‘Mother hid us in the rubbish pit so we could not be killed’

Then 7 years old, Joseph Ishimwe tells a story of how his mother tried to hide them in the rubbish pit so that they don’t get killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He narrated his story to CHARLES KWIZERA. “When the 1994 Genocide started, I was seven years old and was not very much aware of what was going on though our neighbours’ children would always tell us that we were going to be killed any time,” begins Ishimwe. Ishimwe who is second born in a family of five recalls how when the killings started across the country, their mother was compelled to take them from Gatenga in Kigali city to their aunt’s home in Kacyiru. “My father was away, he was at school in Ndera studying theology. Our mother decided to take us to Kacyiru where our aunt lived, but when we reached there, we found it unwise to stay in the same place as we feared to be murdered together.” The aunt decided to go with Ishimwe and his elder brother to Gitarama where her husband hailed. They spent two weeks there and everyone was saying that everything had calmed down. “My aunt decided that we come back to Kigali and join the rest of the family. When we reached, my mother decided that we go back home in Gatenga,” “My father at that time also joined us from school and we stayed for almost a week without any problem, but our neighbours would always warn us of the approaching danger.” Ishimwe says that after a week a group of Interahamwe came in their area looking for the Tutsis who had been listed to be killed. “When my father heard that they were coming, he went to the neighbour’s home because he would not stand being killed together with his family and I followed him there,” recalls Ishimwe. When the Interahamwe reached at their neighbour’s, they reported to them that he was hiding there. “They entered into the house and found him inside. They killed him using a machete as I was looking with my own eyes. They ordered me to run home and then came behind me. “When the Interahamwe reached their home, they cut his mother with a machete on the head and she fell on the ground unconscious. “They also cut me across the face with a machete and then my younger brother. At that period my mother told me to pretend like dead but because I was too young, I couldn’t,” continues Ishimwe. They went behind the house where they had gone to look for his elder brother who was hiding in the toilet and left him dead. “They came back to the house and found every body lying in the pool of blood except me who was up crying and they struck me on head using a machete again.” They left thinking that every body was dead. “In the evening when my mother managed to get up, she took me and my other siblings in the near by rubbish pit and hid us in it.” She went to the place where she had a shop and told the neighbouring Hutu who was her prominent customer to go and pick the children from the pit. He took them to his home, but he later advised them to go and hide in their shop. It is in this shop that they hid until Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) came to their rescue and took them to Ndera where they stayed until the end of the Genocide. Ends

National

‘Mother hid us in the rubbish pit so we could not be killed’