Sometimes in April 2005 quotes

Jeanne

It's happening, isn't it? I should never have listened to you! We should have left a long time ago for Kenya or for Senegal, I don't know, but...!

Augustin

I'm in the military. This is our home.

Jeanne

Yes, but tell me: how can I call this home when I'm living in constant fear, Augustin? I already lost most of my family in '92. There's only us now.

Augustin

I can't just get up and run! Abandon everything? What?

Jeanne

We should have brought Anne-Marie back sooner!

Augustin

She's safer in the countryside than in Kigali. Come on!

Jeanne

Come on, wake up!... Nobody is safe in this country! Have you seen the Hutu Ten Commandments? Somebody put it on my desk today at the hospital! They even underlined number seven: "The Rwandese Armed Forces shall be exclusively Hutu; no member of the military shall marry a Tutsi."

Augustin

Jeanne...

Jeanne

Now I'm talking about our children's lives. If anything happens, they will let us all die.

These rebels, are they Tutu or Hutsi?

Prudence Bushnell

Hutu and Tutsi!

Which ones are the good guys?

May I ask, why did you make what must have been a difficult decision to come to Arusha to testify in this tribunal?

I saw that this man did and I felt responsible to testify about this man's betrayal of the people who I entrusted to him. [Looking at defendant] When a man leads assassins, he is also an assassin.

Lionel Quaid

Prudence, our mission was not to intervene while the system functioned perfectly. A few years down the road, the President will ask for forgiveness and make the promise of "never again", but in terms of national interest we did everything right.

Prudence Bushnell

We were loyal to a policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of people to be killed! As far as moral imperative, we did not do the right thing.

Lionel Quaid

We're bureaucrats, not the political leadership.

Prudence Bushnell

Is it because they're African?

Lionel Quaid

Don't do that, Pru. It was Rwandans killing Rwandans.

Mom, why do they call us cockroaches?

Jeanne

Because they don't know any better, sweetheart.

So when I grow up, my I.D. card will say "Hutu"?

Augustin

Yes. But one day, I hope that it will just say "Rwandan".

Martine

Girls, they're going to ask you for your identification cards. They want all Tutsis to come out. They want to separate us. I can't do this.

I'll go, mistress.

If Isa goes, I'll go!

I'll go.

I'll go.

I'll go.

We're sisters! We're staying together!

We're staying together!

Martine

Do you understand the choices that you're making? Do you understand?

Martine

Please, think of them as your own daughters.

My daughter is not a cockroach!

Martine, a word.

Martine

I'm sorry Father, we have a school full of terrified girls.

Martine, we are in a very difficult position, but we must do our duty. We cannot harbor rebels. We must hand them over.

Martine

Father, these are not rebels! These are girls, girls that you've promised to raise as your own daughters! And now you would turn them out?

What can I do, my child? We cannot protect all of them! I do not have the power to change the situation! We must pray.

Prudence Bushnell

No, you do not need a cease-fire to stop this hate-radio broadcast! Monsieur Bagasora, if you do not stop the killing there will be consequences.

Colonel Bagosora

Really? You will send the marines? We have no oil here, no dams, we have nothing you need in Rwanda; why would you come?

Prudence Bushnell

If you do not stop the killings, I promise you that you will be held personally responsible.

Colonel Bagosora

I will see what we can do.

I knew that he was a leader of the municipality. I felt that he could have protected us, but he did nothing.

Did this man ever participate in the rapes?

I never saw him rape anybody... but he didn't protect us. He would tell the Interahamwe: Don't ever ask me again how a Tutsi woman tastes! He was encouraging his players. He was a coach encouraging his players. I heard him say, and these were his exact words, "Tomorrow they will be killed."

Augustin Muganza

Yes, it is April again... Every year in April the raining season starts. And every year, every day in April... The haunting emptiness descends over our hearts. Every year in April, I remember how quickly life ends. Every year, I remember how lucky I should feel to be alive. Every year in April... I remember.