31. Claire Bloom: Rwanda

In August this year, I heard the words ‘Rwanda’ and ‘rebels’, coming from the radio. I stopped to listen. It was only a short bulletin, about a violent attack on villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Women and children had been raped and killed, possibly by soldiers from neighboring Rwanda. I felt very sad as memories came flooding back to me.

Two years ago, I was lucky enough to visit a friend in Arusha, Tanzania.
My friend works for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). This tribunal was, and still is, trying cases of genocide committed in Rwanda over 15 years ago.

Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of an entire people who belong to one racial, political, cultural or religious group. During the Rwandan genocide, in just over 100 days, more than 800,000 people were massacred. The causes and background to this massacre are long and complicated, involving two groups of Rwandans, the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. In this genocide, around 85% of the Tutsi population were killed by Hutus.

The UN tribunal has so far completed 50 trials and convicted 29 persons involved in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. My friend, who works as a court reporter, described the trials as a very sad, slow and frustrating process. Tracking down the criminals who committed unspeakable horrors, was near to impossible in an extremely poor and struggling nation. Witnesses were often too traumatized to attest to what they had seen and experienced. Political forces of many persuasions attempt to influence the impartial operation of the tribunal. However, despite many difficulties, the tribunal was able to establish a world first legal principle by declaring rape a form of genocide. It has also made the production and broadcasting of “hate” media which encourages genocide, an international crime. Many of the attacks in Rwanda were driven by hateful newspaper reports and radio announcers, encouraging violence and inciting attacks on the innocent.

When I visited Rwanda, many people from taxi drivers to waitresses, asked me where I came from and what I did. When I said I was a teacher, they would say something like, “that is good, you can teach about our genocide when you go back to Australia. You must let people know what happened. If you talk about genocide, you can help prevent it from occurring again” When I heard the news that attacks on innocent victims, by one tribe on another were still going on, I thought I should try and relay my experience during my brief visit to Rwanda.

In 1998, then US President Bill Clinton, apologized to the Rwandans because his country did not acknowledge what was going on and stood back and watched the tragedy unfold. Clinton said, "Genocide can occur anywhere. It is not an African phenomenon. We must have global vigilance. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence."

Rwanda is a beautiful country, lush, green and tropical, with deep red, rich earth. It’s known as 'Pays des Mille Collines' – French for, 'Country of a Thousand Hills', which perfectly describes the beautiful landscape. The streets and roads were bustling, the women wore bright colourful clothes, with exotic head dresses. There were lots of little roadside stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables and many, many groups of children walking to school. All the kids were dressed in school uniforms and they laughed and fooled around, just like school kids everywhere. However, the aftermath of the genocide was evident everywhere we went. We saw bullet holes in buildings and small memorial crosses in the most unlikely places. Our guide showed us site after site, where horrific events had occurred. He calmly told us about the murder of some 15 of his family and how, he believed the only reason he was alive was because he’d been lucky enough to be studying at university in nearby Kenya when the fighting broke out.
I visited a church on the outskirts of the capital, Kigali, where innocent people had fled for protection, only to be slaughtered where they sheltered. Over five thousand people are buried in unnamed graves in the church grounds. I also experienced a heart wrenching visit to the Genocide Memorial Centre. The Centre is a modest, unassuming, house-like structure, built on a site where over 250,000 victims are buried. It is almost inconceivable to look at the neat and restful gardens around the memorial and try to imagine the death that occurred there.
The history and background to the genocide is described in startling detail. I saw the remains of victims, listened to the stories of survivors and even some good Samaritans, who managed to hide and protect their neighbors and workmates from slaughter. One room of the house paid tribute to the innocent children of the genocide. There was a photograph and favourite article such as a soccer ball or teddy bear belonging to each child. The plaque beside each read something like, “My name is Lucy. I am 6 years old. I like playing with my dolls and visiting my Grandmother. I was beaten to death…” It was a very moving and sobering experience.

At the site of a church massacre- 5,000 un-named graves


Genocide Memorial Centre

Yet, despite this sadness, I couldn’t help but notice how optimistic and forward thinking most people seemed to be. The capital city was thriving with new buildings and construction work everywhere. Many of the labourers were dressed in bright pink outfits and I found out they were prisoners being put to work rebuilding Rwanda! The streets were busy, but clean and tidy. There were signs everywhere reminding the population that there must never be another genocide and urging reconciliation. I visited the famous ‘Hotel Rwanda’ and sat by the pool, which provided the water for some 1200 Tutsi refugees who were amazingly protected by the hotel’s Manager, a Hutu, through 6 weeks of the genocide.
People I spoke to said, they would never forget but had to learn to forgive, in order to heal themselves, and for their country to survive. I wondered if I could find the strength to recover and grow, had I experienced the horror that occurred in Rwanda just 16 years ago.

Sadly since hearing the news of fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda’s eastern neighbor, I did some research that revealed over 250,000 civilians have been displaced and the brutality of the previous conflict has been renewed. This current dispute is partly fueled by hatred left over from the Rwandan genocide. Despite the presence of the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world, it is possible that a tragedy like the Rwandan genocide could occur again.
Claire Bloom


Genocide – Never again