GENOCIDE: MOST OF THE WIPED OUT FAMILIES WERE FROM ‘ZONE TURQUOISE’

By Nasra Bishumba, KIGALI Rwanda

Majority of the families that were completely wiped out during the Genocide against Tutsi were located or had fled to the south-western part of the country, in an area where a French military operation dubbed Operation Turquoise was deployed.

Bisesero Genocide Memorial in Karongi District. Majority of the families that were completely wiped out during the Genocide against the Tutsi were located in Zone Turquoise of which Bisesero was part

The operation by the French paratroopers, was deployed in the former prefectures of Cyangugu, Kibuye and Gikongoro in what was later known as Zone Turqouise.

It was deployed under the guise of a humanitarian mission but instead facilitated the killers by routing out the Tutsi from their hideouts.

The French had claimed that it was a ‘safe zone’ created to contribute to the security and protection of Rwandan internally displaced persons, refugees and civilians in danger.

Shedding light on the 15,593 recorded wiped out families, the President of the Alumni of Genocide Survivors’ Students Association (GAERG), Egide Gatari said that the French soldiers gave the Interahamwe an opportunity to continue killing individuals and wiping out many family in the process.

A family is considered wiped out when both parents and all the children are killed.

 “They killed so many people. It is not only wiped out families. The problem is that when the RPF took over some areas, ‘Zone Turquoise’ activities continued. The Interahamwe left Kigali, Gitarama, and a few other areas that had been captured by RPA (Rwanda Patriotic Army) went through that zone on their way out and continued their killing spree,” he said.

Wiped out families per district. Courtesy.

Following the victory by RPA over the genocidal regime, the French soldiers would provide an escape corridor to the killers with the loot they had taken from both government and those they had killed.

On the list produced by AERG, Karongi district (formerly Kibuye), 2839 families (13371 people) were wiped out.

“It is not surprising at all because the story of Bisesero and how the French left the Tutsi to die at the hands of Interahamwe is well known” Gatari says.

Today between 50,000 and 60,000 victims are buried at Bisesero Genocide Memorial Site.  

Number two on the list is Nyamagabe district (formerly part of Gikongoro) where Murambi Genocide Memorial is located.

After 50,000 Tutsi that had camped at the former Murambi Technical School were killed and thrown into mass graves, French troops established their headquarters at this same school.

Most of the victims buried here were lured to the school after they were told they would be safe there only for soldiers and Interahamwe militia to surround them

It will forever be remembered that after an undignified burial of the Genocide victims, the French soldiers built a volleyball court on top of the mass graves where they played every day.

In Nyamagabe, 1,535 families (comprising 5,790 family members) were wiped out.

In Ruhango, 1136 families (made up of 5,245 people) in Kicukiro district 849 families (3,787 people) and Gasabo district 815 families (3,660 people) were all wiped out.

The three districts, mostly Kicukiro were also betrayed by Belgian soldiers who abandoned Tutsi at ETO Kicukiro, the current Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC-Kigali), where families had fled at the beginning of the Genocide.

The school was a base of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) peacekeeping forces; the refugees thought that the forces would protect them.

However, the peacekeeping troops left Rwanda on April 11, living thousands of Tutsi at the mercy of killers. 

It is then that that the Mayor of Kigali City at the time, Lt Col Tharcisse Renzaho ordered Interahamwe militia and genocidal government soldiers to take the Tutsis to Nyanza Hill where they were subsequently killed.

Today, Nyanza-Kicukiro Genocide Memorial serves as the final resting place for over 11,000 victims of the Genocide. About 3,000 of them were killed on site while 8,000 were murdered in other parts of Kicukiro. 

On the list provided by GARG, Gatari explains that areas captured by RPA early enough show smaller numbers of wiped out families.

Pictures of the victims of 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi archived inside Murambi Genocide Memorial in Nyamagabe District which was in Zone Turquoise. 

“For instance, in Nyagatare district there is only one wiped out family recorded, 71 in Kayonza and 86 families in Gatsibo districts in the Eastern province where the RPF launched the liberation offensive in 1990,” he said.

Today, Gatari says that GAERG is working on a project to write a book about these families and the association is putting together the database of these families.

“To achieve this, we need Rwf65m. So far, we have only Rfw15m of this but we are hopeful that with support from anyone who wants to keep the memory of these families alive, we will achieve this goal,” he says.