The massive genocide of the Tutsis that occurred in a church by the rocky hill named Nyarubuye in Rwanda in the year 1994 has forever left a mark on the people of Rwanda, as well people around the world who were horrified with the news of this tragedy. Although this mark may have had different significances for people all around world as the Hutus slayed their fellow neighbor Tutsis, the response of the people following this devastating genocide was how to respond to the terrifying acts committed in Rwandan churches that would later serve as memorials, but also the way the Rwandan people viewed their churches and their ability to serve as a fortress or safe place like they were meant to be after they had turned their back on their own congregations.
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Being accompanied by two Canadian military officers, Gourevitch describes his encounter with the dead with the simple phrases “the dead looked like pictures of the dead” (752). He goes into deep detail describing some of the bodies he saw viewing those who had perished by the hands of the Hutu during the genocide in the church, but he knows that the experience of viewing the dead will be with him forever. He begins discussing how the Hutu performing the mass murders, classified a a group called Hutu Power, may have killed their victims not because they enjoyed the act of killing, but because they felt it was a necessity regardless of whether or not these Tutsi people they were killing were friends, neighbors, or colleagues. These killers feasted and drank beer after they had performed their duty of murdering only to do the same thing the next day. Gourevitch called the dead “beautiful” for their randomness in form as they lay and “rude exposure” and continues on by discussing the beauty of Rwanda itself even after it had faced such devastation and hardship (754). He ends his article with survivors like Abbe, a priest for Butare; Etienne, a businessman; and Laurent Nkongoli, a lawyer who all question why they are still alive. One final comment by Theodore Nyilinkwaya sums up those who were asked to perform the terrifying tasks of killing by “So this person who is not a killer is made to do it” perfectly tying together Gourevitch’s idea that people killed because they felt they had to
Being accompanied by two Canadian military officers, Gourevitch describes his encounter with the dead with the simple phrases “the dead looked like pictures of the dead” (752). He goes into deep detail describing some of the bodies he saw viewing those who had perished by the hands of the Hutu during the genocide in the church, but he knows that the experience of viewing the dead will be with him forever. He begins discussing how the Hutu performing the mass murders, classified a a group called Hutu Power, may have killed their victims not because they enjoyed the act of killing, but because they felt it was a necessity regardless of whether or not these Tutsi people they were killing were friends, neighbors, or colleagues. These killers feasted and drank beer after they had performed their duty of murdering only to do the same thing the next day. Gourevitch called the dead “beautiful” for their randomness in form as they lay and “rude exposure” and continues on by discussing the beauty of Rwanda itself even after it had faced such devastation and hardship (754). He ends his article with survivors like Abbe, a priest for Butare; Etienne, a businessman; and Laurent Nkongoli, a lawyer who all question why they are still alive. One final comment by Theodore Nyilinkwaya sums up those who were asked to perform the terrifying tasks of killing by “So this person who is not a killer is made to do it” perfectly tying together Gourevitch’s idea that people killed because they felt they had to