Sorry I didn't get around to posting yesterday.
We spent most of the day yesterday programming. We worked through a lot of issues yesterday and found another issue with the communication between the processor and the RCM, this time the digital I/O chips. Came up with a work-around to finally get the victim ID looping. It took about 8 hours to get through. Ideally, something like that should be worked out in the firmware, but whatever.
We took a long walk down the river last night. They have a pretty cool riverside entertainment district...outdoor malls, cafes, and areas concentrated with bars full of drunken soccer fans. Our walk took us past the financial district and its skyscrapers, as well as Funan Digial Life Mall, a huge eight story mall full of nothing bu electronics stores.
We had dinner at a Malaysian seafood restaurant and had some of Singapore's famous chili crab. Yum! It was somewhat like a very thick bisque, and also very spicy. Not as spicy as the wings from Uptown Pizza, but pretty spicy.
On the way home we stopped in at the Funan Digital Life Mall... Wow. There were tons of run of the mill electronics retailers, but the coolest parts were that they had a lot of DIY stores selling components and the like. They also had company stores of performance brands like MSI and ASUS. I was starstruck by the ASUS store. The prices were all a lot higher than in the US.
This morning we went to eat at another cheap Chinese place, which was also really good.
Afterward Alesandro, Patrick, and I ended up on a strange adventure searching for a currency exchange and ended up in this sprawling maze-like mall which was largely closed although it was almost 10:30. Although the mall was confusing and all the currency exchanges were shut down, we did find our way into a giant basement LAN party center, with rows and rows of several hundred MSI quad-core machines for rent. /drool. They had fliers plastered all over the place advertising various L4D2 or CS2 tournaments. Why doesn't America have such fine businesses?
We got back and have been coding ever since (about 8 hours). We've made a lot of progress today, slowly working through further communications issues and working out little glitches in some of our functions, then finally compiling it all together in one giant code. WHICH WORKS! At this point, we only have a couple things to work out: getting the autorun functioning, and moving on from victims (which we think we have figured out). Hopefully we get it all figured out before bed.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
RoboCup Singapore 2010
Well, this has turned into being more of a travel blog than a mass transit blog. Sorry if that disappoints you.
I'm in Singapore right now to compete in the RoboCup 2010 World Championships. My team is in the RoboCup Junior Rescue B competition, in the secondary school division. There's five of us here, four programmers (of which I am one, and one of the mechanical design guys. We also have our teacher, Mr. Jump, and his wife along as chaperones.
The flights here were okay.
The 12.5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo was somewhat challenging due to the fact that it took off in the middle of the day, and thus everyone was wide awake, and it had no in-seat entertainment options. I have to say that the food on Asian flights is better than on European flights...yum shrimp cocktails and Thai pork & noodles. Japan looked really interesting from the air; various industrial zones and seaports, connected by strips of really dense housing seems to cover almost the entire country, with tiny agricultural areas of rice paddies wedged into the little space that wasn't developed. Also, there were too many golf courses. I don't understand why.
Tokyo was very strange, exactly how I imagined Japan. By Tokyo I mean satellite 1 in terminal 2 of Narita airport. Not really Tokyo. They had lots of shops filled with very strange things, from 32 GB (!!!) SD cards and various "novelty" USB devices, to bags filled with dried calamari and baby crabs. We bought a bag of these strange tiny little bite-sized crabs with the shells still on that were dried and coated in some type of sugar stuff. They were disgusting. It tasted like a mixture of oysters and kettle corn. Yuck.
I slept most of the 7 hours from Tokyo to Singapore, as it was about 7 AM CDT when we boarded the plane and I hadn't slept. We arrived in Singapore at about 2 AM on Friday. It felt like we skipped Thursday.
Customs were surprisingly lax, and we met some other people here for RoboCup on our way through. We got in some vans and headed out to the hotel. The landscape from the airport into downtown felt like southern Florida, only with 20-30 story apartment towers as far as the eye could see. Then we came over a bridge of some sort and the downtown came into view. It was gorgeous. It's like something out of a Jackie Chan movie...a huge sprawling, modern, and bright Asian metropolis.
Our hotel is VERY nice. It's very small and modern. The lobby feels a lot like the new W downtown. The rooftop pool is one of those infinity pools and it faces the skyline of the financial district, which is probably about 2 miles away. There is a separate skyline to the side that is much closer, with the SunTech convention center (where the RoboCup competition is) and opera house at its base, about 2 blocks from us. It's beautiful.
We ended up going to bed about 5 AM last night. We woke up at 8 today, but it felt like we got a full night's rest.
