Meet the Killers

The visit to the Presidential Palace took place on my second trip to Rwanda. Unlike the first, in which I flew to Kigali aboard a UN cargo plane, this time I traveled overland from Uganda and was escorted inside Rwanda by members of the RPF, the rebel Rwandese Patriotic Front. As we knew then, members of a feared predominantly-Hutu civilian militia group known as the Interahamwe had been blamed for some of the most horrible slaughters of members of the minority Tutsi ethnic community and political opponents. And as soldiers of the mainly Tutsi RPF expanded their area of control in the country, more and more of these dreaded killers were being captured. I was allowed to interview several in a makeshift jail in the town of Kabuga, just a few kilometers outside the capital, Kigali.

At first glance, nothing seems particularly sinister about this group of 21 Rwandans, 19 men and two women.

But as they sit, lined up against a dirty concrete wall in the barren courtyard that is now their prison, it is apparent they are nervous. Their eyes are focused at the ground in front of them. They are silent.

They don't look like killers.

Yet in a series of interviews, members of this group of prisoners admit openly that they did join the Interahamwe and that they did kill Tutsis and other political opponents at the group's behest. They now insist they only did so under duress, though, and say they didn't kill very many people, usually just one.

At 74-years of age, Joseph Rukwavu is the oldest member of the group. He claims government soldiers killed members of his family and then made him kill one of his brothers. He says he committed the murder with a club.

Like the elderly Mr. Rukwavu, 27-year-old Turatsinze (no first name) says he only joined the Interahamwe in April after the mass slaughters began in Rwanda. He also says he was forced to kill. His particular band of killers used machetes to hack apart more than 10 people, three of whom he admits he knew. He maintains that because he was forced to kill, he should be forgiven.

Julienne Mukanyarwaya, 37-years-old, is one of the two women prisoners held in the jail. Her story is much the same. She says she joined the Interahamwe after other members of the group threatened to kill her baby. She says the Interahamwe forced her and several others to finish off with machetes the survivors of a mass shooting organized by the militia and army soldiers. She insists she only killed one person but says the massacre spanned three days.

And what about her baby? She says it is dead, fatally injured as it was strapped to her back, killed by the repeated blows aimed at her to urge her on in the killing fields. She says she doesn't know what will happen to her. Only God knows, she says.

The rebel guards at this prison say their captives have changed their stories several times since being jailed. But they say the prisoners now appear to have agreed on a common line: they were forced to join in the bloodshed, that other members of their families had been threatened or even killed to pressure them and that they only killed a very few people. It is uncertain just what the truth really is.

The rebels hope one day to organize what will be a war crimes trial for these and other members of the Interahamwe. But in the meantime, they are still searching for those members of the militia group who remain at large. Rebel officials say some have managed to escape to refugee camps in neighboring countries but many others are believed to be still hiding in the bush. They say these remain a possible threat -- even in rebel-controlled territory.