WESTERN PROVINCE

The 1994 Genocide started when Verena Mukasine, a genocide survivor had gone to Kibuye for her first time. I barely knew the place, Can you imagine! She says.

Sitting in front of her front door, Mukasine, 34, is visibly psychologically tortured by the mourning period. And although most of the people were heading to Gatwaro stadium for the commemoration, she says no amount of convincing can take her there.

"I dread Kibuye and especially that stadium because of what I witnessed in 1994,"she says. She nods her head quite often probably an impact of trauma that she under go during the 100 days of remembering the genocide. She as well gets traumatised at merely seeing a person with a pang. Her dreaded experience started when she went to visit her big sister in Bwishyura who was reportedly married to an Interahamwe militia. "The genocide began when I was in Bwishyura (Kibuye) for the first time," she recalls.

When Habyarimana’s plane crushed and the killings started, Mukasine was among the first people to be rounded up. "My sister was left behind because her husband didn’t hand her in," she says. She was led along with other girls and men.

They were ordered to lie down so that they could be killed. "During the genocide even a nine- year old kid could kill a man since it was a rule," she said. By what he calls God’s grace, the assailants mistook her for dead after being hit by a club on her head. "I was bleeding profusely and lost my sense of sight, that’s when I heard one of the killers say, less leave her make her last kicks-quite often no cockroach can die a humble death," she said.

The intentions of the militias were to let her die with a lot of agony since she was as well paying for her sister whose husband had hidden. Mukasine regained her senses the following day when she discovered she lay among dead bodies. It is when she recalled the words of the Interahamwe. "I had to seek a place to hide there and then.

I could not feel the pain of my wounds at the moment," she says. Mukasine went to a nearby bush which she says has stuck in her minds. "Quite often when am alone I remember a child crying on her mother’s back," she says with tears rolling down her cheeks.

The Interahamwe came to Gatwaro forest, hunting Tutsis with dogs, and landed on a woman who was hiding just next to Mukasine. They first tortured her asking her whether she wasn’t hiding with any other cockroach but she was tight-lipped. She was then speared with a sharp bamboo stick and fell on her back dying instantly.

This is when she heard a child crying in her back who had been spared. "I waited until it was late in the night, then I went to get the kid from the mother’s back in an effort to rescue," she says. During this time she was caught again. She was offered two options; life and being raped. The assailants killed the kid with a spear before one jumped on her.

"Imagine losing your virginity to a killer. I just thank God I didn’t conceive," she says. Asked whether she can identify the rapist, Mukasine says she can identify him but he fled to DR Congo. "His only name I recall is Siriache. I could hear people saying that if you survived his group you would never die," she said. This guy is reported to have continued the killings even when he reached DR Congo. He could allegedly kidnap children from Tutsi families in DR Congo, order them to return to Rwanda and rob cattle or he kills their families.

After satisfying his sexual urge, Siriach got a second thought about killing her; he hit her hard and left her for dead. By coincidence, Mukasine met her sister who told her that her husband was ready to protect and hide her. She stayed in her home for three days before the Interahamwe hadn’t realized that the family was hiding a Tutsi. The third day is when a group of militias together with government soldiers surfaced and ordered for her killing. When she was thrown out to of the house, the sister pleaded with the killers to spare her in return of a bull.

In the meantime, they laid Mukasine in the middle of the road and hit her with clubs. But what she recalls most is that her eyes were plucked out. "Being able to see is a great miracle, because at a certain point I watched my eyes almost reach my nose," said Mukasine.

Married with four kids, she got her husband at the very last time she survived. They were both drowned in Lake Kivu. They barely knew each other but he saved her for he was good at swimming. "Right now I have great hope for my future and I love watching my children grow up," she says. She is also prospering in milk business.

"What I witnessed during my three major escapes have really made me hate people especially Kibuye people," said Mukasine. At times, she ignores people greeting her saying that even before the genocide they were friends but then it didnt stop them to commit such animosity.

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