The weather here is crazy. Temperature is in the upper 70s- ow 80s... but the humidity is ungodly. Nothing like in Minnesota, or even in Florida. It feels like you're walking around in a steam room whenever you step outside.
We walked around outside for awhile, exploring the area around our hotel, and stopped at a Chinese restaurant for some soft of fabulous noodles and pork. Came out to about $2.00 a person. Nice. While we were eating, a torrential downpour started suddenly, lasted about 5 minutes and then stopped as instantly as it started.
Came back to the hotel to settle down into a long day of programming and testing. We blew the power to the hotel room when we first plugged our equipment in without the big power converter. Put the converter on and everything was fine.
Until next time,
-Drew
I'm in Singapore right now to compete in the RoboCup 2010 World Championships. My team is in the RoboCup Junior Rescue B competition, in the secondary school division. There's five of us here, four programmers (of which I am one, and one of the mechanical design guys. We also have our teacher, Mr. Jump, and his wife along as chaperones.
The flights here were okay.
The 12.5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo was somewhat challenging due to the fact that it took off in the middle of the day, and thus everyone was wide awake, and it had no in-seat entertainment options. I have to say that the food on Asian flights is better than on European flights...yum shrimp cocktails and Thai pork & noodles. Japan looked really interesting from the air; various industrial zones and seaports, connected by strips of really dense housing seems to cover almost the entire country, with tiny agricultural areas of rice paddies wedged into the little space that wasn't developed. Also, there were too many golf courses. I don't understand why.
Tokyo was very strange, exactly how I imagined Japan. By Tokyo I mean satellite 1 in terminal 2 of Narita airport. Not really Tokyo. They had lots of shops filled with very strange things, from 32 GB (!!!) SD cards and various "novelty" USB devices, to bags filled with dried calamari and baby crabs. We bought a bag of these strange tiny little bite-sized crabs with the shells still on that were dried and coated in some type of sugar stuff. They were disgusting. It tasted like a mixture of oysters and kettle corn. Yuck.
I slept most of the 7 hours from Tokyo to Singapore, as it was about 7 AM CDT when we boarded the plane and I hadn't slept. We arrived in Singapore at about 2 AM on Friday. It felt like we skipped Thursday.
Customs were surprisingly lax, and we met some other people here for RoboCup on our way through. We got in some vans and headed out to the hotel. The landscape from the airport into downtown felt like southern Florida, only with 20-30 story apartment towers as far as the eye could see. Then we came over a bridge of some sort and the downtown came into view. It was gorgeous. It's like something out of a Jackie Chan movie...a huge sprawling, modern, and bright Asian metropolis.
Our hotel is VERY nice. It's very small and modern. The lobby feels a lot like the new W downtown. The rooftop pool is one of those infinity pools and it faces the skyline of the financial district, which is probably about 2 miles away. There is a separate skyline to the side that is much closer, with the SunTech convention center (where the RoboCup competition is) and opera house at its base, about 2 blocks from us. It's beautiful.
We ended up going to bed about 5 AM last night. We woke up at 8 today, but it felt like we got a full night's rest.
The weather here is crazy. Temperature is in the upper 70s- ow 80s... but the humidity is ungodly. Nothing like in Minnesota, or even in Florida. It feels like you're walking around in a steam room whenever you step outside.
We walked around outside for awhile, exploring the area around our hotel, and stopped at a Chinese restaurant for some soft of fabulous noodles and pork. Came out to about $2.00 a person. Nice. While we were eating, a torrential downpour started suddenly, lasted about 5 minutes and then stopped as instantly as it started.
Came back to the hotel to settle down into a long day of programming and testing. We blew the power to the hotel room when we first plugged our equipment in without the big power converter. Put the converter on and everything was fine.
Until next time,
-Drew
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Southwest LRT Community Input Open Houses Coming Up!
(Population density in relation to routing options for the SW LRT (Credit: Net Density))
Yes, back to transit.
A series of open houses and community input sessions are being held on August 11, 13, 18, and 19 in Minneapolis, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie.
The Minneapolis meeting will be at the Central Library on the 13th.
These meetings are the last chance for public input prior to the routing recommendation which will be issued at the end of the month. PLEASE attend and push for one of the 3C routes! Get out there and make your voice heard; you city needs you.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the line will also be released at these meetings. I expect the new, more accurate numbers to show 3C as a clear victor over 3A.
Meeting Info.
For anyone still not convinced of the merits of the 3C routing, check out this wonderful post on Brendon Slotterback's Net Density blog.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Goodbye, Rwanda!
