STUDENT SEARCHING ST FAMILLE
To Orwell Today,
re: GENOCIDAL SAINT FAMILLE and KIGALI CHURCH & MEMORIAL
Dear Jackie,
I am from New Jersey, fourteen years old, and an aspiring screenwriter. I am
currently writing a film, that follows a poem a Rwandan girl writes, is killed
at Saint-Famille, but before dying gives it to a friend, who gives it to a UN
soldier. It follows the poem as it goes through Chechnya and Iraq. At the end
it is revealed that the Rwandan girl escaped death, and she finally gets the
beloved poem back.
But I need to speak with survivors from Saint-Famille, and your article was
the most informative. You seemed to have spoken with survivors; I was wondering
if there was any way you could help me contact them. It would help immensely.
Thank you.
With All Due Respect,
Benjamin Meyer
Greetings Benjamin,
I've not personally talked to any survivors from Saint Famille but when I was
inside the church this past summer there were probably survivors there that
day. Perhaps a survivor, upon reading your email, will contact me and I will
put you in touch.
Saint Famille was recently in the news when the priest there during the
genocide - Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka - was arrested in France on Friday,
July 20th. He'd been living in France all these years - still a priest with the
Catholic church - even though he is wanted by the government of Rwanda and the
ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) for the crimes of rape and
murder.
It was an exciting day when France arrested him and it was expected that he
would be extradited to Rwanda to face trial, or to Tanzania where the ICTR
holds court. But instead the French government released him from custody and he
was free to return to his church and congregation in a rural part of France.
Now the world is having to wait again for justice to be served, not only for
the sake of the survivors but also for the sake of the church. Both have been
sorely wounded and not yet fully healed.
It is very impressive that at your young age of 14 years-old you are as
knowledgeable as you are about Rwanda, Chechnya and Iraq and have it in your
heart and soul to create a poem and film about their suffering.
All the best,
Jackie Jura
Rwandan anger at suspect release. BBC, Aug 2, 2007
The decision to free two Rwandan men in France may be politically motivated,
Rwanda's representative at a tribunal trying Rwandan genocide suspects says.
"There is lots of politicking about genocide cases," Aloys Mutabingwa said. A
French foreign ministry spokesman said he hoped the decision would not put the
rapproachement between Paris and Kigali into question. The UN-backed tribunal
wants to try the men in connection with the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 were
killed. A French appeals courts said their warrants issued by the tribunal were
invalid and ordered their release. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, 49, a Catholic
priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, 62, an ex-civil servant, were arrested on
Friday. They have lived in France for more than 10 years....Father Munyeshyaka
is accused by the ICTR of murdering three young Tutsis in his Holy Family
parish in the capital, Kigali. He is also accused of raping four young Tutsi
women between April and June 1994, and of calling on the
extremist Hutu Interahamwe militia to commit rape...
JUSTICE HEALS GENOCIDE WOUND
Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events
~
website: www.orwelltoday.com & email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
email: Orwell Today
[input]
sharangabo rufagari <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
BELGIANS & HABYARIMANA DEATHS
To Orwell Today,
I have recently become interested (obsessed) with all things pertaining to
the Rwandan genocide and came across your site during this quest for
information. I am envious of the trip you took there and I was hoping you could
answer two quick questions: where are Kanombe Camp (site where the Belgian
soldiers perished) and Habiriyama's house (where the plane ended up) in
relation to the Kigali airport? I have gone to Google Maps and zeroed in on the
airport as a point of reference, and it seems like the camp is on the eastern
end of the runway, but I can't locate anything that looks like a presidential
palace.
Your insight would be appreciated, and I enjoy your site,
John
Greetings John,
Yes, I am very fortunate to have fulfilled my own obsession with Rwanda by
travelling there not once, but twice. See DESTINY DESTINATION RWANDA and A
WANDER IN RWANDA. But even so, I have not been to Kanombe Camp OR to
Habyarimana's Presidential Palace, both of which are (as you say) at the east
end of the airport. I've always left the Kigali airport (used to be called
Habyanda but now named Kanombe) going in a westerly direction toward town. I
stayed in the part of town where the Meridian Hotel is located on the map above
(but is now named Novotel).
You are confused (understandably) about the place where the Belgian soldiers
died (which I HAVE been to). They died at the KIGALI Camp compound in the
centre of the city, not the much larger KANOMBE Camp, which is a military base
on the outskirts beyond the airport going east. See THE INFORMER & TEN BELGIANS
and RWANDA'S UN SOLDIERS DIE and KILLING HABYARIMANA NOT GENOCIDE and FRANCE
SHOT RWANDA DOWN and READING ON RWANDA.
The two maps above, scanned from Linda Melvern's book CONSPIRACY TO MURDER,
will give you a clearer understanding of the lay of the land.
I hope that one day your obsession leads to your own visit to Rwanda, the
land of a thousand hills.
All the best,
Jackie Jura
Rwandan gets 20 years in genocide trial. NewEurope, July 14, 2007
A Belgian court has sentenced a former Rwandan army major to 20 years in prison
for the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an undetermined number of Rwandan
civilians at the start of the 1994 genocide. Bernard Ntuyahaga was earlier
acquitted on two other charges of involvement in the murder of then Prime
Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and killing civilians in the Butare
district....The Belgian UN soldiers were killed a day after the Rwandan
president's plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, triggering the genocide by
Hutu-led government forces and ethnic militias. Prosecutors said Ntuyahaga took
the peacekeepers from the residence of the prime minister, whom they were
trying to protect, and handed them over to fellow soldiers at a military camp
in the capital Kigali, where they were beaten to death, shot or slain with
machetes. The defense said Ntuyahaga was a political scapegoat, who had been
passing the prime minister's residence by chance and had given the Belgians a
ride at their request....The killing of the peacekeepers triggered the pullout
of UN forces, opening the way for the genocide to spread. "If Belgian troops
had stayed (in Rwanda) we could have saved hundreds of thousands of people,"
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told the court in his testimony in May. Rwandans
welcomed the Belgian court's verdict. Theodore Simburudali, president of Ibuka,
an umbrella body that groups genocide survivors, said: "The truth has come out,
which we have always said. Those top military officials killed many of our
people. He deserves a big sentence."
Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events
~
website: www.orwelltoday.com & email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
email: Orwell Today
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Sharangabo Rufagari
Montreal
http://www.rpfinkotanyi.org/?page=indirimbo
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Sharangabo Rufagari
Montreal
http://www.rpfinkotanyi.org/?page=indirimbo
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