BY MICHAEL ANDERSON

Reposted
with permission of Signpost

In
1994, Carl Wilkens signed a document refusing help from the U. S. government,
which was working to get him out of Rwanda safely. The only American to
stay in Rwanda during the genocide, Wilkens recently spoke to attendees in the
first of many lectures held at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, to
commemorate the 20th year since the Rwandan Genocide.

Wilkens
moved to Rwanda to work for the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency, an organization with the Seventh-day
Adventist Church that does development and humanitarian projects all over
the world.

Wilkens
was able to get his wife and children out of Rwanda safely, but he stayed
behind to continue to help the people of Rwanda.

“My
wife and I, we talked, and we prayed, and we both just felt that this is the
right thing to do,” Wilkens said.

Wilkens
kept in contact with his wife through ham radio. He said the radio contacts
were instrumental in letting his wife know he was all right and her letting him
know she still supported the decision for him to stay in the country.

“Those
radio connections went a long way, dealing with the separation,” Wilkens said.

He
had no idea how long the conflict would last, thinking it would only be a few
weeks for the violence to dissipate. The genocide ended up lasting more
than three months and claiming millions of lives.

“We
had no idea how many people would be killed,” he said.

The
Rwandan Genocide began in 1994 after a plane carrying Prime
Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was shot down. The assassination
of Uwilingiyimana escalated the racial tensions between the Hutu majority and
Tutsi minority. The Hutu blamed the Tutsi for her assassination and began a
systematic extermination of the Tutsi.

“They
had machetes, they had killing lists, they had a plan,” said Stephanie Wolfe,
WSU political science professor.

Wolfe
explained that while there is academic debate on who shot down the plane, she
believes Hutu extremists committed the murder in order to blame the Tutsi.

Wilkens
told a story of him going to an orphanage to get water for children who were
dying of dysentery, and militia showed up saying they were going to kill
everyone at the orphanage the next day. Police officers then showed up and said
they could hold them off for a few hours while Wilkens looked for help.

Wilkens
said he was terrified of leaving, because he thought the militia would start
firing on the children. He eventually got in contact with Prime Minister Jean
Kambamda’s secretary, who suggested he ask the prime minister for help.

Wilkens
resisted, since Kambamda had been responsible for the genocide. However,
Kambamda did oversee the stop of the massacre.

Wilkens
said this shows one can find allies even among enemies, and that even the most
“evil” of people can make the moral decision.

The
WSU chapter of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights organization,
helped sponsor Wilkens and the conference over the weekend.

“The
best way is to prevent these things from happening is to learn about the
history,” said Taylor Greenwell, events coordinator for Amnesty International.
“If we learn about these mistakes in the past, we’ll have the information to
never allow it to happen again.”

Julie
Ikeda, student president of the club, said she starts discussions about urgent
actions the club can take in meetings. “It’s good for students to know
what’s happening in the world and (that) there are giant human rights abuses in
the world,” she said. Wolfe brought the WSU chapter of Amnesty International
back to the university due to her interest in human rights.

The
conference also featured various panels and presentations on different topics
related to the Rwandan genocide, including a presentation by genocide survivor Jacqueline
Murekatete.