Didn't get to posting yesterday (we didn't do that much anyways).
We had originally planned on spending our final three nights here at the Mille Collines, but once we arrived, prior to heading out to Ruhengeri, Cave & Kuntz went to the Mille Collines to confirm our reservation and found out that all of the amenities were closed for remodeling.
They got us reservations at the Stipp, but then the hotel was forced to give our rooms to the government. We ended up staying in some large homes that weren't quite finished (landscaping, painting, ect) that are owned by the Stipp. They were big and such, but a gated community of identical homes 40 minutes from the city wasn't exactly the coolest thing in the world. It was however, a nice break to have showers with hot water.
The power has gone out three times since our arrival in Kigali.
In the last couple days we've seen a lot of Kigali, done gift shopping, and visited a few historic sites like the Belgian Troop Memorial and the Mille Collines.
We head out in a couple hours. We're making a brief stop in Uganda on our way to Brussells, Chicago, and finally Minneapolis.
Hopefully this won't be my last time in Rwanda.
Check out the comments on my post about Murambai to see evidence of the continued debate about the events of 1994 and everything since.
Until next time,
Drew
We had originally planned on spending our final three nights here at the Mille Collines, but once we arrived, prior to heading out to Ruhengeri, Cave & Kuntz went to the Mille Collines to confirm our reservation and found out that all of the amenities were closed for remodeling.
They got us reservations at the Stipp, but then the hotel was forced to give our rooms to the government. We ended up staying in some large homes that weren't quite finished (landscaping, painting, ect) that are owned by the Stipp. They were big and such, but a gated community of identical homes 40 minutes from the city wasn't exactly the coolest thing in the world. It was however, a nice break to have showers with hot water.
The power has gone out three times since our arrival in Kigali.
In the last couple days we've seen a lot of Kigali, done gift shopping, and visited a few historic sites like the Belgian Troop Memorial and the Mille Collines.
We head out in a couple hours. We're making a brief stop in Uganda on our way to Brussells, Chicago, and finally Minneapolis.
Hopefully this won't be my last time in Rwanda.
Check out the comments on my post about Murambai to see evidence of the continued debate about the events of 1994 and everything since.
Until next time,
Drew
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
U. S. to send troops to the DRC?
There's a bill in the senate right now to ask Obama to send troops to the DRC to fight the FDLR and the LRA.
If you haven't read my last post, do so. It explains a lot. I'm going to continue assuming you have.
Anyways, the LRA are rebels that were expelled from Uganda and operate in a similar fashion to the FDLR. Uganda, Sudan, and DRC troops have been fighting the LRA in campaigns this spring, at the same time as DRC and Rwandan troops have been fighting the FDLR. Both groups have kicked up their activity since the end of these operations.
Both the US and France are debating sending troops to the region.
Keep up with the news. Both here and in Iran.
Until next time,
Drew
If you haven't read my last post, do so. It explains a lot. I'm going to continue assuming you have.
Anyways, the LRA are rebels that were expelled from Uganda and operate in a similar fashion to the FDLR. Uganda, Sudan, and DRC troops have been fighting the LRA in campaigns this spring, at the same time as DRC and Rwandan troops have been fighting the FDLR. Both groups have kicked up their activity since the end of these operations.
Both the US and France are debating sending troops to the region.
Keep up with the news. Both here and in Iran.
Until next time,
Drew
Butare & Murambi
Sorry I didn't get a chance to make a post yesterday; we were very busy.
Yesterday we drove down Butare along with a journalist from Boston who is here to do a story on the genocide and Rwanda's reconciliation. Along the way the mountains gave way to wide valleys with large rolling hills.
Butare is Rwanda's second-largest city and was the former colonial captial of the Belgian territory of Rwanda-Urundi. In 1962 the capital was moved to Kigali because of its central location. Butare was the largest city at the time, but today Kigali is many times larger.
After walking around and having lunch in Butare, we drove another hour back north to the Murambi Genocide Center, formerly Murambi Technical School.
As word of the violence in Kigali spread out, Tutsis all around the country began takign shelter in churches and the like in many towns around the country. The Hutu chief of Ginkongoro ordered those gathering at the town's church to move to the recently completed Murami Technical School two miles out of town so that no Hutus would be mistaken for Tutsis when the killing started (this chief is now a member of the FDLR in the DRC).
