Senate President Bernard Makuza yesterday presided over the burial of 11,800 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a ceremony at which he challenged Rwandans to always strive for their dignity.

Among those that were buried include remains of 11,512 victims, retrieved from a memorial site in Mpare Cell that had hastily been constructed and has since rundown, while the others were recovered from surrounding areas.

Castigating the bad leadership that orchestrated the Genocide, Makuza said the massacres did not happen spontaneously but rather it was a result of a well-crafted plan, right from the top of the country’s leadership structures.

He said that stopping the Genocide required outstanding dedication, where some paid the ultimate price in an effort to not only stop the Genocide, but also liberate the country, saying that this group of Rwandans should always be revered.

"We should strive to achieve what they strived for to have Rwanda as a country where every Rwandan lives with freedom, and have equal opportunities in this beautiful country of ours,” he said.

Athanasie Mukeshimana, from Tumba Sector, Musange Cell, who gave testimony, said she survived alone among the eight siblings, while her parents were cruelly killed during the Genocide.

She said if the RPF Inkotanyi had not liberated the country and put a stop to the Genocide, all the Tutsi would have been exterminated before the genocidaires turned the sword to themselves, adding that people had lost humanity.

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