The memory of the Rwandan genocide is still present and has marked the collective memory. The nation commemorates the dead but it ignores another a reality—the lives that still suffer from what happened to them during the genocide. It is estimated that 250,000 to 500,000 women were victims of rape during the genocide, which was part of the government’s strategy of ethnic extermination. These women still bear in memory the horrors of the genocide and some still bear it in their blood. Victims of rape, many Tutsi women were infected with HIV and still suffer because of it today. They survived the genocide but their fate is still tainted with a slow death because of the virus.
RAPE & AIDS: WEAPONS OF GENOCIDE
Rape was systematically used as a genocidal weapon against the Tutsis. During this period, sexual violence was not indiscriminate and disorderly but followed orders and was part of a bigger picture. Rape was not only tolerated but controlled and ordered by the Hutu power hierarchy. Next to the execution of men, the rape of women aimed to destroy the place of fertilisation and the inner space where a Tutsi life was to be born. Many women were disembowelled, mutilated, and killed shortly after being raped. Some survived the atrocities, but not without wounds.
The Rwandan genocide is the first time AIDS was intentionally used with rape as a weapon of genocide. According to survivors’ testimonies, HIV infection was deliberate and part of the strategy of the Hutu power movement to exterminate Tutsis by condemning Tutsi women to a slow death. Paul Kagame, former President of Rwanda, stated that “hundreds of AIDS patients were released from hospitals during the genocide and became an instrument of war, targeted at women”. As it was reckoned during the trial of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, one of the Hutu power leaders, the government went to find HIV-seropositive patients and encouraged them to perpetrate rape and transmit their disease.
POST-GENOCIDE: THE EMERGENCE OF THE AIDS ISSUE
Though the extent of rape during the genocide was known, including rape with the intention of infecting victims, it took years for the issue to be addressed. Few victims knew they had the disease. Testimonies of victims confirm that only a small number of rapists told the victims that by raping them, they were infecting them with HIV. Secondly, several years passed without women even suspecting they had HIV. Several women began to show signs of the disease between 1999 and 2002, which is consistent with the time for HIV to lead to AIDS, estimated between three and 10 years. To this must be added the immediate problems faced by women at the end of the genocide. Physical wounds and psychological trauma had to be treated, as well as providing food, shelter, and taking care of orphans. The extreme poverty many survivors faced did not allow women to ask themselves questions other than those related to everyday life and immediate survival.
It should be stressed that, at the time of the genocide and after it, Rwanda lacked the infrastructure for AIDS testing and treatment. In 1998, four years after the genocide, there was only one voluntary and free testing centre in Rwanda. Even if the screening was free of charge, further laboratory examinations were too expensive for the majority of the population. It was not until 1999 that the first estimates of HIV infection as a result of rape were made, in that case by the Association of the Widows of the Genocide—Aveva Agahozo. The study, conducted from three prefectures to assess the representativeness of women survivors, found that out of 491 cases of trauma and consequences related to rape, 66.7% were AIDS-related and the same number of women were HIV positive. After this study, the interest in HIV infection during the genocide has continued to grow from the early 2000s with publications from Save the Children, African Rights, and Amnesty International.
THE RIGHT TO REPARATIONS
Sexual violence plays an important part in the investigations of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). For the first time, rape was recognised as a means of perpetrating the crime of genocide. Article 21 of the Statute of the ICTR and article 34 of its Rules of Procedure enable the ICTR to provide victims and witnesses with assistance for their physical and psychological recovery. The Victims and Witnesses Section of the ICTR was given the management of $379,000 to provide assistance to the victims, which was shared between several organisations for women in Rwanda such as Profemmes, Haguruka, and Aveva Agahozo.
However, as innovative as it was and although a part of the money was devoted to medical assistance, the programme did not meet the basic needs for access to AIDS treatment. The sums received were too small and only allowed access to antibiotics. Thus, the AIDS issue remained unresolved. One of the main aspirations for justice should be its ability to adopt reparations and support victims. In the context of the Rwandan genocide, this means guaranteeing the right to AIDS treatment for victims of sexual violence. In this regard, the ICTR failed the victims of HIV infection.
Twenty-seven years after the genocide, it is hard to estimate how many women still survive after having been infected with HIV during the genocide. However, now the living conditions for seropositive patients and HIV treatment in Rwanda have increasingly improved and are more accessible for those who need them. The Rwandan effort to fight AIDS has benefited from the financial help of international institutions, especially UN agencies, international NGOs, and foundations. Between 2005 and 2012, Rwanda made great progress in the fight against AIDS. In 1997, 4.4% of the population was estimated to be seropositive. In 2005, it was 3% and in 2013 it went down to 2.7%. With the help of international organisations, it is now possible for a large part of the population and victims to access HIV treatment for free.
The exact number of rapes that were committed during the Rwandan genocide will probably never be known, nor will the exact number of women who were infected with HIV as result of sexual violence. However, these victims should not be forgotten. It is clear that the high AIDS rate among women after the genocide is linked to rape and other physical violence. As such, the justice system should have integrated AIDS as a consequence of those crimes and provided adequate support to the victims. However, after the genocide, few resources and little focus was given to the fight against AIDS. Many women could not do anything but slowly die of the disease.
It was only in the early 2000s, and thanks to associations such as Aveva and the financial support of international organisations, that the issue started to be addressed and victims provided with free treatment. Even so, one cannot forget the trauma and the use of AIDS as a genocidal weapon, condemning women to survive and die slowly. Respect for women’s rights to justice and reparation implies not only an end to impunity for crimes of sexual violence but also requires the taking into account longterm consequences of such violations and the implementation of measures to guarantee support for victims.
Louise is a final year International Relations student at King’s College London. Research interests include: human rights in East Asia and Africa, sustainable development and the promotion of young participation in civil society.