On April 16th, French forces arrived at Murambi along with a small band of Interahmwe. The French moved into the makeshift refugee camp, which had swelled to 65,000 to take a census, telling the refugees that they were doing it for the UN to help figure out what supplies should be sent. As the French reported the numbers to the Interahamwe, the Interahamwe cut the water and electricity to the compound and sent out a call for more Interahamwe to gather around the compound. Meanwhile the UN, believing the government to be nonsupportive of the genocide and unaware of the Interahamwe surrounding the camp, continued to fend off the RPF from advancing further south. At 1:00 PM on April 21st, the French forces left Murambi as part of the foreign troop pullout agreement. By 3:00 PM, the 5,000 Interahamwe who had amassed around the compound attacked. Over two days they murdered 65,000 Tutsi civilians. There were four survivors.
In mid-May when the French forces returned to Murambi as part of Operation Turquoise, the brought with them bulldozers and backhoes, along with thousands of pounds of lyme. The French covered the piles of bodies left by the Interahamwe with the lyme and then buried them in an attempt to hide the evidence of the massacre. Throughout Operation Turquoise, Murambi was one of the main French bases in southern Rwanda.
Due to being covered with lyme prior to their burial, many of the bodies at Murambi were mumified. Today over 2,000 of these bodies sit on display in three of the classroom buildings at the school. The rusting cement mixers left behind by the French remain on a hill between some of the buildings. The bodies are slowly being reburied in a set of modern crypts currently under construction.
Our tour guide at Murambi was one of the four survivors. He was shot in the head during the first day of the attacks and managed to escape the compound during the night between the two days of killing. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital in Burundi, where he spent four months. He still lives in Ginkongoro and says his life is often threatened by Hutus in the surrounding community.
Many Rwandans fear another genocide. Emanuel, our guide at Murambi is one of them. Currently President Kagame rules the country with an iron fist and is very strict about inter-tribal relations. The problems, many say, will come when Kagame dies. Many feel a hidden animosity simmers deep in the hearts of many Rwnadans and that in the power vacuum that will be left after Kagame dies, violence may again erupt. It is almost certain that the FDLR will attempt a full-scale invasion of Rwanda after Kagame is gone, and it is almost certain that the RDF (RPF) could stop them. The real question is whether or not there is enough hate left within Rwanda to rekindle the genocide. Every Rwandan that we have talked to about the issue has had a very different opinion on that matter, and very few are willing to talk. Emanuel was the most open; he says he no longer fears death and that he would be happy to die in the place where his family died, teaching about his family's death. Rwanda needs more Emanuels.
A little about the RPF, because I feel that I may have painted the RPF & Paul Kagame in a bit too bright a light...
The RPF is/was a militia formed in the mid-1960's by Tutsis who fled discrimination and violence in Rwanda to Uganda immediately following Habyarmana's election. In response to increased anti-Tutsi violence in 1990, the RPF invaded northern Rwanda. The civil war raged in northern Rwanda up until 1993. UNAMIR was estamblished to keep peace between the RDF (Habyarmana's government army) and the RPF (led by Kagame), as well as to help with the humanitarian crisis. In 1993 the Tanzania and UN brokered peace agreement, the Arusha accords was signed and peace came to the country.
April 7, 1994. President Habyarmana's plane was shot down by a French-made missile on approach to Kigali international. The attack was carried out by Hutu Power extremeists with the suppport of the French government. These extremists were members of Habyarmana's government who were dissatisfied with the terms of the Arusha accords. It was a fals-flag operation that blamed the RPF. The genocide started that night, and the Arusha accords were shattered at the RPF smashed through the RDF lines and into Rwanda. The UN, not seeing the genocide and beleiving the story of the RPF assassinating Habyarmana, attempted to beat back the RPF while the French trained and armed Interahamwe began the killing of the Tutsis. By the time the UN realized what was going on (and the French pretended to realize it), over 1,000,000 were dead. The RPF took control of the country and chased the Interahamwe into the DRC (then Zaire). Habyarmana's government feld to Kenya, while the lower-level organizers fled with the Interahamwe to the DRC.
The Interahamwe mixed in the civilians in refugee camps in the eastern DRC, living off of international aid, disguised among the 3,000,000 Rwandan civilians in the camps. Meanwhile, Kagame established his government, "cleansed" the RDF of genocidaires, and merged the DRF with the RPF.
When the camps were cleared out in the late 1990s, the Interahamwe were faced with going back to Rwanda to face certain death, or to stay in the DRC. Those that stayed formed the militant group the FDLR, which is still active today.
The corrupt government of the DRC did nothing to stop the FDLR, which killed over 300,000 Tutsis in the DRC. So in 2002, Rwanda invided the DRC (then Zaire) and together with other militant groups in the DRC that had wanted to overthrow the DRC governemtn for a logn time, they established a new government and fought the FDLR. However, this new government was still not doing a very good job of controlling the northeastern portion of the country, so Rwanda fought a proxy war with the FDLR through other militant groups, furthering the problems in the eastern DRC.
