"I did all I could to save the life of Rosine Nyinawumuntu, who was about one-and-a-half years old at the time. Her neck had a deep cut, her head was swollen, but she was still alive unlike her mother who had already been killed,” recalls Goreth Nyiraneza.

Sixty-year-old Nyiraneza, who was a widow by the time the Genocide began and a mother of eight, today lives in Huye Sector, Huye District.

She remembers asking some people who lived near Rukira Primary School in Huye Sector where an atrocity had taken place, whether there were any survivors, who replied that there were none.

"I did not believe them,” she remembers. "As I approached the area with a friend, we were told to go back. But we lied to the Bourgmestre (Jonatas Ruremesha) that we were going to look for ibitenge (African waxprints) among the dead Tutsi women. He told us that the ibitenge were finished, but we insisted, saying if others got some, we could get them as well. It was a trick we made up to reach the site,” she recalls.

On reaching the area, Nyiraneza found Nyinawumuntu holding onto life by a tiny thread. She took the child in her arms, took her home and treated her wounds with a saltwater solution.

Following the initial rescue, Nyiraneza went ahead and saved six more children, all at great personal risk, because Interahamwe militiamen were on the lookout for any survivors.

"I would remove Nyinawumuntu from my back and pretend to breastfeed her to dupe the Interahamwe that she was my daughter”, Nyiraneza says.

"I believed that if I died trying to save a life, I would be rewarded by God,” she says.

"Suspecting that I was hiding some Tutsi, the perpetrators ordered me to hand them (survivors) over. I refused and I was severely beaten,” she remembers.

After several attempts to kill the children, Nyiraneza was forced to relocate them to the nearby Red Cross office in the hope that she could take them back when the violence ended.

Recognition

"It is not because of exceptional power that I saved lives, rather, God helped me and I thank Him,” she notes.

Twenty one years after the Genocide, Nyiraneza says her greatest delight is seeing the children she saved living fulfilled lives. "Some are married, while others are at university,” she says brightly.

Nyinawumuntu, the child Nyiraneza snatched from an inevitable death, today studies in South Korea.

"My children are neither Hutu nor Tutsi. I tell them that those are baseless considerations because God created all people. I tell them that living in harmony with others, doing good by sacrificing oneself to save lives is gratifying,” she says.

Nyiraneza gave her testimony on Tuesday during a ceremony in Huye District, where members of both the Lower House and the Senate recognised her for saving lives.

While handing Rwf1 million to Nyiraneza to help her refurbish her house and build a shed for her cattle, Senate Vice President, Jeanne d’Arc Gakuba, urged Rwandans to guard the achievements they have made and avoid anything that could destroy them once again.

Any Rwandan, she said, who chose to save lives deserved a reward. "If many other people had saved at least seven children like Goreth, we would have saved many people,” she said. Survivors speak out

"She (Nyiraneza) did an exceptional job. She saved my life and supported me throughout my primary and secondary education. I am now in third-year at university. I can only ask God to reward her because I cannot thank her enough,” said Thierry Karangwa, 25, one of the children she saved.

"When we reached a roadblock at Icyayi Cya Mata with mother (Nyiraneza), one of the people we were with said although I was fleeing with them I was a Tutsi. But Nyiraneza insisted that I was her child and, fortunately, one man came and convinced the Interahamwe that I was her child. She did her best to make sure we survived. Now I am 40 years old and married with five children. She deserves to be revered,” said Evariste Ushizimpumu. Role of politicians

Senate Vice President Gakuba, who led a parliamentary delegation that visited the Murambi Genocide Memorial site in Nyamagabe District, said the role of politicians was to embrace Rwanda’s vision of unity, reconciliation, welfare and development.

"We call on all Rwandans and foreigners who still harbour genocide ideology, negationism and genocide denial to recognise that the Rwanda of the past is not today’s Rwanda,” she said

The delegation of senators and deputies visited various memorial sites, including Gisozi, Ntarama, Nyarubuye and Murambi. Today, they are expected to visit Bisesero Genocide Memorial Site in Karongi District.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw