• As remembrance posters are pulled down

SOUTHERN PROVINCE

HUYE — National University of Rwanda (NUR)’s community has joined university staff and students in remembrance of over 500 victims that perished during the 1994 Genocide.

A requiem mass to remember the victims was held at the varsity’s main auditorium. Wreaths were laid at the varsity’s Genocide memorial site after prayers.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Rector Professor Silas Lwakabamba observed that the university let down the people of Rwanda.

"Why did this happen at the NUR which by its motto was supposed to be the light and salvation of the people of Rwanda,” wondered the Rector.

According to the findings of a university research, Genocide at NUR, was carried out by students, teaching and none teaching staff.

Lecturers and students spearheaded the hunt for Tutsi students to be killed. In halls of residence, rooms occupied by Tutsi students were demarcated for easy identification.

Professor Lwakabamba reminded the university community that challenges still remain especially in addressing challenges faced by the survivors and in fighting genocide ideology.

The remembrance ceremony was however, marred by incidents in which posters carrying remembrance messages were pulled down at different spots of the campus.

According to Issa Nkurunziza, the coordinator of the Students’ Association of Genocide Survivors (AERG) posters were pulled down by unknown people who he said still harbour the genocide ideology.

Nkurunziza noted that remembering the victims of the Genocide is a sign of extending love that they were denied by their killers.

According to Prof. Lwakabamba, the memorial service will be an annual event. He reiterated the university’s support to AERG in facing the legacy posed by the Genocide.

"We share the grief, pain and the unimaginable suffering you went through. We cannot undo it but there is hope for the nation has lost too much but not everything,” he said.

Ends