Speciose's Story

On Thursday, July 22 we picked up a woman named Speciose, who was an aunt of Leo, a chap who came to speak to us during the orientation weekend. Speciose was a survivor of the genocide. She directed us to the places that she was when she experienced the genocide first-hand.

She was gathered with about two thousand people at the U.N. compound at the Don Bosco school in Kagali, that was run by the Belgians. Unbeknownst to the refugees who had gathered there, the Belgians were in the middle of packing up to leave Rwanda. The didn't want to stay around after their soldiers were killed, just as Dallaire's informant had said would happen. So with thousands of frightened, desperate people in the compound, the Belgians just packed up and left, with the Rwandan army and Interahamwe standing at the gates. After the Belgians took off, the Rwandans and interahamwe rounded up all of the people and force marched them ten kilometers to the Ecole Polytechnique in Kicukiro. There were elderly people in the group and women who had just given birth, and if they fell behind, they were shot on the side of the road. Once they arrived at the school they were instructed to lay down on the ground. The soldiers tossed some hand grenades into the crowd and then started shooting. They ran out of bullets before they had killed everyone, so they resorted to using traditional weapons such as clubs and spears and machetes. Speciose survived but was badly injured. Her husband was killed. He had been the leader of a human rights group in Kigali, so he was singled out for special attention, and the killers made sure that he was finished off.

When the genocide was over in July, Speciose lobbied to have a memorial erected at the site, but it took years before this happened. Many of the bodies were badly damaged and were destroyed before they could be properly buried.