The woes of Kaduha survivors and witnesses

By Emmanuel Mungwarakarama
Apr 01, 2007 at 12:40 PM


For starters, Kaduha is a rather remote district 37 kilometers from Gikongoro town, in the western part of Southern Province. Though it may have hit the press headlines in 2003 when resident survivors were tortured and killed by the suspects of the genocide, it is one of the areas that were terribly hit by the 1994 genocide as over 200,000 are believed to have perished. Mediatrice Mukaneza, of Kavumu sector in Kaduha district, whose biological brother Emille Ndahamana was stabbed and strangled to death and thrown at a streamside in the vicinity, recounts her brother’s fate to The New Times with grief, but only after a lengthy haggle with this reporter. “Now let me trust and tell you about Kaduha killings, hopefully it (the story) will jog the memories of the Kigali-based authorities, and impel them to deal with the culprits accordingly,” Mukaneza says after putting this reporter to task of convincing her that the publication of the story was all in good faith. After assurances and reassurances, a rapport is created and the tall tale is told. “On the fateful day Emille left his home for a friend’s wedding. He delayed to return home. We waited for him in vain. His wife tried to inquire from the newlyweds and family friends only to be told that her husband had gone home after the wedding. After three days of vain searching, finally the wife, I, relatives and friends came across his clothes at Kigogo riverside and right away informed Gikongoro Police who partnered with us in the search for the corpse all through the bushes and latrines where we found it hidden alongside the same stream seven days later.”Since Ndahimana had always declared his willingness to testify against their tormentors during the 1994 genocide, Mukaneza says eight suspects led by one Mugenzi were nabbed and incarcerated by the Gikongoro police, tried in court and pleaded guilty later and sentenced to life imprisonment in Kigali 1930 prison. She then says; “And indeed 2 of them have confessed to have killed Ndahimana for fear that he would have exposed their illicit deeds during the genocide.” Nonetheless, the hundreds of kilometers between Kaduha and Kigali notwithstanding, the sister of the deceased is scared that corruption might come into play leading to the release of people who on top killing Ndahimana, even chopped off his private parts. Apart from her blood brother, Mukaneza intimated to this reporter that survivors; Rutinduka, Kabombo (nick name) and others were killed in a similar manner. She hints on the death of a man in Kaduha, who had just been released last year after confessing his role in the genocide. It is said that her spouse was involved in the plot for his death. It is said that the victim had plans of flying to Arusha-Tanzania to testify against Lieutenant Colonel Aloysius Simba, a notorious mastermind of the Genocide who is now behind bars at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.The 1994 Kaduha bloodshed According to Mukaneza, around 200,000 people in Kaduha were brutally murdered. “Our houses were set ablaze by these cruel Interahamwe militias. We were always on the run and greatly suffered during the genocide until we bumped into the Belgian and the French Zone Turquoise. But still the rescuers (Belgians and French) were mixed with Interahamwe. Had it not been the arrival of ‘Inkotanyi’ I don’t think we would have survived the machetes,” she recalls the ordeal adding, “most of those who perished had sought refuge in Kaduha Church on the expectation the priests would protect them as had been the case before, but this time even the ‘people of God’ connived with the killers to slaughter.”Asked to comment on the area Gacaca proceedings, Mukaneza says the suspects have completely declined to tell the true story of the genocide. She notes that the suspects’ reluctance to tell the truth coupled with their threats to the witnesses has adversely affected Gacaca as some witnesses have opted to reserve the accounts. She reveals that four witnesses have died through alcohol and food poisoning.Kaduha Killings before 1994The discovery of the remains of John Baptist Kanonora, in Ikinyana cell of Nyakiza sector in Kaduha district in may 2005 reflects how long the genocide ideology had been brewing.The late Kanonora, who was born in 1900, was brutally murdered by his neighbors in 1963 and the whereabouts of his body were not known until May 2005, when a confessed genocide perpetrator in Gikongoro prison, who also participated in burying Kanonora’s body, led the family members and the authorities to the burial site.According to a family member, Prosper Bitembeka, a fourth year Student in the School of Journalism and Communication in the National University of Rwanda, it is the Genocide prisoner one Fulgence Habimana who had participated in the killing and the rude burial of another family member during the Genocide who took them the site. “This occasion is enough to show everyone that there was Genocide in Rwanda even before 1994 especially those that have always refuted it” Joseph Habineza, the minister of Culture and Sports noted in May 2005 while officiating at the decent burial accorded to Kanonora by the family members including Protais Mitali the minister of Commerce and Industry.