Survivor narrates ordeal at the hands of Genocide convict Gatete

Jean-Nepo Sibomana’s childhood was characterised by moving from the home of one relative to another, having lost all his immediate family members in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. On April 7, 2022, during the national commemoration event attended by President Paul Kagame, Sibomana testified how he survived the Genocide and the cruelty of Jean Baptiste Gatete, who served as the bourgoumestre (mayor) of Murambi commune in the current Gatsibo district. Gatete is known to have been the leader of a militia group that swept across his commune and the neighbouring districts hunting down, torturing and killing Tutsis. This earned him the moniker of ‘the Butcher of Murambi’. Gatete was a diehard member of the ruling party, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), and a key figure in the creation of the party’s militant youth wing that he commanded as they swept across Murambi and neighboring districts on a killing spree. The then 11-year old Sibomana, the first born in a family of five children, would be the only survivor in the family even after his mother’s dying wish was for him to take care of his young siblings. “In 1990 when liberation war started, I far from my home. When my father came to see me he was arrested by the militia. He was tortured after realising he was Tutsi. On the way to home, he told me: “they will finally kill us”. It was the first time to hear such horrifying word,” he narrated. He testified that after some months Gatete started detaining and torturing Tutsi in the area. “He was calling Tutsi spies for RPF (the force that had launched the liberation struggle). Many were killed in Byumba where there was a military barracks. At least 16 of our neighbours that I knew well were killed in this way in 1990. In 1991, training for Interahamwe started. They also used part of our land for their drills,” he said. Towards the end of 1991, he said, Gatete again organized killing Tutsi in Rwankuba area in collaboration with local leader Bizimungu, police and others. “We fled to Kiziguro and spent three weeks there,” he said. Between 1991 and 1994, Tutsi in the area continued to face torture, he said. In 1994, he said that he was preparing to take his report card to a priest on April 7 because he had been urged to perform well to be able to join seminary. “However when my father came back home, he asked me not to go,” he said. He said that Gatete had mobilized Interahamwe militia, which started killing Tutsi and burning their houses. Gatete later sent military to shoot the Tutsi in the area after realizing that they were repulsing Interahamwe. “Some Tutsi sought refuge in marshland around Lake Muhazi. I was in the tree and I saw 50 women and children being burnt on April 7,” he said. Seeking refuge in a church At around midnight, Sibomana, his mother, and one of his younger siblings fled to Kiziguro as other children had gone missing during the killings. “On the way to Kiziguro, we faced difficulties in Kanyonyombya wetland during heavy rains but somehow we managed to get to the Catholic Church in Kiziguro the next morning. We hid here until April 11,” he narrated. Sibomana said that on April 10, priests left them despite the fact that the church was already surrounded by Interahamwe. “Gatete came back with militia on April 11 and open church for the mob who started to killing people. My mother gave me Rwf1,405 and told me: “If you survive, make sure you look after your siblings. I never saw any of them.” He said that those who were killed at the church were dumped at a nearby hole that had been dug earlier in search of water. Sibomana managed to survive the massacre and was taken in a family but had to flee the next day because the militia threatened to kill this family because of hiding him. He however managed to reunite with this family after a failed bid to flee to Tanzania. He lived with them until he was rescued three months later, by the RPA soldiers. Sibomana spent some days in an internally displaced camp for Tutsi survivors in Muhura and was later taken to an orphanage until he met his aunt who took him to Kigali. “We lived near Amahoro stadium but I suffered trauma. Later I decided to go back home and only returned to Kigali to begin school. I complete primary school, later joined high school. Through this journey, I met many fellow survivors, others had gone through worse.” He said that through the association of students who survived the Genocide (AERG) they became each other’s keeper and depended on one another for strength to forge ahead. He later joined college and studied engineering at the former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, which is now part of the University of Rwanda. Running a social enterprise Sibomana decided to return to his homeland where he survived 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in a bid to give back to this community. To him, it was in fulfillment of the request made to him by his mother to look after his young siblings. “My biological siblings are not here but I felt I owed my mother something. That is why I started this organization in the same home where I was born to help educate children here irrespective of their background,” he said. Currently, the computer engineering is married with two children. He is also currently the president of Ibuka – an umbrella body for genocide survivors – in Gatsibo district. Using his family land, that had remained idle for years, Sibomana embarked on a social entrepreneurship project that also doubles as peace-promotion and community building initiative. “I opened an enterprise that trains on agriculture and livestock farming on my homeland where I survived. I also opened a TVET training centre and ECD. I am also planning to build a primary and secondary school,” he said. With the little savings from his job in a bank, the young social entrepreneur decided to invest in modern farming in 2016. He kicked off the project growing water melon and pineapples among other crops before switching to maize and pig rearing. Currently Agaseke k’Amahoro (Basket of Peace) Cooperative includes genocide survivors and perpetrators that seeks to deepen unity and reconciliation in the area, Sibomana says. As for Gatete, he is currently serving a life sentence handed to him by the now closed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was initiated by the UN to try key masterminds of the Genocide against the Tutsi.

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Survivor narrates ordeal at the hands of Genocide convict Gatete