EASTERN PROVINCE

RWAMAGANA — Remains of 3,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, have been exhumed from a pit in Musha Sector, Rwamagana District.

The district Vice Mayor, Alphonsine Murekatete said Monday that the remains were recovered from one of the two pits where REDEMI Mining Company used to extract minerals.

Murekatete said they expected to find remains of other victims after escavating the second pit and surrounding areas.

"The search for remains of Genocide victims that were dumped in abondoned mines is continuing, in order to accord the victims a decent burial,” Murekatete said.

Claude Kayumba, a survivor said it is saddening not to accord genocide victims a decent burial, asserting that it leads to trauma.

Kayumba noted that few Genocide perpetrators have volunteered information leading to the recovery of remains of other victims - because few of them genuinely confess and regret their past crimes.

"Indeed, there are some who were influenced into committing the atrocities, but they have also hesitated to say what they know, especially about where they dumped our people. And there are those who already had a spirit of hate which still prevails in their minds and can never be expected to tell the truth,” Kayumba said, pointing out that this affects the healing process of survivors.

Meanwhile, sources say the district in partnership with the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) plans to build a genocide memorial site in Musha sector unit.

The site will be built in the former mining area, where many people are believed to have been killed.

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