EASTERN PROVINCE

RWAMAGANA — Remains of 50 victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis were last week given a befitting burial at the Rutonde Genocide Memorial Site, Kigabiro Sector in Rwamagana district.

The bones were exhumed from toilets and trenches in Rutonde village in Bwiza cell.  At least 4,441 bodies are buried in the Kigabiro Sector, 1700 of them at the Rutonde Genocide Memorial Site alone.

The burial ceremony was characterised by mourning, poems recitation, testimonies, requiem mass and several songs in memory of the victims.

Scores of relatives and friends left the place unconscious due to trauma. Addressing the mourners, the Executive Secretary of Kigabiro Sector, Nsenga Rubibi condemned those who continue to deny Genocide.

"It is unfortunate that as we remember and give the victims of the Genocide a befitting burial, we still face the challenge of those who caused the Genocide, who are still accusing those who stopped it of different cases,” he said in reference to the recent arrest in Germany, of the Rwanda government Director of State Protocol, Rose Kabuye.

Rubibi urged mourners to always help vulnerable genocide survivors and to support the government in fighting against genocide ideology, by reporting those still harbouring the vice to security organs.

The area Mayor, Valens Ntezirembo asked Genocide survivors to be strong and always participate in such ceremonies, stressing that doing so is everyone’s obligation.

Noting that the country lost people who would be contributing to its development, the Mayor observed that such burial ceremonies remind Rwandans of their commitment to fighting genocide perpetrators and planners. 

"Out of this, people cry and overcome their sorrows especially those who had not buried their beloved ones,” he said. He sounded optimistic that more remains would be discovered with the help of genocide criminals who were released.

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