Timeline Written Daily in the Diary that I Took With Me While Fleeing,
From the Time We Left Our House
Until the Time We Left the Survivors’ Camp
Prior to April 6, 1994
Professor Tharcisse Seminega, his wife, Chantal, and their five children, ages 7-14, are living peaceful modest lives in Butare, a prefecture in Rwanda.
April 6, 1994
The Rwandan president Major General Juvénal Habyarimana's plane is shot down over the Kigali International airport.
April 7, 1994
In Butare:
Professor Seminega and his wife awaken to hear an announcement that two missiles have caused the crash of a plane killing Presidents Juvénal Habyarimana (Rwanda) and Cyprien Ntaryamira (Burundi).
All are ordered via radio announcement to stay at home.
Soldiers from Ngoma Camp begin killing Tutsi.
In Kigali:
Ten Belgian members of United Nations Forces are killed in Kigali and their bodies are mutilated to facilitate the evacuation of United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda Forces.
The Rwandan Prime Minister and her husband are shot and killed.
April 9, 1994
Two-day curfew lifted and Tharcisse and Chantal venture to the marketplace for necessities. Neighbors will not look at them or speak to them. The Seminegas are Tutsi.
Hutu Power Radio charges Tutsi rebels with responsibility for the missile attack. Multiple rumors spread as to who fired the missiles.
The Seminegas become aware that United Nations Forces are powerless to assist civilians, including themselves.
A compassionate physician is nominated interim government president. Tharcisse is hopeful that killing will not reach the prefecture of Butare where he lives with his family.
April 12, 1994
Tharcisse’s Hutu Jehovah’s Witness friend, Innocent, arrives at his home to assist Tharcisse and his family across the Burundi border, but it is too late.
A systematic plan to slaughter all Tutsi, irrespective of their religious or political views, is already in place and being executed in surrounding regions.
Roadblocks are in place to prohibit escape. Militias are equipped with spears, clubs, grenades, knives, and machetes, and they patrol all roads and footpaths.
Slaughter of Tutsi Jehovah’s Witnesses begins.
April 18, 1994
Tharcisse contacts Belgian Doctors Without Borders for assistance to flee to Burundi but is advised they can only treat the injured.
There are reports of mass killings in the capital.
Prisoners are used to dig mass graves.
April 19, 1994
It is estimated that 100,000 have already been killed by soldiers and militia.
The new interim president, Theodore Sindikubwabo, gives a speech criticizing Hutu for not engaging in the killings.
April 20, 1994
Alphonse and his family of Hutu Jehovah’s Witnesses stop at Tharcisse’s home as they flee from Kigali. Hutu Jehovah’s Witnesses are targeted for not joining in the slaughter.
April 21, 1994
Alphonse and his Hutu family flee to Congo and leave their Tutsi nanny in the Seminegas’ care, hoping she will find safety in Butare.
Gunshots and explosions are heard and smoke from burning homes is seen from the window of the Seminegas’ home.
Tharcisse and his family witness Tutsi Rwandans loaded onto trucks like livestock while being beaten and assaulted with machetes, iron clubs and guns.
A fellow professor arrives at Tharcisse’s home and informs them that the nanny left at their home requires a permit. Professor Bernard insists on taking Tharcisse downtown into the heart of the danger to acquire a permit for the nanny staying in their home.
Tharcisse encounters Presidential Guard ID checkpoints amidst chaotic streets where Tutsi are being captured, pushed into vehicles and taken away.
Tharcisse is taken to the deputy-prefecture’s office where he encounters Fidèle (a Catholic Priest) and National University of Rwanda professors Joseph and Gérard. Professor Joseph advises he leave immediately.
Presidential Guard is again encountered where IDs are checked to identify Tutsi. Tharcisse evades capture by hiding behind bystanders.
Tharcisse insists that Professor Bernard take him home as he fears for the safety of his family. Bernard instead takes him to his own home where he receives a phone call from a Tutsi professor and colleague. Professor Bernard advises that nothing can be done to help him or Tharcisse and his family.
Tharcisse becomes aware that he and his family could be killed that day. Bernard drives him home to die with his family.
Tharcisse shares with his family the violence he has witnessed and that they must expect to be killed.
Adolphe Rwamuhizi, a Hutu Witness, arrives at the Seminegas’ home and makes a plan for the Seminegas to escape.
Tharcisse’s two children, Benjamin (age 7) and Naomi (age 11) are taken to Adolphe Rwamuhizi’s home.
Neighbors discover the two Seminega children and send militiamen to Adolphe’s home to kill them. Naomi is threatened with a machete to disclose the family’s whereabouts. A few militiamen intervene and spare their lives.
The rest of the family is led to the home of Evariste where they stay temporarily.
Two Hutu Witness friends, Justin and Joseph, take the remaining family members to Justin’s home in Save under the cover of darkness.
Tharcisse is recognized at a roadblock and he is threatened with a machete at his throat. Justin negotiates his release with a bribe.
The remaining family members arrive at Justin’s home and are confined to a small room in silence with a bucket for a toilet.
April 22, 1994
A former Bible student of Justin’s named Vincent secretly warns that the Interahamwe are aware that the Seminegas are being hidden and intend to attack that evening.
The family hides in the reed thicket behind Justin’s house. It is raining.
April 23, 1994
Around 3:00 AM, the family leaves the thicket and is taken to Vincent’s home. They take refuge in a small goat shack on Vincent’s property near a busy crossroads.
April 28, 1994
Tharcisse sends word to have his two youngest children brought to the shack to unite the family.
April 29, 1994
Naomi and Benjamin join the family in the goat shack.
