Justice4Survivors

Making survivors’ voices count

Tag: Kigali

  • The dilemma of children born of rape in the 1994 Genocide

    Rape kidsRape kids2

    Photo by Foundation Rwanda

    An estimated 20,000 children were born of rapes committed during the 1994 genocide aganist Tutsi in Rwanda.

    From the New Times, July 01, 2013

    About 800 women, mostly single mothers, who were raped during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and conceived through the ordeal, have appealed for support to raise the children who are now in their late teens.

    According to available figures from NGOs working with the women, they are currently supporting 816 children born through rape.

    The children, according to their mothers, are not recognized by the Fund for Support to Genocide Survivors (FARG), which the latter’s managers confirmed.

    Article 1 of the law establishing the fund reads that it concerns “support and assistance to the survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi committed between 1st October 1990 and December 31st, 1994,” yet most –if not all—of these children were born after this date.

    The women appeal to the government to have a specific framework to help them and their children if their integration into FARG is impossible.

    In Kibirizi Sector of Gisagara District, Southern Province, Kantengwa (not real name), 42, was raped and gave birth to a girl.

    She found it unbearable to remain in her ancestral home after the Genocide because it is near relatives of the person who raped her.

    “Even when I visit the area, I get traumatised, because my rapist’s family members hate me and always threaten to beat me up and my daughter whom they say brings shame to their family,” she lamented.

    Thus, Kantengwa and her family live in Kibirizi town at the mercy of well wishers.

    Like Kantengwa, there are other victims of rape who are still sheltered by their relatives. They live with their children and other children they later got out of wedlock because they have failed to get married because of the stigma that came with the rape.

    “We end up with more illegitimate children,” one of the women said in an interview.

    Since parents do not have enough to help their children, sometimes the latter end up abandoning school and end up in juvenile delinquency.

    “Recently, I withdrew my twins from an orphanage; I had taken them there, not because I hate them, but because I had no food to feed them,” disclosed 37-year Nyirakamana (not real name), a mother of seven from Mukura Sector, Huye District.

    She said she was raped by an ex-FAR soldier who fled with her to Tanzania where they got three children, including the twins.

    She would later escape from this bondage and return to Rwanda where she raised her children alone until she got married to another man in the 2000s.

    Family rifts

    Some single mothers said the people who raped them have since been convicted of Genocide and crimes against humanity including rape, which under the Gacaca judicial system, qualified them for a life sentence.

    Others are still on the run, while others have died.

    This, as the children grow up, has developed rifts between them and their mothers, accusing them of sending their fathers to prison by accusing them of rape during the Genocide.

    Apart from this conflict, families; both maternal and paternal, do not want to accept these children.

    Overcoming crisis

    Some victims of rape can today speak out their hearts, thanks to efforts by some activists.

    Rwanda Foundation was founded by an American photographer who learned about the problem while on an assignment in 2007. He set up a fund to provide counseling to the ladies, most of whom are in their forties. This counseling is either carried out in groups or individually, depending on the state of the victim.

    So far, only 40 out of 800 ladies have graduated from the counseling process, but some seem to be ahead of others, depending on how they handled the aftermath of the Genocide.

    Emmilienne Kambibi, a counselor with Rwanda Foundation, Kigali chapter, which operates under Survivors’ Fund of Rwanda (SURF), told this newspaper that it took almost two years to have the women accept to share their ordeals, which kick-started the healing process, leading to a degree of acceptance of the children.

    “After explaining to them what they were worth, that their children had nothing to do with what the Interahamwe militia had done, and informing them of their children’s rights, they came around,” she said.

    With a budget of Rwf100 million, Samuel Munderere, the national coordinator of Foundation Rwanda, said they manage to pay school fees for the children currently totaling 816 Countrywide. He, however, added that the funds were not enough.

    In Kibirizi, 18 students are in school, where four of them will complete secondary school this year.

    Their mothers also have created an association of 22 members and grow maize on a 3-hectare piece of land that was given to them by the district.

    When contacted, the Executive Secretary of FARG, Theophile Ruberangeyo, said that they intend to allocate at least Rwf60 million towards the assistance of women in this category in the upcoming fiscal year.

    Ruberangeyo, however, could not confirm if the number of the children in this predicament in the country is indeed more than 800.

    Legal mechanism

    A Bill governing FARG was tabled in Parliament last month for a review that would include accommodating the children.

    In an interview, the State Minister in charge of social affairs, Dr. Alivera Mukabaramba, told The New Times that “the new Bill sets clear all the articles; even the single mothers who were victims of rape will find satisfaction”.