In December 2008, Kagame reached an agreement with the DRC that he would turn in the rebel groups that Rwanda was sponsoring and Rwanda would in turn be given permission to carry out military operations against the FDLR in northeastern DRC.
The RPF has been accused of looting and pillaging in the DRC in both of their invasions. They also massacred several thousand Hutu civilians in 1999. They don't do much power sharing with Hutu leaders, and thus tensions in Rwanda remain, although they are quelled by Kagame's strong police rule.
Agh, much more to say, but I've got to go. I'll try and write another to finish this later today.
Until next time,
Drew
Yesterday we drove down Butare along with a journalist from Boston who is here to do a story on the genocide and Rwanda's reconciliation. Along the way the mountains gave way to wide valleys with large rolling hills.
Butare is Rwanda's second-largest city and was the former colonial captial of the Belgian territory of Rwanda-Urundi. In 1962 the capital was moved to Kigali because of its central location. Butare was the largest city at the time, but today Kigali is many times larger.
After walking around and having lunch in Butare, we drove another hour back north to the Murambi Genocide Center, formerly Murambi Technical School.
As word of the violence in Kigali spread out, Tutsis all around the country began takign shelter in churches and the like in many towns around the country. The Hutu chief of Ginkongoro ordered those gathering at the town's church to move to the recently completed Murami Technical School two miles out of town so that no Hutus would be mistaken for Tutsis when the killing started (this chief is now a member of the FDLR in the DRC).
On April 16th, French forces arrived at Murambi along with a small band of Interahmwe. The French moved into the makeshift refugee camp, which had swelled to 65,000 to take a census, telling the refugees that they were doing it for the UN to help figure out what supplies should be sent. As the French reported the numbers to the Interahamwe, the Interahamwe cut the water and electricity to the compound and sent out a call for more Interahamwe to gather around the compound. Meanwhile the UN, believing the government to be nonsupportive of the genocide and unaware of the Interahamwe surrounding the camp, continued to fend off the RPF from advancing further south. At 1:00 PM on April 21st, the French forces left Murambi as part of the foreign troop pullout agreement. By 3:00 PM, the 5,000 Interahamwe who had amassed around the compound attacked. Over two days they murdered 65,000 Tutsi civilians. There were four survivors.
In mid-May when the French forces returned to Murambi as part of Operation Turquoise, the brought with them bulldozers and backhoes, along with thousands of pounds of lyme. The French covered the piles of bodies left by the Interahamwe with the lyme and then buried them in an attempt to hide the evidence of the massacre. Throughout Operation Turquoise, Murambi was one of the main French bases in southern Rwanda.
Due to being covered with lyme prior to their burial, many of the bodies at Murambi were mumified. Today over 2,000 of these bodies sit on display in three of the classroom buildings at the school. The rusting cement mixers left behind by the French remain on a hill between some of the buildings. The bodies are slowly being reburied in a set of modern crypts currently under construction.
Our tour guide at Murambi was one of the four survivors. He was shot in the head during the first day of the attacks and managed to escape the compound during the night between the two days of killing. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital in Burundi, where he spent four months. He still lives in Ginkongoro and says his life is often threatened by Hutus in the surrounding community.
Many Rwandans fear another genocide. Emanuel, our guide at Murambi is one of them. Currently President Kagame rules the country with an iron fist and is very strict about inter-tribal relations. The problems, many say, will come when Kagame dies. Many feel a hidden animosity simmers deep in the hearts of many Rwnadans and that in the power vacuum that will be left after Kagame dies, violence may again erupt. It is almost certain that the FDLR will attempt a full-scale invasion of Rwanda after Kagame is gone, and it is almost certain that the RDF (RPF) could stop them. The real question is whether or not there is enough hate left within Rwanda to rekindle the genocide. Every Rwandan that we have talked to about the issue has had a very different opinion on that matter, and very few are willing to talk. Emanuel was the most open; he says he no longer fears death and that he would be happy to die in the place where his family died, teaching about his family's death. Rwanda needs more Emanuels.
A little about the RPF, because I feel that I may have painted the RPF & Paul Kagame in a bit too bright a light...
