On the international human rights day on December 10th, African Rights pays a vibrant tribute to Carl Wilkens, an American who saved many lives during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Carl Wilkens was the director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Kigali.
In 2003 already, African Rights, a human rights defence organization based in London which specializes in collecting testimonies about the genocide, had identified nineteen persons, Rwandans and foreigners alike, who had opposed the genocide. Their heroic deeds had been recounted in "Rwanda; Tribute to Courage."
"We have selected nineteen persons for this particular book, but we understand that many more exist", Elisabeth Onyango, coordinator of African Rights in Kigali had declared at the time.
Carl Wilkens was recently honored for his commitment towards thousands of people, mainly orphans, in danger of death between April and July 1994.
He notably intervened in two orphanages in Kigali city: the Gisimba Memorial Center and the Mark Vaiter orphanage which contained respectively three hundred and one hundred persons. He risked his life to facilitate their evacuation to a safe place and provided them with food and drinking water.
Carl Wilkens, whom African Rights calls "a true humanitarian", also rescued persons in distress in the Nyamirambo Adventist Church located in the outskirts of Kigali. Moreover, he came to the aid of thousands of displaced people at the end of the genocide.
For many of those interviewed by African Rights, «the relevance of Carl's actions goes beyond individual acts of altruism and courage ; they reflect the core essence of humanity."
The only American to have stayed in Rwanda throughout the hundred days of the genocide, Wilkens left the country definitively in September 1996 and became a pastor and chaplain.
African Rights is an organization dedicated to working on issues of grave human rights abuses, conflict, famine and civil reconstruction in Africa, with headquarters in London and Kigali.
© Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) / APD (Basel)