The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

162 annihilating difference
cidiaires and those who were otherwise innocent Hutu. Not only were Tutsi and
Hutu “traitors” being killed at the barriers; innocent Hutu were also being forced
to become morally complicit in the genocide by becoming both “sacrificer” and
“sacrifier” (Hubert and Mauss 1981) and shedding Tutsi blood.
Several Hutu refugees that I met in Kenya explained that they had used elaborate
ruses to avoid, or to be excused from, “barrier duty.” One of them, Jean-Damascene,
told me that he had been obliged to spend two full days and nights at a barrier
before being allowed to return to his nearby home. As he would have been
resummoned for additional duty, Jean-Damascene and his wife concocted a persuasive
alibi. Because she was already more than seven months pregnant and visibly
so, his wife might be able to feign the onset of difficult labor. After less than
twenty-fours of rest, Jean-Damascene returned to the barrier with his groaning,
agitated wife and asked for permission to take her to Kigali hospital. The youthful
Interahamwe in charge of the barrier seemed convinced by the charade and let
them proceed, but only after Jean-Damascene left his wristwatch as a guarantee.
From there the couple walked a few kilometers to the center of Kigali, to a large,
modern building where Jean-Damascene ordinarily worked. Gaining entrance into
the building through doors that had been forced open by looters, the couple spent
several nights sleeping on the floor of an upper-story corridor. During the day Jean-
Damascene ventured outside to procure food and to ask people with vehicles if they
were headed in the direction of Cyangugu (a city located on the southern edge of
Lake Kivu and very close to the border with Zaire). Finally he found someone who
was going to Cyangugu and who was willing to take him and his wife. Once in
Cyangugu, the couple crossed the border into Zaire. In Bukavu (Zaire) they met a
friend who gave Jean-Damascene enough money to buy a plane ticket to Nairobi.
When I met Jean-Damascene in Nairobi, he was staying in the Shauri-Moyo
Y.M.C.A., a place where many Rwandan refugees were being temporarily housed
by the UNHCR. While in Nairobi, Jean-Damascene managed to raise enough
money from family and friends to buy a plane ticket for his wife, who was still in
Bukavu.
Hutu who were fleeing Rwandan government violence and that of the Interahamwe
might traverse the barriers as long as they were not well-known opposition
personalities who might be recognized. For Tutsi, escape was next to impossible.
Most Tutsi refugees that I met in Nairobi had fled from Rwanda by other means.
Several had made their way to Kigali airport during the week or so following President
Habyarimana’s assassination, a time when Belgian and French troops were
evacuating their citizens via Kigali airport. Several had even been aided in their
escape by a few Rwandan government army officers who had been willing to help
them. Those who were saved this way were extremely lucky, for only some Belgian
and some Senegalese troops made much of an attempt to save threatened Tutsi.
French troops, allies of the genocidal regime, cynically abandoned Rwandan Tutsi
to their fate, even those who had been former employees of the French embassy
or the French Cultural Center.