The RPF is/was a militia formed in the mid-1960's by Tutsis who fled discrimination and violence in Rwanda to Uganda immediately following Habyarmana's election. In response to increased anti-Tutsi violence in 1990, the RPF invaded northern Rwanda. The civil war raged in northern Rwanda up until 1993. UNAMIR was estamblished to keep peace between the RDF (Habyarmana's government army) and the RPF (led by Kagame), as well as to help with the humanitarian crisis. In 1993 the Tanzania and UN brokered peace agreement, the Arusha accords was signed and peace came to the country.
April 7, 1994. President Habyarmana's plane was shot down by a French-made missile on approach to Kigali international. The attack was carried out by Hutu Power extremeists with the suppport of the French government. These extremists were members of Habyarmana's government who were dissatisfied with the terms of the Arusha accords. It was a fals-flag operation that blamed the RPF. The genocide started that night, and the Arusha accords were shattered at the RPF smashed through the RDF lines and into Rwanda. The UN, not seeing the genocide and beleiving the story of the RPF assassinating Habyarmana, attempted to beat back the RPF while the French trained and armed Interahamwe began the killing of the Tutsis. By the time the UN realized what was going on (and the French pretended to realize it), over 1,000,000 were dead. The RPF took control of the country and chased the Interahamwe into the DRC (then Zaire). Habyarmana's government feld to Kenya, while the lower-level organizers fled with the Interahamwe to the DRC.
The Interahamwe mixed in the civilians in refugee camps in the eastern DRC, living off of international aid, disguised among the 3,000,000 Rwandan civilians in the camps. Meanwhile, Kagame established his government, "cleansed" the RDF of genocidaires, and merged the DRF with the RPF.
When the camps were cleared out in the late 1990s, the Interahamwe were faced with going back to Rwanda to face certain death, or to stay in the DRC. Those that stayed formed the militant group the FDLR, which is still active today.
The corrupt government of the DRC did nothing to stop the FDLR, which killed over 300,000 Tutsis in the DRC. So in 2002, Rwanda invided the DRC (then Zaire) and together with other militant groups in the DRC that had wanted to overthrow the DRC governemtn for a logn time, they established a new government and fought the FDLR. However, this new government was still not doing a very good job of controlling the northeastern portion of the country, so Rwanda fought a proxy war with the FDLR through other militant groups, furthering the problems in the eastern DRC.
In December 2008, Kagame reached an agreement with the DRC that he would turn in the rebel groups that Rwanda was sponsoring and Rwanda would in turn be given permission to carry out military operations against the FDLR in northeastern DRC.
The RPF has been accused of looting and pillaging in the DRC in both of their invasions. They also massacred several thousand Hutu civilians in 1999. They don't do much power sharing with Hutu leaders, and thus tensions in Rwanda remain, although they are quelled by Kagame's strong police rule.
Agh, much more to say, but I've got to go. I'll try and write another to finish this later today.
Until next time,
Drew
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Kigali & Nyamata
This one's probably going to be pretty long; I've got a lot to explain.
Saw President Kagame's house last night. Lots of soldiers with assault rifles guarding it. Came to the realization today that nearly every business in downtown Kigali is guarded by a security guard with a shotgun.
Woke up this morning and got on the bus to the Kigali Genocide Center. The center includes a large museum similar to the Holocaust museum in D.C. There are also 15 completed mass graves, as well as two that are still open and being filled as bodies are found. There are currently 258,000 genocide victims buried at the Kigali Genocide Center. Security was tight- we had our bags searched by guards with AK-47s at two different checkpoints and had to pass through a metal detector. The museum was very enlightening and did not attempt to hide any of the west's involvement in the genocide. It was very blatant about the involvement of the French especially. There was one photo that really stuck out to me- it was of President Habyarmana and the French Prime Minister riding in a parade float next to each other waving, with the Rwandan and French flags in the background. It was from 1990. I learned quite a few new things about the French invlovement...even "we wish to inform you" was pretty reserved in its accusations compared to the stuff at the museum. Very blatant about the Interhamwe training, weapons trades, and the real purpose of Operation Turquoise.
Another thing that I guess I never really understood was the full extent of the information revealed by "Jeane-Pierre" on January 10, 1994. I had always known that he had revealed the locations of the weapons caches and the general outline of the plan to UNAMIR, but I didn't know that he had also told them of the plan to brutally mutilate Belgian troops as well as the fact that the elite Hutu Power clan was no longer operating under the authority of Habiramana. Kofi Annan held a copy of the Hutu Power plan for genocide in Rwanda on January 11, 1994.
Let me say that again:
Kofi Annan held a detailed copy of the Hutu Power plan to exterminate the Tutsis in Rwanda on January 11, 1994.
