Two Influential Activists Speak to Harvard African Students Association

Two Harvard-educated lawyers, Binaifer Nowrojee and Christopher J. Ayres, described personal experiences with the 1994 mass genocide in Rwanda in a speech given Monday to the Harvard African Students' Association (HASA).

Both Nowrojee and Ayres have worked in Africa, and are activists for human rights in Rwanda.

Nowrojee, who is originally from Kenya and is now a tutor in Lowell House, worked with Human Rights Watch to successfully push the United Nations (UN) to recognize rape as a war crime.

Ayres, a Harvard Law School graduate and current director of the Cambridge-based Amahoro Advocacy Clinic, and Shelter Inc., began a term as the UN attorney in Rwanda in 1994.

As a result of Nowrojee's work, rape is now prosecuted as a war crime by the International Criminal Tribunal, which is investigating the situation in Rwanda.

During the speech, Nowrojee discussed her observations on sexual violence in the country.

"I found that women were held in sexual slavery. Often women were brutalized by gun butts, sticks, and other objects and then mutilated," Nowrojee said.

"Another 16-year-old who was raped repeatedly could not get medical attention. Some time later, the girl was treated by UN medics and they found that she had a severe infection and was HIV positive," she said.

Ayers discussed how the conflict affected people of all ages.

He told of a 13-year-old boy who had lost his family to genocide. Ayers took the boy into his family, but after a year the boy was forced into the military, and began training for the war.

"Soon after, he was brought back to me, rolled up in a carpet with a hole in his head," Ayers said.

"Leon Pierre was by far not the youngest soldier. Some were as young as 10," Ayers added.

The problems in Rwanda date back to the colonial times when the Tutsi, which comprise 15% of Rwanda's population, were the favored group of the area's Belgian colonizers.

When independence came, the Hutu tribe, which comprised 85% of the population, took power and has held power since. When it was feared that President Habyarimana would give some power to the Tutsis, he was assassinated and a three-month long genocide of Tutsis began. The result was death of over 500,000 Rwandans, Nowrojee said.

Macani Toungara '02, who is from the Ivory Coast, said that the speeches shed new light on the genocide in Rwanda.

"I find myself having a greater awareness (of the genocide), than the average high-schooler, but today brought home how atrocious it really was. It's really sad when the U.S.'s inaction leads to such devastation," said Toungara, who is also a Crimson editor.

HASA co-president Frederick Antwi '01, who is from Ghana and a resident of Lowell House, said that these types of speeches raised awareness of problems in Africa.

"The problems plaguing parts of Africa have long been ignored and it is important to pull them to the forefront," Antwi said.

Antwi also explained why he sought Nowrojee and Ayres to speak to HASA.

"These people, since they were on site, can provide valuable insight into solving the problem. In order to solve a problem you must first understand it. [Nowrojee and Ayres] are people who have something of value to share with us," Antwi said.

Nowrojee is also the author of a book, "Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence During the Rwandan Genocide and Its Aftermath," which documents the accounts of several women who were sexually brutalized during the genocide.