The 149-page book was launched on Wednesday at Kigali Marriot Hotel with the attendance of relatives and friends.
{{The book is a narrative.
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Uwineza begins with the letter she wrote to her mother killed on 10th April 1994, her two elder sisters and her brother communicating to them of her sorrow and nostalgia after their death.
The letter Uwineza wrote in 2015 was her medical prescription following a long period experiencing trauma, with bad dreams especially related to her life during the genocide.
In her book, Uwineza directs a reader at the first days of genocide. She recalls how she lived happily with her family until she started days of gloom on 7th April when she woke and saw a soldier standing by her side who pulled her to the place where her mother and relatives were kept waiting to be killed.
Uwineza who was 10 years during the genocide, narrates how her mother was shot in the leg, how they spent nights in bushes hiding until 10th April when her family was taken out of nuns’ center known as Les Petites Soeurs de Jesus in Kicukiro. She never saw them again. Uwineza also narrates how she met her father again who was abroad during the genocide and her brother Johnny who survived.
After RPF Inkotanyi soldier rescued her, Uwineza tried to forget the bitter life she passed through but her efforts were futile.
“I lived as a person with two facets. A 10-year miserable old child holding an African print wrapper and an old person. I seemed to be a person with no problems physically but I had unending chagrin within me. I did things enabling me to forget the ten year-old child but could not be seen on the outer part,” she recalled.
In 2015, Uwineza had tough trauma and taken to a hospital where the doctor recommended her to write what she remembers happened to her during the genocide. The book came from what she wrote as a medical prescription.
“I started writing my feelings on a paper. Two years later, I still had scars but I felt hope within me. I recalled the last word my mother told me ‘go and live’. I realized that I had nonsense life over 22 years,” she unveiled.
Uwineza encouraged Rwandans to write their history especially survivors of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi to desist denials.
“The past will be forgotten if we don’t write. I will write so that the person denying the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi won’t convince me. I won’t engage in battle with him but I will influence through writings because the truth always prevails,” she said.
Wilberforce Murengezi, the father of Uwineza commended her daughter’s efforts to write a book featuring history and testimony of her family noting that God made it possible to rebuild hope despite endured sufferings.
Dr. Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, Director General of the Research and Documentation Center on Genocide within the CNLG said that Uwineza’s book is a contribution to the country and encouraged the youth to write and using all platforms lest genocide history is forgotten.
Apart from losing a parent, sister and brother, other 30 relatives from Uwineza’s wide family were killed during the genocide.
The book ‘Untamed, Beyond Freedom’ is sold at Rwf 15,000. It is available at Ikirezi library and Amazon online library.
“It was around midnight and we were in my boss’s car, preparing to go home when all of a sudden men dressed in military clothes, who had come in a double cabin pickup, surrounded us,” narrates the emaciated looking Mucyo.
“They were banging on our car’s windows and ordering the boss and his wife to get out.”
Kayobera and his wife, like Mucyo, are Rwandan nationals. Mucyo says the couple ran a string of businesses in the Ugandan capital. Mucyo managed two beauty spas for them in Rubaga. He was carrying 1.3 million shillings at the time the men accosted them.
He narrates that when his boss and his wife got out of the car, the soldiers immediately snapped handcuffs on them, shoving them into the pickup. “Two of them then came back and barked at me in Swahili, “Wewe mujinga unabaki kwa gari namna gani!” (Fool, you think you will be the one to remain in this car, how?!)
Mucyo says one of them, “Gave me three hot slaps in my face while another dipped his hands in my bag, saw the money (1.3 million) and pocketed it.” Mucyo says he never got that money back, and the fellow that took it did not record it. He just stole it.
The abductors were CMI operatives, Mucyo, and the others would find out shortly.
To anyone that’s been reading about the agency’s harassment of Rwandan citizens, everything they did to Mucyo and the Kayoberas will sound familiar.
The criminal theft of money or property; the arrest by abduction – meaning abruptly and with no warning accosting victims, handcuffing them, shoving them into a vehicle, slapping hoods over their heads, all with no arrest warrant, and without telling the abductees what it is they are supposed to have done – all are hallmarks of CMI methodology.
“They shoved hoods, which are partly big hats, over the heads of all the three of us and drove off. We had no idea where they were taking us,” Mucyo narrates. He says Kayobera told the men: “If it is me you are looking for I am here; this is my wife, and this is my employee release them. There is no reason to take all of us.”
He pleaded with the CMI operatives that he and his wife had three little children back home (the three are 9, 6 and 3) who needed at least one of the parents to be with them. The men told Kayobera that was none of their business and told him to shut up.