He responded by ordering Dallaire not to seize the known weapons caches and tightening his rules of engagement.
In mid April, in response to the killing and mutilation of 10 Belgian troops serving with UNAMIR, every country excepting Guinea withdrew their troops. They feared another Somalia.
In May UNAMIR II was established, but they never went, because they were waiting on 50 tanks from the US that were never sent.
Over 1,000,000 civilians died.
---------------------------------
After leaving the Kigali Genocide Center we drove to Nyamata Church, about an hour southeast of Kigali.
When the first Hutu Power regime was elected in 1961 and the Tutsis were first persecuted, many were forced off of their land and on to some of the worst farmland in the country. Although Rwanda is highly fertile, this part of the country, called the Bugasara, is the worst. The source of one of the Nile's tributaries (via Lake Victoria), the Bugasara is a giant swamp surrounded by rocky hills. Although the Tutsis made up about 15% of Rwanda's population in 1994, by that time they made up around 60% of the population in the Bugasara, making it a particularly bloody place in the spring of 1994.
In 1992, during one of the pre-all-out-genocidal massacres, thousands of Tutsis in the Bugasara took shelter in Nyamata Church and were protected by an Irish nun. Trying to stay under the international community's radar, the presence of a westerner was enough to keep them safe in 1992. Not so in 1994.
As the genocide began in earnest in April 1994, over 10,000 Tutsis fled to Nyamata Church for shelter, thinking that they would be once again safe and with no better place to go. When the Interhamwe arrived on April 13, 1994, they found the place packed. They killed 4,000 in the church yard, broke through the doors with grenades, and killed 6,800 inside the chruch. Seven survived. To ensure death to all Tutsis, pregnant women had their bellies slashed open and their babies torn from them and killed. The Interhamwe used the altar to do this. The bloodstained altercloth remains there today, with the bullet-riddled tabernacle behind it.
Today the church remains much as it was in the spring of 1994. The clothes of the victims remain in the pews, but the bodies have been moved to mass graves behind the church. The sheet metal roof is filled with bullet holes and bloodstains remain on the walls from where small children were bashed to death.
Our tour guide was one of the seven survivors of Nyamata. His two brothers and both parents were killed there, and his sisters were raped and murdered at home. His grandmother is his only surviving relative. He was 9 at the time. He was knocked unconscious and fell in a pool of blood and was passed over by the Interhamwe for dead. He woke up two days later and spent 9 days in the church before fleeing to hide in the marshes with other survivors from the village. He hid in the marshes for three weeks, being hunted by Interhamwe with dogs until the RPF arrived.
In the center of the church are stairs down to a crypt. In the crypt are several hundred skulls, femur bones, and a single coffin draped in a purple cloth. This coffin is given a special place of honor because of what the woman went through. She was a Hutu woman who had left her arranged-marriage Hutu husband for a Tutsi man whom she loved. She was raped over 30 times, had her child cut out from her belly, was stuck on a stake, and then had her child skewered onto her chest. It is for this reason that she was given a place of honor in the memorial.
Outside by the side of the church is the grave of the Irish nun, as well as the parish priest.
Behind the church are two large crypts in which 21,600 femur bones and 10,800 skulls are arranged on racks. It is easy to tell the manner of death from most of the skulls. We were permitted to descend into the crypts.
We returned to Kigali and spent the rest of the day at the Iris, trying to recuperate.
Tomorrow will be what is probably the most taxing day of our trip. We will leave early in the morning for the four hour drive to Butare, Rwanda's second-largest city. After spending some time in Butare, we will drive another hour to a technical college where and even larger massacre than the one at Nyamata took place. Then we will drive all the way back to Kigali. I may not have time to get to an internet cafe tomorrow.
Until next time,
Drew
Saw President Kagame's house last night. Lots of soldiers with assault rifles guarding it. Came to the realization today that nearly every business in downtown Kigali is guarded by a security guard with a shotgun.
Woke up this morning and got on the bus to the Kigali Genocide Center. The center includes a large museum similar to the Holocaust museum in D.C. There are also 15 completed mass graves, as well as two that are still open and being filled as bodies are found. There are currently 258,000 genocide victims buried at the Kigali Genocide Center. Security was tight- we had our bags searched by guards with AK-47s at two different checkpoints and had to pass through a metal detector. The museum was very enlightening and did not attempt to hide any of the west's involvement in the genocide. It was very blatant about the involvement of the French especially. There was one photo that really stuck out to me- it was of President Habyarmana and the French Prime Minister riding in a parade float next to each other waving, with the Rwandan and French flags in the background. It was from 1990. I learned quite a few new things about the French invlovement...even "we wish to inform you" was pretty reserved in its accusations compared to the stuff at the museum. Very blatant about the Interhamwe training, weapons trades, and the real purpose of Operation Turquoise.
