Survivor recalls painful memories of Rwandan genocide on 25th anniversary

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — It’s been 25 years since Hutu’s went on a killing spree, bent on eliminating Tutsi people. Between April and July in 1994, more than 800,000 people were killed in the Rwanda genocide. Melchior Cyusa was just nine-years-old when his family received the news that Rwanda and Burundi’s presidents had died in a plane crash over the radio, the day was April 7, 1994.

Within hours, he was separated from his immediate family, forced to flee from Hutu persecutors on foot with his aunt, narrowly escaping a massacre in the village he was seeking refuge in.

“The Hutu extremists killed my aunt and her daughter, and they took my aunt’s maid because they recognized her as being from the area.

I went and hid myself, and they came looking for me but fortunately they could not find me,” he said.

“Since they didn’t know where I went, they gave up.

When I came out there was nobody, and I had to start my way back home.”

On his journey home, he saw the “true picture of the genocide” — bodies of dead Tutsis were scattered on the road. “I wasn’t sure I would make it back.”

 

From left to right, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

He later learned his father, mother and his siblings had all been killed. Orphaned, he became a refugee in Kenya for eight years before the UN relocated him to Canada. Now he resides in Calgary and has visited home just a handful of times since the genocide ended.

“The first time I went, I didn’t know what to expect because when I left Rwanda the country was literally destroyed — there was no infrastructure, people had lots of anger in themselves, one against the other,” he commented. “So when I went (after the genocide) I could see the difference in the way people lived together and with one another.”

Cyusa now heads the Rwandan Canadian Society of Calgary, a community organization that is dedicated to preserving Rwandan culture and values. It’s more than that though, it brings together survivors and offers a place to reflect on the atrocities committed, mourn the loss of loved ones, and focus on educating the public with the aim of preventing genocides in the future.

“The concept ‘Never Again’ — if it can be talked about, remembered from time to time, then we may not see what happened to Rwanda coming back in the history of humanity,” he said.

FILE – In this Friday, April 4, 2014 file photo, the skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church are laid out as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Ntarama, Rwanda. Officials said Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 that 53-year-old Rwandan Ladislas Ntaganzwa, who is wanted in connection with the country’s 1994 genocide and has a $5million bounty on his head, was arrested by Interpol agents in the neighboring Congo city of Goma late Monday. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

Cyusa along with other survivors are hoping their stories will correct the false narratives perpetrated by deniers during the UN International Criminal Tribunal trials. The tribunal listened to more than 3,000 witness accounts, but only 61 people were convicted and sentenced for slaughtering nearly one million people.

“We just saw what happened in Myanmar, and so what people could remember is to reflect on what happened in Rwanda 25 years ago,” he said, it was the last genocide of the 20th century. “From there, they could think about what could be done for their societies for subsequent generations.”

The RCSC will mark the anniversary of the genocide with a memorial ceremony at Mount Royal University’s Wright Theatre from 3 to 6 p.m. on April 13. Tim Gallimore, a former spokesperson for the prosecutor of the UN ICTR, will speak at the ceremony to educate the audience on the effects of genocide.

He will also present at another event organized by the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Social Work taking place at the Glenbow Museum Theatre on April 11 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. He will focus on the role of Rwandan media in spreading propaganda and hate to prepare and execute the genocide.

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