Mucyo fell victim to CMI just because he was an employee of Darius Kayobera. The businessman, in turn, fell victim because – he is convinced – a person that he lent money to run a business, in fact, was a CMI informer.
“My boss told me, when we were in detention, that the man, called Ibrahim – a fellow Rwandan – caused problems between the two when Kayobera asked him to repay him the money he lent him,” Mucyo says. Ibrahim wrote Kayobera a check that bounced.
Kayobera through his friends learned that Ibrahim was a CMI informer. The fellow would resort to telling CMI that Kayobera was a ‘Kigali spy’. “That is how we ended up in the hands of CMI,” Mucyo shakes his head, as if still in disbelief.
One of CMI’s ways is just acting on information with zero attempts to verify it.
When the vehicle stopped they were at Mbuya, the headquarters of the agency. “We did not immediately know this place, but we would find out from other detainees that it was the CMI head office,” the weak-looking Mucyo narrates.
Other Rwandan victims of the place, such as Roger Donne Kayibanda described to this news website how once there they order one to take off his belt and shoes, and to hand over properties like wallets, watch, and portable thing. That happened to Mucyo, Kayobera and his wife.
“When one of the men saw Kayobera’s phone, he threateningly asked him for his mobile money pin code. There was 800,000 shillings on the Boss’s account and they made a transaction and withdrew the money,” Mucyo says.
“Then they took Boss’s wife away to the women’s place of detention, and then took me and Boss to a corridor, telling us that’s where we would stay!”
Mucyo describes the torture that followed. “An officer came deep in the night and barked, ‘You Mucyo, come here!’ A soldier came and shoved me upstairs – still with my hood on – and took me to what they call the statement room”. The young Rwandan says the interrogating officer told him to tell him everything about himself: where he was born, when, where he went to school, why he came to Uganda.
“I told him everything. When I was done, all of a sudden the man barked at me ‘I want you to tell me the truth, who sent you to Kampala and what did he send you to do?!”
“I said I had told him everything. “I said I only came to do business and no one sent me,” Mucyo replied. The man told the soldiers to take me downstairs, for “some special treatment”.
He narrates that two soldiers took him down into a dungeon and proceeded to beat him up, kicking and punching him, in the ribs, in the stomach everywhere. Then, he says, the men took me upstairs to another office.
“In that one, the officer spoke to me in fluent Kinyarwanda. He told me, ‘Mucyo, bite! (Hi) The only thing that will save you here is the truth! He too ordered me to tell him everything about myself. Afterwards, the man said, menacingly, “Why don’t you say the truth that it is Rwanda that sent you here?!”
Mucyo told him nothing like that happened.
“He then ordered the soldiers to come to take me ‘upstairs’”, says Mucyo.
Upstairs, there was another man, another Rwandan, Mucyo says. The two soldiers ordered me to take off my clothes. “There was a bathtub in the upstairs room, full of ice water. They told him to lie in the water, up to his neck.
Then after a few minutes, as he was shivering and shaking, they told him to step out of the tub.
Then as Mucyo watched they told the other Rwandan to sit in a metallic chair next to a wall. One of the men got hold of a couple of wires that were sticking out of a wall socket. The other ordered the Rwandan to stick his feet out. “The man with the wire suddenly shoved them onto the soles of the man’s feet.”
Mucyo says the Rwandan leaped up with a piercing scream, eyes bulging, and came thudding down on the floor. “You see that”, one of the torturers told Mucyo, “that is what happens when you do not tell the truth!”
Mucyo says they then took him downstairs, as he was shaking with fear.
He says one of his fellow prisoners, another Rwandan called Damascene Rugengamanzi, advised him to bribe an officer to save himself from further torture. Mucyo describes how he did exactly that. He called one of the officers that regularly came down the dungeons, and offered him half a million shillings.
“I gave him the contacts of my friend that stayed with me in Mengo. The officer also got me a paper and pen and I sent written instructions to my friend to give the officer the money.”
That probably saved the young man. The beatings lessened. After three months at Mbuya, CMI transferred him to its Kireka post.
The story Mucyo tells further reveals the intricate relationship between CMI and Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC. The officer that spoke fluent Kinyarwanda to him, Mucyo is convinced, is an RNC operative. The prisoner he was handcuffed to, Damascene, kept urging him “to tell the CMI torturers that he was ready to join Kayumba’s army”.
“That is the only thing that will save you, otherwise these men will torture you until they break your bones,” Damascene urged.
It would seem this Damascene himself must have undergone the same torture and was ready to be recruited into RNC, Mucyo thinks.
In the end, he was adamant that nothing would ever make him join the terrorists, not even death would!
Then one morning the officer I had given money appeared in the doorway of the Kireka jail and told me to step outside. They were deporting me to Rwanda.
