“We tested Genocide model at Mayange in 1992” - Former perpetrator

53-year-old Matthias Sendegeya of Mbyo cell, Mayange sector in Nyamata district, admits to having murdered 6 people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He recalls the time he was mobilised to have a trial on how they will pave way to kill all Tutsi in Nyamata district by then commune Kanzenze. “We were mobilized by our party members to assassinate all the Tutsi, slaughter all their cows, destroy their houses…we murdered more than 100 Tutsi and looted their cows,” Sendegeya narrated at his home in the unity resettlement of Mbyo, built by the Prison fellowship. Tall dark with red eyes, a responsible looking Sendegeya is married with 7 children, calmly told The Sunday Times that during his youth, he and others were told that all Tutsi’s were foreigners who came to mercilessly rule them. “Supported by our government, we had already planned on how we shall destroy all Tutsi’s in the country and wait for those who had fled in 1959 to come back and we finish them all,” he added. According to his explanations they used to be updated on the dangerous plan during their party’s meetings. They belonged to MRND. He further reveales that the genocidal interahamwe militias were well trained and equipped to loot and murder their Tutsi neighbours in 1992. He added that when they initiated their first attack, government soldiers stopped them and instead told them to hold on for the designed time. He admits to having killed 6 members of Enthiene Gahigi’s family during the 1994 Genocide. “I hear people trying to fool others that the genocide was not prepared claiming that it was caused by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana. That’s not true. We were given machetes, guns, spears and trainings before 1994,” Sendegeya reveales. He adds that during 1994, he was part of another gang of militias who terrorized Mbyo and Mayange. According to him the army captured Gahigi’s family which was trying to escape to Burundi and Sendegeya and his neighbours killed them. Gahigi however managed to escape. “It was his chance and due to God’s mercy he lives now and that’s why I think he became a preacher and found us in the prison to preach to us,” Sendegeya. He said that in July 1994, he was arrested and later taken to the prison of Ririma, where he would go to the prison’s church just for fun and to take a breath of fresh air outside the prison cell. On seeing Gahigi, he was frightened and decided not to go to the church. “I felt it was a trick to know where I was and then call soldiers to finish me off. He (Gahigi) came three times and on the fourth time, I decided to go and see. Suddenly I decided to give my life to Jesus. And he (Gahigi) prayed for me,” he reminisces with a wide smile probably recalling that funny process that would later lead him to reconcile with a man whose family of six members he killed. Gahigi now a Senior Pastor in the Anglican church is still a neighbour of Sendegeya. He said that when he came back to Rwanda from Burundi where he had escaped seeking saftey, he was told that his mother and other family members were murdered by a neighbour because they were Tutsi and rebels. To him, it was a dilemma. “I didn’t want to come back to Rwanda…,” he confesses. “I came with a vengeful mind but on reaching Mbyo my home village, Christ came into my life. I was even ordained to lead my local church and the healing process took its course,” Gahigi adds. According to him he was glad to see Sendegeya accepting Jesus. He hugged him but since the latter was not yet totally free he would greet Gahigi from a distance. Sendegeya went to the prison authorities requesting them to be accompanied to the community r to ask its for forgiveness. The prison authorities allowed him to ask for forgiveness and to reveal where the bodies of the slain victims were but declined to let him go to the community for his own security’s sake. “Later government issued a presidential decree regarding those who have confessed their crimes and pleaded for mercy to go for developmental community work which enabled me to go under TIG after we went to meet our neighbours,” Sendegeya narrates. “I regard it a special day when I went to Gahigi’s home to ask for forgiveness. He told me to come the next day. When I met him at his home he gave me a seat then I told him how I have come to ask for forgiveness. He then told me I was already forgiven and he hugged me,” Sendegeya sombrely says. According to Pastor Gahigi, the prison fellowship has done a great deal in building them a resettlement which enables them to live like neighbours. Accordingly, now they live together, share gardens and do the same community work. Apart from living in the same resettlement, Mbyo residents have gone further by creating a cooperative composed of 250 members. The cooperative is comprised of Tutsi survivors, former genocide perpetrators and the returnees from different neighbouring countries all living in peace and harmony. Contact: findmugabe@yahoo.com