Where Are my People? A Question for Genocide Deniers

by Minega K Albert

Other works by the author

  An unedited chapter of Rwanda 94: A PLANE CRASH:

  Early morning Musoni’s family with Jeannine left the small hotel, taking the Akanyaru road. They knew that the immigration counter will not be open before eight o’clock, but they didn’t want to take a risk of being stopped in the small town. They were lucky enough to reach the south without any problem the night before, and they didn’t want to tempt the fate.

  As soon as they were in the car, he tuned into the national radio and started to listen to the President’s death announcements. It was going to be aired the full day, cut of buy others, mostly from the ministry of defence urging all the soldiers out on leaves to get back in their camps immediately. And calling all the national reserve forces to contact the army authority in their regions. The same announcements urged people to stay home and avoid forming groups of more than three. The whole day they kept alternating with gospel music in a continuous loop. Sitting in the car at the border, while waiting for the immigration counter to open, Musoni took his wife’s hand and told her:

  “See Janette, I am so sorry I had to embark you and your sister in such an adventure, but believe me I will only feel relieved once we would be at the other side. I don’t like the way things are escalating.

  - It’s ok Darling, only a few minutes to go and we will be able to cross. I only wish to these we leave behind to be all right.” His wife said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

  At eight o’clock, it wasn’t an immigration officer who opened the counter as people were ordered to stay home. But a soldier in uniform who asked all the travellers to go back home; the country was in a state of emergency, they might have heard it on the radio by then. Musoni who was familiar with dealing with such situations argued that they really needed to cross the border; his mother who stayed in Kayanza town in Burundi was dying. He added that she has requested to see his grandchildren as a last wish.

  They all needed to say a goodbye. The soldier was about to object but then he saw the passports Musoni was handing to him with some note bills inside. He reached for them, took out the money discreetly, and asked him when they wished to come back. “As soon as possible, let’s said two days,” Musoni replied, hoping he will finally let them cross. The soldier appeared to be convinced, put the passport on the table and started going through pages, searching for free spaces to stamp.

  Musoni and Jeannette held their breaths until he stamped the last one. When he was about to hand the passports back to him he seemed to remember of something, and asked suddenly:

  “Do you have your identity cards with you?” Musoni surprised by the soldier’s question nearly feinted. He understood what the guy wanted to check inside the ID cards, something which was not mentioned in the passport: their ethnic groups. He managed to respond clearly to the soldier that they had them. Then he asked his wife and Jeanine to show him their IDs first.

  “I am bringing mine from the car,” he said with a smile, addressing the soldier who nodded to him, still holding the three passports in his hands. The soldier waited for the two women to reach inside their handbags and extracted the needed papers.

  On the way to the car Musoni felt helpless. He wondered what he was going to do to cheat the soldier. There was no way that he would show his ID card. He needed to get an idea quickly; his family’s safety depended on him.

  “But what can I say that the guy will buy, and why the hell did he even ask? None needs an ID card to cross a border and their passports were in order.” He was lost in his mind, bent in his car’s seat pretending to look into the car’s glove box but thinking on the best way to get them out of there, when he felt someone touching his back. He murmured a quick prayer.... as he turned quickly to see who was there and what he was looking for. Jeannette was standing behind him, radiant and holding the passports in her hands.

  “We are done Darling...The guy checked only the HUTU mention on our cards, and I guess he judged that two were enough to clear the way to the rest of the family! And so far so good, let’s get out of here!” She added jokingly and taping his husband’s back. Musoni sat quickly back in his seat without a word and started the car. He accelerated as soon as the last door was closed, and left the parking without a look behind.

  Back in Kigali, Felix spent the morning of Seventh cursing the whole world.

  “No way”, he repeated for the hundredths time.

  “There is no way I am going to stay here; there might be a way out.” He kept telling his friend. Alexis was helpless and didn’t know what to do to stop his friend’s suicidal plan.

  -Listen, the radio is urging people to stay home but the RTLM is mobilizing Hutus to kill Tutsis, and you have heard all these gunshots the whole night. Why don’t you chill first, just the time to see how things develop? He tried to convince him even further:

  - Felix, you know I am a Hutu and none knows you are already here, and you know you can stay at my house as long as it would be necessary. Please don’t be fool, it’s too early to judge of the situation,” he nearly begged him. Then Felix thought of his family; his ageing parents and his vulnerable young siblings. And Grace who was left in the middle of nowhere. No, he couldn’t let them down, they all needed him.

