By Jack Picone
Originally published in Al Jazeera on 7th April 2024
Warning: Some of the images below are graphic and show victims of massacres.
On April 7, 1994, one of the most harrowing events in modern history began: the Rwandan genocide.
One hundred days of unfathomable slaughter in which an estimated 800,000-1,000,000 people were killed.
Rwandans were pitted against Rwandans, Hutu against Tutsi, neighbour against neighbour, and in some cases, family member against family member.
From grandmothers to infants, no one was spared - all dispatched to the next world by machete, machine gun or hand grenade.
Read Here: Documenting The Rwandan Genocide.
"It’s 2024, and I have a recurring dream.
I’m walking in the vestibule of a Catholic church.
The space is crammed with dead people on the floor. There are bodies on top of bodies.
I walk through the vestibule to access the door to the church's altar.
As I walk, I accidentally step on a body that is soft with decomposition. I feel the flesh giving way under my feet.
I am mortified and disgusted with myself.
The frozen faces of the dead look up at me accusingly.
This is when I wake up.
The past comes rushing back and I remember that it is more than a dream.
It’s a remnant of a memory of something I experienced inside a Belgian Catholic church in Rukara, Rwanda, in 1994."
~Jack Picone