Rwandan Genocide Survivor Denise Uwimana Tells Her Story

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And you didn’t know what that meant, and you had, as I said, two little boys and you were pregnant. You were nine months pregnant. You were nearly about to have your third child.

DENISE UWIMANA, RWANDAN GENOCIDE SURVIVOR: Yes.

AMANPOUR: So, then what happened?

UWIMANA: Oh, that is really difficult also because sometimes we have — we survivors, we do not know how to express really what we experienced. I was pregnant, and I heard that we were going to be killed. I informed my neighbor that we were going to be killed. We make peace to separate. And I — in my house, we’re ten people. We met in the corridor. We knew we were going to be killed. We had time to say goodbye. And I must leave, flee in the bathroom because I heard that the militias were coming. I had my second son on my back. Others went in my bedroom, other in guest room. So, in the bathroom, there I struggled really with God. And I have reason to struggle with him. For my faith. I was a Christian. My husband was not there. So — and there, I told to God, “You disappoint me. Why didn’t you never tell me the truth I be killed?”

AMANPOUR: In the middle of this you gave birth?

UWIMANA: When the killers met me in the bathroom, instead of killing me, they start a discussion with me. They asked me money. I said, “I don’t have money.” They said, “We’re going to kill you,” but they wanted the money. I went in my bathroom and I saw my beloved cousins down.

AMANPOUR: You saw your dead cousins?

UWIMANA: Yes, down. So, I took money, I gave them. When I gave to them, one went to kill me. He said, “No, why you don’t want to kill this Tutsi woman?” He rose the sword to kill me, and I stopped him. And I went in my bedroom. Under the bedroom, they will I see my cousin, Manasseh, he was still alive. He told me, “Please, make me come under the bed, I’m still alive.” I crawled myself under the bed. There was full of blood of people who were killed. Can you imagine?

AMANPOUR: So, you crawled into all of that blood under the bed?

UWIMANA: Yes. I stayed there the whole afternoon. During the night, water broken to attempt to give birth.

AMANPOUR: Your water’s broke there and then?

UWIMANA: Yes. So — and all the time, I was hearing my cousin always crying, crying, “Jesus of Nazareth, help me. Help,” until she finished. You can you imagine such traumatic… I breathed the blood.