1994-2024: Thirty years since the Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, where an estimated one million people, including my parents, three sisters, and many in extended family, were brutally massacred. A survivor, I ponder: What does one do with this gift of life?
Ten years ago, I created this blog to reflect on justice and memory after this tragedy. I hope you find meaning in these posts as I do in writing them.
Dearest Father, It has been thirty years since the genocide took you from me. The journey since then has been challenging, caught between the perpetrators and their descendants who deny the genocide, as well as our supposed liberators who have turned into oppressors. In this suffocating environment, the […]
In a forceful open letter sent to UK Secretary of State James Cleverly today, the IGICUMBI association, one of the organizations representing survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, has accused the UK government of exploiting their tragedy to justify its controversial asylum seeker agreement […]
Ce discours de lancement, prononcé à la première heure du 7 avril, 2024, par Dr. Philippe Basabose, président en exercice de l’Association Igicumbi, revient, sans détours, sans tabous ni complaisance, sur les axes principaux de la terrible tragédie du génocide contre les Tutsi et de la période de […]
Par Philibert Muzima, Ottawa le 19 Avril, 2024. Le génocide perpétré contre les Tutsi au Rwanda reste un événement tragique difficile à nommer. Des appellations comme “le génocide au Rwanda” ou “le génocide rwandais” semblent inappropriées, irritantes même. Quant à dire “génocide perpétré contre les Tutsi” ou “génocide […]
Kwibuka, the annual commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, has become a far cry from its original purpose. What was once a solemn occasion to honor the victims and stand in solidarity with the survivors has now been transformed into a one-man show, used […]
Uyu munsi abayisilamu bizihiza umunsi mukuru wa Eid al-Fitr natekereje ku basilamu babiri bangiriye neza mu bihe bikomeye, hashize imyaka 30. Byari ibihe bigoye cyane, nyuma y’ibyumweru bike jenoside yakorewe abatutsi irangiye. Nta mwenda, nta nkweto, nta babyeyi, nta n’aho kuba hafatika. Inzu nakuriyemo abakoze jenoside bari barayisenye […]
On April 7, 1994, the fastest genocide of the 20th century began – the genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda. I was there. Initially naive, I eventually pieced everything together, especially when my parents were gone, leaving my 14-year-old sister and me on our own. The […]
Mu ijambo rye, Dr. Filipo Basabose, umuyobozi w’ishyirahamwe Igicumbi, arasesengura amateka ya jenoside n’ingaruka zayo ku bacitse ku icumu mu magambo atomoye, ariko abenshi dukunda kuvugira mu matamatama! Uyu mwarimu wa kaminuza muri Canada, agaruka ku bintu 5 ahamya ko byahumye amaso abatutsi bari mu gihugu, ntibabashe gusoma […]
Guest post by Jacques Gatutsi, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. When I was a child in elementary school, our religion teacher used to tell us that on Judgment Day, the mountains would drop their massive stones and destroy us. The purpose, he […]
Muhanga Correctional Facility in Rwanda houses a staggering 737 “génocidaires” – inmates convicted of crimes during the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. Of these, 728 have been sentenced, with 71 receiving life imprisonment sentences. The numbers across Rwanda’s prisons are even more striking. As of February 2024, […]
Today, Human Rights Watch announced the release of a series of archives highlighting the efforts of human rights defenders to warn about and attempt to stop the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. The documents painfully illustrate how leading international actors refused to acknowledge and act to […]
If you ask any genocide survivor about their family’s political affiliation before the genocide in Rwanda, one name rings out – Parti Liberal (PL). For many of us, PL was once a vibrant party that courageously championed democratic rights in the face of oppression. It was a beacon […]
As we prepare to commemorate the 30th time of the Genocide against the Tutsi, the IGICUMBI Association – Voice of the Survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi – has written an open letter, available here in Kinyarwanda, French, and English, to President Paul Kagame. In this letter, […]
On March 4th, according to The New Times Rwanda, Hundreds of Congolese refugees residing in Rwandan camps took to the streets in an orchestrated protest march. Brandishing placards, they vehemently condemned the alleged killings of the Tutsi, Banyamulenge, and Hema communities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo […]
Le 17 février 2020 restera, dans les annales des assassinats et exécutions sommaires au Rwanda, une des dates les plus sombres. C’est le jour où le grand chanteur de gospel et messager de la paix et de la réconciliation, Kizito Mihigo, a été assassiné alors qu’il était en détention dans un cachot de la police rwandaise à Kigali.
Quatre ans après ce crime sordide, ses frères et sœurs rescapés du génocide contre les Tutsi de l’Association IGICUMBI – Voix desRescapés du génocide contre les Tutsi ont commémoré sa vie ainsi que celles de bien d’autres rescapé(e)s de la même tragédie qui ont perdu leurs vies par la main du pouvoir du FPR. La cérémonie s’est déroulée en langue rwandaise (et elle accessible) sur la chaîne YouTube Igicumbi94.
Nous vous proposons ici, en version française, le discours intégral (En PDF) du Dr. Philippe Basabose…
On February 17, 2020, police announced that Kizito Mihigo, a popular Rwandan singer and genocide survivor, had been killed in his cell at a Kigali police station. Today, fellow genocide survivors and members of Igicumbi, the only independent survivor organization, mourn his death. They remember him and hundreds of other survivors who lived through the 1994 genocide by Hutu extremists, only to later perish under suspicious circumstances. Their deaths raise concerns about ongoing human rights violations in Rwanda, despite the current regime presenting itself as the savior that stopped the genocide. There is a tragic irony in survivors falling victim to unexplained violence under this government. More transparency and accountability are needed regarding these deaths, which seem to further the objectives of the original perpetrators who sought to eliminate Tutsis.
You may not know it, but Rwanda’s iconic Kigali Convention Center and gleaming BK Arena stadium carry a disturbing secret – they were constructed upon a bargain of Armenian genocide denial for money. Last week, the French newspaper, Le Point, revealed that Rwanda secretly agreed to eliminate all […]
My first blog post of 2024 sadly begins on a somber note. I had hoped to start with something more uplifting, but the tragic and puzzling death of Anne Rwigara weighs heavily on my mind. Anne, a fellow survivor, and member of Igicumbi, one of the few independent […]
Nakumenye imiryango yacu iri mu mazi abira. Ababyeyi bacu barirukanwe ku mirimo, barafungwa, bicwa urubozo, bamwe bagwa mu munyururu, duhabwa akato, duhutazwa n’ubutegetsi bubi mu ngo zacu no mu mihanda…
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