Ok, so I'm in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi (country that I didn't know existed until recently but sure, here I am...) but this entry is about Rwanda.

Mum and I went to the Rwanda Memorial Centre which is a memorial marking the Rwandan genocide and many others that have occured in the past. I feel that anyone visiting Rwanda somehow owes it to the country to visit this centre, as the Genocide is such a significant part of the countries history. For me it helped me to better understand a bit more about the society and people of Rwanda and how and why the country is functioning as it is today.

The 1994 Genocide was the mass extermination of hundreds of thousans of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers carried out by 2 extremist groups Hutu milita groups, the Interhamwe and the Impuzamugambi. The death toll is estermated at around one million. This happened over a period of about 100 days.

It has been 13 years since the genocide but still, thats not such a long time. There was so much hate spread between the different ethnic groups, with radio stations broadcasting statements implying that Tutsi people were not human, referring to them as "cockcroaches" and forcefully suggesting that if Hutus do not help to exterminate them than they are traitors.

Husbands were told to kill their Tutsi wives, children watched their parents being raped and murdered and were sometimes made to be the ones that killed them. People fled to churches for safety only to find the pastors turn against them and assist in the slaughtering. Peoples tendons were cut so they could not run away, men, women and children were tortured before being killed by guns, machetes and any blunt instruments that could inflict as much pain as possible.

During times when people tend to show their true strengths or weaknesses many people risked their lives to save others. The memorial described people, heros, who helped out numerous people and saved them from horrible fates. There was ladies who took in hunted Tutsis and put her bed on bricks so she could hide more underneath. Families who dug trenches to hide people in before covering them with wood, leaves and growing plants on top.

It is so hard to comprehend just how it could happen, how people could slaughter other people. How anyone could torture, rape and kill hundreds and thousands of children, who had done nothing wrong just happened to be a different ethnicity. And all this happened as the rest of the world sat by and watched.

What is amazing, however, is how Rwanda in managing to function now. Sure, it is a number of years after the genocide happened but as a Rwandan you could be sitting on the bus next to someone who organised or carried out the killing of you parents, sister, brother, best friends or children. It seems crazy that after going through so much people of the two different ethnic groups can live side by side today. But the government is attempting to build a society where their is a place for everyone regardless of tribe. "There are no more Tutsis, no more Hutus, only Rwandans."

The words connected with the genocide now are "Never again" although Apollon Katahizi's words are meaningful as killings continue around the world everyday "When they said 'never again' after the holocaust, was it meant for some people and not for others?" Could it happen again? And if it does, will the rest of the world stand by again or have we learnt out lesson the hard way?