Stories of rape, robbery, torture and killing, as well as gunshots, can be heard through the goat shack walls. Vincent, their protector and a Hutu, joins the Interahamwe in the evenings.
A bucket is used as a toilet.
The Seminegas remain hidden in the goat shack for one month.
The family experiences foul air, asthma, fleas, and lice.
April 30, 1994
A special decree is issued for the bodies of the Seminegas. Photos of the family are distributed and a thorough search ensues.
The Seminegas move from the goat shack to Sister Félicité’s house for a week to avoid being discovered.
May 4, 1994
The Seminegas move back to Vincent’s goat shack.
May 10, 1994
Tharcisse and his family get news that Brother Élie Baganizi, Brother Vincent Rutaganda and Sister Immaculée Nyirampumbya are hiding at Jean de Dieu’s house.
May 11, 1994
The Seminegas hear of the slaughter of brothers in Muyogoro Nyaruguru area: Alexis Nzeyimana, Jean Gisa and his family, Marianna, Joseph Nyamwasa, Candida and Adelinda.
May 16, 1994
The military and the government authorities in Butare hold a meeting together with the Commune Advising committees and decide to make a thorough search to find the Seminega family.
May 22, 1994 - May 28, 1994
The Seminega family moves from Vincent’s house to Félicité’s (a Hutu Jehovah’s Witness) house for a week to avoid being discovered during the search, then move back to the goat shack.
Rwandan Patriotic Front (Tutsi led opposing army) near Kigali. Vincent’s Hutu family seeks refuge in his home. The Seminegas must leave the goat shack.
May 28, 1994 - July 5, 1994 (Five weeks in the Underground Room)
May 28, 1994
The family uses the cover of heavy rain and black raincoats to transfer from the goat shack. Tharcisse, Pierre and Marie go directly to the home of Jean de Dieu, a Hutu Jehovah’s Witness. They join others that are hiding in an underground room.
Tharcisse, Pierre (age 12) and Marie (age 14) share this space with three others. They are hidden in an underground room that measures 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet.
May 30, 1994
Joel (age 9) and Naomi (age 11) go to Justin’s home for the night. Joel is coached to walk, act and dress like a girl to safely transfer to Jean de Dieu’s underground room.
May 31, 1994
Naomi and Joel are escorted by a group of Jehovah’s Witness sisters “going to the market” and safely transferred to Jean de Dieu’s underground room.
Chantal and little Benjamin return to Félicité’s (a Hutu Jehovah’s Witness) and François’ home for two days before transferring to their friend Damascène’s home. Chantal fears she will be raped and killed by François, who is a Hutu supporter.
June 2, 1994
Chantal and Benjamin transfer to Damascène`s home. Chantal struggles to carry seven-year-old Benjamin on her back after being virtually immobile for two months. Benjamin suffers from starvation. His hair turns red and his belly bloats. Chantal suffers anxiety and hunger.
June 11, 1994
Benjamin is disguised as a twin of Jean Marie’s son to transfer to Jean de Dieu’s underground room.
Chantal walks to the underground room barefoot in the cover of darkness. She steps on a rotting corpse.
Tharcisse, Chantal, Pierre, Marie, Naomi, Joel, and Benjamin are reunited in the underground room.
To enter all must crawl through a 4-foot-high tunnel on all fours.
Ten in all are hidden in the underground room. All must stand or sit with backs to the walls. All must stand to allow one to rest. Sleep is impossible.
They have only bathed once in two months.
They suffer from asthma, palpitations, malaria, hunger and sounds of dying and death outside the mud walls.
To use the latrine, all must crawl under the cover of darkness.
Jean de Dieu plants a garden and waters it in attempt to give more water to those hidden in the underground room.
July 4, 1994
Jean de Dieu receives word from Vincent, who shielded the Seminegas in his goat shack, that the Rwandan Patriotic Front (Tutsi rebel army) have taken Butare and the Seminegas can emerge safely from their underground hiding place.
In fear, Jean de Dieu turns Vincent away.
July 5, 1994 (Liberation)
Vincent returns and Tharcisse reluctantly writes a letter to the Rwandan Patriotic Front explaining their situation.
Vincent, a Hutu, courageously takes the letter to the Tutsi rebel army despite fear of being shot.
Upon confirmation of Tharcisse’s identity, twenty soldiers are sent to the home of Jean de Dieu to remove the Seminegas and others from the hole.
The five Seminega children emerge from the underground room.
In fear and panic, Jean de Dieu locks the adults in the house and flees in fear of retribution from Hutu neighbors. Rwandan Patriotic Front soldiers find Jean de Dieu and assure him of protection for him and his family.
The Seminegas emerge, frail, emaciated and pale after being hidden for over two months.
July 6-28 (The Survivors Camp)
The Seminegas and others hidden in the underground room are taken to a survivor’s camp in Shyanda, (Save area), Rwanda.
Jean de Dieu and 50 of his family members are also taken to Shyanda.
The Seminegas remain in the camp for three weeks.
Upon leaving the camp to search for firewood they are met with the rotting remains of numerous murdered Rwanda Tutsi.
Tharcisse, his wife and children learn that more than 100 of their extended family members have been killed.
The family suffers from survivor guilt mixed with gratitude that their lives were spared through the actions of self-sacrificing, God-fearing individuals.
Tharcisse and his family learn of the enormity of the tragedy. Approximately 800,000 Rwanda Tutsi and moderate Hutu have been slaughtered.
They learn that 400 of their 2,500 fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses have been killed.
Multiple experiences of Jehovah’s Witnesses protecting one another come to light.
The Seminegas resist bitterness and find forgiveness.
They try to rebuild their lives while feeling gratitude for every extraordinary act that saved their lives.