On 26 November 1981, the virgin Mary reportedly appeared at this church in Kibeho. It has been attracting tens of thousands of pilgrims ever since. But between April 19-22, 1994, Kibeho was scene of the devil at work – Hutu extremist militias killed nearly 15,000 civilians
Twenty years ago, in mid-April, as many as 100,000 of unarmed civilians had sought protection in the Kibeho Internally Displaced Persons Camp (IDP) in the south of Rwanda. It was the largest camp in the country.
Inside the camp, were hundreds of genocide militia and former government army hiding among the civilians. After they had killed Tutsis and there were no more in the surrounding villages, they moved to camps for Hutus villagers who were escaping the war. The slow massacre of civilians began on April 19th when the militias invaded the camp.
A small team of 32 Australian Defence Force personnel were the only western troops to witness the massacre. They arrived on April 21 and witnessed the massacre.
It is one the worst carnages Australian troops have been exposed to since the Second World War, according to accounts of the remaining survivors of the operation.
Australian author Paul Jordan was there. He was one of the highly trained elite SAS forces deployed in Rwanda at the time.
“We arrived as part of the second contingent in February 1995,” he narrates in interview with Australian media. “We took up residence at the hospital and started providing care for those who were injured.”
Kibeho was the last and the biggest Internally Displaced People’s camp remaining in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. In the midst of this carnage one would wonder whether there were any attempts to intercede.
The author Jordan says that there were numerous initiatives from Australian forces and other parties to stop the killings.
“It was coming from the UN and it was coming from our command element,” Jordan said. “And we had one signaller who spent his entire time on that radio maintaining communications and reporting exactly what was going on.
“But it was also our officers within our small group who were pleading with the Rwandan Patriotic Army officers, a major in particular, that this had do stop.”
But their calls fell on deaf ears.
“It was to the point where there was a set of horrible circumstances and some of the events leading up to the events where… displaced persons who knew that things were going bad and would make a run for it.
He says there were endless efforts to stop the killings but often it was too late.
“There are countless incidents that took place where innocent people were murdered and executed in front of us and you know not only myself but everybody who was involved in those couple of days stood up to Rwandan soldiers and said no.
“If we were given the opportunity we did that and often we were successful but sometimes you just weren’t there on time.”
Faced with mounting casualties and a situation of total helplessness there was increased pressure on the Australian Medical team to leave Kibeho altogether.
Another of the Australian soldiers on the mission was the late SAS Trooper Jon Church who the Australian military last week awarded the Medal for Gallantry.
According to accounts of his family who received the medal on his behalf, he narrated to them that Hutu militiamen, fearing they would be exposed if the Kibeho camp was cleared, began slaughtering their own people to discourage the survivors from leaving.
For reasons best known to itself, the Australian Army kept the event private. But what I can tell you is that the award was made in the presence of Owen Church and the statue is of his son, SAS Trooper Jon Church. Jon Church’s sister, Sarah, had also flown in from New Zealand.
Among the recipients of the awards was Dr Carol Vaughn-Evans, the head of a medical team that saved hundreds of lives. That we know so little of these events is partly due to the horrors that make description almost impossible.
The boy Jon Church was carrying was one of many he saved under gunfire during one of the most appalling episodes ever endured by Australian soldiers.
The author Jordan says that there were numerous initiatives from Australian forces and other parties to stop the killings.
He said: “It was coming from the UN and it was coming from our command element. And we had one signaller who spent his entire time on that radio maintaining communications and reporting exactly what was going on.”
The mass killings by the interahamwe militias stopped only after the Rwanda patriotic rebels had overrun the camp on April 22. More than 14,000 were dead.
Human Right organisations and many scholars believe the tally is much higher. Their figures vary between 10,000 and 15,000 people killed in a matter of four days.
Jordon has his own account.
“I recognise that by being there and bearing witness to what had taken place they would have to kill all of us … to clear that evidence from their slate.
“Or, they had to stop what they were doing. And they didn’t kill 12,000 people. I believe the count was somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000. And I would say closer to 10,000.”