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We made it over the border into Rwanda and suddenly had to start driving on the right hand side of the road - weird after we have driven on the left in the last 9 countries! We drove to Kigali where we visited the genocide memorial museum - what a horrendous and moving place - and to think that this only happened in 1994 - in our lifetime - I was 21 for goodness sake! I remember it happening but had put it to the back of my mind to be honest as I'm sure most of you have too so I've decided to bring it back to the forefront of our minds by giving you the history and what atrocities went on - it makes you sick to think that we all stood by and let this happen. The museum website is here if you want to find out more: http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index.html
The genocide was basically the 1994 mass murder of almost a million people in the space of about 3 months - that's about 20% of the total population. It was the culmination of some historical ethnic competition between the minority Tutsi tribe (who had controlled power for centuries) and the majority Hutu tribe, who had come to power in 1962 and overthrown the Tutsi monarchy. The assassination of the Rwandan president Habvarimana in April 1994 set off a violent reaction, resulting in the Hutu's mass killing of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus who were touted as traitors and collaborators. The genocide was planned by top members of the government and the execution was supported and coordinated by the national government, local military and civil officials and mass media (and the bloody French!!!). The killings were well organised and the militia numbered around 30,000 at the beginning or, to put it into context, one militia member for every 10 families. They manage to get hold of a number of AK-47s and almost 600,000 machetes were imported for use in the killings, mainly because machetes were cheaper than guns.
According to fairly recent reports, the news media played a crucial role in the genocide - local print and radio media fuelled the killings while the international media either ignored or misconstrued the actual events. Due to high illiteracy rates, most people relied on radio for news and the 2 main Rwandan radio stations were used by the authorities to spur and direct killings and incite and mobilise populations.
The international community did diddly squat to intervene or help the Rwandan people. France was actually instrumental in the whole genocide as they helped to supply weapons and train the murderers. In 2000, the UN explicitly declared its reaction to Rwanda a 'failure' and Kofi Annan remarked that 'the international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret.' 5 years after the genocide, President Clinton (who was in power during the time of the genocide) said that he believed that if he had sent in 50,000 US peacekeepers, more than half a million lives could have been saved.
The genocide was basically carried out by the Rwandan military, Hutu militia groups and general members of the public. Neighbours turned on neighbours, friends on friends and even family members murdered their own. They were threatened and knew that if they didn't carry out their orders, their victims would be killed anyway and possibly in an even more brutal way. People were targeted, regardless of age and sex - even small kids were brutally butchered - that was the worst thing in the museum - seeing picture of the tiny children who were massacred - and for what reason? A lot of kids had to watch their parents and families being tortured and murdered before being subjected to the same fate themselves. People fled to churches to seek refuge but the ministers were also involved and thousands of innocent men, women and children were butchered while in 'safe hands'. Before people were murdered, they were often tortured and raped - the whole thing is beyond belief in these civilised times. Horrendous. Those women who survived being murdered but were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. There were about 400,000 orphans left. Not only is the figure of 1 million deaths horrific, but the frequency is just shocking - 10,000 every day, 400 every hour, 7 every minute. I just could not comprehend that no other country stepped in to help - let's be frank about it though - Rwanda has no oil or useful natural resources so whereas the USA would normally poke their noses in, there was no reason to this time.
Anyway, that's enough of that. It was a very good museum - factual but moving with some lovely gardens which are also next to some mass graves. They have a wall of names but they are still identifying bodies (yes, believe it or not, 16 years later!!) so they are adding to it on a regular basis. Best if you google the whole thing yourself and read about what human beings are really capable of doing to eachother. Horrific.
After the museum, we drove on to Ruhengeri which is the gateway town to the Volcanoes National Park where the gorillas live - how bloody excited was I?!!!
