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Immaculee Ilibagiza with the book she wrote, "Discovering God Amidst...

Immaculee Ilibagiza with the book she wrote, "Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust." (April 11, 2006) Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles Stabile

It's been 17 years since Immaculée Ilibagiza hid inside a bathroom in Rwanda, fearing machete-wielding Hutu men who roamed from house to house, set on killing her and every Tutsi they could find.

Outside that refuge, one of the most horrific campaigns of slaughter in history played out over 100 days, a bloodbath that official estimates said ended the lives of nearly a million people, including almost everyone in Ilibagiza's family.

Soon after surviving what she termed the "Rwandan Holocaust," Ilibagiza immigrated to the United States, settled in Elmont and launched a book-writing and speaking career telling her story.

At the United Nation's commemoration of the genocide yesterday, Ilibagiza delivered a message of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope for the future of her native country.

"I want to tell people of the victory of my being here today and to tell people we don't want this ever to happen again," she said.

Ilibagiza, 41, was on Easter vacation from her studies in engineering at the National University of Rwanda when the killings began. At her father's instruction, she went to the home of a Hutu pastor who hid her and others in the bathroom.

She survived by staying inside the tiny bathroom with seven other women, praying and remaining silent, for 91 days. Although the pastor brought food, she weighed 115 pounds when she went in, 65 when she came out.

But even after enduring this nightmare, she is not bitter. A devout Catholic, she said she had an epiphany of faith while clutching the rosary beads her father had given her and praying in that cramped space: that harboring anger toward her enemies was the worst thing she could do.

"When you have feelings of anger and revenge, you can't use your full potential," she said. "When I was in that bathroom, I had rage."

Thursday, while speaking at the UN, she added: "Forgiveness is not a weakness. Forgiveness is freedom. If I can forgive, anyone can forgive." The line drew a standing ovation.

Ilibagiza is perhaps the most prominent survivor of the genocide, which began April 7, 1994, a day after a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down over Rwanda's capital, Kigali.

The deaths of the heads of state, both Hutus, came after tensions between the ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis, reached a boiling point. The crash sparked a torrent of revenge killings, but the UN, Ilibagiza said, did little to stop it.

Long Island, she said, became her oasis. "I love it," she said of her new home. It was while living in Elmont that she wrote her first book, "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust." It was a New York Times bestseller.

She worshipped at St. Boniface Parish on Elmont Road, and her children attended Catholic school. "There was a peace there that felt like my country, like how I felt in my village," she said. "I remember when I wrote the first book, my neighbor came to my house and asked me to sign it. It's like things were in [her hometown of] Kibuye, people would open the door and come inside and eat together. It felt like home."

She recently moved to Manhattan to better coordinate her lectures and her charity, Left to Tell Charitable Fund, for Rwanda orphans (immaculee.com.)

Ilibagiza is leading a tour of Rwanda in August and taking a dozen Long Islanders with her.

"I have seen the country before the genocide, and I have seen it afterwards," she said. "To see the progress, to see what it is today, it's so great that it's hard to criticize. Oh, my God, it is a beautiful country. It has become 100 times better.


Punishment for genocidal acts

The United Nations and Rwandan government created several programs and legal mechanisms in the wake of the genocide in Rwanda, a conflict that began April 7, 1994, and lasted 100 days. About 1 million people were killed in a nation of 8 million:

The UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which has convicted officials including Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, the first time that a head of government had been convicted of genocide.

A 1999 UN-commissioned study concluded that the UN Security Council's "lack of resources and a lack of will" contributed to or did nothing to stop the slaughter.

Rwanda established the National Court System of Rwanda, which has prosecuted thousands of people accused of planning or committing genocidal acts or rapes.

Rwandan also set up a traditional community court system called "Gacaca," also known as "justice in the grass."

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