LIVING WITH THE PAST MARY KAYITESI BLEWITT, Director of the Rwandan Survivors Fund, (SURF), looks at the problems still faced by a country trying to come to terms with genocide
IN APRIL 1994, Rwanda suffered one of the most concentrated acts of genocide in human history. Up to a million people were massacred in just one hundred days. Among those slaughtered were almost all my relatives: 50 members of my family. Only my brother’s wife and her two children survived.
I was lucky. I at least know where they were slain. They were at the house of my grandfather. They had always sought refuge there in times of trouble. But this time, there were no safe sanctuaries. Along with other Tutsi families, they were savagely slaughtered in cold blood.
As I was out of the country when the genocide started, I escaped the massacre. Had I been in Rwanda I would certainly be widowed or dead by now. I felt that because I was spared, I should live on to help others like me who survived. I spent eight months working as a volunteer for the Ministry of Rehabilitation in Rwanda – a programme working to reunite families and search for the dead.Yet when this work was over I still couldn’t escape the duty I felt to those hundreds of survivors in the UK who had no support whatsoever. So I set up the Survivors Fund (SURF) to help my people.
The aim is to ensure that the memories of the genocide are kept alive and that the victims are never forgotten, especially those still living under the legacy of the Rwandan genocide ten years on.
It is vital that the voices of survivors continue to be heard. Voices that tell the whole truth, voices that warn us of the atrocities of which man is capable, voices that remind us of the suffering that must never again be permitted to happen to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Bridgette Sheema is just one of the survivors given a voice. Bridgette was only 15 when the Interahamwe came to her house one early morning in 1994. She recounted the story of what happened next:
“My parents were terrified, with a look of despair and helplessness. Even they could not protect us. I escaped and climbed in a tree. As I sat trembling, struggling to stay still, my mother was brought out of the house alive, begging for mercy, she was chopped to death. To this day this is the only memory I have of my mother … The killers left taking with them our belongings. I gathered my mothers ‘remains’ warm from the hot sun, and put her back in the house. My father and four brothers were dead. I walked aimlessly all night, in deep shock. Many people were walking in different directions. I eventually got stopped at a roadblock, men pulled off my clothes and gang raped me. I was kept there for weeks.”
She now lives with an aunt, but every day is forced to confront the people who intended, planned and, to a grave extent, executed those heinous crimes against her. Hers is a common fate. She can never escape the past. She lives in a state of perpetual insecurity. Every day she must battle depression, poverty, economic hardship and, worse still, AIDS. Like almost all of the 25,000 female survivors raped and deliberately infected with HIV during the genocide, Bridgette cannot afford medical treatment. She has been left to cope with the trauma and stigma of being HIV-positive without support.
To help women like Bridgette, there is now an initiative for free antiretroviral treatment for female survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. The initiative intends to lobby the international community to do more to help this most vulnerable group.
To put the need in perspective, it would cost only $12m a year to buy the antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) needed to help all 25,000 HIV-positive women survivors: a paltry sum compared to the annual budget of $178m that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) enjoys each year.
True, Rwanda is struggling towards reconstruction and reconciliation. But because the Government lacks the resources to help women like Bridgette, justice remains but a remote possibility. The fact that thus far the ICTR has convicted only 20 people – and that those standing trial receive free antiretroviral treatment, shelter and food – has not helped.
VICTIMS, LIKE BRIDGETTE, remain ignored and neglected. However, it is critical to enable these women to become economically active again. Doing so helps reduce the cost of medical care and frees up hospital beds. Many of them are responsible for orphans, but without treatment do not have the means to support their adopted families. More importantly though, it gives some hope and a sense of justice to these women, many of whom have nothing left to look forward to except death.
Rwanda is struggling towards reconstruction and reconciliation, but for Bridgette justice is remote. In the courtroom she must recount the last moments of the lives of her loved ones. Even if imprisoned, the perpetrators receive food, shelter, medical care and international solicitude. But fewer than half of the killers are in custody. The rest are free.
Thankfully, the British Government has taken the lead in supporting the female survivors, having granted £4.25 million to fund care and treatment for 2,500 of them over the next five years. This is an incredible boost to a country in which more than ten per cent of the total population of six million are HIV-positive, but (at present) fewer than 5,000 are able to access ARVs. It is an even bigger boost for the women that lived through the genocide, only 99 of whom are currently on a treatment programme. It can only be hoped that other governments will follow this precedent.
Yet despite our suffering, lessons have not been learnt. I watch in despair as women in Darfur suffer sexual violence as a weapon of genocide all over again. The anxiety, fear and helplessness of these Sudanese women mirrors exactly the feelings of survivors I speak to. Sadly, the genocide did not stop when the killing ended. It continues to this day. The lack of action perpetuates a culture of impunity, which in turn results in crimes against humanity. But we all have a responsibility to act to stop human suffering. Each one of us must play their part, and make their voice heard too.
The theme for the Survivors Fund ‘Eleven Years On’ campaign, which launched on April 7th – the UN International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda – is ‘survival against the odds’. It is particularly pertinent given the recent release of Hotel Rwanda – a film that tells the remarkable true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager of Hutu origin, who gave sanctuary and shelter to over a thousand Tutsis during the 100-day genocide, saving them from certain death.
The year-long commemoration will ensure that we remember not only those who lived through the genocide, but also those who continue to battle to stay alive today.
Mary Kayitesi Blewitt was recently honoured as a Woman of the Year, sponsored by Good Housekeeping. For more information on SURF, please visit www.survivors-fund.org.uk [Photography Donald E. Miller]
