Genocide survivor's account of how RPF rescuers became family

On April 22, 1994, a gang of Interahamwe militia led by the genocidal government soldiers attacked Francoise Muteteli’s home in Nyanza District, killing all her relatives. She was shot and left for dead, but she regained consciousness later, was saved by a ‘guardian angel’ and later rescued by RPF soldiers. As a young girl, Francoise Muteteli’s dream was to become a doctor. Unfortunately, the dream died on April 22, 1994, the day a gang of Interahamwe militia led by the genocidal government soldiers attacked her home in Nyanza District, killing all her relatives. That day, Muteteli’s parents and the six other family members, including three siblings, were killed. Before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Muteteli, now 46, had completed high school and was a part-time teacher at one of the neighborhood secondary schools in her village in Nyanza, Southern Province. During the incident that claimed her entire family, Muteteli was the first to be shot (in the back), lying on the ground, before they shot her mother right next to her, killing her instantly. Muteteli works with Bank of Kigali in customer care service. (Athan Tashobya) “The bullet didn’t penetrate further in the body to cause much harm. Nonetheless, I fell on the ground unconscious and remained like that until everyone was killed by the militia before they walked away. “After a few hours, I gained consciousness, stood up and, walked slowly to hide,” narrates Muteteli. While wandering to find a place of safety, Muteteli met a Hutu woman, who offered to hide her in the Banana hoard locally known as (urwina). She walked from her home in Nyanza to Gatagara, from where she would meet her “guardian angel.” From around April 25 through June 2, Muteteli would spend most of her days and some nights hiding in the ditch in the middle of a banana plantation. “Life was really hard; my rescuer would feed me on water, milk, roasted maize and row eggs to make sure that I stay longer in the hoard without requiring to go to the toilet,” Muteteli says. The Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA-Inkotanyi) rescued Muteteli on June 2, and took her to one of the “safe homes” in Nyanza. Muteteli’s guardian angel, unfortunately, passed on in 1999. Among the RPA combatants she recalls on the rescue team include “Afande Katabarwa” and Col Willy Bagabe, who recently passed on. “They (RPA soldiers) kept on coming to check on us, making sure we are safe. But, I was very sick at that time, with the wounds—sustained from the bullet—getting deeper and bigger,” she says. RPA later captured Kabgayi, and established a sickbay at Kabgayi hospital to treat war causalities and rescued civilians. Muteteli was among the first people to be treated by RPA medical team at the sickbay. “At Kabgayi, I was operated on, and the physicians managed to remove a bullet that had been dislodged in my back from the time I was shot,” Muteteli says. Muteteli stayed in Kabgayi camp until the entire country was liberated, and she was adopted by one of the RPA soldiers, Brig Gen Dr Charles Rudakubana, who she prefers to call “Papa Rudabukana.” “To many of us, the RPF did not just save us from being killed 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, they became our new family. “One thing I applaud RPA about, is how quick they managed to spread through the country to rescue a few Tutsi who had survived machetes of Interahamwe. Even though there are some families which were completely wiped out, a few of us who were saved, will forever carry the vision and hope of those that perished.” Gen Rudakubana took Muteteli as a foster parent until she got married in July 1995. Today, she is a proud mother of two sons aged 18 and 20. “Of course, being a single mother is challenge in itself, but I have a job, my children have all attended good schools and they are grown up,” Muteteli says. What July 4 means to Muteteli Despite being the only surviving member of her family, Muteteli is satisfied with the fact that Rwanda is now a free country. “We are liberated in all possible angles; Tutsi children were denied equal opportunities to study in good schools, women were raped without chances of getting justice, needless to mention unfair detention, torture and killings. “Now look at the current Rwanda we have; everyone has equal opportunities to education, health services, employment without ethnic discrimination. Our country is now one of the fastest growing economies, everyone feels proud to be Rwanda—which was not the case before 1994,” said Muteteli. Muteteli currently works in Customer Care Unit at the Bank of Kigali. “I gained another family; with young workmates calling me Mom and Aunty. This is the kind of social attachments; we never had before the Genocide. If she met her parents now, Muteteli says, she would tell them that, “the family is still alive. I gave birth to two boys and they will carry the genes of our family into the next generations. I would tell them that the Rwanda they never imagined to see, is the Rwanda we live in now; free from discrimination, clean, and gradually redefining the history—becoming a regional reference on social, economic and political milestones ” She added. She regrets that there are some people who still carry with them genocide ideology. “It is so unfortunate that, even after seeing the dark history of our country and the current milestones, some people are held a back in genocidal mindsets,” she says.

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Genocide survivor's account of how RPF rescuers became family