Transcript
28th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: Remember, Unite, Renew. “Twibuke Twiyubaka”
Speakers: Names in order of speaking
Janvier Katabarwa 0:00
Good afternoon. My name is Janvier Katabarwa.
Frank Rukundo 0:04
My name is Frank Rukundo.
Janvier Katabarwa 0:07
And we are coordinators for today's event. This event was organized by British Columbia Rwandan Community in collaboration with SFU. We, on behalf of British Columbia Rwandan Community, I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming here today to be with us on this 28th Commemoration of 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi. We want to thank, in particular SFU, for the use of this room, we want to thank Vancouver Police Department for being with us in Walk to Remember. We want to thank other communities and friends of Rwanda, who are here to support us today.
Today is one of the 100 days that we mourn and remember ours, more than a million people who perished during 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda. They were our parents, family, siblings, children, and in doings so, we are also celebrating life. We want to stand here and tell the perpetrators that we are alive. And we will forgive. But we will never forget. Without further ado, I'm going to pass a microphone to Frank. He will go over today's program.
Frank Rukundo 2:09
Thank you Janvier. My name is Frank Rukundo. I am very, can I say, first of all, very fortunate to be here with my brother and everybody around here. Can I say one thing? Thank you to each and everybody who showed up, showing up is coming here to be with us on a day like this. Showing up is the parents who had to find babysitters so they could be here with us. Showing up his everybody who really managed to take a day off. Or even, you know, it's a beautiful Saturday, you could have stayed home and say, "Okay, I'm gonna have a beer or something". But you decided to be here. So that is tremendous. So thank you so much.
Okay, now moving on. I really want to go, we're running out of time. But I just wanted to go through what exactly is going to happen today. We're going to have a prayer at exactly, what time is it? At exactly 3:10. We also have a chance to watch a documentary, which really talks about the main history of our Rwandan, basically the run in history, right? And then we will have the guest of honor, the acting superintendent,Terry Yung, and we will have a testimony by Mama Lambert. We will also have music by Mariya Yohana. At exactly 4:20, we will have the Kwibuka Remembrance Ceremony, lighting candles. And then we have a survivor who will be telling us exactly what happened. So it's going to be quite sad, emotional, but this is the thing, we are Rwandans. We have gone through the worst. We are ready for anything that comes along. Ladies and gentlemen. Let me take the opportunity to introduce Gisele.
Janvier Katabarwa 4:18
Oh, just to let you know she's the first vice president of British Columbia Rwandan community.
Gisele Umviligihozo 4:24
Good afternoon everyone. First, I would like to acknowledge that we stand on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo, and Tsawwassen people's. Excellences, acting Super Intendant Terry Yung, author, Ndizeye Omar, the Rwandan ambassador in Canada, dear survivors, distinguished guests, friends of Rwanda, ladies and gentleman. Good afternoon. Mwiriwe neza.
I have the honor to welcome you to the 28th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Under the theme, remember, unite, renew. Twibuke Twiyubaka. Every year, starting from April 7th, our country and the Rwandan communities around the world observe annual commemorations events during 100 days of remembrance, to educate the youth and our local communities, about the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. During this time, we discussed the history leading up to the genocide and measures to prevent any future acts of the genocide in the world. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. As we pay tribute
Janvier Katabarwa 6:20
In neighboring countries in 1963, there was mass killing in Cyanika, Kaduha in Rwanda, and so there was a Yukon gold at the moment.
Frank Rukundo 6:34
Exactly.
Janvier Katabarwa 6:35
Yeah. So 1973. At that time, in 1963, over 10,000 Tutsis were killed. There was a lot of discrimination. You couldn't go to school in higher education. Discrimination in work. Yeah, so that was a, genocide was prepared, prepared. Over three decades, in 1994, was actually final. But it's it didn't start in 1994. Yeah, so there is a lot to say.
Frank Rukundo 7:09
Absolutely. Just to give you guys a little bit of what happened. April 7, the entire world was getting ready for Easter holidays. But our people back home, especially the Tutsis, were hiding. Can you imagine that, babies being killed, professors killing their own students, CEOs killing their own employees, religious leaders, forgetting about their own, and making sure that they direct the militias and extremists to come and kill these people. And these are Tutsis who are born just the way they were born and that was a problem to some. So, ladies and gentlemen, as, you know, as we break this down, people are getting ready for Easter holidays and Easter gifts, and the people are dying, and these were Tutsis. So, it was such a preposterous thing that Rwanda as a country had to go through. But most of all, the Tutsis, because of who they were. Janvier, any pronouncements on that?
