Reporter's Trip To Troubled African Countries

My name is Linda Sinclair and I am a News Reporter with the Bauer group across Scotland.

At the end of 2014 I travelled to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo with Scottish charity SCIAF as part of their annual Wee Box appeal.

Find out how to donate here:

I saw first-hand how funds raised in Scotland make a difference on the ground to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. In these articles you can read about my trip and find out more about some of the people I met along the way. ** PLIGHT OF CHILDREN BORN OF RAPE A Congolese woman whose daughter was born after she was gang-raped by rebels says the work of a Scottish charity is helping her family have a better future. In the troubled African country children are not legally recognised without a father's name on their birth certificate so SCIAF is helping by paying lawyers to get the vital paper work. Here is my story about Esperance:

*** FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF RWANDAN WAR AND GENOCIDE On day two of my trip to Rwanda I met the Batwa "Pygmy" people who were once marginalised. They lived in the forests and hunted for their food but after the genocide in 1994 they were integrated into main stream society when the Government gave them houses. But, the transition wasn't easy as some begged and stole to make ends meet. I met Agnes who is getting help from SCIAF:

*** RWANDAN WOMAN'S LIFE TURNED AROUND An HIV positive Rwandan mother of four whose husband died from the disease says the help of a Scottish charity means she can now call herself a businesswoman. Uwineza Jane Scola's partner did not tell her he had the deadly infection and she discovered on a trip to the hospital when she was heavily pregnant he had passed it on to her. The 44 year old says she suspected that he was lying to her and there was relief as her baby boy born after her husband's death in 2003 was HIV free.

Uwineza says before she joined the project "Livelihood for Conflict Affected People" run by SCIAF's partner agencies in the village of Rwoga, she was poor. But, with the help of a loan of 5,000 Rwandan francs, she was able to buy 3 baskets of avocados and sell them at market making a 10,000 Rwandan franc profit. She excitedly goes onto say: "yeah, I can say that I am a businesswoman, because I also thought of a business of selling bananas, and I also bought some seeds and do some agricultural work." And despite having to take daily medication for HIV and recently contracting malaria she says: "I can say I now feel fit and in shape, because I never really get sick. I was a very big mum and put on weight, I feel normal." *** KILLER TALKS ABOUT GENOCIDE IN HOME OF VICTIM Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda. The genocide was sparked by the death of the the country's President, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above the capital Kigali, with the minority Tutsis accused of the attack. Propaganda was broadcast encouraging Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbours in revenge and the killing spree lasted for 100 days. On the last day of my trip I met a Hutu man who lead a killing team in the genocide who told his incredible story in the home of a Tutsi woman whose disabled father-in-law he murdered. Here is my reporter's notebook recollections of that day: "I meet killer John Baptiste Murangira a short walk away from the Ntamara genocide memorial site where more than 5,000 Tutsis were slaughtered. The 59 year old was convicted of the murders of two men and jailed for 7 years between 1996 and 2003. But it’s hard to comprehend this now frail looking old man with eyes some of my colleagues describe as "pure evil" hadn't killed many, many more, as he was instrumental in leading the gangs of men who butchered their neighbours. He admits after repeated questioning: "I cannot surely say I only killed two people."

The meeting was all the more extraordinary as he sat side by side with Tutsi woman Amina Gasengayre whose father-in-law, a disabled man with one leg, he murdered with a machete as he sat defensively. The pair were reconciled as part of Rwanda's community courts, known as gacaca, which were designed to speed up the prosecution of hundreds of thousands of genocide suspects awaiting trial.

The mother-of-six, sitting at a table as the chatter of children could be heard outside in the back garden, spoke candidly recalling her memories of the genocide - bus loads of militia arriving in her village armed with guns, spears, machetes and grenades. The women frantically gathering stones to give to their husbands to try and arm themselves. Amina managed to flee to the bush in the valley with her baby on her back and her six other children as the slaughter started with the militia intent on bloodshed following the villagers and managing to kill many. Her new born was to die due to the horrendous conditions: the constant rains, the lack of shelter, the lack of food, trying to live in what was a swamp. In a bid to get food the young men would venture into the village trying to evade the bullets and butchering but Amina says: "many of them were killed." Amina laughs when I ask her how she managed to survive, and I smile back, but it feels wrong. She remembers the helicopters patrolling and the frightened people being told to lie down in a bid to avoid detection. She recalls the horrors of seeing the bodies of murdered relatives, the remains of young girls who had been raped and viciously mutilated. She says: "it was really sad and unbelievable" and later admits: "It is a very long story and you cannot talk about every step in our experience." But not long after Baptiste arrived her body language revealed she had not truly forgiven him for the killing of her in-law; she turned away, occasionally shaking her head bringing her hand to her face. An incredibly thin man, his brown trousers and open necked shirt hung loosely on his body, a leather stetson style hat giving him the look of a gun-slinger from the wild west. A striking, strong-featured face, his eyes chilling. His softly spoken voice almost a lisp, his words sometimes hard to decipher. He also looked uncomfortable with this meeting, occasionally glancing over at his victim as he told his story. His version of events is that he was forced by a businessman to take a killing team to a school because his wife was a Tutsi. When I asked him how he felt as the massacre was happening, he replied he felt like: "an animal, crazy." I ask him did he rape anyone, he replies no. At one point he says: "I can't find words to say that I wish it would never happen again." Despite living close to where more than 5,000 Tutsis were killed he says he played no part in the massacre and says he left the teams before the end of April 1994 despite the genocide continuing. He admits when he visited the memorial at the church his: "heart was stopping and I think the heart should be stopping seeing the remains of the victims." But reconciles his actions by saying: "because of forgiveness you are aware you have been forgiven by people." He has repented and tells other people how bad his mistakes have been and encourages them to forgive him. There appears to be gaps in his story, his answers short, lacking substance. Has he forgotten what happened? Has he chosen to blank out the horrors? Does he want to protect his victim? Or is he conveniently re-writing history to not fully face up to his part in it? He ends the hour-long interview by saying he: "he hopes people should live in peace and the genocide not to happen anymore again." And with that he shakes hands with Amina and wanders out of her house back to his own, his parting comment: "next time you visit can you give me enough notice." It is probably the most shocking, surreal and emotional situation I have ever found myself in as news reporter and an afternoon I will never forget."