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ANDRE |
As one of the only journalists who remained in the country during the genocide of 1994, Sibomana used this forum to denounce the grotesque human rights violations taking place there. He died in 1998 after the government prohibited him from traveling to Europe for medical treatment.
Sibomana was born July 21, 1954, in Masango, in central Rwanda. After a journalism course at the Catholic University of Lyon, France, he became the director and editor of the bi-weekly Roman Catholic publication Kinyamateka in 1988. Sibomana, who became “the father of journalism” to many of his colleagues, was among the few journalists to remain in Rwanda for the duration of the 1994 genocide, which broke out on April 6 after President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed in an attack on the presidential aircraft. During the first few days of retributive violence, most critical journalists were either killed or fled the country in fear for their lives. Sibomana’s paper, Kinyamateka, was forced to stop publishing in April 1994 after a journalist and several employees were killed during the atrocities and the offices badly damaged in fighting. It resumed publication in December 1994 and managed to come out regularly, despite various forms of direct and indirect pressure on the staff. Sibomana, who was of Hutu ethnic origin, publicly denounced the “hate media,” including Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), for misinforming the public and inciting Hutus to slaughter the minority Tutsis. His writings resulted in numerous death threats and several jailings.
In May 1995, Sibomana received threats from the head of intelligence for the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front in Gitarama prefecture. Accused of refusing to disclose the identity of one of his sources, allegedly a witness to the killings of three bishops during the genocide, he was forced into hiding and emerged three days later after international lobbying on his behalf persuaded the authorities to lift the pressure on him.
On Sept. 20, 1995, Sibomana narrowly escaped a murder attempt after receiving a warning of an ambush at the last minute. He was also the victim of a smear campaign in the September, October and November editions of the extremist newspapers Imboni and Umusemburo, and his name was reported to be on a list of suspects in a secret report issued by the department of military intelligence.
Sibomana resigned as editor of Kinyamateka in October 1997 and died on March 9, 1998, in Kabgayi, after the government refused to let him travel to Europe for medical treatment. He was 43 years old. In a letter dated March 4, which reached Europe only after his death, he issued a final denunciation of the violence and human rights violations in his country, promising that if he survived, he would “call to account those who have refused to respect fundamental human rights.”