Janvier Katabarwa 8:19
I can finish the whole history in one minute or in one hour. But you will see a lot through testimonies. We'll have survivors who will come here and give you a little bit of what they they've been through. So, today, we had the honour of having one of our guests of honour, Inspector, Terry Yung, and who'd like to come and share some few words with, a few words with us.
Terry Yung 8:54
Does this work, okay. Anyway, thank you is nice to see everybody her. It is an honor to be here to say a few words. A little bit about myself. Actually, like many of you, I'm actually an immigrant from Hong Kong, and also a former colony of the UK until 1997. I remember when as a kid before going to boarding school in the UK, the areas of Hong Kong, where it says, "Chinese and dogs not allowed". So that's a pretty interesting legacy of colonialism. And my family and I traveled to Tanzania few years ago, very close to a Rwanda and just struck by how beautiful the African continent is. But, but unfortunately, wars and child soldiers are still being used today in Ukraine, Afghanistan.
I had the good fortune to meeting General Roméo Dallaire, who was the UN Peacekeeping commander from the Canadian Army at the UN. I read all his books. The one that really struck me is the one that is quite famous. The title is "They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children". And Romeo actually spends the rest of his life trying to eradicate the use of child soldiers. Because they were not, they were just actually conscripted, there's no choice. They have to act to kill people. And they were told to do so.
But just before I go on, I just want to also recognize where I am speaking to you, on the traditional territories of Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh. Our country's history with Indigenous peoples is another story altogether. And I think there cannot be any reconciliation without truth.
I think the world doesn't know much about Rwanda. I had to be educated a few years ago, read up on it. But by and large, like the United States, like NATO, when the conflict was going on, it was not receiving a lot of attention until it was way too late. So, on the day job explaining about myself, on the day job, I work at police department, I'm in charge of the Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenous Relations. And also, I'm also in charge of their community policing services section with a lot of community policing centres, block watch. And we actually have 12,000 volunteers in the State of Vancouver to try to make this a better place, a safer place for everybody. Something I was particularly proud of, of course, policing has a long way to go. But our section actually created an African Descent VPD Advisory Committee to advise our Vancouver Police Board, which is oversight body for the entire police department here in Vancouver. And a couple months earlier we inducted our first African descent board member comfort as one of our board members, actually, obviously in charge of the police department.
I just want to say it's, three nights ago, I was at a Jewish Federation event and talk about remembrance of the Holocaust. And it was heartbreaking. When one of the survivors walked up, she was in a 90s. And she said she witnessed her father, her mother, her sister, and her brother taken away from her and sent to Auschwitz, which she never saw them again. And then really broke her heart is, as recent as a few months ago in Ottawa. Oh, actually, sorry, is in Washington, DC during the insurgency. There was a protester wearing a t shirt, says, Camp Auschwitz staffer. So this is 2022. If you ask me, if you know, 20 years ago, I moved to this country. Would Canada, would the United States, would North America be in 2020, where we are today? We probably say no. I think it's really sad. You know, this country is based on immigration. I think everybody wants to settle. It's a settler, before the Indigenous, after the Indigenous people. But if you look around the news, you look around out there. Many people are still targeted based on a cultural or religious background. I was at a mosque last night. You know, this recent incident in Surrey. Somebody tried to run them over during evening prayer for Ramadan. And again, this is April 2022.
I think this is not good. I have to say this is not a good thing. It's an understatement. So, I think we have to band together. As part of the Asian community here in Vancouver, we felt the pain of Asian hate crime the last two years, during the pandemic. Was up 700%! 700%. And only 25% of hate crimes actually reported. Just think about that for a second. There's 3,000 low income seniors living in Chinatown, not because they wanted to, because they can't afford to live in a seniors home. And I was quoted in the Vancouver Sun article, Chinatown was found on the basis of exclusion. Early Chinese settlers here were not even allowed to be citizens. The first act enacted by Victoria, when it became part of Canada, was to make sure that Indigenous and Chinese people do not have the right to vote. And if you're an Indigenous person, you volunteer to be veterans or you vote, you will lose your status. If you go and fight for your country, that does not claim your own, even though you were here before anybody else, when you come back your veterans benefits is a fraction of somebody else's. Is that good? Is that fair? Is that really what we want to aspire to as a country? I have not.
