Pascal: We passed the night there.

Cyprienne: Early in the morning the following day, my son and I accompanied them to the Cathedral. They went in peace and that is the way God honoured me. Every person has to do good only. God pay you for every good deed. Your sins follow you wherever you go.

Q: What made the Tutsi to hate the Hutu to that extent that they wanted to kill them?
Cyprienne:I do not know why. Maybe it is a curse. I would say it was a curse. You know, my relatives have all been killed by Tutsi. It is only me who is still alive. But I still saved Tutsi. I saved them in God's love. I would not do to them what they did to my family. But I dared to save them as killing is not helpful, it is evil. We all are God's children. We have the same blood.

Q: Did you know these persons before saving them or it was the first time you met them?
Cyprienne:It was my first time to meet them. Pascal was from Gatumba, Joseph was living close to the filling station. I was living on the First Street in Musaga.

Q: How come you risked your life to save Tutsi?
Cyprienne:I have prayed to God. I have decided to save them despite all the risks to me. To die on that day would have meant that this was my fate.

Q: Why there have their not been many more people in Burundi like Cyprienne who have saved members of the other ethnic group?
Pascal: I think Satan has been working within them. Anyone who had the opportunity of saving others but chose not to was acting under Satan's influence. The ones who saved the others drew their strength from God. We are still thankful to God. I ask them to stay with the spirit of saving the others, the spirit of kindness.

Interview by Maziar Bahari
Translated by Tatien Nkeshimana
Edited by David Shem-Tov