Skull, two skulls, Music 02.45.21
many skulls
Holmes: They died almost two years ago - they and at least half a million others.
It was supposed to be Rwanda's final solution - the total elimination of the Tutsis - and it failed completely.
Dissolve into map, Fx: Church bells 03.21.15
wedding
Holmes: There are more Tutsis now in Rwanda than there were before the genocide began.
A generation ago, their families were the aristocracy of Rwanda, a privileged caste under Belgian overlords.
Then the Belgians left, and tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed or driven into exile by a bloody Hutu uprising.
Crowd of people outside church Fx: Church bellsHolmes: Now with their own kind once again in power, they are flooding back - from all over the world. 03.59.00
Interview with Aimable Rumongi, interior shop, interview Rumongi: I had never been to my country and it was a very exciting idea to come back home and join others in reconstructing the country after the unfortunate events of 1994. 04.16.01
Holmes: Aimable Rumongi already has a successful conference management business based in Nairobi. In Kigali, he's opened a new venture, for the new arrivals.
Rumongi: We had a lot of faith in the new government, after the RPF intervened to stop the genocide we knew that there was no turning point. And as you know, a businessman must always take risks - the bigger the risks, the bigger the success.
Man dismantling home, cattle, tent city, people sitting, kids Holmes: Jonas Twagirayesu is taking a big risk too today, he's decided to go home. It takes him about ten minutes to dismantle the shelter in which he, his wife and four children have lived for eighteen months. 04.53.05
Jonas is one of 40,000 people in Magara Camp, on the northern border of Burundi.
The vast majority are Hutus who fled in 1994. Some took part in the genocide, many did not. But all were terrified that the victorious rebel army of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front would take revenge on them.
Holmes interviewing Jonas Holmes: Jonas, why have you decided that it's safe this week to go back when you've been living here for 18 months. 05.38.05
Jonas: I've heard that there is peace now and I am willing to go back home.
Holmes: And who's told you that, how do you know that it's safe to go back now?
Jonas: I heard that those who went back to my village didn't have any problems. I went back home on foot and I found out that everything was all right.
Group of people, Jonas climbing on truck, helping family up, truck leaving, families riding Holmes: Jonas is exceptional. His village is just across the border - close enough for a furtive reconnaissance on foot. But most of the others who board the UN trucks are old men, women and children. 06.06.20
Even amongst the returnees, there's no sense of rejoicing. The atmosphere in the trucks is one of apprehension.
They're simple people, accustomed to obeying their leaders. And their leaders have been telling them that anyone who returns to Rwanda risks arbitrary imprisonment or sudden death.
Holmes greeting Kagame: Good morning. 07.02.01
Kagame, interview
with Kagame Holmes: And this is the man they've been taught to fear most. The victorious warlord of the Rwandan Patriotic Army, the RPA, and now Vice President of the new Rwanda.
Major-General Paul Kagame insists that persuading the refugees to return is his government's first priority.
Kagame: First of all, it's their right to return to their country. We recognise the right of every citizen of Rwanda to live in Rwanda. I was a refugee myself for over 30 years. I was living in Uganda. We wanted to come back home - the government didn't want us back home. Now today, we are calling refugees to come back home, they are refusing to come back home.
Trucks, sign, people getting off trucks, Jonas and family with soldiers We don't expect the refugees to stay back until Rwanda turns into a paradise. I think they should come back and be part of the solutions that will be found fore these problems. 07.50.06
Holmes: At the border between Burundi and Rwanda, the refugees run their first gauntlet. It's Jonas's first encounter with the Tutsi dominated army he fled from.
In front of the cameras they behave well enough. But undoubtedly some soldiers, returning from exile to find their entire family slaughtered have taken revenge into their own hands.
And according to some, the killings of Hutu by the RPA have gone much further than that.
Interview with Seth Sendashonga Sendashonga: What I'm talking about is really a different pattern altogether of killings where citizens of Rwanda get killed by army or sections of the army under command. 08.38.23
Holmes: Seth Sendashonga is a damaging critic. Until last August, he was Minister of the Interior in the present Rwandan government.
I interviewed him in a hotel room in Nairobi, Kenya, the city where he now lives. He claims he resigned in despair.
Sendashonga: The incidents of such killings had become so many and I had written over 700 litters to General Kagame trying to stop the situation from worsening and when I didn't get any positive answer to the problem I felt that I had no more role to play in that type of government.
Interview with Kagame Holmes: Mr. Sendashonga is not the only Hutu to have left the government recently. But General Kagame is unapologetic. 09.26.18
Kagame: Well, first of all they did not resign. Those officials you're talking about did not resign. They were sacked. Of course, given the situation of why they were sacked, these men are not happy, who now have a grudge against the government that had sacked them. So necessarily they had to go around creating all sorts of stories.
Holmes: But Mr. Sendashonga, the Minister for the Interior, for example, claims that you're just not making enough effort to control incidents like revenge killings and arbitrary arrests.
Kagame: I think there are no such revenge killings that are taking place today, that we can talk about. Those that took place, took place several months back and it was because the situation had not settled down yet.
Landscapes Fx: Drums 10.15.16
Holmes: Rwanda calls itself the land of a thousand hills. What goes on in its thousand secret valleys is hard to determine. But if any outside organisation can claim to what is happening here, it is the UN Commission for Human Rights.
Interview with Lee WoodyearSuper:LEE WOODYEARUN Human Rights Commission Woodyear: We are here according to our mandate to look into every allegation of human rights violation. When Mr. Sendashonga was minister, we worked with him, we worked with other ministers as we do today. Any time, they bring an allegation to us, we have to investigate it. 10.41.03
Are revenge killings going on? Yeah, revenge killings have certainly happened in the country but they've happened on a scale, as far as our information shows, less than what some allegations have tried to prove.
Holmes: But Mr. Sendashonga told us that there were still killings going on. Are there killings being perpetrated by elements of the RPA, in any numbers at the moment in this country?
Woodyear: In any numbers, no.
Trucks along road, travelling shot, Jonas and family in truck, Holmes: There are no red carpets, no cheering throngs, to welcome Jonas and his family home. 11.16.03
travelling shot of
houses Kigembe Commune in southern Rwanda saw some of the worst excesses of the genocide. Many of those who used to live here are still in the camps. Others tens of thousands of them, lie buried in mass graves.
Jonas hugging man, people walking with belongings, making food The real anxiety for returning refugees is not that vengeful soldiers will shoot them out of hand. It's that friends and neighbours, survivors of the genocide, may accuse them of complicity. 11.50.21
It may happen in the hour of their arrival or in the days ahead. And those accused are likely to join the 60,000 detainees already cramming Rwanda's prisons.
Entering gaol, Holmes walking through inmates, Holmes speaking with Betsetsa When I first visited Giterama gaol in May last year, it was probably the worst prison in the world. Eight thousand men were crammed into a space designed for one thousand. 12.20.13
One of them was Peter Betsetsa. Nine months later, he's still there.
Betsetsa: It's not the first time.
Holmes: No, that's right, we were here last May and you told me about yourself.
Betsetsa: Yes, I remember.
Holmes: I'm sorry to see you are still here.
Betsetsa: Oh, what to do?
Holmes: And how are you?
Betsetsa: Oy, it's okay, things have improved a bit you see.
Man cutting hair, food, men playing cards, speaking with Betsetsa, pan of huge numbers of men, man cooking Holmes: A new extension to the prison has tripled the available space and there are fewer prisoners than before. There's enough food to eat, there's even room to lie down. 13.05.09
But still, hardly any of these men have had formal charges laid against them.
Betsetsa: Not yet.
Holmes: Still no process at all?
Betsetsa: No process at all.
Holmes: Even if the judges and prosecutors could be found to try all these people for murder would take decades. And if the refugees ever return en masse, there will be tens of thousands more accused.
The government is urgently looking for ways to speed up the process: to allow all but the most guilty to resume their lives.
Night, house, Rumongi and others But it can't afford to alienate it's own supporters. 13.56.06
at a meeting
interview with Rumongi Rumongi: We need firm leadership that is capable to handle these changes.
Holmes: Aimable Rumongi and his friends are sophisticated people - but even they would find it hard to accept if people involved in the massacres are allowed to go free.
Rumongi: When all these one million people are being butchered in cold blood ...
Holmes: Jean-Marie returned from exile to find that his entire family had been slaughtered.
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: If I see someone who killed one of my relatives, how can I forgive him? How can I forgive him? It's impossible. That's why I'm telling you, I'm leaving it to justice.
Holmes: But if justice forgives him, what happens to you?
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: Anyway, I have to abide by the law.
Holmes: You have to accept it?
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: Yeah, I have to accept it. If I kill him it will be genocide also. So I have to accept it.
Holmes: But in one sense, if you cannot forgive and there are tens of thousands of murderers out there, how can the country ever be reconciled?
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: It will be very difficult.
Jonas walking through field, ruined house, interview with Jonas, Jonas and wife walking through house Holmes: It's easy to despair in a country like Rwanda. When Jonas finally reached home, he found his fields infested with weeds, his house in ruins and his livestock gone. 15.13.21
Jonas: I am very sad but I will have to find the means to build another house.
Holmes: At least Jonas and Pascasie have undisputed possession of their house and land. Many refugees return from the camps to find strangers - Tutsi newcomers - living on their land.
City, signs, people in market, Holmes with others around table In Kigali, a whole new business class is moving in. Their signboards - in English - the language of the newcomers - are springing up everywhere. 15.54.13
So what will happen if and when the former Hutu business people come back to town. Aimable and his friends insist that there will be room for everyone.
Men around table speaking Jean Marie: Anyone can come and open up a business. It's open for everybody and you compete. 16.16.00
Rumongi: You know they know the market, they've been here. We're new, so I think they shouldn't really worry about us. In fact, we're going to learn from each other and it's going to be a very interesting symbiosis you know of ideas and experiences.
If they do accept to stay with us, which they will have to inevitably. They'll have no choice.
Interview with Jonas, Jonas Holmes: Jonas has humbler ambitions. 16.45.02
working in his
field Jonas: I am going to start farming. Farming is not a problem, that's my job. When I have a hoe I can work.
Holmes: Within a month, Jonas told us his banana plants will be clear of weeds. Uprooting the bigotries and hatreds that infest a land where a million skeletons are buried will be a tougher job.
Rwanda's returning exiles, whether they've been gone for two years or for 20 will have to tackle it together or the seeds will surely sprout again.
ENDS
many skulls
Holmes: They died almost two years ago - they and at least half a million others.
It was supposed to be Rwanda's final solution - the total elimination of the Tutsis - and it failed completely.
Dissolve into map, Fx: Church bells 03.21.15
wedding
Holmes: There are more Tutsis now in Rwanda than there were before the genocide began.
A generation ago, their families were the aristocracy of Rwanda, a privileged caste under Belgian overlords.
Then the Belgians left, and tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed or driven into exile by a bloody Hutu uprising.
Crowd of people outside church Fx: Church bellsHolmes: Now with their own kind once again in power, they are flooding back - from all over the world. 03.59.00
Interview with Aimable Rumongi, interior shop, interview Rumongi: I had never been to my country and it was a very exciting idea to come back home and join others in reconstructing the country after the unfortunate events of 1994. 04.16.01
Holmes: Aimable Rumongi already has a successful conference management business based in Nairobi. In Kigali, he's opened a new venture, for the new arrivals.
Rumongi: We had a lot of faith in the new government, after the RPF intervened to stop the genocide we knew that there was no turning point. And as you know, a businessman must always take risks - the bigger the risks, the bigger the success.
Man dismantling home, cattle, tent city, people sitting, kids Holmes: Jonas Twagirayesu is taking a big risk too today, he's decided to go home. It takes him about ten minutes to dismantle the shelter in which he, his wife and four children have lived for eighteen months. 04.53.05
Jonas is one of 40,000 people in Magara Camp, on the northern border of Burundi.
The vast majority are Hutus who fled in 1994. Some took part in the genocide, many did not. But all were terrified that the victorious rebel army of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front would take revenge on them.
Holmes interviewing Jonas Holmes: Jonas, why have you decided that it's safe this week to go back when you've been living here for 18 months. 05.38.05
Jonas: I've heard that there is peace now and I am willing to go back home.
Holmes: And who's told you that, how do you know that it's safe to go back now?
Jonas: I heard that those who went back to my village didn't have any problems. I went back home on foot and I found out that everything was all right.