  “Thank you for your offer, my brother. I will always value your kindness, but sorry I have to go. My family needs me; I can’t leave them at their own and be able to sleep. Please try to understand. He said to his friend looking determined.

  - It’s your life, but I would not take such a risk if I was you. Alexis replied to him.

  - I know buddy, but it’s stronger than me. Felix said reaching into his bag, he took out the box in which was kept the ring he has bought for Grace the day before, and handed it to his friend.

  - Maybe you are right; please keep this and give it to Grace for me if I happen to not make it back home. Please, I insist, whenever and wherever you will see her. And tell her that my last thought would be for her if I ever die,” he said trying to hold tears which were streaming down his big eyes. His friend hugged him and reminded him to be careful on the road.

  - I will. Thank you. I will try to avoid the main roads as much as possible. He said, pulling out of his friend’s parking. He set the car on the street with Kigingi sitting next to him, in the passenger seat. They waved hands until the car disappeared at the corner.

  Felix avoided the main roads as much as he could. He was aware that many roadblocks were set up by soldiers since the night before, but he could not figure out where exactly they were located. From Nyamirambo, he drove all the way uphill until Kabusunzu, avoiding to take Kaddafi road which would be suicidal. From there he tried to find a better way to reach Nyabugogo and cross to Gitarama unharmed. He then drove down the hill, taking Nyakabanda and Kimisagara’s small streets.

  Sometimes he bumped in some people’s houses as the street would end announced. At these moments, he was turning to Kigingi’s side, seeking for an advice only to see a more confused face; the young man did not know well the city and could not help his boss. The worst thing was that, there were no passers-by on the streets to ask for the right direction. Everyone was stuck at home and people were only looking outside their windows, whenever they heard an engine on the street, apparently scared . He snaked along the area for few minutes until he landed back on the main road, at a point very close to Nyabugogo.

  At the moment Felix felt very proud of him and had a good feeling about the rest of his trip back home. Once in Nyabugogo, he bumped in his first roadblock which was set down on the main roundabout. It monitored all the traffic into and out of the city, through the western entrance point. Cars were very few on the roads and mostly the militarized ones, with heavy guns on top. By the moment Felix and Kigingi reached the roundabout, their truck was the only car around. He stopped and smiled to the armed soldier who inquired him of the emergency of their trip, as everyone was summoned to stay home.

  “It’s not a trip as such; I was only moving my company’s c
ar and equipments, they were stranded on the road overnight after the car had a puncture, Felix lied very quickly.

  - And where is your company located? The soldier asked apparently doubtful.

  - At Gitikinyoni, just over there, Felix replied indicating the direction with his hand.

  - And where do you stay?

  - We stay at the same place, so will be no more driving after the car would be let inside. I am sorry, my boss isn’t in the country and I didn’t judge it reasonable to let the equipment on road for an unknown time. The car was broken yesterday and I didn’t have the right tool to fix it. Felix added, trying to sound as relaxed as possible.

  - Do you have your identity cards with you? The soldier asked checking both their faces, to indicate that even Kigingi was concerned.

  - Of course, said Felix easing himself in his seat to be able to reach his trouser’s back pocket.

  At that moment Kigingi who has remained silent from the beginning, handed his ID card to the soldier, he checked it carefully, bent down to check if the face matched the card’s picture. Once convinced, he handed it back to him. He then stretched his arm over Kigingi, to grab Felix’s card who was handing it to him from the other side of the car.

  At the same time, a black jeep with black tented glass windows approached the roadblock at a high speed, coming from the city centre. The soldier, whose head was engaged in Felix’s car window, moved quickly away from the truck and stepped in the centre of the road, trying to stop the jeep.

  The driver didn’t slow down the jeep but accelerated instead. The soldier scared to death, jumped at the other side of the road, to avoid an eminent crash. The big car drove over the roadblock taking its wood in the tires and disappeared. The soldier still in shock and confused on which action to take, waved to Felix urging him to go away. It took few seconds for Felix to understand what he meant. Then he started the car and took off towards the south. Once passed the roundabout he told Kigingi:

  “I don’t know what I would have done without you, thank you.

  - But I didn’t do anything at all, I just happened to have my ID card in hands at the moment.

  - That’s what I was talking about. He checked it and was happy to see that you are a Hutu. Imagine if he had seen mine first. I am thankful to the guy who almost ran over him as well. Both of you saved my life.”

