'The whole world knew but did nothing'.

Jacqueline Murekatete, an 18-year-old student in New York City, fled her home country, Rwanda, following the ethnic conflict that claimed most of her family. While at the Fifth Youth Leadership meeting, held at New York University from 20 to 27 July 2003, she spoke with Annabel Boissonnade-Fotheringham of the UN Chronicle, in very personal terms, of her experience and on promoting tolerance.

Recounting her personal experience

I am 18 years old and originally from Rwanda Before 1994, I had a good life; I was happy and lived on a farm with my family; I had four brothers and two sisters. I had goals and dreams like any other child, but all of this changed in 1994 when Rwanda became the stage for a horrifying genocide. When it reached my village, I was actually away at my grandmother's house where I went to school, and I had to run away with her. First of all, we went to the county office because we thought we would be protected there, but we were not safe because our Hutu neighbours soon followed us there to kill us. One of my mother's brothers, who was a doctor and lived in another city, decided to send an ambulance for us, where my grandmother and I hid at the back with bags over us for disguise. When we reached my uncle's place, he paid some men to hide us for a few days. Then the neighbours found out and we realized once again that we were not safe I remember when the Hutu neighbours stormed into the house where we were hiding. I was crying and thinking, "this is my last day; I'm going to die". I remember seeing clubs and machetes. My grandmother was old and I was just a child, so they spared us, but warned that they would come back that evening and kill us if they found us still in the house. It turned out that there was an orphanage owned by Italian priests nearby. The next day, my grandmother decided to place me there and find somebody to hide her. At the end of the genocide, I found out that she was kicked out of the house and killed. I still don't know how she died.

I ended up in the orphanage where I stayed during the genocide. I had no contact with my family, and there was no way to go back. It was too dangerous. I prayed every night for them to be alive. Life got to be pretty tough at the orphanage. It was overcrowded and kids kept on coming in every day; there were two-year-olds who cried every night. Diseases started to spread and it got to the point where there was a cemetery within the orphanage and it became routine to bury children every week

A few days after it gained control of the country from the former (mainly Hutu) Government of Rwanda, the (predominantly Tutsi) Rwandan Patriotic Front reached the orphanage and told us that we were safe. The children who were lucky enough to have a family member who had survived began leaving the orphanage. I cried every night, wondering if somebody knew that I was there.

One afternoon, the priest called me and told me someone was there for me. I didn't know who it was, but I was just happy that someone had survived and was there to get me out. My cousin greeted me and took me to my uncle, the doctor, who had escaped being killed by staying in a hole under someone's house for the entire 100 days of the genocide. When I asked him about my parents he started to cry. At that point I knew the answer.

At first, I was in a state of disbelief; I thought the whole thing was a nightmare and I would wake up and see my entire family again. As time went by, I started to realize what had happened. Another uncle who lives in the United States began the adoption process and at the end of 1995 I found myself in this country I was placed in the fifth grade and had to learn English.

On participating at the Youth Leadership Conference

Two years ago, a holocaust survivor came to speak to my English class. After his presentation, I told him what had happened to my family, and he explained to me that he has been going to various schools and conferences that invited him to talk about his experience, with the goal to prevent what had happened to him from happening to anyone else by educating people. I told him that I wanted to Loin him, and we've been doing that for the past two years. We just tell people about what we have lived through because we want them to be aware that these things are still happening. It wasn't just years ago that the holocaust Look place. Genocide occurred in 1994 and it can easily happen again tomorrow to anyone, anywhere. People will not change their way of thinking if they don't help one another My biggest disappointment was that the whole world knew--the entire genocide was aired on the CNN and BBC news. My uncle has videos of innocent people dying, of bodies floating down the river. The whole world knew; for 100 days they watched people being massacred, but did absolutely nothing to help. This is the type of attitude that I want to change. When something like that happens, people should take action. They should not allow the innocent to suffer for belonging to different ethnic groups.

On the necessary international response

At first I was really angry, not just at the United Nations, but at all countries that had the means to help. Many countries could have helped, even small ones. If they had sent soldiers, they would have probably stopped the genocide. As far as I remember, some countries had sent troops. When the killing started, instead of sending more troops, they withdrew the ones that were there because they were in danger. This disappoints me, and it is precisely the kind of attitude that I want to change.

One way that the United Nations could contribute to raising the general public's awareness of these issues would be to talk to survivors, Right now in Rwanda, there are a lot of orphans and people who have lost their siblings, their parents and/or their cousins. I believe the United Nations should organize a conference similar to this one, but on a global level. I think the youth conference was really important--as was pointed out in this morning's seminar, "Youth is the future" Enabling young people to learn about what happens in the world from an early age is crucial to the attainment of general awareness

On the fragility of peace

There are many different definitions: peace with oneself, world peace; peace is also part of the UN mission. I am not convinced that world peace can be achieved easily, but I am still hopeful for the future--a great deal of effort is necessary. I wish people would try to understand one another through programmes like today's conference, and educate others about racism, prejudice and intolerance. If we had more programmes like this, people would tolerate each other. I think ignorance is one of the reasons why people hate each other, and hate, in the end, can lead to genocide and the holocaust. I believe holding conferences and similar educational activities will help bring about peace For me, the world will have achieved world peace only when everyone gets along with each other: no war, no genocide.

On the importance of tolerance

To be open minded and tolerant of everyone. We should understand that everyone has the same right to exist; nobody is superior or inferior to anybody else. There should be no conflicts: you might not like someone, but you have to respect that person. Awareness conferences and other educational programmes are effective means of spreading the message. I think ignorance is the root of most evils in this world, With educated people, we will have a better tomorrow.

On returning to Rwanda

Right now Rwanda is still not completely at peace. Until I personally believe and feel it is peaceful and stable, I can't really see myself living there I will return only to visit my family; maybe one day I will retire there I still have some distant relatives who survived--but at this point it would just be to visit, I am not emotionally ready to go back now and I don't know how I would react when I return to my village There is no one there.

Looking Back

"Prize-winning UN staff photographer John Isaac in July 1994 accompanied a UN humanitarian aid mission to Rwanda, recording on film the tremendous suffering of the victims of the bloody civil war-the sick and wounded in the refugee camps, the mountains of corpses of anonymous mothers, fathers and children being shovelled into mass graves, the plight of tired families moving slowly along the dusty roads of Rwanda.

Mr. Isaac, whose work for the UN has brought him into many sad, wartorn scenes around the world, said it was in neighbouring Zaire at the Ndosho camp for unaccompanied and orphaned Rwandese children that he witnessed the most poignant of these. Hordes of babies and young children huddled together, crying out insistently for their mothers. A small, skinny boy of about ten, undernourished, dressed in rags, reached out to John and asked him to be his Daddy. "He wrapped himself around my legs, and pleaded with me to adopt him", John says. Then suddenly, the boy became quiet, calm, perhaps realizing that this foreigner could not take him home. "Please come visit me when you come back", the child implored. The boy's name, John says, was Innocent.

The faces of some other motherless children of Rwanda, portrayed on our cover in one of Mr. Isaac's many dramatic photos, reflect the terror of their recent past and stare towards an uncertain future. They wait to hear from parents and relatives they may never see again.

What will become of Rwanda's children? Mr. Isaac asks. Traumatized by the carnage, driven from their homes, separated from their families, whether Tutsi or Hutu, they are the most innocent of victims in this tragedy-stricken Central African nation."