Group of people, Jonas climbing on truck, helping family up, truck leaving, families riding Holmes: Jonas is exceptional. His village is just across the border - close enough for a furtive reconnaissance on foot. But most of the others who board the UN trucks are old men, women and children. 06.06.20
Even amongst the returnees, there's no sense of rejoicing. The atmosphere in the trucks is one of apprehension.
They're simple people, accustomed to obeying their leaders. And their leaders have been telling them that anyone who returns to Rwanda risks arbitrary imprisonment or sudden death.
Holmes greeting Kagame: Good morning. 07.02.01
Kagame, interview
with Kagame Holmes: And this is the man they've been taught to fear most. The victorious warlord of the Rwandan Patriotic Army, the RPA, and now Vice President of the new Rwanda.
Major-General Paul Kagame insists that persuading the refugees to return is his government's first priority.
Kagame: First of all, it's their right to return to their country. We recognise the right of every citizen of Rwanda to live in Rwanda. I was a refugee myself for over 30 years. I was living in Uganda. We wanted to come back home - the government didn't want us back home. Now today, we are calling refugees to come back home, they are refusing to come back home.
Trucks, sign, people getting off trucks, Jonas and family with soldiers We don't expect the refugees to stay back until Rwanda turns into a paradise. I think they should come back and be part of the solutions that will be found fore these problems. 07.50.06
Holmes: At the border between Burundi and Rwanda, the refugees run their first gauntlet. It's Jonas's first encounter with the Tutsi dominated army he fled from.
In front of the cameras they behave well enough. But undoubtedly some soldiers, returning from exile to find their entire family slaughtered have taken revenge into their own hands.
And according to some, the killings of Hutu by the RPA have gone much further than that.
Interview with Seth Sendashonga Sendashonga: What I'm talking about is really a different pattern altogether of killings where citizens of Rwanda get killed by army or sections of the army under command. 08.38.23
Holmes: Seth Sendashonga is a damaging critic. Until last August, he was Minister of the Interior in the present Rwandan government.
I interviewed him in a hotel room in Nairobi, Kenya, the city where he now lives. He claims he resigned in despair.
Sendashonga: The incidents of such killings had become so many and I had written over 700 litters to General Kagame trying to stop the situation from worsening and when I didn't get any positive answer to the problem I felt that I had no more role to play in that type of government.
Interview with Kagame Holmes: Mr. Sendashonga is not the only Hutu to have left the government recently. But General Kagame is unapologetic. 09.26.18
Kagame: Well, first of all they did not resign. Those officials you're talking about did not resign. They were sacked. Of course, given the situation of why they were sacked, these men are not happy, who now have a grudge against the government that had sacked them. So necessarily they had to go around creating all sorts of stories.
Holmes: But Mr. Sendashonga, the Minister for the Interior, for example, claims that you're just not making enough effort to control incidents like revenge killings and arbitrary arrests.
Kagame: I think there are no such revenge killings that are taking place today, that we can talk about. Those that took place, took place several months back and it was because the situation had not settled down yet.
Landscapes Fx: Drums 10.15.16
Holmes: Rwanda calls itself the land of a thousand hills. What goes on in its thousand secret valleys is hard to determine. But if any outside organisation can claim to what is happening here, it is the UN Commission for Human Rights.
Interview with Lee WoodyearSuper:LEE WOODYEARUN Human Rights Commission Woodyear: We are here according to our mandate to look into every allegation of human rights violation. When Mr. Sendashonga was minister, we worked with him, we worked with other ministers as we do today. Any time, they bring an allegation to us, we have to investigate it. 10.41.03
Are revenge killings going on? Yeah, revenge killings have certainly happened in the country but they've happened on a scale, as far as our information shows, less than what some allegations have tried to prove.
Holmes: But Mr. Sendashonga told us that there were still killings going on. Are there killings being perpetrated by elements of the RPA, in any numbers at the moment in this country?
Woodyear: In any numbers, no.
Trucks along road, travelling shot, Jonas and family in truck, Holmes: There are no red carpets, no cheering throngs, to welcome Jonas and his family home. 11.16.03
travelling shot of
houses Kigembe Commune in southern Rwanda saw some of the worst excesses of the genocide. Many of those who used to live here are still in the camps. Others tens of thousands of them, lie buried in mass graves.