Another thing that I guess I never really understood was the full extent of the information revealed by "Jeane-Pierre" on January 10, 1994. I had always known that he had revealed the locations of the weapons caches and the general outline of the plan to UNAMIR, but I didn't know that he had also told them of the plan to brutally mutilate Belgian troops as well as the fact that the elite Hutu Power clan was no longer operating under the authority of Habiramana. Kofi Annan held a copy of the Hutu Power plan for genocide in Rwanda on January 11, 1994.
Let me say that again:
Kofi Annan held a detailed copy of the Hutu Power plan to exterminate the Tutsis in Rwanda on January 11, 1994.
He responded by ordering Dallaire not to seize the known weapons caches and tightening his rules of engagement.
In mid April, in response to the killing and mutilation of 10 Belgian troops serving with UNAMIR, every country excepting Guinea withdrew their troops. They feared another Somalia.
In May UNAMIR II was established, but they never went, because they were waiting on 50 tanks from the US that were never sent.
Over 1,000,000 civilians died.
---------------------------------
After leaving the Kigali Genocide Center we drove to Nyamata Church, about an hour southeast of Kigali.
When the first Hutu Power regime was elected in 1961 and the Tutsis were first persecuted, many were forced off of their land and on to some of the worst farmland in the country. Although Rwanda is highly fertile, this part of the country, called the Bugasara, is the worst. The source of one of the Nile's tributaries (via Lake Victoria), the Bugasara is a giant swamp surrounded by rocky hills. Although the Tutsis made up about 15% of Rwanda's population in 1994, by that time they made up around 60% of the population in the Bugasara, making it a particularly bloody place in the spring of 1994.
In 1992, during one of the pre-all-out-genocidal massacres, thousands of Tutsis in the Bugasara took shelter in Nyamata Church and were protected by an Irish nun. Trying to stay under the international community's radar, the presence of a westerner was enough to keep them safe in 1992. Not so in 1994.
As the genocide began in earnest in April 1994, over 10,000 Tutsis fled to Nyamata Church for shelter, thinking that they would be once again safe and with no better place to go. When the Interhamwe arrived on April 13, 1994, they found the place packed. They killed 4,000 in the church yard, broke through the doors with grenades, and killed 6,800 inside the chruch. Seven survived. To ensure death to all Tutsis, pregnant women had their bellies slashed open and their babies torn from them and killed. The Interhamwe used the altar to do this. The bloodstained altercloth remains there today, with the bullet-riddled tabernacle behind it.
Today the church remains much as it was in the spring of 1994. The clothes of the victims remain in the pews, but the bodies have been moved to mass graves behind the church. The sheet metal roof is filled with bullet holes and bloodstains remain on the walls from where small children were bashed to death.
Our tour guide was one of the seven survivors of Nyamata. His two brothers and both parents were killed there, and his sisters were raped and murdered at home. His grandmother is his only surviving relative. He was 9 at the time. He was knocked unconscious and fell in a pool of blood and was passed over by the Interhamwe for dead. He woke up two days later and spent 9 days in the church before fleeing to hide in the marshes with other survivors from the village. He hid in the marshes for three weeks, being hunted by Interhamwe with dogs until the RPF arrived.
In the center of the church are stairs down to a crypt. In the crypt are several hundred skulls, femur bones, and a single coffin draped in a purple cloth. This coffin is given a special place of honor because of what the woman went through. She was a Hutu woman who had left her arranged-marriage Hutu husband for a Tutsi man whom she loved. She was raped over 30 times, had her child cut out from her belly, was stuck on a stake, and then had her child skewered onto her chest. It is for this reason that she was given a place of honor in the memorial.
Outside by the side of the church is the grave of the Irish nun, as well as the parish priest.
Behind the church are two large crypts in which 21,600 femur bones and 10,800 skulls are arranged on racks. It is easy to tell the manner of death from most of the skulls. We were permitted to descend into the crypts.
We returned to Kigali and spent the rest of the day at the Iris, trying to recuperate.
Tomorrow will be what is probably the most taxing day of our trip. We will leave early in the morning for the four hour drive to Butare, Rwanda's second-largest city. After spending some time in Butare, we will drive another hour to a technical college where and even larger massacre than the one at Nyamata took place. Then we will drive all the way back to Kigali. I may not have time to get to an internet cafe tomorrow.
Until next time,
Drew
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