2008 Woodie Awards
Rwandan Genocide Survivor Speaks
Sarah Lutz
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: News
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Rwabukama's presentation and first hand account make genocide clear. "At 4 years old I was on the line to be killed and I didn't know who my enemy was," he says. He attributes luck to his survival that day. 800,000 to 1,000,000 lives were not so lucky.
Rwabukama's survival allows him to tell Rwanda's story. "Keeping quite from what you've seen contributes to genocide," he says. In his speech he explains and shows the cause, the brutality and the effect of genocide.
"When you start looking at differences is when genocide starts," says Rwabukama. In Rwanda, the examination of differences was fueled by the Belgian colonization in 1923. Two major groups of people were labeled, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutu have larger facial features and are shorter than the Tutsis. Traditionally, the Tutsi were the wealthy, upper class and the Hutu were little more than slaves.
Around 1959 these differences were exemplified. "Nose sizes were measured by the Belgians," says Rwabukama. Authorities of the colony discovered that Tutsi leaders were lobbying for control of the government. They encouraged the Hutus to rise up against the would-be Tutsi usurpers. Power fell into the hands of the Hutus and Tutsis took refuge in the neighboring country of Uganda. What ensued was the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis.
In 1994 the President of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, was sent to sign a peace agreement. His plane was shot down and he was killed. His assassination ignited tensions and marked the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide.
To prepare for the genocide 1,000 machetes were sent from China. Philippe Gaillard, head of the International Committee on the Red Cross mission in Rwanda, estimates that in the first few weeks 250,000 were killed. Within the first 100 days 800,000 people were killed. Hutu survivors at Red Cross Hospitals were referred to by Hutus as those not finished off. The country needed help.