Some extracts from filmed testimonies of survivors and former genocidals
This survey records very many hours of filming. Here is a selection of these filmed interviews intended to give an idea, through images, of the method used by the investigator to carry out his investigation. There will be an individual interview with a survivor, another with a former genocidal, as well as a reconstruction made on the ground with a former genocidal. We start by a tribute to one of the main chief of the civilian resistance to the genocide.
Tribute to Simeon Karamaga:
Simeon Karamaga, one of the main leaders of Bisesero's civil resistance to the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda, has passed away in May 2020. In tribute to this great man, here is an excerpt from an interview he did ten years ago and in which he relates how white men had, in mid-May 1994, come to support the genocidal forces on the ground during the most great anti-Tutsi massacre. Simeon Karamaga was the deputy head of the civil resistance. His courage and intelligence enabled the tens of thousands of Tutsi civilians gathered in Bisesero to resist unarmed for weeks to the attacks of the genocidals who had no choice but to call on white soldiers with heavy weapons to come and stop the last pocket of civil resistance to the genocide. On May 12, 1994, Simeon Karamaga saw these white soldiers join their assassins to organize the genocidal attack the next day. Running to survive, not all Tutsi survivors saw these ten, twenty or thirty white soldiers during the great attack which brought together thousands of genocidals. But the many survivors who saw them certify that these Whites actively participated, on May 13, in the massacre of more than 40,000 Tutsi in Bisesero. Heavy weapons to dare to face civilians fighting with bare hands was the only way for the genocidails to overcome these extraordinary men and women. It was the battle of courage against cowardice, of honor against dishonor, a fight in which the Tutsi of Bisesero are the great winners in terms of Humanity, in terms of Eternity.
EXAMPLE OF AN INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW WITH A FORMER GENOCIDAL:
Jean Ngarambe relates that he went, on May 12, 1994, to Mubuga where he knew he would find Rwandan soldiers. However, they were French soldiers he was surprised to meet there. He was initially designated to go with the French soldiers in the direction of Bisesero, except that the latter soon realized that he did not speak French. Jean says that the next day May 13, he went to Bisesero to massacre Tutsi civilians along with the French soldiers. This testimony was collected by Serge Farnel on April 30, 2009 in Mubuga. Before being recorded in the book "Rwanda, May 13, 1994. A French massacre ?", The written transcription of this interview, as all the other interviews, was carefully checked from the first translation to the flight of Kinyarwanda to French.
EXAMPLE OF A FILMED RECONSTITUTION:
Raphaël Mageza tells how he, on May 13, 1994, participated in the massacre of Tutsi civilians who had taken refuge on Nyiramakware hill, and who had previously been wounded by the shots of white soldiers positioned opposite, on Mumubuga hill. This testimony was collected by Serge Farnel on February 16, 2010 on the hill of Mumubuga. Before being recorded in the book "Rwanda, May 13, 1994. A French massacre?", The written transcription of this interview, as all the other interviews, was carefully checked from the first translation to the flight of Kinyarwanda to French.
EXAMPLE OF AN INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW OF ONE HOUR AND 45 MINUTES WITH A SURVIVOR :
Testimony of Adrien Harolimana collected by Serge Farnel on April 22, 2009 in Kibuye. Adrien explains in particular the conditions in which he, on May 12, 1994, saw a convoy of white soldiers passing on a road, while he was on the hill of Gitwa (Bisesero). A reconstruction on the scene of May 12, 1994 described in this testimony was made and filmed on April 30, 2009. Before being recorded in the book "Rwanda, May 13, 1994. A French massacre?", The written transcription of this interview was, as all the other interviews, carefully checked from the first on-the-fly translation from Kinyarwanda to French. This interview is one of the first interviews translated by a non-professional interpreter. He is the cameraman who was responsible for filming the various talks at a symposium in Kigali. The investigator was one of the speakers at this conference and had asked the cameraman to go with him and collect testimonies. This testimony was collected by Serge Farnel on April 22, 2009 in a room at Home Saint-Jean, a hotel located in Kibuye, and overlooking Lake Kivu.