About 50 people, some still bearing the emotional and physical scars inflicted by Hutu militiamen, gathered in a Montreal church Saturday to mark the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.

Odile Sanabaso, here being interviewed by CBC in Montreal, was nine when her parents and five of her siblings were slain by Hutu militiamen.
(CBC)

Between 500,000 and 800,000 members of Rwanda's Tutsi minority and moderate members of the Hutu majority were systematically killed during the 100-day slaughter in 1994.

Odile Sanabaso, who was nine when her parents and five of her siblings were slain by Hutu militiamen, told CBC News Saturday that she was too young to remember the early days as the country was swept up in a tsunami of ethnic violence.

"All I remember was a kind of tension when the president was killed," Sanabaso said, in reference to the shooting down of the plane carrying Juvenal Habyarimana over Kigali airport on April 6, 1994, which sparked the bloodshed.

While in hiding, Sanabaso was left in the care of an elderly woman, who promptly handed the young girl over to Hutus rounding up Tutsis and slaughtering them. Miraculously, one of the men felt sympathy for her and told her to run, freeing her from almost certain death.

Sanabaso recalled confronting the woman in 2000.

"I went to see her and said, 'Do you remember me?' " she said. "She was a bit scared and she was surprised to see me alive because she was sure I had died … She didn't want to be next to me because she really felt guilty about what she did."

"I'd be lying if I said I forgive her … She delivered me to death."

After Saturday's service, participants marched through Montreal to the St. Lawrence River to throw flowers into the water.

War crimes trial delayed

The anniversary comes during a landmark trial in Montreal for Desiré Munyaneza, 40, on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his alleged role in the killings.

If convicted, the refugee, who was arrested at his Toronto home in 2005, faces a life sentence.

Munyaneza's trial is Canada's first under the country's seven-year-old Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Proceedings were adjourned Thursday after Munyaneza was seriously beaten the night before in the detention facility where he is being held.

The trial is to resume Monday if Munyaneza has sufficiently recovered.

With files from the Canadian Press