Abstract
Victim testimony is foundational to the pursuit of justice and social repair after mass atrocities and should be recognised as an expression of courage and transformative political agency. After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, survivors recounted horrors that could hardly be communicated, creating precious records of human suffering and loss. Since then, other victims of injustice and abuse have also given testimony to human rights organisations, despite fears of repression. Taken on their own terms, these harrowing individual testimonies are profound critiques of atrocities and political violence. Collectively, they form a powerful legacy and a counterpoint to narrow political framings of Rwanda’s history.
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Notes
- 1.
Claude Kanamugire, a Tutsi survivor from Ninzi, Cyangugu, cited in African Rights (1995, p. 456).
- 2.
Félicien Bahizi, a Hutu who helped to protect Tutsis in Nyamasheke, Cyangugu, cited in African Rights (1995, p. 457).
- 3.
- 4.
The government has acknowledged that some individual soldiers are responsible for abuses (Waldorf 2011, p. 50) but refutes charges that these were authorised by the RPA (Peskin 2005). Additionally, it has sought to dismiss accusations of massacres during the war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997 (Reyntjens 2011, pp. 135–136).
- 5.
See Chakravarty’s (2016) seminal study of gacaca courts.
- 6.
This apposite phrase is used by Waldorf (2011) firstly to refer to negationism by Hutu exiles promoting a claim that there was a double genocide, or an argument that the 1994 killings were a result of ‘war and self-defence’ (p. 50); and secondly (p. 81) to raise questions about the study of Davenport and Stam (2009).
- 7.
The testimonies were available to me in unedited versions and some of them have not been published previously. I worked at African Rights from 1996 to 2003. They form part of an archive includes over 300 testimonies related to the genocide in Cyangugu, and an estimated 3000 testimonies in total (this estimate refers to original documents I have had access to, not on the total numbers gathered by the organisation). African Rights publications have been cited as sources in numerous other works on the genocide (e.g., des Forges 1999; Straus 2006). I have used only first names for testimonies and initials for interviews for ethical reasons.
- 8.
As such, this chapter is based on a form of ‘engaged scholarship’; as a human rights researcher the author was ‘actively involved in the world of its subject matter’ (MacKinnon 2010, p. 203) see Note 7 for details.
- 9.
As human rights researchers from Cyangugu, Pacifique and Félicien have worked tirelessly to preserve the memory of genocide survivors and victims of human rights abuses, as well as honourable Rwandans who saved lives, including in their native préfecture. They were both targeted during the 1994 genocide. As a Tutsi, Pacifique was forced to flee Cyangugu in 1994, while Félicien, who is Hutu, faced threats because of efforts to save lives in Cyangugu during the genocide. Both were also forced into exile due to threats after the genocide. Their contributions have been invaluable in the research for this chapter during 2016–2017, but all errors and omissions are my own.
- 10.
It was one of 12 préfectures during the period examined here. Local government administrative boundaries were redrawn in January 2006 as part of a decentralisation programme and Cyangugu was then included in Western province.
- 11.
PK and FB, personal communication, Brussels, November 2017.
- 12.
Twagiramungu became Prime Minister in the post-genocide Government of National Unity after the genocide, and was the sole opposing candidate against the incumbent President Paul Kagame in the 2003 elections. He has lived in exile since.
- 13.
My translation from the French.
- 14.
Straus (2006, p. 55) estimates that the Tutsis population of Cyangugu was 9.6% of the overall number of Tutsis within Rwanda and that the percentage killed was 5.9%. But he points out that the figures are unreliable due to problems with census and survey data. Relatedly, his calculations suggest that the number of Tutsi in the region was some 70,000. The ICTR estimates must include both Tutsis and any Hutus who died in the killings. The assertion that the majority of Tutsis were killed is beyond dispute and also confirmed by individual testimony (e.g., Note 1).
- 15.
The gacaca courts were established to expedite genocide justice and to promote reconciliation through ‘truth-telling.’ Ultimately the courts heard close to 2 million cases and sentenced more than a million people on a range of crimes.
- 16.
The ages given refer to the age at the time the testimony was given.
- 17.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, 4 October 1999. Jacqueline’s full testimony also lists the names of some of the dead, and those who were saved.
- 18.
The place where the sous-préfecture office was located.
- 19.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, August 2003.
- 20.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, May 1996.
- 21.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, March 1996.
- 22.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, November 1996.
- 23.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, June 2005. Révélien’s full testimony also covered historical issues, including his arrest in 1986 on the grounds of ‘having defended a Tutsi,’ and his role in saving lives during the genocide. The Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) is a militia group formed in 2000, largely composed of Hutus based in the DRC and opposed to RPF rule in Rwanda and Tutsi influence in the region. Its leader, Major General Sylvestre Mudacumura, was deputy commander of the FAR Presidential Guard in Rwanda in 1994.
- 24.
Testimony given in Cyangugu, June 2005.
- 25.
For instance, Thaciana accuses former préfet Bagambiki directly, in contrast to the ICTR judgement of acquittal. Similarly, Jacqueline, who was at Nyarushishi, describes the French as protectors there, in contrast to the Mucyo report (2008).
- 26.
For instance, Father Busunyu, a priest who saved lives in Nyamasheke, named by Thaciana, was later killed in a massacre in the refugee camps in eastern DRC in 1997 (RwaBaho 2015), while his compatriot Félicien Bahizi was persecuted by the RPF and forced into exile in 2009.
- 27.
JP, personal communication, Kigali, July 2006. This refers to Hutu refugees who were victims of massacres in the Congo war in 1996–1997 (see Stearns and Borello 2011). Also note that victims and survivor groups have sometimes taken the lead in documenting violations and come together in associations and commemorations that explicitly include ‘all that were victimized by genocide and wars’ (Jambonews.net 2014).
- 28.
FB, personal communication, Kigali, July 2006.
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Ibreck, R. (2018). Victims and Survivors from Cyangugu, Rwanda: The Politics of Testimony After Genocide. In: Druliolle, V., Brett, R. (eds) The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict Societies. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70202-5_12
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