Genocide film: Rape victims get a voice

A victim of domestic violence in hospital. PHOTO|FILE

What you need to know:

  • In 1998, the tribunal declared Akayesu guilty for his role in the rape of Tutsi women during the 1994 genocide and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
  • But it was not an easy journey. In the first years after the end of the genocide, rape victims remained silent.
  • In addition, the Gacaca courts that were set up by the government to try perpetrators of the genocide placed rape in the lowest category of crime, along with petty theft, which demotivated rape victims from seeking justice.

These women bring out the voices of many others who couldn’t speak for themselves... I feel, I share and I live their pain,” President Paul Kagame said at the official world premiere of The Uncondemned at the Kigali Serena Hotel.

Kagame was referring to the story of three Tutsi women who were victims of rape as a weapon of war during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Their anguish is captured by journalists Nick Louvel and Michele Mitchell in a documentary film.

Mitchell and Louvel take the viewer on a gripping 81-minute trip from rural Taba in Huye district to a courtroom in Arusha, Tanzania, as they tell the story of the landmark trial that went down in history books when it ended in the first ever conviction for using rape as a war crime.

The women testified in the trial of the former mayor of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, that they saw Tutsi women dragged to the mayor’s office and raped. The trial was subsequently postponed and the former mayor’s indictment amended to include rape as a war crime and a form of genocide.

NOT AN EASY JOURNEY

In 1998, the tribunal declared Akayesu guilty for his role in the rape of Tutsi women during the 1994 genocide and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

But it was not an easy journey. In the first years after the end of the genocide, rape victims remained silent.

In addition, the Gacaca courts that were set up by the government to try perpetrators of the genocide placed rape in the lowest category of crime, along with petty theft, which demotivated rape victims from seeking justice.

As a coping mechanism, genocide survivor Godelieve Mukasarasi mobilised some rape victims from her native Taba, and met every weekend to share their stories.

Under the leadership of Mukasarasi, the women later organised a protest march to Kigali, a move that forced the courts to reclassify rape as one of the most serious crimes committed during the 1994 genocide.

The decision by the Gacaca courts served as a beacon of hope for rape victims and, in October 1997, three of the victims — identified as witnesses JJ, NN, and OO — mustered the courage to testify at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was set up by the United Nations to try the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, in the Akayetsu trial.

The documentary tells the stories of these women from their rape ordeals to their journey to the ICTR.

This article was first published in the East African.