So, we have a lot of questions to ask ourselves. At the end of the day. I think we all have to band together; we advocate for different groups. You cannot rely on Indigenous groups to champion for themselves. You cannot rely on the Asian community to fight racism. You cannot rely on African descent, the micro subgroups to fight for themselves. When other people laughed at jokes, the stereotypes. A council meeting at City of Vancouver two nights ago. There was a merchant in Chinatown, saying people bear spray her, robbed her. When customers find out her appliance store in Chinatown. They do not want to come down there. Because it's a terrible place to be. And some spectators said, you just should eat more rice. That's the answer. That's the answer in April 2022. I mean, I'll be lying to say I'm not upset. I mean, obviously, this is not something we take comfort in. But what are we doing about it?
I was part of interfaith group with a Rabbi from the Jewish community, with Indigenous leader Jody Wilson Raybould, and, and Muslim community, we went to a school on the west side. And 80% of the grade 11 and 12 students actually said, in their minds, there's no racism in this country. I realized why, because when I left the talk, the parking lot shared with Bentley, Porsche and Range Rovers, and they were driving back to the west side. Now, we cannot arrest our way out of hate crime, we have to go through education, advocacy, and people banding together to do this.
So, you know, the atrocity of Rwanda is repeated in Ukraine, is repeated in Afghanistan is going on and on. So I think it's important to remember the past, like the Holocaust, or like all the atrocities around the world, but to ask ourselves, what are we going to do? What can we do about this? Can we advocate, can we actually speak for other people? I mean, is it okay to stereotype certain group of people being lazy, they're not good drivers, they drive up the real estate prices, simply because they look different. I mean, I have the misfortune of being told to go back to China, even though I wasn't born there. A few months ago, was driving around minding my own business. My wife is in the UK. Nobody ever told her to go back to London. So why have some people have a better sense of belonging in this country than the rest of us? That is question I want you to answer. That is why, you know, unless we all band together, instead of working against each other. We're never going to get to where we want to go. So thank you very much.
Janvier Katabarwa 17:32
Thank you, Inspector Yung, Terry Yung.
Frank Rukundo 17:37
Thank you, Inspector. Oh, ladies and gentlemen. This was great. Just having somebody from a different, you know, looking at it from a different perspective. So we can see how we can actually relate what is going on to what exactly happened to us. I just wanted to say something. Nowadays, there's a lot of stuff going on, people denying what exactly happened to Rwandans, especially the Tutsis, people denying the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Now, you could watch a whole bunch of those. But it's up to you to see what exactly is something to you, you can actually digest. Now watching my Mama Lambert, take your time. Think about her. Think about anybody else who could have gone through the same thing at that moment. Janvier, do have to be anything that you would like to say about that documentary you're going to watch?
Janvier Katabarwa 18:44
What I'm going to say about it is just, it's a short testimony. She is one of many of us, who been through this horrific, horrific event of 1994 genocide against Tutsi. Like Frank say, there's a lot of deniers because they live in shame of what they did. So, without further ado, let's technical department do their own thing. Thank you.
Frank Rukundo 19:18
Thank you.
Wow. That was incredible. Ladies and gentlemen. It was like watching a movie, that was so realistic. To me, this is a true definition of class. Strength. When we talk about strength, it's that quintessential definition of strength that comes from within and watching my Mama Lambert to me, that was breathtaking.
Janvier Katabarwa 20:05
Yes.
Frank Rukundo 20:07
The fact that, you know, she was a teacher, and you know, looking at what she had to go through and going back to university, and doing what she's doing right now. This is what we call heroism. You know, regardless of what she went through, she can still be in a position to say something.
Janvier Katabarwa 20:38
Yes, as you can see, Mama Lambert, she's planning to write books and books to tell stories. I see there is a lot of young people here. And I'm pretty sure that most of you have moms, dads, or relatives who've been through hell. If you ever had to talk to them, ask them their stories. And it's your responsibility to go out there and write books. Because we have a lot of people who survived the genocide, but who are not here with us today. But they share, they share their testimony, what they've been through, and their memories live lives with us, live with us. So, it's time that we stand up and start writing books. Because if we forget, a tragic event may happen again. It's our responsibility to remember and keep the memories alive. So, the following moment, is the moment of Kwibuka, ceremony of remembrance ceremony, I would like to invite survivors who are here who want to say their names. There is many of us here who have who lost parents, siblings, this is the time that you're going to come here, for you to come here, and light a candle for them. If there is a people who want to step here, step forward and light the candle with us. I'd like to invite them to join us. Thank you. Yeah, can you please reduce the lights here? For me?