  Few minutes later, they reached Gitikinyoni to find a bigger barrage, blocking the road and guarded by many soldiers who showed different rank signs on their shoulders. One of them ordered Felix to pull over at one side of the road and walk through the check point. There again their ID cards were checked; Kigingi who walked ahead passed through the barrage and Felix was retained and asked to wait. A soldier escorted him to a group of other people standing nearby. Kigingi who has just passed the checkpoint looked back and saw Felix being led away. He came back and told the soldiers that the man who was held was his boss, and he could not go without him. They let him cross back the barrage. As he walked in the opposite direction, Felix got surprised to see him, he cursed between his teeth as he approached him.

  “Stupid Kigingi, what are you doing here?

  - But I could not go without you, Boss,” Kigingi responded, very worried.

  Their conversation was cut by the arrival of three soldiers –two caporals and an officer – who forced everyone to climb in the back of a TATA military truck parked no far from there. It was a sort of chaos around the big car as people were refusing to climb it. They all shouted asking what was going on and where they were being taken to. But none was there to explain, the two soldiers hit instead everyone who dared to show resistance to their orders.

  “I have a company car here fully loaded with client’s materials; we cannot leave it unattended, Felix tried to explain to one of the soldiers.

  - And my conveyor is here with me; please let at least him stay with the car.

  - Assets belonging to Tutsis are confiscated as well, haven’t you understand that? The officer replied to him, coldly.

  - But... and he received a truncheon blow on his head which cut him off immediately. He kept quiet and climbed in the truck. No far from him, Kigingi was trying to explain to another soldier that his being there was a misunderstanding and asking to be released.

  - Let me alone, I am a Hutu; I am not supposed to be here and... he tried to plead for his safety but the caporal pushed him even harder toward the truck’s back entrance forcing him to climb.

  As soon as everyone was hoisted on board, two gun armed caporals climbed behind them blocking the exist; like if someone would jump while on road. And the officer took place in front, behind the driver. The car took the direction to the South of the country, at the confusion of all the prisoners. They have all expected to be driven back to the city and be thrown into one of the horrible prisons, but there, they were confused as the truck drove toward the south, leaving the city behind.

  The military truck stopped at the Nyabarongo River, no far from the bridge between Kigali and Gitarama Prefectures. A much bigger group of armed soldiers were waiting at the place and watched everyone jumping out of the truck. Most of the held people were men. They aligned everyone on the road over the bridge, with their hands on their heads, and leaning their backs on the iron bridge rail.

  Kigingi started to make a show behind the truck as he was pushed toward the bridge. He has just understood that things were tougher than he thought, when he saw the car stop around Nyabarongo. He refused to jump out of the car shouting loud that he was a Hutu. Holding his ID card in hands and asking to the soldiers to set him free. The soldiers didn’t want to hear anything of what he was saying, but dragged him instead all the way to the river, before they threw him in front of the officers. Once there, he didn’t want to shut up as he was ordered. He stood up and called out one of the officers, telling him that he was going to be killed while he was innocent.

  “What are you innocent of? The officer asked him.

  - But I am a Hutu; I am only here because I didn’t want to leave my boss.

  - Are you sure of what you are talking about.

  - Sure, the young man replied, showing his ID card to the officer.

  - Let me check, the officer said taking the card from Kigingi’s hands.

  For a small second, all the soldiers’ attention shifted from the aligned prisoners to the young man who was screaming at the other side. It was at that moment that Felix, taking everyone by surprise, and still holding his hands joined behind the back of his head, decided to jump in the river. The sound made by his cloths as he quickly climbed the bridge rail before he jumped, alerted the soldiers who turned around quickly to see him plunging. One of them fired bullets after him but everything went so fast, none could be sure whether he was shot or not.

  They all saw his body disappearing quickly into the torrent of the powerful river. The officer shot dead Kigingi immediately with his handgun. He thought that the guy was an accomplice, who came there just to make a diversion and help the rebel commando to escape. That’s how Felix was referred of. No civilian would have made such a move.

  “It will teach you from hanging out with cockroaches,” the office said, kicking Kigingi’s body with his boot.

  The situation in Kagoma Estate in the morning of Seventh wasn’t anything better. Luis and his colleagues didn’t really know how to handle things. Since the morning they have heard on the national radio that none was allowed to leave his house. But they ran a hospital for Christ sake, and patients were waiting for them. It fell under Luis’s responsibility to take a decision and he did not know what to do. The hospital and the patients needed them all. And his conviction as a practitioner was to save lives, no matter the circumstances. And yet his government was asking him and his colleagues to stay home when many patients were lying on the hospital’s bed, waiting for treatment.

