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April 2004 marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, where an estimated eight hundred thousand people were killed over a three month period. What haunted me most about Rwanda, where I lived for two years following the genocide, were the lifeless eyes of its children. Eyes that had witnessed unimaginable atrocities. Eyes that wanted to cry but had no more tears. Eyes that remind us that war is hell. Will they ever be able to forget what they saw? Will they ever be able to forgive? Will they ever be able to love? For many reasons, I have not been able to return to Rwanda since these photographs were taken. I look at them now, 10 years later, in memory of the thousands of children who lost their futures. Despite assurances from my Rwandan friends that things have changed, I fear that these children -- some surely already parents -- will pass on their emptiness to the next generation. I hope I am wrong. But my memories of this hauntingly beautiful country will be forever tainted by the image of these children staring lifelessly into my camera. |
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