I've been dipping into Philip Gourevitch's brilliant book about Rwanda for six months now. I can only read a little at a time, not just because the events are so horrific but there are a lot of facts to absorb, my head is not really up to it. Still, having seen the films Shooting Dogs and Hotel Rwanda on television recently, it makes the events more imaginable, if that is the right word - the films are almost like study aids. Last night, I came across a description of a corpse - the man had had his feet and hands chopped off before he died. This apparently was a common torture, the Hutu extremists called it cutting down to size. Crowds would gather to cheer and watch the victims die in agony. I dropped the book on the floor and know it will be a while before I go back. Sure I would have nightmares about machetes I dreamt instead that I'd written a novel about Iran and it was just out in hardback, it had a lovely red and gold cover but I cannot remember its title.
4 comments:
the rwandan genocide was horrific. there is still fighting now. the latest is that the congolese rebels are pouring into rwanda to sort out the hutus now. terrible. i attended the trial here in arusha of father athnase seromba who killed about 1500 people who took shelter in his church. when they asked where they could go to the loo he said " you can shit on the alter. you no longer have a god. you are tutsi." and i watched him sitting there....in his catholic robes. . . he also showed the bulldozer driver where to start demolishing the church...where the walls were weaker. he said "just knock it down. we are hutus. we will build a better one" the children were the only survivors, crawling out of the rubble. as they emerged they were herded together and macheted to death...too horrific to contemplate...god. xxx j
Hey Janelle, This is fascinating that you attended such a trial. There is so much horror in the world, but there is something about these machete killings that pushes your ability to comprehend to the limits. Not to mention the UN abandonment. x
father athnase seromba is the only catholic priest in the history of our time to be accused and sentanced for genocide. his first sentance was 15 years....INCLUDING the 4 years he had been held here in arusha which only made it another nine for the hideous act he perpetrated. when the sentance was read out, you could have heard a pin drop in the gallery. there were relatives of the deceased sitting next to me. no one could believe the paltry sentance for such a terrible killing. 1500 or more people? in one foul swoop? innocent families? the prosecution, who were going for 4 life sentances, of course appealed. i went to the appeal and he was given life. the strangest thing was watching him stand up, in front of everyone, and i felt SAD and SORRY!!!!??? couldn;t understand this. i eventually concluded that it must have been a sadness at our humanity. that we are all capable of this. there was something about the judging too...anyway. all extremely weird. so after he had killed all these people, he ran away. to the congo. where he had a false passport made. he then made his way back to italy where the vatican took him in. UNTIL a journalist traced him and revealed the truth about him. the catholic church had no option but to send him back to arusha for the trial. he has a calm face, not unlike mugabe's. a little hitler moustache...and expressionless. i watched him intensely during the trial....he looked down a lot. and when evidence was being read out in court, he fidgeted alot. he never had eye contact with anyone except with the man who was defending him. i watched another trial of one of the hutu militia men...a witness called rose was called up. she was very young. she had been kept in a bare cement courtyard for over 2 weeks, repeatedly gang raped every day. she had no food, no clothes, no shelter. (and remember it was the rainy season) and they left her for dead. the session had to be called into a recess often. not because she couldn't handle it, but because the prosecution couldn;t handle the absolute hideousness of what had happened to her...anyway. ouf. enough for an early monday morning. but it haunts me. it always will. her face. her courage. jesus. xxx j
hey janelle, i can well understand that you are haunted by this young woman's face... interesting you felt a fleeting sadness for seromba, maybe, as you say, just a sadness and despair for humanity, it must be extraordinary to witness this kind of trial... i am just very glad he couldn't hide behind the vatican's robes forever...
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