FORGIVENESS is a powerful tool which helped restore ties among Rwandans and paved way for development, growth and improved livelihoods.

This was the message delivered to residents of Ngoma District, Eastern Province, yesterday as hundreds of residents gathered in Rukumbeli Sector to welcome the Kwibuka (Remembrance) Flame. 

The Flame’s arrival in the district marked its 26th stop, with four legs left to complete the tour.

The Flame, which is on a national tour ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Genocide, arrived in the remote Rukumbeli sector from Ntarama, in Bugesera District. 

On Thursday, it is travelling to Nyarubuye in Kirehe District before heading back to Kigali next week.

Dr Anitha Asiimwe, the minister of State for public health and primary healthcare, told Rukumbeli residents that without forgiveness, Rwanda would not have been able to emerge from the darkness brought about by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

She said the achievements registered over the past two decades are a result of efforts put in encouraging people to seek forgiveness coupled with the promotion of unity and reconciliation.

"It is not an easy task for someone whose relatives have been murdered to forgive the perpetrators,” Dr Asiimwe said. "But forgiveness heals and above all, it set the country on a path of peace, unity and development.”

The minister said the past 20 years have been marked by significant achievements in all sectors, something she said allowed Rwandans to work hard and uplift their living conditions.

"Unity, reconciliation and forgiveness have paved way for good governance and development. Undoubtedly future generations will inherit a far better country,” she said.

Dr Asiimwe called upon residents to maintain support for Genocide survivors as a way of helping them improve their living conditions and heal the wounds of Genocide.

She urged Rwandans against genocide ideology and any kind of discrimination to ensure that there is no more genocide.

Ngoma mayor Aphrodis Nambaje said survivors had been working hard over the past twenty years and that culminated into improved livelihoods.

He asked residents to remain committed to what bonds Rwandans together and keep working for their prosperity and the country’s development. 

Rukumbeli massacres

After the massacres of Tutsi in 1959-1963 in the southern prefecture of Gikongoro, Tutsis were forcibly moved to Rukumbeli and the nearby Bugesera, an area which was widely covered by dense forests and wild animals, according to testimonies. 

Accounts of residents suggest that the move was part of the campaign to exterminate Tutsis, with the belief that they would be killed by wild animals or die of diseases once there.

But thankfully, Tutsis in this tse-tse fly-infested area [at the time] survived against all odds.

When the Genocide started in April 1994, Rukumbeli was known to have been inhabited by many Tutsi. Militiamen were then mobilised from neighbouring communes to kill those living there, some of whom had been able to resist previous attacks.

Backed by government soldiers, the militiamen killed Tutsis in Rukumbeli, according to Athanase Mazimpaka, a survivor.

"We had no escape path because this area is surrounded by lakes and rivers. Attacks were launched from all directions–north, south, west and east. We tried to defend ourselves for about five days but in vain,” Mazimpaka said. 

Of the nearly 35,000 Tutsis in Rukumbeli at the time, only 720 survived, according to officials.

Twenty years down the road, Mazimpaka said they have forgiven their former tormentors and are jointly working to uplift their living conditions.