by Dr Callum Henderson
The 13th of May is written deeply into the story of our friends and partners in Bisesero
Bisesero is a place of deep emotions. Every project we work with is doing incredible work with special people but the depth of pain experienced at Bisesero made a deep mark on my own heart.
This day, the 13th of May, is written deeply into the story of our friends and partners in Bisesero, Mubuga, Karengera and Gishyita. For three weeks at the start of the genocide against the Tutsi, from April 7th 1994 they had defended themselves from attacking genocidaires on Muyirah Hill, before the genocidaires turned their attention elsewhere. After two weeks of relative peace, on May 13th the interahamwe returned with huge reinforcements from across Rwanda including military police and army. The attackers broke through the defence and slaughtered the women and children who had taken refuge behind the men defending them. The hillside was left covered with the horribly abused and mutilated bodies of thousands of the dead, injured and dying. Today is a hard day for the survivors of the Bisesero genocide. For the following six weeks they were hunted on the hills like game until the end of June when they were again subjected to slaughter after the French soldiers called them out of hiding. It has never been possible to identify the final number of those killed but it is likely that over the course of the genocide more than 50,000 people lost their lives from these communities.
When we first visited Bisesero in 2008, 14 years after the genocide, the people we met were broken, disheartened and sceptical of any support. But, firstly Solace Ministries, and then Good News International, took us to visit the communities. They persevered in reaching out with God’s comfort and love. Gradually their persistence broke through the pain and their ministry of grace and kindness began to restore hope. Comfort International has had the privilege of working with Solace and then Good News to encourage the people over those years. We now support Good News projects which include agriculture, house building and healing & reconciliation in three communities around Bisesero as well as two others further away which were also affected by what happened there.
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For myself personally, the work at Bisesero and surrounds has always been so close to my heart. Having read of the heartache, betrayal, terrible suffering and incredible resilience of the people, it was a cry of anguish which I had always felt Comfort International had been set up to respond to. It has been a huge joy to grow to know and love the people there and to see, despite the shadows which lie over memories of the loss and horror of those days in 1994, the stirrings of hope, the beauty of reconciliation and the application of hard work in the projects to build a new future. To listen to laughter on the hills again and to talk of dreams and hopes for the future has been a special joy.
For some years I had felt the story of their pain and the inspiration of their long walk to hope again needed to be told and that was the motivation behind the recently released ‘Unforgotten: Cherishing the Story of Rwanda’s Abasesero People’. It is my hope that those who read the book will be filled with as much love and admiration for those people as I have gained over the years.