Ancilla: During the crisis I was living in Musaga.

All my family members that had lived Bujumbura-Rural were killed by Hutu. Even the children and the women who were pregnant were killed. I remember that day we were closing the mourning period for my brother-in-law. Many people, among them some Hutu, were coming to visit us.

Rogatien: I came to visit them in Musaga. But I did not realise how dangerous the situation had become. A group of young men ordered me to stop. I stopped. They were armed with knives and were covered with blood. They forced me to lie down and held a knife to my neck. They said, "We have got an 'iboro' [trophy]," they said. By the word 'iboro', they meant someone from the other ethnic group, a Hutu. I began shivering in fear. I began to think about what I should do. By then I was close to where Ancilla lives. I saw her child and I called him over and told him, "Ask your family to save me. I have been caught and I think that I am going to be killed." The child ran away to tell his mother.

Ancilla: When the child told me about Rogatien, I immediately got some money and hurried up to see him. "How are you?", I asked him. He answered he was coming to visit us and that he had been detained by these young men. I began talking to them. At that time, I was a teacher. Many of them had been my pupils and they still respected me. But among them there were others that had not been my students, and it was not easy to convince them. They were very influential in persuading their comrades to kill. "I know this person," I told them. "He is not bad. Release him!" The criminals said that they would not make the mistake of releasing him. They promised that this would be his end.

Rogatien: If she was poor, someone without much money, I would have perished there. "This persons is one of us," she told them. "He is innocent and coming to visit us. Before killing him, kill me." They quarreled for a long time. The situation was very tense. "If you try to stop us from killing him," they told her, "you are going to die with him."