Rwanda’s genocide wounds yet to heal after 25 years

NAIROBI, Kenya

April 7, 1994 marks one of the darkest days in Africa, the day that tribalism bared its teeth, leading to one of the bloodiest massacres ever witnessed in Africa and across the world.

Members of the Hutu community, who made up the majority in Rwanda, turned on those from the Tutsi minority community, eventually killing 800,000 people.

On the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, lingering wounds still have yet to heal.

Mark Kigeli, now 35, was only 10 when the war broke out, but even though he was just a child, he remains haunted by images that he remembers from that day.

“I remember the struggle that my father and mother put up so that I could survive,” he told Anadolu Agency. “We tried everything but when the Hutus came, they were ruthless and merciless.”

He added: “I just remember crawling in blood, that might have been my mother’s or father’s or even my siblings because they were all slaughtered. Mind you my younger sister was 7 years then, showing what kind of beasts these men were.

“I was to going be slaughtered too but instead of hitting me with the sharp side of the machete, he kind of slapped me with it. I crawled and passed out.

“I was woken up by our burning house after they had left, and since then I have been living with my uncle who later found me.”

Kigeli says that many Tutsis right now around age 30 to 40 were orphaned by the genocide and many still have scars from their childhood reminding them of the atrocities against their tribe.

Rape and HIV

Jacqueline, 33, a nursing student who asked Anadolu Agency to only use one of her names, said she got HIV from being raped by her captors.

“They had captured me as a very young prisoner, they didn’t even bother to tie my hands,” she remembered.

“The Hutus I was walking with raped so many different women and me included countless of times, I think … no, I’m sure that’s how I contracted the disease.”

Jacqueline added that the scars she has all over her body and the fact that she is HIV positive is proof that “my wounds will never heal, all the scars although long healed, they hurt just as if they were made yesterday.”

Jacqueline managed to flee from her captors one day while fetching water from a river. She then rushed to the house of her aunt, who took her in.

The aunt was married to a Hutu man so she was safe for a while, but a few weeks later the Hutus struck, branding her aunt and her husband “traitors.” Her aunt was killed but the husband was spared.

She managed to flee again and boarded a refugee vehicle which was on its way to a safe zone in southwest Rwanda.

'They killed everyone'

John Mutara, orphaned at an early age, is studying at a college in the capital Kigali and does casual jobs such as washing clothes, cutting grass, and fetching water for people among others to make ends meet.

“For me, they killed everyone from my family,” he recounted.

“There were six of us, and I’m the only one that lived. My uncles and aunts all disappeared. Either they were killed or are lost just like me, but I heard from a family friend that they died.”

Many who talked to Anadolu Agency said that the road to forgiveness and healing has been long and slow despite the fact that economically and socially Rwanda had redeemed itself under the rule of President Paul Kagame.

Kagame, who was a Tutsi military leader, launched a campaign known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which defeated civilian and military authorities responsible for the genocide.

Kagame's forces used guns to bring peace in Rwanda abolishing the three main tribes Hutu, Twa and Tusti thus uniting the people of Rwanda as one.

In a report released by the Human Rights Watch in 2010, Kagame's forces in bringing peace to the region carried out killings that also claimed the lives of innocent people.