That was this month, last Saturday on 6 April 2019. They dumped me at Kagitumba border post. On his deportation papers they had written, “illegal entry”, though he was in Uganda lawfully, he says.
“They had also robbed me of all my money, and I had nothing, But I was so thankful to be back home.”
Kayobera and Claudine still languish in CMI detention, held incommunicado, and have not been produced in court. They have not been allowed consular access. Their children have been deprived of parental care, and endure the distress of missing a mother and father.
People wonder when such lawless abductions, arrests, and torture of innocent Rwandans will ever come to an end in Uganda.
The Acting CEO of RGB, Dr. Usta Kaitesi revealed that the visit is significant to the institution which has the mandate of protecting and follow up the implementation of good governance principles.
She said that current Rwanda governance is different from the past which led to divisionism and warned against rampant genocide ideology.
“There should be no genocide ideology cases because it is the root cause of genocide. But we should understand that with the commitment of Rwandans and leadership, it was tremendously reduced compared to the past,” said Dr. Kaitesi.
“Even one person remaining with genocide ideology should be redeemed and teach him/her because it spreads to the community and neighbors among others,” she added.
Dr. Kaitesi said that it is everyone’s responsibility to remind each other on the wrath of genocide and join hands to from using social media platforms to inflame genocide ideology.
She explained that the day reflects a choice of promoting Rwandans unity and accountability.
The ceremony held at the beginning of the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, was marked by a moment of silence and light the flame of hope.
Felix Bagambiki, representing Rwanda in DRC held a talk on genocide history narrating how Tutsi were killed and persecuted at different times since 1959 until the execution of genocide in 1994 by the then governments.
Bagambiki explained how the international community abandoned Tutsi at the time and commended RPA soldiers that fought tooth and nail to stop genocide.
He recalled how RPF lead Rwanda in the right direction after stopping genocide noting that Rwanda is moving fast in development with apparent transformations.
The ceremony was concluded by displaying a film dubbed ‘7 jours à Kigali- La Semaine où le Rwanda a basculé’. Produced by Jeune Afrique journalist Mehdi Ba in collaboration with Jeremy Frey., the film on the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi is made of testimonies of genocide survivors and foreigners who were in Rwanda during the genocide.
The duo was arrested at Bunagana border in December 2018 returning from Uganda to attend a meeting held between15-16 December bringing together representatives of RNC belonging to Kayumba Nyamwasa and FDLR.
They are accused of being part of FDLR rebel group, treason and inciting the public to engage into terrorism, developing relationships with a foreign country intending to provoke a war, propagating messages abroad with the intention to incite the public against the government of Rwanda and forming an illegal military group.
The court read the ruling yesterday around 3 pm on remand or release on bail following a previous hearing held two days ago.
The court said that there is evidence pinning them where Nkanka admitted his position as FDLR spokesperson; that he went with co-accused to Uganda to meet RNC and he held speeches on FDLR attacks in the media like BBC among others.
Nsekanabo admitted to the prosecution that he was aware of some attacks to Rwanda like the ones carried in 2001 among others. He also admits to having traveled to Uganda to meet RNC to plan different attacks to Rwanda; all of which considered as evidence pinning him.
Considering the severity of accused crimes and suspicion that they would join the rebel group again if released; the court ruled 30 days remand as the investigation is underway.
The defense lawyer, Nkuba Milton Munyendatwa said they respect the court ruling and will appeal if necessary.
British police announced at the beginning of this week that it is carrying an investigation on five genocide fugitives including Célestin Mutabaruka, Vincent Bajinya who was living under the alias Vincent Brown, Célestin Ugirashebuja, Charles Munyaneza na Nteziryayo Emmanuel in response to the government of Rwanda’s request.
They are accused of role in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi and crimes against humanity.
Jean Damascene Ndabirora Kalinda, IBUKA’s legal advisor said they have been requesting foreign countries to sue hiding genocide fugitives.
“We have increasingly talked about cooperation between countries to bring to book perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. We welcome the initiative if it goes into effect. We also call on other countries to give in their contribution to seize errand genocide fugitives,” he has told IGIHE.
“We assume that justice is the most important thing a genocide survivor needs. To obtain justice through different processes but seeing a genocide fugitive handed a punishment is great to a genocide survivor,” added Kalinda.
Célestin Mutabaruka, 63, is a pastor in Community Church. He currently lives in Kent while Vincent Brown [Bajinya],59, living in Islington is a doctor.
Other genocide suspects in Britain include Célestin Ugirashebuja,66, living in Essex, Charles Munyaneza, 61, living in Bedford and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, 66, living in Manchester.
