A sixty-year old Huye resident has been recognised for saving lives during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Laurien Ntezimana, the chairman of Association Modeste et Innocent (AMI), a Huye-based organisation advocating for unity of Rwandans, was recognised last Sunday at an event organised by the people he saved.

The function took place at Notre Dame de la Providence de Karubanda, a Huye based school, where most of the people he saved were students at the time.

Ntezimana, a father of four, recalled that there were two groups of 60 people each, mostly children, who he hid before being evacuated to safety in Burundi by Terres des Hommes, an NGO that supplied food to CARITAS.

Terres des Hommes took the children along to Burundi after delivering food to CARITAS-Rwanda, he told The New Times.

During the Genocide, Ntezimana, a resident of Ngoma Sector in Huye District, said he was working for the Butare Catholic Diocese, sensitising youth about religion.

In mid 1994, Ntezimana became manager of CARITAS after Father Fidel Nyaminani who was the manager fled the country to Canada.

It was the manager’s job to distribute food. This gave Ntezimana access to food which he provided to  Tutsi children gathered at an orphanage, named Félicité Marie.

Ntezimana said he knew how risky it was for his family to host Tutsi then.

He thus sent his wife and children away to Cyangugu, his wife’s ancestral home.

Ntezimana recalls June 29, 1994 when news trickled in that the RPF fighters had crossed Rwabusoro.

"The Interahamwe threatened to invade all  the places where Tutsi were hidden before retreating,” he said.

Ntezimana, in contrast, believed that he had to save lives, he said.

He said the Genocide shaped his outlook on life.

He now calls on people to love one another, care for others and never materialism above life.

‘‘Love for others and God should be priority because that is gratifying,’’ he said.

"It was not about my life alone because many people’s lives were at stake. Remember that we all come from one man (Adam), you should value other people’s life as much as your own, and be nice to them,” he said.

Ntezimana recalled that on July 2, 1994, killers came looking for him with a list of targetted people, including his name, because he had been cited among those helping Tutsi children to escape.

"The perpetrators had come to kill me but they did not find me there. I survived because I was taking care of others. People should have high regard for human life,” he advised.

Recognition

Joseph Ndahiro, one of the then children, , whom Ntezimana saved, thanked him for his kind heart.

 "I’m yet to understand the kind of spirit you had in light of the threats to your life which were imminent,” Ndahiro told Ntezimana.

Védaste Nshimiyimana, the executive secretary of Huye District, urged those he saved and their children to always spare time to visit Ntezimana and strive to emulate his good deeds.

Nshimiyimana, one of the people who were saved,  gave a cow to Ntezimana in recognition of his deeds.

Eric Ndayisenga, another person he saved, described Ntezimana as a hero.

 "God bless you; you are  our hero, as you restored dignity to those from whom it had been stripped.”