Streets of Blood

Kigali, Rwanda

It is difficult to comprehend that not so long ago this country was home to one of the most heinous genocides in history. As I look into the smiling faces of the local people I am amazed by their resilience. It is remarkable how this country has begun to recover after such horror. How now Hutu and Tutsi can walk down the street together with their hands held in friendship. I imagine what I would be witnessing if I were to be walking through the same streets in 1994. I imagine the street's stained in blood, the rivers flowing red, the terror and the screams. 

The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter that took place in 1994 in the East African state of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days (from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6 through mid-July) over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate.Estimates of the death toll have ranged from 500,000–1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country's total population. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62.

During my time in Rwanda I visited a church where over a 100 000 people were murdered. Terrified  Tutsi's sought refuge in the church where they thought they would be protected. But in the end it made them easy pray and no one was spared. Inside the church lie the clothing of the massacred. The blood soaked clothing has gone stale and brown with time. The walls were stained in blood spatter and light shone into the church through bullet holes and grenade craters. I was then led into an underground cellar. Inside lay the bones of the the 100 000 killed. The skulls and bones laid neatly in rows that line the walls from the floor to the roof. The skulls gave evidence to the heinous ways in which both men, women and children were victim to. Bullet wounds, Some died of bullet wounds and shrapnel from explosives, others were machetes to death. 

It is hard to comprehend how people can be capable of committing such atrocities. Unfortunately the Rwandan genocide is not an isolated occurrence. There have been many cases of genocide in history and many other travesties have occurred. Visiting places like the church in Rwanda and the Killing Fields in Cambodia fills me with such mixed emotions. I am horrified and saddened by the brutality. But I am also inspired by the stories of heroism, bravery and resilience. I try to hold on to the good that exists in humanity and it seems the people of Rwanda are now trying to do the same.