    “These children will also be catered for by other general support mechanisms to needy Rwandans provided by the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs,” she said.

    jean.tabaro[at]newtimes.co.rw

    Posted by Albert Gasake

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  • Zimwe mu manza zaciwe mu Nkiko Gacaca zatangiye guteshwa agaciro

    From Igihe.com Yanditswe kuya 7-05-2013 – Saa 05:14′ na James Habimana

    Nyuma y’aho Inkiko Gacaca zisoje imirimo yazo mu mwaka wa 2012, bamwe mu bari baremejwe ko bagomba kurihwa imitungo yangijwe muri Jenoside yakorewe Abatutsi, bakomeje kwinubira uburyo ibyavuye muri Gacaca bitahawe agaciro, ahubwo abari baratsinzwe bakaba barahisemo kugana inkiko zisanzwe banga ibyemejwe na Gacaca.

    Gacaca

    Nyuma yo guca imanza zirenga miliyoni ebyiri mu mwaka wa 2010, Gacaca yari ifite inshingano yo kunga abiciwe n’abishe ariko inafite inshingano z’uko abasahuye imitungo muri Jenoside bagombaga kuyisubiza.

    Bamwe mu baganiriye na IGIHE, baravuga ko imyanzuro ya Gacaca bigaragara ko itarimo kubahirizwa. Aha bakavuga ko bamwe mu batsinzwe muri Gacaca, banze kwishyura ahubwo bagasubukura izi manza mu nkiko zisanzwe, mu gihe igihe Gacaca yarangiraga hagombaga gusubirwamo gusa imanza z’ababuranyi batari mu gihugu.

    Ku bantu barenga barindwi bagaragaje ikibazo cyabo, giherekejwe n’impapuro zandikiwe inzego zitandukanye za Leta, kugeza babuze igisubizo.

    Kalimba Jean Pierre utuye mu murenge wa Muhima mu Mujyi wa Kigali, avuga ko nyuma y’aho Inkiko Gacaca zemeje ko agomba kurihwa n’abantu umunani kandi bose bakaba bari barabyemeye, ubu umuntu umwe ari we umaze ku mwishyura gusa, abandi bakaba barahisemo ku musubiza mu nkiko zisanzwe, akabona ko ari ugutesha agaciro ibyemezo bya Gacaca.

    Kalimba yagize ati “Mu gihe nari ntangiye kwishyuza imitungo yanjye, natangiye guhamagazwa mu rukiko rwisumbuye rwa Nyarugenge. Nk’Umuyarwanda nanze kwanga kwitaba, ariko nk’umuntu warokotse Jenoside, ntibyari byoroshye dore baba bazi ko tudafite amafaranga yo guhemba abatuburanira.”

    Kalimba avuga ko aterwa ubwoba n’abo yishyuza, aho abwirwa ko ayo mafaranga arimo kwishyuza bizamugora kuyabona ndetse atazayarya. Ibi kandi bikaba bigaragarira mu mpapuro zo kwishinganisha bagaragaje.

    Na ho Kagwayire Spèciose utuye mu murenge wa Muhima, Akagari k’Amahoro mu mudugudu wa Nyarurembo, yatangarije IGIHE agira ati “Mu gihe uyu mwaka dufite intego ivuga ngo duharanire kwigira, ni gute abarokotse Jenoside bazigira mu gihe bakomeje gusiragizwa mu nkiko. Nyamara mu gihe twe twari twaremeye ibyavuye muri Gacaca, ndetse tugatanga n’imbabazi ku batwiciye abacu.”

    Ibi birashimangirwa n’Umunyamabanga Nshingwabikorwa wa Ibuka ku rwego rw’igihugu Ahishakiye Naphtal, watangarije IGIHE ko bitari bikwiye ko izi manza zaciwe na Gacaca zasubirwamo, mu rwego rwo guha agaciro ibyo zakemuye.

    Yagize ati “Aba batsinzwe akenshi babona ko abo bagomba kuriha nta mafaranga bafite yo guha ababuranira, bagahitamo kubasubiza mu manza. Ibi ntibikwiye kuko aba barokotse Jenoside na bo bari bagejeje igihe cyo gutangira kwiyubaka aho guhozwa mu manza.”

    Mu kiganiro n’Umuvugizi w’inkiko mu Rwanda Kariwabo Charles, yatangarije IGIHE ko zimwe mu manza inkiko zakomeje kugenda zihura na zo, zirimo abaza bavuga ko imitungo bagiye kwishyura ari iy’imfubyi. Aha abacamanza basabwe kuba maso bakareba niba koko ibyo abasubirishamo imanza bavuga ari ukuri.

    Kariwabo na we yemeza ko izi manza zaciwe na Gacaca zitagomba gusubizwa mu nkiko zisanzwe, keretse gusa bamwe mu bakatiwe mu gihe batari bari mu gihugu.

