts provide useful background information for those covering the trials in the sectors. History of the Genocide in Gishamvu: A Collective Account has already been published.