Combat medic: an Australian's eyewitness account of the Kibeho massacre. Just before ANZAC Day 1995, a small number of Australian soldiers, including Terry Pickard, were at Kibeho refugee camp as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda. At this place they witnessed the killing by Rwandan troops of at least 4,500 civilians as part of the newly-installed Rwandan government's policy of forcibly closing camps that it claimed were providing sanctuary for individuals implicated in the previous year's genocide that had killed about 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in 100 days. The Australian, Dec '08 Review by: Review by Sarah Elks Terry Pickard, 49, and his wife Nicole, 24, met in Brisbane while they were both receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. They talk to Sarah Elks. Terry: I have no doubt that meeting Nicky saved my life. If I hadn't met her, I would have died accidentally somehow in my car, in an alcoholic binge. It was inevitable. Nicky and I met in a psychiatric hospital, where we were both in-patients. We both have post-traumatic stress disorder, but for different reasons. I was a medic in the army, part of the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1995. I witnessed the massacre of thousands of men, women and children at a place called Kibeho, but because of the UN's rules I wasn't allowed to fire my weapon to defend the refugees. Unusual Sources, Dec '08 Unusual Sources 93.3FM radio station interviews Terry Pickard. Taylor Report, Nov '08 CIUT 89.5FM Canadian radio station interviews Terry Pickard. Evenings with Steve Austin, Sept 08 Tonight the sobering story of an Australian Army medic who witnessed the massacre of 4,000 people in Rwanda in 1995. 32 Aussie soldiers were in Kibeho and were instructed by the United Nations not to intervene when it was clear that civilians were about to be slaughtered. The story of Terry Pickard is compelling and thought provoking. |
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