15th Commemoration Rwandan Genocide

Launching of the book 'The Men Who Killed Me' and opening of the photo-exhibition due to the 15th Commemoration of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Tuesday 7 April 2009
Location: Zwijsen building, Tilburg University (Map campus )
Time: 16:00-18:00 hours
Free entrance. Language: English
See also: Information in Dutch

Impression exhibition Zwijsen building (click on picture for regular size):




Copyright © Samer Muscati
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Jean Pierre Bizimana
Ambassador of Rwanda
Denise Uwimana
Survivor of the genocide / former social worker at survivors' organisation in Rwanda
Anne-Marie de Brouwer
Editor of "The Men Who Killed Me"
Rianne Letschert
Research director Intervict (Tilburg University)
Jennifer Jun
Student LLM International and European Public Law

The book:"The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence" will be launched on the 7th of April together with the opening of a photo-exhibition of the survivors in the Zwijsen building at Tilburg University.

After a word of welcome by Hein van Oorschot (president of the Executive Board), Denise Uwimana will tell about the genocide in Rwanda, and how the country and its people are doing these days.
Anne-Marie de Brouwer will explain how the idea for the book and the photo-exhibition was born, and Rianne Letschert (research director and associate professor Intervict) and Jennifer Jun (student from the U.S.) will both read a testimonial of a genocide survivor.
The Rwandese ambassador in the Netherlands, Jean Pierre Bizimana, will say some words in conclusion by which he will open the exhibition.

7 April 2009 is the 15th anniversary of the day the killings started in Rwanda in 1994. In the 100 days of genocide that ravaged Rwanda, 250.000 to 500.000 women and girls were raped. Despite numerous accounts of the tragedy, the experiences of survivors of sexual violence have been conspicuously absent.

The book "The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence" (text by Anne-Marie de Brouwer and Sandra Ka Hon Chu; photography by Samer Muscati; published by Douglas & McIntyre) contains features testimonials and photographs of seventeen of these survivors. While many still struggle to cope with enduring trauma, survivors were empowered by communicating their experiences and having their portraits taken.

The photographs in the exhibition will include some that are being published in "The Men Who Killed Me", but most have been independently selected by the photographer Samer Muscati. During this event, parts of some of the testimonials included in the book will be read out loud in order to commemorate the victims and survivors of the Rwandan genocide, to stand in solidarity with them, and to remind us to never again let such horrors happen. Proceeds from the book and photograph sales go to Mukomeze, a Dutch charity organization working with rape survivors and their families in Rwanda.

Organisation:
· Mukomeze
· Intervict (Tilburg University)
· InterAct (Tilburg University)
· Centre for Science and Values (Tilburg University)

Programme

16.00	Word of welcome by Hein van Oorschot
16.05	Anne-Marie de Brouwer will explain how the idea for the book and the photo-exhibition was born
16.15	Denise Uwimana tells about the Rwandan genocide
16.35	Rianne Letschert and Jennifer Jun will both read a testimonial of a genocide survivor
17.05	Jean Pierre Bizimana will say some words in conclusion by which he will open the exhibition
17.15	Informal gathering, during which the exhibited photographs can be viewed

See also

· The men who Killed me
· Intervict
· Mukomeze

 

Recordings & Other Media

Recordings
It is possible to listen to recordings of this program by using the following links:
- Introduction of the book 'The Men Who Killed Me' by autor Anne-Marie de Brouwer
- Testimony by victim Denise Uwimana
- Testimony of Jeanette Uwimana read by Jennifer Jun
- Testimony of Pascasie read by Rianne Letschert
- Closing words and opening of the photo exhibition by Jean Pierre Bizimana, Ambassador of Rwanda

Other Media
- 'The Men Who Killed Me' features on radio, TV and print
- 'Rwandan women testify', article in Univers, university paper of Tilburg University

 

Photographs

Copyright © Samer Muscati
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