HELP FOR MIRIMO PAUL | A Veteran of Rwanda’s Liberation War Needs Urgent Help| Isimbi Noeline

[00:00:01]Um hello ladies and gentlemen. I decided to make this video in English. It's going to be in parts. Uh this is my story between me and my father Paul. Now he goes by on his national ID because that's what they put in his national ID.

[00:00:19][sighs and gasps] I'm so deeply hurt to make this video or to make this story. It's going to be parts because my story between me and my is such a long story. So, let's get started. I'm going to start from his childhood, you know, since I remember as far as I remember or as I first I was told or as as as far as he told me to.

[00:00:44]Me, my name is as everybody knows. But at birth, I was given Ivonne. I decided to change those names because I resented any name that was given by family. So my father is Paul. My father was born in a refuge. He was born in Burundi where his parents flee in the the 60s. I mean I think around the 60 after 59 and everything. So they flee his that's my grandparents they fle to Bundi and my father was born in Burundi.

[00:01:19]Long story short uh my father joined the RPF where they came. They are born five kids.

[00:01:27]The first one his name her name is Delta. She passed away. May her soul not rest in peace because I hate her and I resent her. She was such a bad sister.

[00:01:37]She was such a bad auntie. She was such a bad person. That is another thing. The second born is Mimo Kamad something like that and he also died. I resented him as well because they were such bad siblings to him. The third is my father being Paul. The fourth is the the fifth is Kafi or he has another Ali Ali David something like that. He lives in in Belina lives in Rwanda with her husband. He's not necessarily to mention her husband's name. Um and they are the one who left me and Paul.

[00:02:26]In 1993, my father joined RPF from and as the story that he tells me, my father was on the front line. He was the one carrying machine guns. He was the one shooting. He was the one seeing his camera dropping in front of him. you can understand what that could do to a soldier. This is the stories that I'm telling you because I'm wrong now. I understand.

[00:02:52]At some point uh when they met he met my mother my father was living in an army in a army base in where my mother also was living in a in a refugee camp as a refugee. My mother was around 17 when they met. They met they married. My mother decided to leave the camp and became a randon. So married my father. They moved from the army base and they went to somewhere called inana district and uh that's where my brother was born the first born Frank and I'm the second born. I was definitely given the name before at birth but I I decided to change it to wedding because I resented anything that connects me to me or family.

[00:03:41]I want to go so deep into his story first so you will understand also the type of history I have with my father.

[00:03:48]Um in 1997 my father was retired from the army. He was retired I think with a with a lank of caparo. He says I don't remember exactly the the battalion he was in because he would tell me he will not sit down and tell me these stories.

[00:04:04]He will tell me these stories when he's drunk and he will tell me something like All right, let's leave that alone.

[00:04:25]Um, when my father was retired from the army, he was definitely telling me nothing. At least I think at that time they were not really given, you know, enough uh retirement, anything. So they didn't even have anywhere to live. But my mother since they were not legally married, my mother was given at that time the government was giving homes uh something calledu.

[00:04:48]Uh my mother was given because my mother was had my brother on her back. My brother was still a baby and my mother was given something called udu. So it was a help from the government a house.

[00:05:01]So there was a house and there was a a land to farm, but it was given specifically to my mother. Since both my mother and my father was not legally married and my father was still serving in the army, he was not allowed to receive any government help.

[00:05:16]And then they married, of course, they stayed together in the house. But my father after returning from the army, he was such a violent person, very very physically violent. He will beat my mother to the point where my mother had to live several times. So the mother of my father was still alive. That's my paternal grandmother was still alive. So at that time she took my my brother. My brother was still a baby around 6 months or something or a year or something like that. They took her she took her she took my brother from my mother. That's my grandmother took my brother from my mother and my mother got pregnant with me. They kept on living in such an abusive relationship since my father was such an abusive man. I would say that also had to do with his PTSD from the army. How his family treated him. He had a family that never supported him. Never respected his service. Never respected that he fought for the liberation of this country. Never respected that he sacrificed and put his life on the front so that I could born in a safe country.

