The Genocide left wounds that will probably never heal - Survivor

Fifteen years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which left Rwanda shattered; the country is still trying to bring to justice those who participated in the holocaust. During the 100 days of slaughter, over one million people were killed. What Coletta Mukananswa remembers most about the Genocide is that it started raining heavily that night. Then many people in the neighborhood started running to seek refugee to other places. Some went to churches and others hid in the bushes. Mukananswa was living in Kibuye- Western Province. But it was not the first time for the Tutsi to be persecuted. “For the time being- we sat and waited,” Mukananswa recalls bitterly. She was raped and infected with HIV. She is the only survivor in a family of eight. Mukananswa was only sixteen years old. Two weeks after playing hide and seek with the killers, all her relatives were killed on the same day. She was hiding together with her mother, when somebody cried next to their hideout, the mother thought it was her youngest sister. When she came out to help, she was captured and killed instantly. “It was too bad. I wished I was not born a Tutsi,” Mukananswa narrates. “You know everybody became our enemy-even the International community.” Her past was ruined and her future is bleak because she was infected by HIV/Aids by her attackers. The mother’s legs were cut off before she died! “Those who killed her were our neighbors with whom they shared everything. I cannot forgive those who killed my relatives.” She says Gacaca had helped a lot to heal the wounds and it was a better option. People with lesser crimes have been able to live with those they wronged. “It is a slow process but this was the only path to follow.” She wants the planners of the Genocide to be punished no matter what the International Community says. Like many other Genocide survivors, Aurelia Musabyezu was raped by a man who used to look after the family’s cows. Her 15- year- old daughter was born as a result of rape. Her daughter looks innocent. She has grown up without knowing her father. “Recently, I told her I don’t know her father. I wanted to see how she reacts but she kept quiet,” Musabyezu reveals in a dry tone. “I am not saying that those who killed our relatives should be killed in revenge but justice must be carried out.” “If the killer came to me and asked for forgiveness, may be I can change my position and welcome such a person.” He says the idea of unity and reconciliation is good because if one was to kill in revenge against those who participated in the Genocide, it would take 100 years to heal the wounds. She says forgiving those who killed their relatives sets a good example. “We cannot behave like them. They are murderers and we are not. This is the point. We have to set an example.” Musabyezu says the Genocide left wounds that will probably never heal. Ends