KIGALI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- As Rwanda proceeds with 100 days of commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, stories of the tragedy are still fresh in the memories of eyewitnesses. They tell what they went through as if everything happened yesterday.

At the start of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Sosthene Niyitegeka, aged 43 then, was living peacefully with his neighbors in Ruhango district, Southern province of Rwanda. He was a church person who used to preach love among the neighbors and a world without conflict.

However, in early April 1994, it became obvious that extremist Hutu and Interahamwe militia wanted all the Tutsi dead. Though he was Hutu, in his heart, he resolved never to take one's life.

On one morning in April 1994, his fellow preacher Aaron Rugerinyange who was a Tutsi sent two messengers for him.

"They told me: he (Rugerinyange) would love you to come to meet him urgently," said Niyitegeka. Niyitegeka walked for two hours and met Rugerinyange who showed him a list that was leaked of the Tutsis whom extremist Hutu wanted to kill.

"We are around one hundred, and I am number one on the list. Please give me asylum," Niyitegeka quoted his asylum seeker as saying.

To these words, Niyitegeka hesitated because he did not have the power to protect anyone, nor enough money to give killers so that they could accept to spare a Tutsi.

In the end, he accepted to help them even if he knew that it was risky. Protecting a Tutsi during the Genocide was challenging because killers would kill any family where they find the Tutsi.

Niyitegeka hired a motor to take his asylum seeker to his home and he managed to have him in his house without anyone noticing. This gesture marked the beginning of a great struggle. "In my village, Interahamwe intensified killings. Many Tutsis started coming to my home, and it became challenging to keep them because I knew, if Interahamwe discover them, I would die with them and my entire family, too," he said.

Niyitegeka then got an idea. First of all, he dispatched the Tutsi in his house into several homes. He would send food and milk to the families that were hiding them every day.

Secondly, he entrusted seven young men with a mission to spy on Interahamwe so as to get their daily killing schedule and inform him. They would behave as if they were also supporting the killers, which would allow the latter to speak freely about their plans.

"Whenever they heard that Interahamwe wanted to come to check a house where we hid the Tutsi, my boys would tell me in advance, and we would relocate the Tutsi to another family," said Niyitegeka.

But the Interahamwe were determined to do anything against someone who dares to hide a Tutsi. Several Rwandans and foreigners were killed while trying to save the Tutsi.

After several weeks, Interahamwe understood that Niyitegeka was hiding many Tutsi, but they failed to find them because whenever they searched his home, they found none, and neither did they find one among his neighboring families. Angrily, the head of Interahamwe in his village gave him a warning and issued him and his family a death threat.

Niyitegeka understood that he was in trouble, but he didn't want to give up on his mission of saving souls.

One of the Tutsis he was hiding offered to help. She went to inform Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) Inkotanyi who were trying to stop the Genocide.

The RPA were in a different town called Gitarama which they had seized earlier. She left Niyitegeka's home one early morning and went towards Gitarama. On Interahamwe roadblocks, she would tell the killers, that she was a Hutu fleeing war zone.

In the evening, the lady came back with 40 soldiers who asked Niyitegeka to show the Tutsi he was hiding.

"I sent people to find the Tutsi whom we had hidden in different homes. They gathered in my courtyard. They were 104 Tutsi and Inkotanyi were very happy," Niyitegeka said.

The RPA took the Tutsi with Niyitegeka and his family to a camp. Niyitegeka accepted leaving all his belongings, including cows and spent more than six months in a camp where RPA soldiers were providing for him.

There was nothing left for Niyitegeka when he returned home late in 1994.

"My cows were stolen, my house and all my crops destroyed. Neighbors told me names of the people who stole from me; they were expected to pay the damages, but I forgave them; I didn't want their children to suffer any shortage," he said.

In 2007, Niyitegeka was awarded with the Campaign against Genocide medal: Umurinzi. It is part of national orders, which consists of symbols awarded by national authorities to persons who demonstrated useful and supreme acts. National orders are awarded to Rwandans and foreigners, civilians as well as members of the security organs, according to Chancellery for Heroes, National Orders and Decorations of Honor (CHENO).

Criteria to be chosen for this award include proven integrity, patriotism, sacrifice, vision, proven courage or bravery, to serve as an example of truthfulness, magnanimity, humanity and equity, and gender equality.

"There is no better award than walking with confidence for giving your country the best of yourself," says Niyitegeka who has now relocated to Kigali for nearly two decades now.

According to CHENO, 293 people, including Niyitegeka, were awarded the Campaign against Genocide Medal. Enditem

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