[00:06:19]They could come back home because they themselves they came in 1995. They return back to Ronda. when my father entered the army in 1993. So he could have died on the war and nobody would have cared but he survived and he came and he liberated a country that today is safe because of men like him. I am not condemning the RPF in Montana. I'm not condemning the the defense force. I'm not condemning anybody. I'm calling upon you to take care of your soldiers. These demobilized soldiers, especially those that came during that time, are super super traumatized that they don't know how to they don't know how to handle their frustrations. They put it on their kids and their wives.

[00:06:59]My father would beat my mother to the point where my mother would just run screaming everywhere. If you go back where they used to live, where my home is today, where he sold and I had to go and pay back for us to get that land back, they will tell you the story of how he used to beat. Not just I'll get to the point where he will beat me to the point where he would almost kill me. He would tell me like this. I was my father used to tell me. He would tell the same thing to my mother. If my father if my mother did leave, she could have died. Who knows? I don't want to see a day where these the mobilizing soldiers that are not taken care of because of how mentally unstable they are, how they suff they suffering from PTSD and traumas that they don't know how to handle it. They take they take this frustration off their wives and their kids. You don't want to hear a time where a child has killed the father and a father has killed a child. I never want to hear that because it could have happened to me because how he used to fight with my father. It became to a point where he would beat me like a soldier. He would punch me into the he would punch me. I would fall down and by the time I see him too, I will I would like throw a stone at him. I could have thrown a stone at him and killed him. He could have punched me and he could have killed me. Do you understand that?

[00:08:29]Well, so um at that time for me my also my grandmother my but when my mother left of course I was such a young kid I think I was old cuz my my my mother left around 2001 and I was born in 2000. So of course my my paternal grandmother already had my brother. So she saw that my father couldn't handle a child. So she took me in too. So me and my brother were raised together by her paternal grandmother calledina and then uh in 2006 she passed away. So when she passed away the family members they got together even remember during the funeral nobody wanted to take me in and when my grandmother died she said please take care of Paul's kids I am if I die take care of Paul's kids because she knew nobody was going to take care of us like she would she did because that was her son you know I remember my my my brother kind of remembers things cuz I was six. I was such a young kid. I remember I was a hyper kid. Yes. And everybody thought had demons and whatever. So my father would come at 6 years old. He would beat me like an animal to the point where I start fearing him. So when my when my grandmother died, of course, as I said, nobody wanted to take me in. Everybody wanted to take my brother because my brother was such a come kid. I was such a hyper kid. Even up to this moment, I am not I'm a hyper person. So for them, they didn't really understand because they didn't really love they didn't really love my father and respected him.

[00:10:13]That's why they never loved us or respected us. But because my father didn't have properly a good rank in the army, he was retired with with properly not considered a good rank or he didn't have money or he was not rich. These are the people that respected money. They only respected money and if they respected you, they respect your kids.

[00:10:33]They never respected him. They never respected the service that he did. They never respected the sacrifice that he made so they can come back into a safe country. They treated him like he's nothing. And that is his siblings. Only the person that cared for him was his mother. So the moment his mother died, it was done for us. Then that's when trouble started. Nobody wanted to take me. I was only a six year old child. I didn't know what was going on. So what happened? His auntie that is kind of my grandmother.

[00:11:06]That is that's a very wicked that's a very wicked grandma. A wicked auntie because at this moment my father will stand and tell him I probably probably she did or probably she did not. I don't know. But that's what he will tell his auntie.

[00:11:24]Do you understand? So that woman took me in. That woman burnt me. I have scars right now. You can't see it because I'm even in a hospital. I have he she burned me because I buried an insect. You know, right? I buried that. I was only 7 years old and I was I was I was playing with other kids and that old lady, she burned my hand saying that is a person that's supposed to be like my grandmother.

[00:11:54]That is a person that my father will stand and tell him that you killed my mother. Probably she did or she did not.

[00:11:59]But that is a very wicked woman. Nobody in that family is is okay. They all mad.

[00:12:05]But they will take their frustrations in their head onto my father and us his kids.

