rwanda

As I mentioned I went to Rwanda (its Rwanda in English, not Ruanda!). I left my home very early and went to kampala, where I found out that the morning bus was fully booked already, and so I had to wait for the 12 noon bus. Still no problem, the bus ride was supposed to be around 9 hours, so I was to arrive at a normal time. But first our tire had a problem, and later the whole bus broke down. So we had to wait for some hours for another bus…then we arrived at the border, and I wanted to get my `visa on arrival` for 15 days… but it turned out that some things had changed, and that I as an Austrian was supposed to apply for a visa in advance. It was about midnight, and I was already prepared to stay at the border…because going back to kampala was not possible, and also would be really dangerous at night. But then I could convince them to give me a visa. So in the end I got at least 5 days! And when I finally arrived in kigalt, the capital, it was 3 in the night! In the bus all people spoke that it was fine to arrive at this time in Kigali, but that they would bew really frightened to arrive at such a time to kampala.

The next day I went to see some memorial sights of the tutsi genocide 1994. I went to 2 churches, nyamata and a place close there, and to the Kigali genocide memorial center. Just in case you don’t know what happened…it was like this. In Rwanda the 2 main ethnic groups were the hutu and the tutsi. About 50 years ago for the first time the hutu went to kill tutsi…it happened again, and again, but was worst from the 6^th of april 1994 till july the same year. In this period they killed about 1 million tutsi. It was initiated by the government (hutus), there was a big involvement of the French…and as well the UN was stationed in Rwanda during this time but did not do anything…really a shame. Officially they were on a peacekeeping mission and had no mandate to use weapons… but to be there, and to see that bout 1 million of people get slaughtered…that cant be the mission of the UN.

So I went to these 2 churches, where thousands of people were killed inside. In the killings before 1994 people in churches were safe, so they tried to get refugee inside…but this time it did not help. Next to the first church was a mass grave for 10.ooods of people. I went inside to see it. You could see really thousands and thousands of heads, leg bones and so on. Many of the heads were broken, because the people just smashed the heads of the tutsi. many others were cut in to two pieces…with machetes. I cant tell you how it felt there. And inside the churches were all the bloody clothes, in the walls you could still see all wholes from the bullets. In the second church the walls are still damaged, where grenades destroyed them. My guide, a tutsi who has lost almost all of his family, told me that in this church on the 15. and 16. Of april about 5.000 people were killed. Just inside the church. Only women and children, because men and boys tried to fight the militia. He also told me that by far less dead bodies remained there, because the UN came with helicopters and put away many of the bodies…because it would for sure give a disastrous picture that they were in Rwanda, and so many people get killed in a church – with out any intervention from the UN side. And in a house next to the church he showed me a dark spot on the wall… blood and hair of babies, that were smashed there, one after the other…by holding them on a leg, smashing the head on the wall. I did not want to see this spot in detail. And I did not take pictures of these things…

So in about 100 days they killed 1 million people…and the world was aware of it, the UN was even there…but they did not stop it…it made me think about Syria these days…that we also know…and the UN or who ever meets, and meets again, and finally comes up with some sanctions… what the fu..

Ok, so this is a really sad chapter of Rwandan history, and still today you see so many people in the streets who are missing an arm, a leg, or who have strange scars in their face (from bullets, machetes and so on). But now these days people live together in peace.

Since I have just limited time, I went to lac kivu yesterday, to gysenyi…and then I wanted to continue to kibuye…but after waiting for hours for the bus it turned out that it had failed to come. So I went back to Kigali, the capital. And my plan was to go to kibuye today early morning…but in the night I fell sick, so I will just stay around Kigali, and on the 8^th in the morning I have my bus ride back home! Back to the bush in Uganda! But I enjoy it now to be here, its clean, the roads are good, you get different food…and its really safe! I can walk around the city where ever I want to go…even at night! It feels a bit funny for me, since I am not used to that anymore! But also it feels good…and its so safe due to a big, big police presence…

at the memorial side nyamata

a small part of it...in the real mas grave i did not take pictures

destroyed wall of the church

from grenades

 a beautiful river...which was full of dead bodies during the genocide

also in kigali there are many street kids

a player from LASK! earning some additional money by cleaning cars in kigali

women on the way to the market

view to some slums of kigali...

...and inside

kids in the slum area (not such a bad place...nothing compared to south africas slums for example)

on lake kivu...what you see is goma, a city in kongo

cactus

and another cactus

mille collines hotel...former `hotel rwanda`... you might know the movie

ok, thats it from rwanda, kigali!

take care, and i will write again when i am at home!

 welaba