Horror beyond fear: 15 years after the Rwandan genocide
22-year-old Regis Gahigiro will never forget his youth in Rwanda, where his father and sisters were killed and he lost his leg to a landmine.
Regis Gahigiro is a genocide survivor whose leg was amputated after he stepped on a land mine. He has moved on with life and displayed a lot of courage in overcoming this disability.
Photograph by: Ashley Fraser, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — When he thought the genocide had taken all it could from him, it returned, and he lost his leg.
Regis Gahigiro was only 11 when he stepped on a landmine, one of the remnants of the war, and lost his right leg. “I remember my mother constantly cautioning me to be careful where I walk. She always said she did not want to lose me to a landmine because I was all she had left,” he said.
His father, sisters and grandparents had already been murdered. This was the loss that went through his mind when he realized his mother’s fears had come true.
“I was walking home on my way from church with my cousins when I stepped on something hard and heard a click.” He yelled at his cousins to run while he kept his foot on the trigger. When he lifted it, the mine exploded.
“The next thing I knew, I was on the ground screaming for everyone to go as far away from me as possible because I thought it would blow up again,” Gahigiro said. “The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Please, God, do not let me die. My mother needs me’.”
The only boy in a family of four, Gahigiro, like most Rwandans, grew up in an extended family and still refers to his cousins as sisters and brothers. He tells of his grandparents who loved him dearly, and how he was kept on track by constant caning from his mother who believed in the “spare the rod and spoil the child” philosophy. With soccer as his passion he believes his childhood was normal, and for awhile he had no whiff of the hatred that had taken a hold of his country.
However, this naïvete would not last. “In class we were separated according to ethnicity and the Hutu were favoured over the Tutsi. I remember being severely punished for something so small yet a Hutu who did the worst things was left untouched,” Gahigiro says.
When the killing began in Kigali, Gahigiro and his mother were separated from the rest of the family. “For a while we were protected by a Hutu night watchman who kept the killers away by saying he would kill us himself. My father and sisters were not as lucky, they were killed. My grandparents were hammered to death,” Ghigiro says.
“Eventually we had to leave the house because we heard that the UN was close by and we, like many others, thought they would help. I remember us driving over dead bodies in the streets and watching as people were being killed.”
When they got to the UN, they were told the UN could not help and that they had to find their own way to the airport if they wanted to get out of the country. They were able to get a flight to Kenya and, later, to Burundi.
Gahigiro, now 22, is a high school student in Ottawa, popular for his talent in sports. He has won a gold medal in badminton, won a number of marathons, and plays basketball.
“I never accepted the fact that I had one leg and even before I got my artificial leg, I played football on crutches,” he says.
Gahigiro was featured in the documentary En Jeux and has participated in a campaign against landmines. “I would like to run a marathon like Terry Fox and raise money for children of war and war amputees.”
Related Story: April a month of tears for survivors
Louise Umutoni is a Rwandan journalist with the New Times in Kigali. She is on a three-month internship at the Citizen under the Rwanda Initiative, a partnership between Carleton University’s journalism department and the National University of Rwanda. Born and raised in Uganda, Umutoni is one of thousands of Rwandans forced to live in foreign countries to escape ethnic tensions. Today through Thursday, she profiles genocide survivors who make their home in Ottawa.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Regis Gahigiro is a genocide survivor whose leg was amputated after he stepped on a land mine. He has moved on with life and displayed a lot of courage in overcoming this disability.
Regis Gahigiro is a genocide survivor whose leg was amputated after he stepped on a land mine. He has moved on with life and displayed a lot of courage in overcoming this disability.
Photograph by: Ashley Fraser, The Ottawa Citizen
Your Comments
surajith
Now genocide is going on in srilanka. Please rush to ottawa parliament and get interviews from tamils who are protesting. It is the responsibility of media to stop these genocide. Do not wait till everything is over
Surajith
Today genocide is taking place by Srilankan Government. The whole world is not doing any serious effort to stop this. Two days before srilankan military with the help of Indian government used poision gas bombs and killed more thousands civilians in so called safety zone created by Srilankan government. Tamils are very sad that international community is doing nothing. They do not want to discuss in UN security council. Why ? They want to wait tilll 100,000 people to die before discuss. The same mistake they did in Rwanda. Medias should force governments to take actions. otherwise Ruwanda history will repeat in srilanka again. We are living in Injustice world. Rulers are becoming dictators..........very sad.
Caroline
What a brave young man. If only we were all so strong... Best of luck in what is sure to be a bright future.
Sutha Subra
Unfortunately, there is another genocide going on in Sri Lanka right now. Genocide against Tamils. UN and the whole world is sleeping as usual.
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