    Kubera iyi mpamvu, Kariwabo avuga ko hakiri abantu bamwe bahora bashaka guhora mu manza, bityo abacamanza bakaba basabwa kuba maso, ku buryo batasubiramo imanza zari zararangijwe na Gacaca kuko bitemewe.

    Yagize ati “N’uburyo amategeko arangiza Gacaca ameze, akenshi ubona aha icyuho abatsinzwe muri Gacaca, kuko abenshi bemererwa kujurira, bityo ugasanga ko abatsinzwe bose bazongera bagasubirishimo imanza zabo.”

    Inkiko Gacaca zashyizweho n’itegeko ngenga n° 40/2000 ryo ku wa 26/01/2001 risimburwa n’itegeko ngenga nº 16/2004 ryo ku wa 19/06/2004 zigamije gufasha kumenya ukuri ku byabaye muri Jenoside yakorewe Abatutsi, kwihutisha imanza z’abakurikiranweho ibyaha bya Jenoside n’ibindi byaha byibasiye inyoko muntu, guca umuco wo kudahana, gufasha Abanyarwanda kugera k’ubumwe n’ubwiyunge hakoreshejwe ubutabera bwunga no kugaragaza ubushobozi bw’Abanyarwanda bwo mu kwikemurira ibibazo. Icyo gihe Inkiko Gacaca zagizwe rimwe mu mashami yari agize Urukiko rw’Ikirenga.

    End

    Ibitekerezo byatanzwe kuri iyi nkuru:

    Leta ikwiye gushyiraho urwego rukurikirana irangizwa ry’imanza za gacaca,kuko niba abahemu batangiye gukina ku mubyimba abo bahemukiye birakabije,birakabije pee !!ubwo bumwe n’ubwiyunge bwari bugamijwe na gacaca buzaba umugani

    .05.2013 saa 04:07
    sesonga

    jyewe, ndemeranya nawe ku byo uvuga. Ariko urebye neza ntaho ziriya nyishyu z’abatsinzwe na gacaca zihwaniye n’ibyangijwe ! Mbona ku bwange yari imwe mu nzira yo kubasha kubumvisha ko ibyo bakoze atari byiza, igihe rero babihakana bageretseho n’andi magambo, mbona ntaho twaba twerekera, leta yari ikwiye gushyira ingufu mu kubigisha no kubumvisha ko ziriya atari indishyi nk’uko bo babikeka, kuko yewe si n’impozamarira, ahubwo yari ikwiye kwitwa izina riganisha ku buryo bwakoreshwa ngo bagarure ubumwe. Ikindi ni uko abo bantu bose bari baranyuzwe n’imyanzuro ya gacaca, simbona rero impamvu yo kwisubiraho !!! Ikindi ni agasuzuguro, tuzi neza ko u Rwanda rufite ibibazo bitandukanye kandi n’ubukene burimo, ariko se kuki niba yarabuze ibyo gutanga atakwegera uwo yagombaga kubiha akamusaba igihe cyo kubishaka cyangwa n’imbabazi akamukuriraho izo nyishyu ! Ko n’ubundi imyaka ishize yose abantu batatunzwe n’izo nyishyu ? Naho rero izo nkiko bajuririra mbona zagakwiye kwita kuri ayo magambo y’iterabwoba ageretseho,

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 04:03
    Frank

    erega abantu bashatse bababarira, nahose wakwishyuza umuntu wakugiriye nabi, ahanini nuko atabona ibyo yakwishyura, ikigezweho ni ukwigira umuntu ntagirwe n’inyishyu, kuko utegereje inyishyu ukanga gukora, wazarinda usaza ugitegereje inyishyu ukiri mu bukene,a ariko uretse kuzitaho ugakora, waba umuherwe, dore ko n’inkiko zo mu Rwanda ibijyanye no kwishyuza byo zigenda biguru ntege nke : reba kanimba yarinze kugera kwa President kugirango bamwishyure !

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 02:57
    h

    Indishyi ni imwe mu nkingi zigize ubutabera bwuzuye,wenda byaba ikemezo personnel gusonera uwagusahuye kuko nawe ibyo yasahuye ntabyo afite,ariko iyo hajemo agasuzuguro no gukina ku mubyimba bizura ibyendaga kubora.

    7.05.2013 saa 04:04
    alpha

    Niba abakatiwe muri gacaca batemera ibyemezo byafashwe,inkiko zikaba zemera ubujurire bwab zitarababuranishije,ibi ni ugutesha agaciro gacaca,kuko ntibyunvikana ukuntu batajuririra ibihano bahawe ahubwo bakazana amananiza mu kwishyura ibyo basenye bakagerekaho iterabwoba,ahubwo inkiko zakagombye kwita kuri iri terabwoba,kuko ubwabyo ni icyaha ndetse no gushinyagurira abiciwe ababo.

