Think Up | 06/09/2008 4:03 pm
Ashley Judd's Rwanda Diaries Part Two: Skulls, Femurs and Flowers

Courtesy of Ashley Judd
Believe it or not, when we got to talking about flowers, she went to the side of the church and picked me a bouquet and sent me home with it.
Ten thousand people were murdered every day for 100 days. Five hundred thousand women were raped, with men who knew they were HIV-positive taking the lead. Children were made to murder (and in the case of boys, rape their mothers and sisters) their parents, parents to murder their children, before they themselves were killed. Torture was sometimes lengthy before death. A refugee crisis was created as panicked Rwandans fled to the D.R.C. and other neighboring countries. There were hundreds of thousands of additional deaths due to starvation, disease and civil collapse, deaths due to things like cholera and typhoid, on top of malaria, etcetera. And in a strange twist that human-rights groups and N.G.Os. have not yet discussed, when the Hutu fled to the D.R.C. sensing their bloody glory was over, they were taken into refuge camps by human rights-workers, and there they were fed, watered and tended to, while their victims were left in piles unattended and the living were abandoned. The Interahamwe who still live on the D.R.C. border would start this all up again in a minute if they could, in spite of the peace and reconciliation that Hutus and Tutsi have miraculously found at home.
There is no part of Rwanda that was not under the rampage of genocidaires. The killing was not localized; it was spread over an entire country the size of Maryland. Human remains are still being found everywhere; in the church there was a blue tarp with a family of 19 that had just been discovered. It was sitting in a pile near a bench of dead people’s clothes. I guess someone will take care of them and gently place them on the already heaving shelf when they have a free minute.
Williamson County, TN, has a population of 125 thousand. If anything came through and hurt a portion – let alone all of us — in the span of a day (or a year!), the state and federal governments would urgently declare a state of emergency and descend with help. We had a tornado blow us around a bit this spring, and — my gosh — we were untouched, yet we received concerned telephone calls from all over the country, with people saying they were at the ready to get on a plane if we needed help.
Yet this genocide happened day after day for 100 days, with deaths and suffering and collapse of the highest order, and in spite of knowing exactly what was happening, we did nothing. A quote chosen for the memorial said: “Quand il disait de L’Holocuste, encore jamais, parlait-il du tous le monde, or juste certaines personnes?" Translation: "When they said of the Holocaust, ‘never again,’ were they talking about everyone or just certain people?”
They were talking about everyone but Africans. Just ask the Sudanese.
Click here to learn more about P.S.I.
Ten thousand people were murdered every day for 100 days. Five hundred thousand women were raped, with men who knew they were HIV-positive taking the lead. Children were made to murder (and in the case of boys, rape their mothers and sisters) their parents, parents to murder their children, before they themselves were killed. Torture was sometimes lengthy before death. A refugee crisis was created as panicked Rwandans fled to the D.R.C. and other neighboring countries. There were hundreds of thousands of additional deaths due to starvation, disease and civil collapse, deaths due to things like cholera and typhoid, on top of malaria, etcetera. And in a strange twist that human-rights groups and N.G.Os. have not yet discussed, when the Hutu fled to the D.R.C. sensing their bloody glory was over, they were taken into refuge camps by human rights-workers, and there they were fed, watered and tended to, while their victims were left in piles unattended and the living were abandoned. The Interahamwe who still live on the D.R.C. border would start this all up again in a minute if they could, in spite of the peace and reconciliation that Hutus and Tutsi have miraculously found at home.
There is no part of Rwanda that was not under the rampage of genocidaires. The killing was not localized; it was spread over an entire country the size of Maryland. Human remains are still being found everywhere; in the church there was a blue tarp with a family of 19 that had just been discovered. It was sitting in a pile near a bench of dead people’s clothes. I guess someone will take care of them and gently place them on the already heaving shelf when they have a free minute.
Williamson County, TN, has a population of 125 thousand. If anything came through and hurt a portion – let alone all of us — in the span of a day (or a year!), the state and federal governments would urgently declare a state of emergency and descend with help. We had a tornado blow us around a bit this spring, and — my gosh — we were untouched, yet we received concerned telephone calls from all over the country, with people saying they were at the ready to get on a plane if we needed help.
Yet this genocide happened day after day for 100 days, with deaths and suffering and collapse of the highest order, and in spite of knowing exactly what was happening, we did nothing. A quote chosen for the memorial said: “Quand il disait de L’Holocuste, encore jamais, parlait-il du tous le monde, or juste certaines personnes?" Translation: "When they said of the Holocaust, ‘never again,’ were they talking about everyone or just certain people?”
They were talking about everyone but Africans. Just ask the Sudanese.
Click here to learn more about P.S.I.
Read more about: A Friend Stopped By, Ashley Judd, Change the World, International, PSI, Rwanda, YouthAids























25 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment