One Week Finished and One More Week Until I Head to Kenya…..

…..this was a good week—things have gone really well so far. I had a good group today and we closed down around noon and then took an Embassy car around town sightseeing. Thanks to you, by the way, for supplying the tax money that paid for the Suburban, driver and gas.

We went by a Rwandan craft market, stopped briefly at the hotel featured in the movie Hotel Rwanda about the genocide, and lastly visited the Genocide Memorial itself. I’ve been to far too many genocide memorials but this one is easily the most disturbing and touching that I’ve visited.

I don’t intend to make this blog into a history lesson but I think the story here is worth telling. Historically, Rwanda has been populated by about 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and 1% Twa (who are the pigmy tribe living in the mountains.) After the Belgians colonized Rwanda after World War I, they used the Tutsi minority to rule the majority Hutu—giving the Tutsi the good jobs, good business and nice homes. In return, the Tutsi insured the Belgians they could plunder the natural resources of Rwanda pretty much at will. Obviously this arrangement angered the Hutu majority.

After World War II, when Europe—including Belgium—was in ruins, the Hutus made their move and took over indigenous control of Rwanda but the historical hatreds between the two tribes really came to the surface. In 1959-60 there was a large-scale genocide against the Tutsis that was eventually put down by Belgium with the dubious help of France.

During the 1960s most of Africa achieved independence from colonialism and nearly every former European colony became involved in civil war and border wars. Rwanda received independence with no political or social infrastructure and soon dissolved into anarchy with armed militias basically running a non-state.

In 1993, a number of events occurred that led to a hate-mongering Hutu majority leading what they promised would be an “apocalypse” against the Tutsis. The real trigger was when the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda were flying into Kigali and were shot down by a rocket just outside the city airport. France is believed by many Rwandans to have been involved in the assassination (although French mercenary pilots were flying the plane that was shot down.) The interim government was taken over by a prime minister who pledged to mediate peace between the tribes but she was assassinated along with eight elite Belgian army bodyguards. In response, Belgium pulled out of Rwanda entirely (as Europeans are prone to do when the heat is on) and basically left the Rwandans to their own fate.

For the next 100 days, the “apocalyptic” genocide took place at such a deadly rate nobody in the world could stop it. In 100 days, over one million Tutsi were killed by machetes, gunfire, spears, knives and anything that could be used to kill a human being. Men were tortured before being killed, women were raped—often by HIV+ soldiers intentionally—and either killed or left to live infected lives, and babies and children had their heads smashed against walls and even disemboweled. Today, some 16 years later, authorities are still finding mass graves.

Initially, Western European countries sent military forces into Rwanda—but only to evacuate Westerners. Over 5,000 soldiers were sent in for the evacuation, a force large enough they could almost certainly have prevented the genocide but their mission was only to evacuate Europeans. After the genocide and fighting were over, France sent in “peacekeepers” who promised the Tutsi refugees living in Uganda that it was safe to return. France then turned around and left and the returning refugees were subjected to many thousands more killings.

Today, Rwanda is quiet again. Almost certainly the scars and hatreds will remain forever, but the current government seems to be genuinely trying to reconcile the people. The memorial we visited today is part of that effort and is really well designed and presented. It is not, however, for the weak of stomach because they don’t pull any punches with the exhibits. The photos show hacked, disemboweled and beheaded bodies, including children. One section has exhibits of the clothing that was collected up in the aftermath. The most touching were the children’s clothes with bloodstained stuffed dolls and smashed toys. Another wall was dedicated to photographs of the victims that relatives have placed there. The wall was easily 100 feet long, 8 feet high and totally covered with photos of smiling faces—all dead today.

Another room had exhibits of human skulls and bones. This I had seen before in Cambodia but here the skulls all had splits from machete blows and many were small skulls no larger than grapefruit—the skulls of babies.

Unfortunately, my travels have exposed me too often to the ability of humans to be cruel to other humans—memorials in Cambodia, Thailand, Senegal, Goree Island, and Soweto—but this is by far the most touching I’ve visited. The memorial here includes an education center and there were three different groups of small children doing tours while we were there. Visits are required of all students in Rwanda today and the government really does seem to be trying to reconcile the two groups. There are millions of orphans and widows and this will never be forgotten for generations to come.

On the side of the hill below the memorial are mass graves of victims who were identified, claimed and then buried in Christian funerals (Rwanda is a very devout Christian country despite all the prior violence) and at one place, three graves are open and exposed to the visitors. As more victims are identified, the graves move further down the side of the mountain but there will never be enough space to bury them all.

After that, we were dropped off at the hotel and said goodbyes. This evening I walked over to the nearby Obama Rama Ding Dong Pizza Parlor and had a very good pizza. It was kind of hard not thinking about this afternoon though……