Dr. Vincent Biruta
On 4th July, Rwanda will celebrate Kwibohora31, but what does liberation of a nation mean, and how can it be best measured?
One way of fully understanding the question and the answer, is to see it through the eyes of individuals, and institutions. Individuals like Dr Vincent Biruta, a dignified, quietly spoken man, with a calling to medicine, yet who ended up becoming one of the stalwarts of Rwanda’s renaissance.
Since July 1994, when Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF forces) ended the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi, referring to Rwandans as either Batutsi (Tutsi), Batwa (Twa) or Bahutu (Hutu), has been, not “outlawed,” as many outsiders tend to erroneously assert, rather, it has become absurd, gauche.
In the thirty one year journey, since Rwandans were delivered from the deathly grip of what was in every way, a genocidal cult, Rwanda has travelled back to the future. In building a new Rwanda, the RPF leadership, looked back for inspiration, to the country’s pre-colonial past, when the terms Bahutu, Batutsi, Batwa, meant Rwandans, with the latter being the most important identity.
In a conscious effort to destroy a Rwanda that resisted their control, and often their understanding, the Belgian colonialists had twisted things back to front, to divide Rwandans along ethnic lines, and attempted to erase their sense of being Rwandan, in which lies their homogeneity, their unity.
In that malignancy into which Rwanda was cast, Dr Biruta, a healer, was identified as Tutsi. That identification marked his life, as it did of many others, and for over a million men, women and children, it would also mark their death, in almost every case, a death that was torturous, with the dehumanised mass murderers, first attempting to dehumanise their victims, before ending their lives.
Some however, survived, Dr Biruta among them. But he be destined not to follow his calling as a doctor. Instead, he answered the call to national reconstruction. If the reticent medical professional, with a seemingly innate perfect bedside manner, were a demonstrative type, he would boast an extraordinary CV, in the last thirty years: a Director-General, in the ministry of health, a minister of health, a President of the Senate, a minister of education, a minister of infrastructure, a minister of environment, a minister of infrastructure, a minister of foreign affairs, and now a minister of the interior. The call to duty comes, he answers.
And for him, it was ever thus, even at the worst of times. Like so many, he lived through a time when the terror of fearing for your life because of how you were born, was the norm. He had worked under this insidious terror, living his life the best he could. In 1994 however, the terror intensified, a terror which we now know heralded the apocalypse.
The RPF had always hoped to exert change in Rwanda, through negotiation, and so, they agreed to the Arusha accords, or would be accords, since we know now that the then government of Juvenal Habyarimana, never any intention of implementing them. “I am going to unleash the apocalypse” Colonel Theonest Bagosora, one of the architects of the Genocide Against Tutsi, had snarled, after the meetings in the Tanzanian city of Arusha.
Anyone hearing him, might have thought his words, self important bitter rantings of a hateful, impotent man. As history shows us however, they were a hint of what had long been prepared. The most hardline extremists in an extremist government, had decided that they would drag the nation into the darkest abyss with them, rather than share power with any Tutsi.
For the group, known as Akazu (cabal), which included the genocidal President Habyarimana’s wife, Agathe Kanziga, who today is a fugitive from Justice, in France, no act would be too depraved, no abomination unthinkable.
Despite efforts to rewrite history by their supporters, there is overwhelming evidence that it is they, who ordered the shooting down of Habyariamana’s aeroplane, as it landed back in Rwanda, Kanziga, signing off on the murder of her husband, and the father of her children. Habyarimana himself was no less genocidal, but was more pragmatic than members of Akazu, including his wife. His pragmatism did for him.
The downing of the aircraft, was the green light to begin the extermination of the Batutsi remaining in Rwanda, Bagosora’s declared apocalypse had begun, the Akazu’s “final solution to the Tutsi problem.”
Among those targeted, was Dr Biruta, who like many among the Batutsi, who were well known, was especially vulnerable. But he continued to work, for as long as he could. In measured tones, he now describes the dial turning up on the terror.
The terror tightens.
After the shooting down of the presidential aeroplane, the murders began. They had been preceded by a heightened sense of terror. As Dr Biruta recalls, hand grenades were going off in neighbourhoods around him, on a regular basis, we know that roadblocks sprung up, apparently from nowhere, Tutsi and government opponents were grabbed (it would be a mockery to talk of arrests in a lawless situation), and work became increasingly impossible. 
The ministry of health, where Dr Biruta, worked as head of the epidemiology department, had been slated, in the Arusha agreement, as one of the ministries to be administered by the RPF, in the power sharing government.
For Dr Biruta’s Hutu colleagues, who had lived and grown up in a system that convinced Rwandans that Tutsi were the enemy, with children believing that the RPA (Rwanda Patriotic Army) fighters, were demons with tails, the notion of working under the RPF seemed unthinkable.