  Personally he had already decided to transgress the order, but he wasn’t sure if he was right to convince the rest of the team to do the same. What
if he was putting them at risk? That question kept spinning into his mind but he had no answer for it. He was only sure about one thing: he would never let down the hospital and he needed his staff’s support. He could not handle it alone.

  “Guys, it’s an unusual situation for every Rwandan, it’s very sad to lose the President of the Republic in such a horrible way. The thing is, we lack of information; we don’t know what is going on in Kigali for the government to put the country in a state of war, but in my humanly and managerial capacity, I think we cannot stop working at the hospital. People are there lying on their beds waiting for us to provide them treatments; we have no right to let them down. All of us here, we vowed to save lives, we cannot watch people die, at least I know I can’t. Of course it will be at your entirely decision to join me or not and I will not blame whoever decides not to. The only thing I know is that I need your support,” Luis said to his three colleagues.

  They were sitting in their house where he has rushed still in his pyjama, as soon he heard the news on radio. They were still sleeping when he knocked on their door. When their houseboy finally opened to let him inside, he rushed to the living room to find Anton who was standing there, waiting to see who was that intruder, and what he would be looking for, at such an early hour.

  As soon as he heard what happened during the night, he immediately woke up the girls, and they improvised meeting.

  They were sitting in the living room, terrified and all still in their night cloths. The room was very cold, but none seemed to notice. Not even the houseboy who forgot to prepare the tea for breakfast. He has just finished making fire on the small kitchen’s stove when he heard Luis reporting about the death of the President. He then abandoned fire and cooking pots and hurried in the living room where his bosses where having the meeting.

  Grace stood up and went to the kitchen hoping to find a boiling cup of tea when he found the fire already off. She cursed the houseboy for neglecting his job but realized that she could not blame him, everyone was under shock. She made tea as quick as she could and brought a hot pot and some cups to his friend in the living room. Everyone thanked her as they grabbed cups.

  “Did I miss something? She asked stirring sugar into her tea.

  - Not really, we have been rather thinking on which attitude to adopt regarding the situation. We really want to join you Luis, but what if we get arrested or something? You know it can be tough for some of us,” said a shaken Anton, holding his hot tea cup between his big hands to warm them up. He has been following the small meeting like in a limbo.

  Since Luis broke the news, Anton has made in his mind a quick assessment of the situation. Born in a Tutsi family, he understood better than anyone the gravity of the situation. His family has been fighting ethnic battles since decades. They always served as scapegoats every time an occasion rose, and that since the country’s independency. And he was almost sure that the death of the President was going to be another occasion. Like always. What to do? Stay there and continue to work or go back home in Gikongoro and face what had to come with his family? The last resolution seemed to be the right one to him. “But how to get out of here? Blood hell of a place to get lost into!” Then he realized that he was trapped in Kagoma and would probably never see his family again. He fumed inside while his friends discussed about the situation and realizing he had no other choice, he offered to continue working at the hospital.

  “I think we will not have problems, at least for us who stay here in the Estate. We don’t need to walk a long distance to reach the hospital.” Grace said trying to cheer up the small group’s moral. They all nodded in agreement, apparently relieved. “Sometimes it takes the simplest of the words to calm down the hardest of the situations.” Luis thought, thanking Grace in his mind. She had said what everyone needed to hear and get committed. He left his colleagues’ house and went back home to take a shower and get ready for work.

  After the meeting Grace took a quick shower, put on her working blouse and headed to the hospital. She was in denial since morning, refusing to accept what was happening. For her, it was just a horrible nightmare, a kind of day dream; a terrible one. A day before, she was only counting two days to Felix’s visit. And there she was hearing that he was forced to stay in his house for an unknown time, she could not believe it. “No, there must be a mistake somewhere and the situation will be clear before the evening comes; or at least by tomorrow morning. And I will see Felix on Saturday afternoon, and we will be together the entire week end, as we have planned.” She wanted to believe that instead, refusing to bow to the reality.

  She spent the whole day filling in the places of all the absentees at the hospital. And his colleagues and friends did the same. As a trainee, she was not allowed to perform some of the duties, but the hospital was understaffed and any kind of help was needed. The only good thing was that patients were very less comparing to other days. Only few emergency cases were reported and most of the attention was concentrated on these admitted in the hospital since days

  Connect with the Author

  Minega K. Albert can be reached on:

  - Twitter: @mankire1

  - Blog: www.mkalbertwriter.wordpress.com

  -Email: mkalbert2@gmail.com