Safari Salama: The Interpreter

Friday was our last day of classes. I man who was an interpreter at the ICTR came a talked to us. He ended up being my favorite of all of the speakers we had during the program.

“It was hard at first but we got use to it... hearings sixteen hours long…witnesses are faulty answering one question one way and another question another way.”

Here are some of his stories. They are very disturbing so not everyone might want to read them. The reality of the genocide was never clearer than when spoken in his broken English. It is still hard to believe it is all real.

I translated for a witness, a woman with seven children. A man comes to her home and kills six of her children. The seventh is a baby that is resting on her back. She begs the man to spare the baby. He says no he cannot because the baby has Tutsi blood. He takes the baby and throws it against a wall.

They throw children down wells and the mothers tell me they hear the screams everyday for the rest of their lives.

There is a priest on trail who said God wanted those seeking refuge in his church to die. This priest told a driver to bulldoze the church, which he knew was hiding at least 2,000 people. The first driver he asked refused the second believed it was God’s will. This priest received fifteen years in prison.

Im not sure how to finish writing this I feel like it needs a lot of time which I don’t have right now.