Survivors Fund (SURF) Newsletter - May 2022

By Emmanuel Ntirenganya, The New Times

Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) and partners have said they are ready to deal with trauma and other mental health issues that might affect genocide survivors.

The reassurance was made on April 5, during a press briefing ahead of the 28th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi – Kwibuka 28.

Trauma is a severe emotional or mental distress caused by a deeply distressing or life-threatening event; in this case, the loss of a loved one(s) during genocide or related cases such as rape.

Over a million people were killed during a three-month period during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, leaving survivors in horror and grief-stricken because of losing their loved ones, and even being subjected to dehumanising acts such as rape against women.

According to Dr Yvonne Kayiteshonga, Mental Health Division Manager at RBC, among the youth who suffer from mental health issues, most of them are the children of genocide survivors.

A 2018 study by the Ministry of Health revealed that, overall, trauma among Genocide survivors was at 27.9 per cent.

“We are ready to support genocide survivors with the right personnel and tools,” Kayiteshonga said, disclosing that they have assembled a team of 80,000 therapists countrywide.

During last year’s commemoration, 2,628 cases of genocide survivors suffered from trauma, Kayiteshonga revealed.

Out of these, 39 per cent were effectively helped to recover from it, while 61 per cent sought further help through community-based healing groups.

Meanwhile, she said that trauma healing cannot be achieved when there is no justice.

She called on Rwandans to avoid using words that hurt genocide survivors.

Sandrine Gikundiro, District Counsellor at AVEGA Agahozo said that the commemoration period is particularly challenging time for women who were raped during the genocide.

This situation, she said, aggravated the trauma condition among them.

“We have about 26 groups that help those who suffer from chronic trauma or that which occurs during the commemoration period,” Gikundiro said.

What Caused the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda?

As we mark the Commemoration of the 28th Anniversary of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda (Kwibuka 28) we publish here an extract from a new paper by Noam Schimmel on "What Caused the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda?" It is now as important as ever, to ensure that “the survivors are heard, justice is done…”:

Today over 300,000 Rwandan genocide survivors live in Rwanda and most of them lack access to their fundamental human right to reparative justice. Many struggle with inadequate healthcare, housing, and educational opportunity.

Many live in extreme poverty and suffer from profound trauma, including the trauma of sexual violence and rape by men who were HIV positive and who used rape as a weapon of war with the aim of causing Tutsi women a slow, tortuous death from AIDs.

For many years when these women came to testify as witnesses at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda they were objectified and instrumentalized for the cause of international justice; their testimony was taken and was necessary to ensure convictions, but they were denied access to life-saving anti-retroviral medications. The UN did, however, insist upon providing these medications to the genocide perpetrators on trial.

Twenty-eight years after the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi it’s time that the survivors are heard, justice is done, and the rank hypocrisy and impunity come to an end.

It is time to remember and educate, to commemorate and respect, and to ensure that the Kinyarwanda phrase—the language spoken by all Rwandans—Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa alike, “Imana yiriwiwe ahandi y gataha mu rwanda,” “God spends the day elsewhere but he sleeps in Rwanda,” is no longer evocative of the 100 days of inhumane moral slumber, silence, savage indifference, and inaction that characterized the response of the world’s governments and of the UN to the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi.

It is time that individuals in government with the power, resources, and capacity to intervene and protect human lives and defend human rights finally do so—and that we demand this of them—for the survivors, for their next generation, and for Rwanda today, tomorrow, and always.

Above all, we must listen to the survivors.

To read the full paper then please see "What Caused the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda?"