We got picked up at 6am the following morning and driven to the visitor centre where it became clear there was an issue with the permits (déjà vu with the chimps....). They claimed we only had 15 permits for that day and 2 for the following day. Grrrr. I volunteered to stay back with Marcus and as compensation they offered us a trip to see the golden monkeys (which normally costs USD100).They were worth seeing - very cute things. They are only found in 4 forests in Uganda and Rwanda so are not particularly common. We must have seen at least 20 and they were jumping around our heads in the trees. Unlike some other primates, you could get pretty close to them and they had very puffed up cheeks.
That afternoon, I felt my world had fallen apart. You remember I had that car accident in South Africa in January? Well, the rental firm had assessed the damage and the claim and decided that as there was no other vehicle involved in the collision, I wasn't covered by the insurance as my waivers had been negated and then....drum roll......they charged me USD18,000 for damage costs - and had already taken it off my credit card. Unbelievable. So, I spent the subsequent few days in a real state and in constant tears. It's hard when you have nobody to turn to or talk to even though Marcus and Olly were great with checking up on me and giving me hugs etc - but it's not the same as having the friends who know you around you. So, until further notice, I am in touch with a lawyer and trying to put a case forward to get my money back.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in the local town with the German ladies and Tracey, being shown around by a very smart 11 year old kid who wanted to study hard and become a governor. His English was fab and he didn't ask for one cent when he took us back to our hotel.
So, the following day was finally gorilla day! The mountain gorilla is found in 2 spots - Uganda and Rwanda. Latest estimates put the number of gorillas worldwide at 790. There are close to 300 in Rwanda. Males can reach 6 ft 3 in height and weigh up to 490lb which is bloody huge!!
So, here was the moment I had been waiting for, for so long - and one of the main reasons for coming to Africa. Marcus and I joined a group of 6 other people (who were all idiots so we ignored them or made snide remarks - so mature!) and headed off to see the Kwitonda group. We walked around 20 minutes to the edge of the forest and then only another 20 minutes or so until we saw the trackers. Marcus turned to me and said 'they must be here'. I was beside myself and my heart started pounding. And then we saw the first one. I couldn't believe my eyes - she was just sitting there - and then suddenly we realised she had a baby with her - only 5 days old - unbelievable! She tried to hide it from us most of the time but we managed to see its little head and I kind of got a couple of pictures of it. Soooo cute. The group has about 21 members and in total we saw 17 including 3 silverbacks, the baby and about 4 young ones play fighting. One of the young ones came and plonked himself right in front of me on the ground. As he moved, I felt sure he was going to reach out and touch me but the ranger moved him out of the way. He hid his face a then cowered in a corner - it was so cute. The whole thing was the most incredible experience I have ever had. You are supposed to stay 7 metres away from them but at times they came so close, there was barely a foot between us! The silverbacks were huge and pretty intimidating. At one point there was a tremendous noise and suddenly a whole group of gorillas started heading towards us, bum first. It was pretty scary, especially when the rangers started moving us out of the way. They said they had never seen that before. The No. 1 silverback came in and grunted and it all suddenly stopped - such power he had!! We spent about an hour with the group which was just fantastic - I was in awe to be close to such great mammals and felt so privileged to be one of the very few who get to see them in their natural habitat. I would recommend this to all of you to do - it's costly but well worth it - stunning!!!
We were then driven to the border where we got collected by another car which drove us to Lake Bunyonyi where we caught up with the truck and the rest of the group for relaxing evening.
Pretty much all photos from Africa are now uploaded here: www.picasaweb.google.com/lindylou73
- comments
Ayumi Hi Linda, First I wanted to share that I and all my family are fine udner the earthquake. I happened to be in Singapore and avoided the crisis. Now I am back in Tokyo and things are still unstable but waiting to see that will be stablized shortly (but I will get back to Singapore again from today for a few days as we have a long weekend). Also I enjoyed reading your blog entry, have watched a famous movie about Rwanda before and made me again think about that through. Loved Gorrila stories and do think it's something I should get myself to see! Hope things will go well with your car accident and with all other adventures waiting for you. Best, Ayumi