Jonas hugging man, people walking with belongings, making food The real anxiety for returning refugees is not that vengeful soldiers will shoot them out of hand. It's that friends and neighbours, survivors of the genocide, may accuse them of complicity. 11.50.21
It may happen in the hour of their arrival or in the days ahead. And those accused are likely to join the 60,000 detainees already cramming Rwanda's prisons.
Entering gaol, Holmes walking through inmates, Holmes speaking with Betsetsa When I first visited Giterama gaol in May last year, it was probably the worst prison in the world. Eight thousand men were crammed into a space designed for one thousand. 12.20.13
One of them was Peter Betsetsa. Nine months later, he's still there.
Betsetsa: It's not the first time.
Holmes: No, that's right, we were here last May and you told me about yourself.
Betsetsa: Yes, I remember.
Holmes: I'm sorry to see you are still here.
Betsetsa: Oh, what to do?
Holmes: And how are you?
Betsetsa: Oy, it's okay, things have improved a bit you see.
Man cutting hair, food, men playing cards, speaking with Betsetsa, pan of huge numbers of men, man cooking Holmes: A new extension to the prison has tripled the available space and there are fewer prisoners than before. There's enough food to eat, there's even room to lie down. 13.05.09
But still, hardly any of these men have had formal charges laid against them.
Betsetsa: Not yet.
Holmes: Still no process at all?
Betsetsa: No process at all.
Holmes: Even if the judges and prosecutors could be found to try all these people for murder would take decades. And if the refugees ever return en masse, there will be tens of thousands more accused.
The government is urgently looking for ways to speed up the process: to allow all but the most guilty to resume their lives.
Night, house, Rumongi and others But it can't afford to alienate it's own supporters. 13.56.06
at a meeting
interview with Rumongi Rumongi: We need firm leadership that is capable to handle these changes.
Holmes: Aimable Rumongi and his friends are sophisticated people - but even they would find it hard to accept if people involved in the massacres are allowed to go free.
Rumongi: When all these one million people are being butchered in cold blood ...
Holmes: Jean-Marie returned from exile to find that his entire family had been slaughtered.
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: If I see someone who killed one of my relatives, how can I forgive him? How can I forgive him? It's impossible. That's why I'm telling you, I'm leaving it to justice.
Holmes: But if justice forgives him, what happens to you?
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: Anyway, I have to abide by the law.
Holmes: You have to accept it?
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: Yeah, I have to accept it. If I kill him it will be genocide also. So I have to accept it.
Holmes: But in one sense, if you cannot forgive and there are tens of thousands of murderers out there, how can the country ever be reconciled?
Jean-Marie Nyaruhirira: It will be very difficult.
Jonas walking through field, ruined house, interview with Jonas, Jonas and wife walking through house Holmes: It's easy to despair in a country like Rwanda. When Jonas finally reached home, he found his fields infested with weeds, his house in ruins and his livestock gone. 15.13.21
Jonas: I am very sad but I will have to find the means to build another house.
Holmes: At least Jonas and Pascasie have undisputed possession of their house and land. Many refugees return from the camps to find strangers - Tutsi newcomers - living on their land.
City, signs, people in market, Holmes with others around table In Kigali, a whole new business class is moving in. Their signboards - in English - the language of the newcomers - are springing up everywhere. 15.54.13
So what will happen if and when the former Hutu business people come back to town. Aimable and his friends insist that there will be room for everyone.
Men around table speaking Jean Marie: Anyone can come and open up a business. It's open for everybody and you compete. 16.16.00
Rumongi: You know they know the market, they've been here. We're new, so I think they shouldn't really worry about us. In fact, we're going to learn from each other and it's going to be a very interesting symbiosis you know of ideas and experiences.
If they do accept to stay with us, which they will have to inevitably. They'll have no choice.
Interview with Jonas, Jonas Holmes: Jonas has humbler ambitions. 16.45.02
working in his
field Jonas: I am going to start farming. Farming is not a problem, that's my job. When I have a hoe I can work.
Holmes: Within a month, Jonas told us his banana plants will be clear of weeds. Uprooting the bigotries and hatreds that infest a land where a million skeletons are buried will be a tougher job.
Rwanda's returning exiles, whether they've been gone for two years or for 20 will have to tackle it together or the seeds will surely sprout again.
ENDS