Fifteen years after the Rwandan genocide, The Men Who Killed Me features testimonials from seventeen survivors. Through their narratives and portraits, sixteen women and one man bear witness to the crimes committed against hundreds of thousands of others. Proceeds from this book will go to Mukomeze, a charitable organization established to improve the lives of girls and women who survived sexual violence in the Rwandan genocide.
“The Men Who Killed Me” has been reviewed in Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of Criminology by Dr Anna-Mart van Wyk of Monash University in South Africa. The review will appear in Acta Criminologica’s issue 23(1) of 2010.
After a visit to the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre, a mass grave in the city of Kigali, Rwanda, Governor General Michaëlle Jean apologized to Rwandan leaders for Canada’s “inaction” during the 1994 genocide in the African country.
The Hirondelle News Agency reports that the gacaca courts, which were created in 2001 as an attempt to try the bulk of Rwanda’s genocide suspects, had not wound up their proceedings by the end of March. This was the courts’ second failed deadline as trials were expected to have concluded in February.
The Alcuin Society, a voluntary association of people who coordinate Canada’s national book design awards, awarded Peter Cocking, the designer of “The Men Who Killed Me”, second place in the prose non-fiction illustrated category, for his work on the book.
Good news! As of June 2010 the book “The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence” will be available in the Dutch language from Wolf Legal Publishers. You can already pre-order the book by sending an e-mail to sales@wolfpublishers.nl
Ibuka, the main organization of Rwandan genocide survivors, brought the question of survivors’ murders before both houses of the Rwandan parliament. According to Ibuka, twenty-six genocide survivors were murdered in 2009 in Rwanda. Nine women and several children are said to be among the victims.
During the Toronto run of The Overwhelming (March 8 to April 3, 2010), to encourage a connection to the Rwanda of today, Studio 180 Theatre is displaying photographs by Samer Muscati from the book The Men Who Killed Me, by Anne-Marie de Brouwer and Sandra Chu. Look for them in the front lobby at 26 Berkeley Street.
On March 6, 2010, Augustin Mugemanyi, the former administrative and financial director of the Rwandan Prosecutor’s Office, will be tried on appeal before a Gacaca court in Kigali. He is to answer charges of rape and other sexual abuses during the 1994 genocide.
On 1 March 2010, the Assize Court of Brussels agreed to a new trial for Rwanda’s former Interhamwe leader, Ephrem Nkezabera, who was sentenced in absentia to 30 years’ imprisonment in December 2009. At that trial, the Assize Court had unanimously sentenced Nkezabera for war crimes, including murder and rape. It was the first time in Belgian judicial history that rape was considered a war crime.
In March 2010, Ildephonse Nizeyimana again pleaded ‘not guilty’ to charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and rape. Nizeyimana was second-in-command of the Non-commissioned Officers School in the southern town of Butare at the time of the 1994 genocide. Allegedly, Nizeyimana permitted men under his command to rape Tutsi girls and women as part of a genocidal project.