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 02:47
    ruzindana

    IBYA GACACA NI AKAZUNGU KAKINWE ABACITSE KU ICUMU. “UBUTABERA BWUNGA” NTABWO BWUMVIKANYE NEZA NTANUBWO BWAKITWA UBUTABERA BWUZUYE. HAKABAYE HARABAYE IMPANDE EBYIRI ZIGIRA ICYO ZIGOMWA KIKABANZA KIKABA MBERE MBERE YO KUVUGA KO BYAGEZWEHO. URUGERO : IYO BAVUGA BATI UWISHYUYE IMITUNGO ABONE KUREKURWA. NAHO KUREKURWA NGO WEMEYE IBI NKAHO AMAGAMBO GUSA ATANGA IBIKORWA. N’IBINDI KUKO KWEMERERA UMUNTU NGO NAMUHAYE IMBABAZI BARANGIJE KUMREKURA BISA NKO GUSINYISHWA KO WISHYUWE N’UWAGOMBYE KUKWISHYRA KANDI NTACYO YAGUHAYE.

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 02:33
    muteteri

    None se abacitse ku icumu bo bakwishinmira kwishyuza ibitari ibyabo ? Hari igihe ushobora kuba warahemukiwe, uwaguhemukiye ukamubura ukabishyira ku wundi. uko biri kose uwo bazasubiza mu rukiko azajyeyo, uwo wamusubijeyo naramuka atsinzwe azirengere no kwishyura avocat w’uwacitse ku icumu. Ndatekereza ko gacaca itari ifite ubushobozi bwo guca urubanza kurusha umucamanza wabyigiye wo mu rukiko rusanzwe. aho gacaca yavuze ukuri uwo ntiyagukuraho. ariko aho gacaca yibeshye, umucamanaza ashobora kuhakosora.

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 01:57
    umunyarwanda

    Ariko se Abanyarwanda twifuza iki koko ? Uzi ko kutuyobora bigoranye ? Ko turi mugihugu kigendera kumategeko, nigute twabuza uwumva yarenganyijwe kugana inkiko ngo zimurenganure ?Ubwo abavuga ngo ntibyemewe kujurira s’amarangamutima ? Ese abaye ari wowe nuko wavuga ? Ibuka ahubwo yari ikwiriye kwitegura kunganira abadafite ubushobozi, aho gufata defense ngo abafunzwe nibemere imikirize y’urubanza mugihe bumva bararenganye kubera ko akenshi abaciriye urubanza batabahaye uburyo bwo kwisobanura, dore ko hari igihe nuwashakaga kubashinjura nawe yahitaga akatirwa bityo abantu bakifata ntibavuge ukuri bazi. Banyarwanda ko mwari muhari ibyo ntibyabaye hamwe nahamwe ? Leta yacu niba yarashyizeho uburyo abo bantu nabo bahabwa ubutabera mwibyitambikamo nimureke ukuri kujye ahagaragara kuko n’abazaca izo manza s’abana bazazica mubwisanzure bakurikije ibimenyetso buri wese azatanga.

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 01:48
    Mujyanama

    mbabwije ukuri ko iki ari ikibazo gikomeye pee, abantu barasubirishamo imanza kubera babonye icyuho cyo gutanga ruswa, nibasome icyo itegeko riteganga : uwaciriwe urubanza adahari cg se uwabonye izindi ngingo shya urugero : nkuwaregwaga umuntu kumwica akaza kuboneka

    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 01:26
    nyirabiyoro

    Iki kibazo kirakomeye Leta ikwiye kugihagurukira hakiri kare amazi atararenga inkombe. Igikenewe mbona ni uko hagomba kubaho ubushishozi kugira ngo ibyemejwe ko byavuye mu Nkiko Gacaca bitazaba imfabusa. None se niba bamwe batangiye kwanga imyanzuro ijyanye n’imitungo yasahuwe, abiciwe abantu bo bazemezwa bate ibihano bijenjetse byahawe ababiciye kubera impamvu za politiki n’ubwiyunge ? Ndabona n’uyu muvugizi w’ubutabera yemeza ko itegeko ritameze neza ! Ibi byo ni akumiro kuko atanagaragaza igiteganwa gukorwa uretse gusaba abacamanza kuba maso… Leta nihaguruke, irebe amategeko uko ameze ubu, ikosore afite ibibazo, amazima akurizwe, kandi bakome urusyo n’ingasire. Naho ubundi ibi bintu byatera akavuyo katakoroha kukikuramo, bigakerereza izindi gahunda igihugu kirimo, nk’izijyanye n’iterambere.
    Musubize7.05.2013 saa 00:49
    Kalisa

     
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