Q: Why did you save them?
Evariste: They are people like me. Aren't they the human beings? God wants us to love each other because we are the same. We are all black but there are some people who are not good, that is the way things are. But it is only God that helped us to save them. If it was not God's power, they would have killed me. They have been searching me for a whole week to kill me because of the ones I saved. They didn't succeed and they did not kill me.

Q: Did you know these individuals before you save them?
Evariste: I did not know them before.

Q: Why did you risk your life by saving people you did not know?
Evariste: I do not have the killer spirit. That is the animal spirit. I saw that these persons committed no crime. They were to be killed only because they were Tutsi. They were accused of having killed Ndadaye. As these who killed him were Tutsi, was it right to kill all the Tutsi? How did all these Tutsi leave Kinama and go to kill the President? Was that possible? Did the Tutsi who were in Buhonga or Rumonge know of the plot? I told the killers to let them live and that God would punish whomever did wrong.

Q: So why did you save them. Weren’t you afraid they might kill you? Evariste: All people are not killers. I’ve never felt I can kill. Why would I kill someone else? What would a dead person go to bring me from the cemetery? For the moment, when I meet the one I saved we greet each other, his children greet me. Don’t you find that great?

Q: Didn’t you think the killers would kill you instead of killing the Tutsi?
Evariste: Yes, they tried to kill me but God protected me. They didn’t harm me.

Q: How many people did you save?
Evariste: Altogether, they were ten.

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