GENOCIDE HAUNTS SURVIVORS: TESTIMONIALS MARK 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF RWANDAN TRAGEDY
by Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star
Windsor Star (Ontario, Canada)
April 10, 2006 Monday
Final Edition
Her parents, grandparents, five siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins
were all murdered.
Later, when the extermination squads of the Rwandan genocide came
for her, Grace Mukasekuru — then 13 years old — survived by hiding
beneath the body of a murdered family friend and playing dead.
“I’ve seen so much that no one should ever have to see, at any age,”
said Mukasekuru, 25. “I’ve seen people get killed, I was lined up
waiting for my turn to get killed.”
Mukasekuru was an organizer on the weekend of a three-day memorial
commemorating the 12th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
For 100 days following the murder of ethnic Hutu president Juvenal
Habyarimana, extremist Hutu authorities organized the slaughter of
about 900,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Events this weekend included a gathering Saturday at the University
of Windsor, with testimonies from survivors of the Rwandan genocide,
the Jewish holocaust and atrocities in Armenia, Cambodia and Sudan.
Sunday, there was a prayer service at Assumption Church.
Organizer Hiram Gahima, 42, who lost his family to the genocide,
said holding remembrance ceremonies brings awareness, which can help
to end such atrocities.
“Genocide is a tragedy, it’s an evil we need to fight against and
never allow to happen again,” said Gahima, an engineer in Windsor.
“It happened all over the world. It’s still happening. We need to
stand up as a community, as one people, and fight this evil.”
The evil is etched in Mukasekuru’s brain. When she left Rwanda 11
years ago, bodies literally filled the streets.
“It was before they started burying people,” she said.
When the genocide began, her father and brother fled because the
Hutus were only killing the men. The restraint didn’t last long.
“They started killing everybody, the mothers, the kids,” said
Mukasekuru, who still has two siblings with her in Windsor. “That’s
when I lost my mom.”
It was a pitch black night when killers came to the house in which
she and others were hiding. The men said they would let their victims
live if they handed over their valuables. It was a lie.
“They started killing and killing,” Mukasekuru said.
“Everything became chaotic.”
In the chaos, she fell to the ground from a blow to the head. Lying
there, she watched the murder of a man who worked for her family.
“He fell on top of me, so I pretended to be dead,” Mukasekuru said.
“That’s how I survived — that’s how I survived that night. The rest
of the story is just a long story.”
She said it’s a tale that will never finish for her.
“The genocide ended 12 years ago,” she said. “But it doesn’t end
for me. Every day is a scar. Every day it is something I have to
deal with.”