NEW YORK, April 16, 2012 — MCW (Miracle Corners of the
World) and its partner genocide prevention education program, MCW
Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner, held its sixth annual commemoration of
the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda yesterday at New York University Law
School. To mark the 18th commemoration, almost 100 participants
gathered to learn about the importance of survivors’ testimonies,
memorialization and post-genocide justice.
Jacqueline Murekatete, an MCW fellow and
founder of MCW’s genocide prevention education program, called on the
audience to “ensure that survivors’ stories are told and that the
people who are denying the genocide are challenged.” She continued, “There
are many ways you can take action. You can help survivors in
Rwanda in need of services; you can
support efforts to bring the people who committed the genocide to be brought to
trial; and you can spread the stories of survivors to others.”
Jacqueline Murekatete, founder of MCW’s Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner, opens the commemoration for the 18th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Following a moment of a silence, the program opened with an
excerpt from PBS documentary Valentina’s
Nightmares and the testimony of Valentine Iribagiza who was nine
years old when the killings broke out across
Rwanda , leading to the deaths of
more than one million people in one hundred days. Among the dead were
Iribagiza’s parents, two sisters, and three brothers.
Panelists Valentine Iribagiza, Robert Van Lierop, and Taylor Krauss discuss the importance of memorializing survivors’ stories. |
In 1994, when the violence broke out, Iribagiza and her
family sought shelter in a church in their village. Forty-three days later, she
and her brother Placide survived by hiding among the bodies, pretending to be
dead. Iribagiza survived without any food or water; her fingers were beaten and
broken and her head was sliced open by a machete. She was convinced that the
world had come to an end.
Iribagiza spoke of a “second genocide,”
referring to the ongoing struggle of survivors in the aftermath of the 1994
Rwandan genocide. “I was in a hospital near death for six months, and I
couldn’t smile and I couldn’t talk for a long time,” she
said. “I was and still am confused by why
it happened, but many things have changed since then. Today, I know I am
stronger and I know I am a beautiful girl, no matter what happened.” Now
Valentine lives in the U.S.
and is a college student focusing on social services. She continued,
“When I think about the future, I want to educate people about the genocide and help those who
struggle.”
Taylor Krauss, an independent documentary filmmaker and
founder of Voices of Rwanda, spoke about the importance of collecting and
listening to survivors’ testimonies. “We need to continually remind
ourselves of what our role was as an international community in the 1994
genocide,” he said. “Survivors want to tell their stories and I
want to make sure that the space
for them to share these stories exists.”
Dr. Zachary Kaufman, author of After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and
Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, spoke about the circumstances
behind and politics of creating the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,
including the complicated involvement of the U.S. and the unique experience of
Rwanda, where survivors live next to perpetrators and where the government is
responsible for serving everyone, regardless of their involvement in the
genocide.
Robert Van Lierop, former high level advisor on Justice,
Accountability, Truth and Reconciliation for UN/African Union Mission in Darfur
(UNAMID), moderated the event. “Whenever someone is murdered, it is a
crime against all of us,” he said. “We all have to see ourselves as
Tutsis, just as we need to see ourselves as Jews and Armenians and others who
died because of genocide,” he said in his opening remarks.
Audience participants included the New York/New Jersey
Rwandan community, some of whom are genocide survivors, along with James
Kimonyo, Ambassador of Rwanda to the
USA , and representatives of the
Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the U.N. NYU students, educators and NGO
representatives also participated in the event.
The program
concluded with a slideshow with photographs of individuals who died in the
genocide, including a number of family members of the survivors present at the
event. The final slide read, “For the dead and living we must bear
witness,” a quote from Elie Wiesel, who received the 2012 MCW Lifetime
Achievement Award earlier this month.
For
pictures, visit MCW’s flickr site at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miraclecorners/sets/.
About MCW (Miracle Corners of the World)
MCW
(Miracle Corners of the World) is a non-profit organization founded in 1999
with the vision of Local Change through Global Exchange®. Our
mission is to empower youth to become positive agents of change in their
communities. Based in New York with affiliates
in Africa , MCW offers the following programs:
Leadership Training, Community Centers and Oral Healthcare Improvement, as well
as Partner Initiatives (MCW Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner). For more
information visit, www.mcwglobal.org.
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