Audience Member 23:02
I was 15 years old. I was 15 years old, turning 16, in April. I was born on the 10th of April and the genocide started on the seventh. So, I survived. And, for me, I still hear the sounds of people, I still see them being killed. So, it's something we should not forget. And it really pains me when people try to deny that the genocide against us to see ever happened when I was there. So, an event like this, where we can come and raise awareness and especially talk to the young people. Yeah, we should do that. I just want to speak for those who were, who did not make it. I'm not going to go through the whole testimony. But there is a person who told me, a friend of mine, we were about the same age. And so, one time we were kind of talking and she said to me, she said, "Goodbye". And I said, "Goodbye". I mean, you know, she had survived. We had survived. We were kind of hiding, you know. To this day, I don't like running because I did, I did a lot of running. Really hard to now, running. So, she said "Goodbye". And I said, "No, you just know I, I just need to go to something, I'm going to see you." She said, "No, this is the last time you will see me." And that was the last time I saw her. And the genocide against the Tutsi did not end in Rwanda, by the way, because I happen to be in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And, I was also just there by Interahamwe. And people are just going to deny things that happened. Anyways, thank you. And so, let's not forget, we can forgive, but let's not forget, and the young people, please try to, you know, read and hear more of the testimony and talk to us, because the genocide against the Tutsi happened. And if anyone is going to deny it, they should come and talk to me.
Frank Rukundo 26:00
Thank you. I don't even know if I should say thank you. But that was really.
Janvier Katabarwa 26:05
Yeah. It takes the courage to share. Thank you very much.
Frank Rukundo 26:11
Thanks, brother.
Janvier Katabarwa 26:12
Is there anyone else want to share? We still have a few minutes we can. All right. If there's no one else, is there anything that you want to say?
Frank Rukundo 26:25
Yeah, I have a few things that I wanted to say, watching Mama Lambert. That went straight to my brain, I'll never forget that. But what I wanted to say is that there's a whole bunch of Mama, there's very many of Mama Lamberts, who do not have the opportunity or the courage to do that. But if you know any Mama Lambert out there, and you know, he or she is really there, or Papa Bear, please reach out to them, speak to them, comfort them. And that's how we go and do it. Like I said, we went through the worst, but we're not ready to go through the worst. And that takes courage, that takes you, me, him to speak and preach. Make sure that we can't attack those who are trying to deny our history. Those who say, the genocide against it against the Tutsis never happened. To me that is incredibly bizarre, incredibly preposterous. So, what I'm trying to say right now is that we have to stay strong. We have to stay together because we are having people who are trying to take us back to that horrendous you know, kind of act.
Janvier Katabarwa 27:51
Thank you. I would like to invite everyone to stand up and we're going to take a minute and light the candle and to have a minute of silence.
Thank you.
Frank Rukundo 29:59
Thank you.
Janvier Katabarwa 30:12
Nadine can you play music for us like a minute, thank you.
[Music]
Janvier Katabarwa 33:31
Thank you. So the following moment, I want to introduce you Omar. He's a survivor, author of "Life and Death in Nyamata". So, he'll have a time to introduce himself. Omar please welcome. Is Omar here? Yeah. Actually, he going to be, he's going to use a video. Thank you.
Frank Rukundo 34:16
Thank you. I wanted to ride around on that. Okay.
Omar Ndizeye 34:21
Thank you so much. I want to start by comforting other survivors, survivors who are here, who have lost their beloved family members and relatives during the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda, and thank you very much for also inviting me today so that we can have this exchange or reflection on the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi.
So, when I was invited, I was told that our emphasis today will be on memory and the denial, the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi. As you may know, one of the challenges we have after the genocide includes trauma therefore denial is one of the biggest challenges that we have. Is it necessarily therefore for the survivors in particular? So, allow me to share some slides, we have this conversation today. So that we can, I was told that also that there is a Q&A session. Maybe before that we can have this kind of conversation around the presentation. And I hope that it will be a formative therefore helping us to go through our history that we share with the history of Rwanda. Rwanda is therefore the memory, memorization process of Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda. I'm not sure if you are able to see the presentation now. Can you see the presentation? Yes, sorry. Thank you so much.
