|
|
Rwanda: France-Rwanda Battle is 'David And Goliath'
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
8 August 2008
Posted to the web 8 August 2008
Kigali
The French government is hitting back with furry after Rwanda accused its army and 33 former senior officials for Genocide.
But the survivors of the carnage are counting down the days when the culprits will face judges, RNA reports.
The 500-page report alleges France took part in the preparations and the execution of the Genocide, in which more than a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in just 100-days.
"I feel very bitter that nobody does seem to even care - even now that this report has been made public", says Jeanne - aged 15 in June 1994, who was raped in a tent in a stadium of Western Rwanda's town of Cyangugu.
She told RNA: "I lost my innocence to men I did not have any idea who they were and now all that the French government can give back is rubbish all the evidence against its soldiers.
"Recently I heard that they want to arrest our people. For whatever they accused them, at least they did not rape children like their own soldiers".
Jeanne is not alone to have faced the horrifying experience where French soldiers manning the Zone ordered militias to bring them women - but preferred younger girls, according to one militia member that testified to the Mucyo commission.
During the public hearings by the commission, numerous girls aged 12 and 14 in 1994 have narrated experiences of gruesome rape and abuse by French soldiers in Cyangugu stadium where the soldiers had camped.
"I was brought by Interahamwes to the stadium as they beat me and 'white soldiers dressed in military uniform' were there - one pulled me by hand and took me into a tent - as I resisted - he slapped me hard - he tore my skirt off - force my legs wide and penetrated me", then 12-year-old Witness 17 - narrated breaking down.
"I felt as if a metal was penetrating me - the pain was so much - I screamed so hard but nobody was helping me - I was bleeding - I felt it would be better if I died - he finished raping me and moved out", she narrated behind curtains.
The young lady said with all the pain, she crawled out of the tent and stadium, and hid in near-by bush as the Interahamwe rampaged. According to her, there were other minors being raped in other tents in the stadium by French soldiers.
This apparently happened around the months of June or July. As the lady explained, by this time as the "white solders" had begun arriving so the hiding victims believed the killing was over and started coming out.
Instead, as it had been narrated by almost all the previous witnesses, the Interahamwe were actually working with the French soldiers who had come in the name of "protecting civilians".
Like Witness 18 who testified for about 10 minutes, the next - aged 14 in 1994 as the French were camped in the same stadium was abused by French soldier terribly that, as she explained with difficulty, she "lost breath" and ferociously bled.
"Huge white soldier"
According to Witness 18, she was discovered with a friend by the rampaging Interahamwe militia as they (girls) searched for food because they had hid for "too long without food". Her other older friend apparently managed to escape leaving the young girl helpless. She was taken to the Stadium by 2 militiamen, and as she narrated - her ordeal had just started.
"We believed we were safe after the war was ending and we had seen whites (bazungu) claiming to have come to protect us- we knew everything was ok", she said, eventually holding her breath for some seconds and continued - "I was wrong - my suffering was just going to start".
"In the stadium Kamarampaka, the Interahamwe took me there directly and there were many 'white soldiers' all over - I was put in a room of the tent just near-by and the next thing - a huge white soldier entered and closed the tent closure and undressed", Witness 18 said.
As she explained, the "huge white soldier" lifted her and threw her on a mattress by the side as she tried to fight him off. "I was very small - he just lifted me like a baby ripped off my cloths and he started raping me".
"The pain was terrible - I screamed till I lost my breath - I was bleeding profusely - then he changed and penetrated me through 'my mouth'", she told the commission amidst silence as some among the small audience seemed to hold back tears.
She said the "white man" in military uniform dumped her outside by the side of the tent and went on with his business. What is clear is that the girls called the French soldiers "white" because they were very young.
|
Only young ones
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
