2. c. An unconvincing total number of survivors
The total number of around 300.000 survivors reported by the government of Rwanda in 2007, and which became a reference for everyone who wishes to establish the death toll of the genocide is very questionable. Many reasons of how such a high figure was reported can be pointed out but the major one would be misleading data given by some of the surveyed families in order to secure them a social assistance.
In 1998 a presidential law established the creation of FARG or the Fond d’Assistance aux Rescapés du Genocide. The main goal of the Fund was to provide a social assistance to the genocide survivors in many areas. FARG assisted mostly in Education, Health and Housing sectors. The fund paid school fees and provided necessary school stuff on survivors; especially these attending boarding high school and colleges. It covered their medical bills and provided shelter to these who have seen their houses destroyed during the genocide.
As a direct consequence of the war, many Rwandans were living in inhuman conditions right after the genocide. On top of the survivors, there were Hutus who have returned home after many months of meandering about the country and who found their belongings pillaged or simply wasted as they were left unattended for a long time. That included houses, home materials and food stocks. A considerable number of Tutsi families who have initially fled to the neighbouring countries since the first killings in 1959, came back home once the genocide was stopped, leaving everything behind and bringing only what they could carry in their hands.
All of these categories of Rwandans needed assistance in a way or another, but the government could only cater for genocide survivors. Due to these facts mentioned above, many former Tutsi refugees enrolled as genocide survivors to beneficiate from the assistance provided by the FARG. Some of them were aware that what they were doing was illegal, but continued to do it anyway, as it was the only way to sustain at least their children’s education. However, another part of them was convinced that they were doing nothing wrong as their conditions required assistance as well, and every mean was good. And by misinterpretation they took the Found to be created to assist all Tutsis. In both cases, all of the people who were assisted had to report as survivors to the surveyors as it was the only way to keep the FARG’s assistance.
Gathering data for the census faced many other challenges as well. These who were reported by Ibuka were the lack of skills of the young people who conducted the survey, favouritism or even corruption in some cases. Due to limited resources, the survey was conducted by students in high schools who had no training in techniques of gathering data. Most of these young people were coming from the families illegally assisted and were themselves being assisted by the FARG and had to cover the false reports. , they could who needed to be covered to remain survivors. In another hand, one would recognize that it was also hard to differentiate a Tutsis survivor from a Tutsis returned back home, especially in cases where the interviewers people they didn’t know their family backgrounds.
A parliamentary commission investigating on the misuses of the funds allocated to since 2010 discovered that the Fund was assisting a big number of non-survivors. All of the supported people might have been registered as genocide survivors in first place. And this is one of the evidences to prove that the official number of survivors was inflated in some people’ interests and hence, none should use it as a base to conduct any academic or social research.
Where Are my People? A Question for Genocide Deniers Page 3