Almost immediately after the shooting down of the plane of the former president Habyarimana my neighbours and I were chased from our houses by members of the Interahamwe militia. The extremists caught me and cut my private parts into two pieces. They raped me using sticks and some poles. I was rescued by RPF soldiers before I was going to be killed.
In 1997 I went to the ICTR to testify what Kashileshe and the Interahamwe forces had done to me. I gave my testimony of rape and mutilation of my private parts. The court asked me to explain what rape is and to explain how I was raped. From the trauma of my experience during the genocide I was not able to describe rape or my experience of it – all I could say was ‘where the male and female organs meet’. After giving the testimony I returned to Rwanda. After a few days I received a note form the Ruhengeri court requesting me because someone in Ruhengeri was holding the transcript of what I had said to the ICTR in Arusha. I was convicted in Rhuengeri because they said I lied to the ICTR. On reaching the court in Ruhengeri everything I had said in ICTR was repeated to me. I went back where I received a note saying that I would be killed within a few days. I reported all of this to the ICTR in Kigali. They told me to report to my local Ruhengeri defense section. I was threatened again. So I returned to AVEGA, as it was AVEGA who told me to go to ICTR to testify. AVEGA sent for my children and now looks after us.
Testimony of a widow at AVEGA recorded by Never Again 30th July 2002
