Kibeho

<p>One of the many military events not widely recalled each year is the Kibeho Massacre where a massacre of over 10000 Internally Displaced Persons occurred twelve months after the Rwandan genocide which saw upwards of 1000000 slaughtered.</p><p><br></p><p>The Australian contingent that was on the ground at the time comprised a miniscule number of professionals when accounting for the overall number of 120000 IDPs situated in the camp at Kibeho: for those that can recall it was here that the Virgin Mary did appear and in 2001 Kibeho was added to the list of approved Marian apparition sites.</p><p><br></p><p>What you read here is based on actual events occurring between April 17th and May 9th 1995.</p><p><br></p><p>During the deployment of Australian Infantry to Rwanda whose main task was to provide security for the contingent many a variety of task was met: carrying stretchers through the AUSMED hospital escorting dental technicians medics and other specialised personnel through the winding hills of this land-locked country and conducting security pickets on key installations to which were their sole responsibility. They never expected to be confronted by the slaughter of more than 10000 men women children and babies. The basic infantryman was trained and prepared more for a situation as that presented by Vietnam scaled down versions of the Falkland War and Somalia or even a prolonged campaign against highly trained foes. But in Rwanda... no one could fathom that their worst nightmare may actually bear its rancid fruit of toxicity.</p>