[00:12:11]So, I don't want to say so much, right? My father was in cold. He was at the front line. He saw his camera drop like flies.

[00:12:38]He would tell me that some of your kids you you who is in the member who is in the found sorry input foundation uh board of member I don't know if your your soldier son knows exactly what my dad went through if he did he respect him and he will go look for him and will help him but no no because Paul didn't have anything Paul didn't have a good rank Paul didn't have money so the same way you disrespect him and hate him the same way you hate and disrespect us is the same way you have to let him rot in in a in a place he sleeps on on mud. On mud.

[00:13:17]There's nothing to He was calling me the other day. I should buy him some some sauce pans and and some whatever so he can be cooking himself. I I can I can have you guys listen to what he be telling me. This is my father.

[00:13:32]No, my father will will go and borrow a phone and he will send me such voice note but he will not send it to his sister. His sister that has a good life his auntie that is in the me is in the board member of Imbuto Foundation.

[00:13:51]That's what my father will tell me.

[00:14:01]I'm see this. My father calling me and tell me his stomach. He needs he needs sauce pans. He needs Uh, what do you call it in Babura to cook? You call me. Where do I get money from?

[00:15:10]>> [laughter] >> Okay. Do you know guys why I'm laughing?

[00:15:12]Sometimes he lies. But [laughter] sometimes he lied to me so I can send him some money so he can go and drink.

[00:15:19]But listen, so it's not funny but because I'm just trying to have you understand exactly what I go through. I am one of the five children he has. But I'm supposed to be his mother, right?

[00:15:51]knowch.

[00:16:21]isn't.

[00:16:25]Okay. I told him, "If you shower and you look clean, send me a picture when you look clean because it hurts me to see my father looking dirty. He's such a handsome, tall, strong man. He's 55 years old.

[00:16:42]He said I I had to send my sister to go cuz I know sometimes he lied to me because 2000 he just wants to buy some cigarettes or some or go out go out or something even with why the stomach disturbs him is because he don't eat. He don't eat.

[00:16:59]So he just drinks and don't eat. He looks like this. I saw him and I almost cried. So I sent my sister, my younger sister to go and ask him to send to give him his demobilization card, his ID and also buy him. Do you know what I found out?

[00:17:28]He talks to me.

[00:17:39]I want to So, I'm supposed to be a mother to my father. Huh?

[00:18:34]He's asked me for milk.

[00:18:36]It's not that I cannot buy my father milk. But he don't need milk. He needs somebody to go and drink. If I send him, imagine he's he will ask me 1,500 runner france. He will ask me even if I give him 100 frs, he will take it. But he's not going to buy. He doesn't even have me. Well, I had to send my sister to go and buy him.

[00:19:02]What is it?

[00:19:14]I'm going to tell stories. This guy, this guy helped my father to sell our land.

[00:19:28]I was so depressed. If I show you my bills, this is the bills I'm paying. I'm in a hospital in Kenya. I'm paying bills. Look how many bills I'm paying off my own pocket.

[00:19:46]Guys, sorry for that emotional moment because really I'm in a hospital. My I'm in a psychiatric hospital right now because I almost I have so much responsibilities. I have so much trauma and all of this [ __ ] is genetics. They just diagnosed me with ADHD, depression, anxiety and and and I just finished having having a session with with the with the doctor with Dr. Frank Jenga.

[00:20:15]Okay. The the owner of Chiommo Psych the psychiatric hospital. And I would tell him my story. He was like, "Wow, I can't believe at 15 years old. You you you you you jumped the border and you came to Kenya." I said, "I did." I'm telling him the stories of how my father entered the RPF. And he's like, "How do you know that?" I'm like, "I do my researches. I know how to do research.

[00:20:39]I'm not a lazy child. I'm not a lazy kid. I was just betrayed by family who never gave me a chance to be just like any child.

[00:21:05]No matter how much I have with my father, I still got his back.

[00:21:24]Like imagine even your mother, you never even got to visit your mother's grave.

[00:21:30]I remember when I was living with my father in 2013.

