Butare residents reflect on the day Sindikubwabo ‘launched’ killings

WHEN KILLINGS erupted across the country after the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, Butare remained untouched. However, the seeming calm was to last for only two weeks until the interim President Théodore Sindikubwabo, himself a native of Butare, swung into action to ensure that residents also felt the ‘heartbeat’ of the killings. Apart from the use of traditional weapons and guns, testimonies have also emerged of the use of choppers, particularly in the reconnoitre of possible hideouts of Tutsis. That helped killers to know which areas to target and when to launch attacks on fleeing Tutsis, according to witness accounts. Butare is also known to have been a scene of massive rape against Tutsi women and their daughters. Places such as Kabakobwa, Simbi, Kabuye, Ngoma, Matyazo, Kansi, Karama, Mugombwa, Muyira, Songa and Nyamure, were turned into ‘slaughter houses’. Thousands of Tutsis perished there. It is alleged that many leaders were concerned by the seeming resistance of Butare against the killings. Testimonies indicate that the leaders took to various parts of the former Butare prefecture “on a mission to convince Hutus to kill.” Sindikubwabo, ‘the whistler’ Sindikubwabo, on his part, is said to have visited Butare on April 19, 1994, and warned Hutus on radio that if they refused to kill Tutsis, they would be killed. In mid-April, the army, gendarmes and Interahamwe militiamen were airlifted from Kigali and joined hands with soldiers from the then junior officers’ school (ESSO Butare) to massacre Tutsis, marking the beginning of massive killings in Butare. Survivors and residents in various parts of the former Butare prefecture have blamed Sindikubwabo–and other area leaders–of having been at the helm of efforts to encourage killings in an area that remained calm until mid-April. Dominique Ndahimana, 45, pleaded guilty for his role in the Genocide, publicly sought forgiveness from relatives of his victims and cooperated with a Gacaca court; he served his sentence. As he recounts his tale, Ndahimana details one event: the visit of Sindikubwabo to Butare prefecture. On April 18, Ndahimana says, Sindikubwabo visited Simbi where thousands of Tutsis had gathered at a local church with hopes that it was safer in place of worship. “He [Sindikubwabo] clearly stated that he was there to launch the killings [against Tutsis]. We turned up to welcome the president in banana leaves and carried our weapons, which included machetes, clubs and axes,” Ndahimana recalls. “He was flanked by armed guards who launched the killing of Tutsis at a nearby church, giving us a go-ahead to kill. His speech gave us the green light to kill. Personally, it was a stimulus that encouraged me to participate in the killings.” Several other testimonies seem to corroborate the account. Survivors also cited other places where the interim president visited to encourage killings of Tutsis. For instance, on April 19, Sindikubwabo is said to have delivered one of his infamous speeches at a ceremony to appoint a new préfet (governor) of Butare replacing Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, who would later be killed along with his family. During his speech, which was reportedly broadcast on national radio, Sindikubwabo allegedly condemned those who were not “working” (read killing Tutsis). In the following days, Sindikubwabo visited the neighbouring Ndora commune (now in Gisagara District) where he also encouraged Hutus to hunt down Tutsis. At the then Gisagara prefecture headquarters, he reportedly instructed Hutus to kill. “Upon his arrival, many people gathered thinking that he was there to offer protection,” recalls Francine Kampororo, 43, a nurse at Gisagara Health Centre. “Instead, he asked people who had gathered if they knew what had happened in 1959. When they replied in the affirmative, he instructed them to do the same and this time to ‘spare no one,’” Kampororo says. In 1959, and the years that followed, ethnic killings targeting Tutsis in various parts of the country forced a number of them to flee the country. Emmanuel Sebazungu, 66, a resident of Ndora Sector in Gisagara, compares the role of Sindikubwabo in the killings to that of a referee in a football match. “His visit looked as that of a referee who blows the whistle for the Genocide to kick off. He gave instructions and the killings started immediately,” Sebazungu says. Sindikubwabo is believed to have died of natural causes in exile in DR Congo. He was never tried for his alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Meeting Sindikubwabo’s family After days of search and information gathering, this paper came across one of Sindikubwabo’s close family member. Married with four kids, Alphonse Macumi, 46, lives in the rural Gisagara Cell of Ndora Sector and is Sindikubwabo’s nephew. Macumi (pictured) is emerging from his house when this reporter approaches. He is wearing glasses and plastic sandals; his smile, features and the receding hairline completes an almost perfect resemblance with Sindikubwabo. “I regret what he did,” Macumi says. “At times, I felt ashamed, sometimes guilty and feared public places, thinking that I might be made to pay for his [Sindikubwabo] sins.” But Macumi has lived a free man, and the fears that lingered in his mind over his relations to Sindikubwabo were watched away by time. “History has taught us a lot of things and we draw lessons from our dark past. We always champion to live in harmony and unity,” Macumi says. “I don’t consider myself as a relative of Sindikubwabo, but rather I look at myself as a member of the wider Rwandan family, with responsibilities to work with fellow Rwandans to build the country.” Augustin Iyamuremye, the Chancellor for Heroes, National Order and Decoration of Honour, who is also Sindikubwabo’s son-in-law, told this paper at a Kwibuka Flame event in Gisagara on Monday that “he was a physician and that [encouraging killings] was the least thing we expected from him. We have condemned that.” “As there are heroes, there are also villains,” Iyamuremye said. “He is one of them.”