“Many started looking for different jobs, others were just going through the motions of being at work, there in body only, with their minds elsewhere…” says Biruta. “Others, myself included, were the hunted, so work could not really continue.” It was a glimpse of the challenges that would face the RPF, it began to reunite the nation. Rwandans would need mental as well as physical liberation.
The “hunted” doctor, managed to escape the blood thirsty hunters, until the day of liberation, which for him and others who were hunted, was the day of salvation. “Inkotanyi ni ubuzima,” Rwandans say, RPF/Inkotanyi is life. This was literally true for the survivors of the Genocide Against Tutsi, as for everyone else who for some reason or other might have been disapproved by the genocidal establishment.
The aftermath – Emerging from the apocalypse.
“There are no more demons in hell, they are all in Rwanda,” a Catholic priest is reputed to have said, somewhat ironic, coming from someone who served in an institution, the Catholic Church, that itself opened the gates of hell. On the fourth of July, the demons were sent back into the infernal abyss, and Rwanda delivered from it.
As he emerged into the aftermath of the apocalypse, like so many, probably wondering how he had survived, Dr Biruta recalls the scene of horror and devastation. “I was in Kigali, when the genocide was stopped and the country liberated. The immediate thought was of course, did my home survive, where would I live, to what would I bring back my family.”
“The next thing was to go and see what was left of what had been my workplace. Was it still standing, had it been looted, where would one begin…As a doctor, I wanted to see how the hospitals had been left. Yes, genocide had been stopped, but there were survivors with all manner of injuries, what was to become of them, how were they to be treated, with what medicines…”
Banishing chaos with organisation
“We worked with RPA fighters, to begin to bring about some organisation, look around for who was left…I for instance, was concerned with healthcare and we were thinking, yes, many were now dead, but others survived, could we find them and see if we could start some sort of health service as quickly as possible by putting together what been destroyed, what was left. The challenges were legion, including of course, bodies scattered around the city, around the country, internally displaced people, injured survivors…The challenges were innumerable, but we looked for how best to begin.”
“The only leadership was the RPA and the RPF leadership. We worked with them, I of course, was familiar with Kigali, and I had already been in contact with them. It was a smooth working relationship. We would for instance say, ‘let’s go and see what was left of CHK hospital, any of the health centres that were still standing’ all that was straightforward…Then finding where the ministry worked, what documents remained, had they been put to the fire, did they still exist, could we have this or that place guarded to avoid further damage, and so on. I can say that personally, working together with the RPA and RPF made my work easy.”
Battlefield Triage
“Bit by bit, there would be news that this or that doctor had survived, this or that administrator had survived, this or that hospital worker…You found some people, who would in turn find others. We relied a great deal on RPA medical facilities, whatever equipment they had, medicines, and their doctors. They treated the survivors they found or rescued, and the ordinary people they came across. We started with the most urgent cases, and slowly by slowly we got to others, building on whatever we had…That’s we how we began.”
Outside help Brings its own challenges
“Multilateral organisations, like the World Health Organisation (WHO), begun to arrive, and we were grateful for the help, but at times the help came with its own challenges,” remembers Dr Biruta. “Different organisation brought in some equipment, medicines, but we began to notice that some of what they brought was not what we needed, some of it would be close to use by dates and would simply have to be thrown away.”
“Time came when we stopped everything, and insisted that anyone willing to help, should come through our organised system, so we can see what was coming in and whether it was what was needed. Otherwise, it was chaotic, with people bringing whatever they found. We made it clear that there was an administrative leadership, and people could not simply come and do what they pleased. It had got to the extent where you would find that people had set up a treatment tent, and had begun to treat people, without informing anyone. We brought order to all of that…”
Kwitanga or giving of themselves
The RPA was a volunteer force. They served a cause for which they expected no payment. Many left comfortable lives and well remunerated employment to join the struggle. When after liberation, things improved enough for the new government to start paying some salaries, the fighters, and others in the RPF leadership, gave the money back, for the government to put towards more urgent needs. It is in that spirit that Biruta and others worked. Their only pay was food rations for them and their families.
If you were asked to define a personality and character that you would want for a doctor, most people would almost certainly draw a picture of someone like Dr Biruta. Whatever he might be saying, it is easy to imagine his kindly face, encouraging and reassuring a patient. But rather sitting in a doctor’s surgery, he is instead, the President of a political party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and a minister in the government of national unity.
Thanks to his sacrifice and that of others however, every Rwandan now has the chance to follow their calling. National Liberation means that and much more.
All photos by George Salomo. Click here for more photos