[00:21:34]Sorry, sorry. Around when I was around 9 years old, my aunt, the one who died, sent me to my father to go and live with him. My mother, sorry, my father that time was married to a second wife. They they had two kids and I was I went to fetch water. It was raining. When I came back, my father, he was drunk. He picked me up. He threw me to the house. He kicked the woman out and my father put me inside a cupboard.

[00:22:07]Dish dish, you know, dishes dish a cupboard.

[00:22:15]If if police without guns are not coming, he's not going to open the door.

[00:22:20]I swear to God, only police with guns.

[00:22:22]They had to go and get traffic police from the from the street and they had to call fracture everywhere. I have a record at Ramagana Hospital when I was about 8 8 years old.

[00:22:47]My father almost killed me and he was never charged at court because he has family members that will speak for him.

[00:22:53]You knew how to speak for him when he beat me almost to death. But you don't speak for him right now, huh? when he's almost he will die he will get sick data doesn't have even insurance forget about from regular data is an ex uses such strong words and and and they and they'll find they they wait for him when he's drunk and they will beat the [ __ ] out of him.

[00:23:38]And that's what I'm saying. If I find my father laying somewhere dead like like a dirty person like he never did nothing.

[00:23:47]I swear to my living God, I'll go murder at you guys if you don't get a back at me so we can go and help that soldier.

[00:23:58]That man who liberated, who fought, who sacrificed his life, I don't have a father because of that. My father, he's mentally gone.

[00:24:09]I'm supposed to be what? To be his shield. I supposed to think for him. I can't even think for myself. I have my own traumas. These things are [ __ ] passed through through genetics. The traumas that he got from his family, he's going to pass down to me and I'm going to probably pass it to my children. I don't want that curse.

[00:24:28]You need to take care of your soldiers.

[00:24:30]These men are killing their wives.

[00:24:33]They're killing their children. I'm done. I'm completely done. His family has completely abandoned him. Poor poor.

[00:24:40]Poor poor. Poor, right?

[00:24:44]I know.

[00:24:46]You know what? I don't want to say much.

[00:24:48]I'm going to go on and start a podcast.

[00:24:50]I'm going to tell my story small by small. Right now, I'm just calling upon Mina, please, your excellency, I am begging you.

[00:25:07]I need my father to be taken into a proper psych facility so he can be taken care of. Not any civilian can touch him. He says himself no civilian can touch him. So you need to talk to me so we can see how we can handle him. I can I can be able to talk to him. I can give you my sister's number. She knows how to talk to him. We know how to talk to him. His daughters know how to talk to him.

[00:25:34]forget about his sons because it's another thing.

[00:25:38]He is a human but the end of the day he is a father and he is also a person who fought who put his life on the line.

[00:26:01]Well, you don't you don't You don't care. I mean, huh?

[00:26:07]No, no, no, no.

[00:26:09]Enough is enough and I'm done. I remember when I was 13 years old, I went to the to the commission um uh of the mobilization retoration and uh a woman called Vera remembers me.

[00:26:23]I'm pretty sure if she sees this video, she'll remember me. [clears throat] At that time I was asking for my father to get a a demobiliz a demobilization um card. They even gave it to him. I gave it to her him. They gave it to me and they gave it to him. He has it. It's too old but he has it.

[00:26:41]Imagine in 2013 I was 13 and I was entering in the ministry of defense. I was entering in commission. I was going everywhere searching for help at 13 years old.

[00:26:52]Recently what actually hurt me? They called me my father sold sold the land.

[00:27:01]This is not the land. This is our house.

[00:27:03]There is a land. It's also a different story. The farmland where we where my mother was given to farm. And there's also a house where we're supposed to live. He sold that place. A place that has 750 square meter for two for 2 million.5 2.5 million rats. A home of five children.

[00:27:32]I went to the commission. I cried. I was a child. They called Something could have happened to me. But people actually fear to come and hurt me because they knew he could. He was Right. They came Because he's what? Mentally unstable. He doesn't even know that his children. He knows.

[00:29:01]Are you telling me that somebody who is mentally you guys need to get back to me so you can help that man because I'm done.