YouSaid · the spoken record

Uwiringiyimana

lines on the record: 6
first: 2014-09-08
most recent: 2014-09-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I am studying at Houghton College. My older sisters and I have set up a foundation to help survivors like us, called Foundation of Hope. Resettlement is important. So is treatment for the horrors we have been through. The survivors' travelling exhibit that my brother and I photograph serves as a learning tool for many college communities, and, of course, as an aid to healing for myself and my family. But healing and peace will not come until there is justice. Until there is justice, the comfortable new home and safe community I live in may as well be that tent in Gatumba, Until there is justice, the nightmares will never stop. The Security Council has the reports; it knows the criminals. Acknowledgement is not enough. It must take action.”
2014-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7259 (2014) · source
“Every time I tell it 1 am back in Gatumba, a lO-year-old burning in a tent. But as long as the criminal who admitted to leading that massacre continues to walk freely in the streets of Burundi, I have no choice. I must keep telling it until the international community proves that my words are worthy not only of empathy but also of accountability. Until leaders like those here and the countries they represent show me that my family and all others are not disposable. The only way to do that is by bringing people like Agathon Rwasa to justice. Only then will war criminals know that their crimes are wrong and will not go unpunished. Only then will millions of survivors like me hear loud and clear that our lives have value. My life is very different now. In 2007, my family was resettled in the United States through a United Nations programme.”
2014-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7259 (2014) · source
“I go back to my hiding place under the thin mattress. I shut my eyes and start to pray. Then I feel something hot drop on my leg. I open my eyes and the whole tent is on fire. Everything around me is melting. I throw off the mattress and start to run, but a man with a gun grabs me. He looks about 20 years old. I say, "Forgive me," and I do not know ifI am speaking to him or to God. I lost my younger sister and many of my childhood friends that night. I am nothing. That is what he thought, this man who had just killed my family. He kicks me and releases his grip. To this day I will never know why he let me go. Then I am crying and running, as quick as I can. I stumble and fall, but I get up and keep running. That is my story. I will tell it to anyone who will listen. Not because it is easy.”
2014-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7259 (2014) · source
“My mother tells my older cousin to take my sister and me through a hole that has been ripped in the side of our tent. People are rushing to escape, but right after my cousin runs out, gunshots ring out. My mother pulls us back and shoves us under a thin mattress. We wait until it is quiet. Then we hear a voice saying, "Is there anyone there? We are here to help. Please come out." My mother shouts, "Are you really here to help?" They say they are the good guys. We come out and walk towards the door. My mother carries my two little cousins with my little sister on her back. My aunt is crawling. Just then, I see two armed men in the doorway and something tells me there is danger. I start running in the other direction. Then the shooting starts. As I look back, I see sparks going through my mother and everyone around her.”
2014-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7259 (2014) · source
“We fled to Burundi. We were robbed and beaten before we could make it to the border. They took everything. We finally made it to a United Nations camp in Burundi called Gatumba, where we lived in a large tent with other families. I was about 10 years old. We had been there for a few months when it happened. I remember it vividly. It is night time, and I am woken up by what sounds like popcorn popping. My mother is frantically telling me to wake up. I open my eyes and see fear in her face. Then I see my aunt next to her, blood running down her arm like a stream and gushing onto my leg. I start screaming, and my screams wake up my six-year-old sister. My mother tells us to be quiet and to find sheets to wrap around my aunt's arm. I try, but all I see is blood everywhere.”
2014-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7259 (2014) · source
“Ms. Uwiringiyimana: I would like to thank the Council for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Sandra Uwiringiyimana. I am 20 years old, and I am from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My ancestors are from Rwanda; for many generations, my family lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was born. Still, many Congolese considered my people, the Banyamulenge, to be Rwandans because of the language we speak and the way we look. We were born into war. These are some of my earliest memories. I remember seeing Congolese soldiers marching in the streets with the heads of the Banyamulenge on sticks. I remember spending nights in bushes, hiding from attacks. I got used to dropping out of school and fleeing every time a new war broke out. One day in 2004, my father showed up at school and said we had to leave immediately.”
2014-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7259 (2014) · source