They were arrested for the first time in 2006 but the trial stopped five years later.
Some fugitives are still wondering in different countries 25 years after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
These include Félicien Kabuga, Augustin Bizimana, Protais Mpiranya, Fulgence Kayishema, Pheneas Munyarugarama, Aloys Ndimbati, Ryandikayo, and Charles Sikubwabo among others.
Bonanza Trading Ltd is a Chinese company specialized in trading of minerals, investment in lottery games and construction sector among others.
The Chief Operational Officer of Bonanza Trading Ltd, Andy Zhang Rian has told IGIHE said the visit was meant to get increased knowledge on bad history that characterized Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
“We have visited this memorial to understand and get a lesson from Rwanda’s history during the genocide,” he noted.
Zhang Rian also encouraged the world population to be on alert and prevent re-occurrence of the genocide anywhere.
Steve Sebera, 29, an employee of Bonanza Trading Ltd also highlighted that visiting the memorial ‘enables us to understand the consequences of bad politics and adopt strict measures on preserving achievements.’
Paying tribute to former MINISANTE employees was preceded by a visit to Ntarama memorial in Bugesera district where over 5000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi are laid to rest.
They also visited Aheza Healing and Career Center where they received explanations of services offered at the center.
Nshimiyimana Emmanuel, the Executive Secretary of Groupe des Anciens Etudiants et Elèves Rescapés du Genocide (GAERG) explained that the center handles trauma cases, especially among genocide survivors.
GAERG is an organization founded by Rwandan graduates Genocide survivors with a mission of creating a world in which the memory of genocide is preserved and a self-sustaining genocide survivor’s community.
A recent research by the Ministry of Health revealed that one of 3 genocide survivors always has depression while only one of ten among the rest of the population is depressed.
“All these are problems affecting us. We wonder how we can address them with partners. Over the past 25 years after the genocide, the government of Rwanda has been closer to Rwandans especially genocide survivors in building resilience, but the trauma cases are persistent,” he said.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Diane Gashumba has said that MINISANTE and related institutions have allocated Rwf 6.3 million of need Rwf 63 million to help genocide survivors suffering from trauma.
“The changes saw Major General Jean-Jacques Mupenzi promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed Army Chief of Staff (ACOS) while Lieutenant General Jacques Musemakweli has been appointed Reserve Force Chief of Staff (RFCOS),” reads a statement released by RDF.
Before his appointment as the Army Chief of Staff in 2016; Lt.Gen Musemakweli was Commander of the Republican Guards.
Among other changes, Major General Aloys Muganga has been appointed Commander of the Mechanised Division.
The appointments and redeployments take immediate effect as per a statement released by RDF.
Maj. General Muganga was previously the Acting Reserve Force Chief of Staff. He is among senior officers promoted in January last year from the rank of Brigadier General to Major General.
Maj General Muganga holds a master’s degree in project management from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and is a graduate of the United States of America War College (USAWC – 2007).
His other previous postings include Defence Liaison Officer for Rwanda at EAC – Arusha among other RDF command and staff responsibilities.
The decent house was constructed to replace the existing old one that was about collapsing.
Xaverine Kankuyu, the beneficiary who received the house is one among people who survived in former Muhazi commune. She survived with two children while five others and her husband were killed during the genocide.
Her new house is built in Akanogo village, Bwinsanga cell of Gishari sector in Rwamamgana district. It is constructed with cooked bricks, has three wide rooms and a sitting room.
The Chief Finance Officer of Bella Flowers, Muganga Walter said the idea of building the house emanated from close collaboration with Gishari sector which selected the beneficiary.
“They led us to this old woman who survived the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. He was living in a seriously destroyed house. It was likely to fall in case it rained. Then we decided to build another house and demolished the old one,” he said.
Muganga explained that the company is committed to contributing to the welfare of the community where it pays Mutuelle de Sante for its 600 workers and 300 residents in Gishari sector.
Kankuyu has thanked FPR-Inkotanyi for rescuing her and continuous support from the government comforting her from the dark past she passed through. She explained that the previous house had been built by Caritas and was damaged that it would collapse one day.
“I sought support from sector officials. The conducted advocacy leading to building this house. I have a thankful heart because I had never dreamt sleeping in such a house,” she revealed.
The mayor of Rwamagana district, Radjab Mbonyumuvunyi lauded Bella Flowers for efforts to support needy Rwandans beyond businesses.
“When we officially inaugurate such house, it means that we restore life to genocide survivors, taking care of them, that government leadership hears their concerns and never forgot them,” he said.
Mbonyumuvunyi called on other development partners to root on current progress to build the desired nation.
Bella Flowers practice agriculture of flowers on 40 hectares with 600 workers.