Before, I was told to discuss about the memory and the denial, the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi, but I thought that it would be wonderful, great to discuss today on memorials and the denial in the post-genocide Rwanda. Because then that includes memorization process, in a broader sense, which, which means memorization process in Rwanda is society therefore at the global level as well, because the genocide against Tutsi is a crime against humanity. And then, for us, using this time reflecting, on how the humanity in general, you know, remember, reflect, or package the knowledge around the memory. I thought that it's important. I want to start with these two chords, we by these two writers, and one is Christof Koch.
A whole lot, he's said in in in his chapter, demonic transition of how ordinary people can commit extraordinary evil. So, he said that the collective violence is a man-made event. The organized exclusion, persecution and the murder of thousands of victims is not a chance, is not a chance occurrence that suddenly allowed to be in society. The reason why I chose this quote from Christof Koch is to call us tonight to reflect on the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi at the societal level, is the Rwandan society, at the community level, is survivors. Therefore, other categories of Rwandans as well.
To think about genocide against Tutsi as a challenge to the society is one of the challenges we inherited from our history as a society. The reason why, then Helen also says that any adequate account of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda must acknowledge manipulation by external forces, domestic pressures and the psychological factors in the soul. The nature of the Rwandan state must be seen is as our service center. So, then, Helen is also informing us that as, well, whenever we reflect on the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda, we must be we must keep in mind that they are internal as well as external factors. Both in the causes of genocide, genocide was perpetrator therefore, when we go to deny as well, we will find that there both internal and external factors. So, this this fact, this course this, this is called as who reflected on the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi, they were informing us what you have Rwandan genocide, how Rwanda as a society, leads to the genocide.
Rwanda existed from 11th century, and then from 11th century to 15th century, when Rwanda became a central kingdom, then to what, 18th -19th century, when Rwanda came into contact with European civilizations, all of these, all of these movements, the ideological factors that conceived Rwanda society comes from all those sources, and they apply the law, from 1935, when Rwandan, when Rwandan society changed the trajectory society changed its trajectory, its political identities, from using 18 clans as a society to free ethnic groups, Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa, which was widely used by intellectuals who wrote on Rwanda. What that does that produced, the conception of Rwandan society from 1925. What did it produce? First, it produced intellectuals. Our first intellectuals who, who were who were educated in an antagonistic, antagonistic way, you know, confrontational way, and that will obviously, you know, read, you know, brought us to the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi. So, what you can, according to Stanton, is you may know, there are 10 stages of genocide, and one of them being extermination. And it took us to this slide, you see here, this is the image of the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda on the map of war.
As you can see, the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi which was copied in the three months. Tutsis and some Hutus who would hide them, who do give them safe space, safe places to hide, were killed in the churches, factories, government offices, health facilities, schools. So, when we represent in a physical way, the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi, when we talk about the extermination of Tutsis in three months or 100 days, some of us, I will say, this is what we have is the map of war.
So, then, as we remember, as we are here to remember, the lives lost, these are the signs of those lives lost on their, on the soil, on the on the hills, and on the river. So, in my in my work, I happen to collect or to, you know, to deepen the research on killing sites, we are these killing sites here, I mean, those places where Tutsis were ever in the, you know, as many numbers as they could, all the places where they took Tutsi to and they were massacred there. So, as you can see in front of you have been able to give a 333 killing sites during the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda. Just to mention that this is not the total. This is not the total killing sites in Rwanda because these sites does not record for example, hills, it doesn't include, rivers, it doesn't include the lakes. So, you call for view you can see the marshes of Bugesera, Papyrus Marsh, which I have it with Shahabi Papyrus Marsh, or Ntarama. They had also commemorated the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi. To date, it was a deadly day in this in this swamp.
On the right side you can also see the former being mineshaft this was a deadly place where Tutsis from Kayonza almost around the Rwinkwavu hospital were gathered and killed. Some of them are transported to this place. And some were thrown, were killed when we are covered with machetes, shot and thrown inside this mineshaft. These are these are powerful. These are powerful the killing sites, this is some of the remaining signs of how Tutsis were massacred, assaulted on the side of Rwanda. This took me to the memorials but before I talk about the memorials here on the killing site, I want to mention that the killing sites used during the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi include latrines include water, you know, rivers, rivers, and lakes includes churches.