2007年VOA标准英语-Memorial Honors Victims of 1994 Rwandan Genocid

By Cathy Majtenyi
Murambi, Rwanda
12 July 2007

Rwanda's rolling green countryside and laid-back city life paint a picture of peace and tranquility. But beneath the calm surface, the people of this African Great Lakes country are still struggling to come to terms with the traumas¹ of the genocide that took place here 13 years ago. Cathy Majtenyi visited Rwanda recently and files this report on the importance of remembering the tragedy. (Warning: some of the images in the video are graphic).

Francis Rusanganwa, a curator at the Murambi Genocide Memorial site

Francis Rusanganwa is a curator at the Murambi Genocide Memorial site, about two hours drive from the capital Kigali.

On April 21, 1994 at this former technical college, Hutu militia² and Hutu government soldiers shot or hacked³ to death about 50,000 Tutsis.

Rusanganwa's family members are among the bodies that are preserved in lime.

"Every day I open the doors. I show to the visitors what happened, I explain the history. I remember my family, who has been killed here. I am very, very -- everyday -- very shocked. I'm sad. I'm frustrated," says Rusanganwa.

The roots of the 1994 genocide date back to the late 1880s during colonialism.

The old identity card has a Race category

Hutu and Tutsi were classifications largely based on the number of cows a person owned. But Belgian colonialists made the distinctions racial and in 1932 they introduced the identity card. At different times, the administration of the day favored either the Tutsis or the Hutus, but an anti-Tutsi sentiment took root by the time of independence in 1962.

In the months leading up to the genocide, the Hutu government carried out massive print and radio propaganda campaigns against the minority Tutsis, urging Hutus to rise up and kill the Tutsis.

The genocide began on April 6th, 1994, following the assassination⁴ of President Juvenal Habyarimana.

Memorials exist to make sure that genocide is not repeated

A Hutu militia called Interahamwe and civilians⁵ killed up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within the span of 100 days.

Thirteen years later, genocide memorial sites dot the countryside, such as where Rusanganwa and others make it their personal mission to ensure that the world does not forget the events of 1994 and that genocide perpetrators hiding abroad be brought to justice.

"After the genocide, some countries began to deny what happened -- no genocide, no genocide," says Rusanganwa. "If you come here, you see what happened. You take photos, and you hear (the) history and you go back in your country. If we had buried all bodies here, you could not be sure (if there was genocide)."

He says that discussing the genocide with visitors ultimately helps him to release the pain in his heart.

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Honore Gatera, a genocide survivor

Honore Gatera is a genocide survivor and is head of the guides department at the Kigali Memorial Centre. For him, remembering the genocide is key to the future of survivors⁷ and Rwanda as a whole.

"The good thing that we are doing in keeping the memory of the genocide is helping⁸ those who were affected⁹ by the genocide. So this is why groups of Rwandans in their reactions, they feel like they have to contribute, they have to do something to help those who are affected, like the survivors, to build the nation together," says Gatera.

Gatera says Rwanda acts as a warning to other countries of what could ultimately happen if divisions among groups of people are allowed or encouraged to deepen.

Rwanda has taken many steps to try to prevent such violence from ever being repeated.

Among other measures, the government has formed a truth and reconciliation¹⁰ process, a grassroots court system, called gacaca, to deal with genocide cases, and outlawed¹¹ the Hutu and Tutsi categories on identification cards.

1 traumas   

n.心灵创伤( trauma的名词复数 )；损伤；痛苦经历；挫折

参考例句：

• She felt exhausted after the traumas of recent weeks. 她经受了最近几个星期的痛苦之后感到精疲力竭。
• Conclusion: Safety lens of spectacles can protect the occurrence of ocular traumas. 结论：安全镜片可以预防眼镜碎片所致的眼外伤。 来自互联网

2 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

3 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

4 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

5 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

6 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

7 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

10 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

11 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。