For the Assamese version, please click here.
A bright and
sunny Sunday morning after a long time. Jean Paul is sipping coffee in
his nice and cosy house in Amsterdam. Beautiful day. Beautiful life. But life
was not always like this. In fact, some past events shake Jean Paul’s mind even
today.
1994. The
Rwandan civil war was at the peak. Jean Paul, his brother and mom were in the
capital Kigali and his dad and three sisters were in a place called Gitarama in
the heartland of Rwanda. On one fateful day, miscreants mercilessly killed Jean
Paul’s father and one sister. The other two sisters could somehow escape. In
Kigali too, the situation was no better. On one hand, the loss of his beloved
dad and sister and on other hand the fight for his, his brother’s and his mom’s
lives – Jean Paul was torn apart by deep sorrow, fear, anger, exasperation.
Rwanda,
surrounded by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Congo Democratic Republic, is a
small country with an area of 26,338 square kilometers – much smaller than a
small country like the Netherlands. It is hilly – known as the land of thousand
hills. Compared to other African countries, Rwanda is a densely populated
country.
Rwandans are
from three groups – Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa is less than 1% of population
leaving Hutu and Tutsi to take overall control of the country. Naturally, there
have always been conflicts between Hutu and Tutsi. In 1959, Hutus started a
revolution that removed a Tutsi monarch from power and some Tutsis went in
exile in surrounding countries.
In 1990, the
exiled Tutsis started the war that lasted four years, ending in a genocide that
took life of more than 1 million people, mostly Tutsis. But Tutsis’ atrocities
against Hutus were also no less. Jean Paul and his family were Hutus. His
father and sister were killed by Tutsi rebels.
Life was not
always this appalling though. With four siblings, Jean Paul had a healthy
childhood – at first in Gitarama and then in Kigali. From studies to football
and other games, they were five bright children. Their dad was also a highly placed
official of the then largest co-operative society in Rwanda.
In the course of
time, the tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis escalated to the civil war which
ended on the 4th July 1994, when Tutsi rebels captured Kigali. For the name’s
sake, a coalition government was formed including Hutu members but it was
dominated by the Tutsis. Now, it was Tutsis’ turn to display all-out
monstrosity. At that time, Jean Paul had just started with his studies in
medicine in the pursuit of becoming a doctor and he was then ordered by the new
rulers of the country to offer medical services in an army camp in the east of
the country.
That army camp
was another form of Hitler’s concentration camps. Daily more than a thousand
Hutus were killed there. Truckloads of woods, fuel tankers after fuel tankers
were regular sights. All these to burn the dead bodies of the Hutus! The Tutsi armies themselves got mentally
disturbed by killing civilians in such a scale. Many of them would ardently
request Jean Paul to issue sick certificates to get rid of this hellish duty. Jean
Paul had to helplessly witness all these very closely, shedding silent tears.
A time came when
things went beyond tolerance for him. Through certain turn of events, he was
allowed to go to Rwandan University of Butare to continue his studies in
medicine. There too, the situation was same. He was again called to duty – this
time to another camp.
Probably at that
time, for Jean Paul, death was a better choice than going back to such a camp.
But how to get rid of it?
One of Jean Paul’s
relatives was highly placed in the Rwandan coalition government. He helped him to
get out of the country and come to Nairobi - Kenya. That was in 1995.
Nairobi – an
established African hub of business and culture, is also the confluence of
immigrants/asylum seekers from different parts of Africa. So for a person like
Jean Paul, life was still tough there but it was very peaceful compared to what
he went through in Rwanda.
Meanwhile, the
situation in Rwanda worsened. Jean Paul’s relative started having serious
differences of opinion with the government, especially on the killings that
were going on, supported by the Tutsi hardliners. Fearing for his life, he
escaped to Kenya. But he was not safe there either. The Rwandan secret killers
did not spare him even in Kenya. In the first attempt, they failed. Eventually,
they killed him in 1998.
Jean Paul
realized that Kenya too was no longer safe. With the help of the family and
friends, he managed to continue his journey ending in the Netherlands as an
asylum seeker. For next two years, he lived in a refugee camp. It was safe and
peaceful but uncertainty of life was still not over.
There are many
Dutch organizations which help refugees to start a new life. With the help of
such an organization, Jean Paul resumed his studies not in medicine though but
he completed his masters in medical imaging from the INHOLLAND University of
applied sciences and then from the much respected Erasmus University in
Rotterdam.
Life took a nice
and permanent turn for Jean Paul. His sisters and brother also were well
settled by then in Europe and North America. In another few years, his daughter
will become a doctor. His son also is doing higher studies in the area of
medical laboratories. They get flabbergasted by the harrowing stories of their
father’s survival. For them, they are stories from a faraway land but for Jean Paul
it was cruel reality. He thank himself for his indomitable spirit and hope
which saw him through these tough times.
Even being
abroad, Jean Paul is a human-rights activist fighting for the cause of fellow
Rwandans. He has been relentlessly doing a yeoman’s work so that others don’t
need to go through the same as he had to.
Jean Paul (name
changed) is a friend of mine and this is his true story.
(The story is
published with my friend’s consent.).
