Rwandans in Uganda have commemorated the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi by paying homage to thousands of victims who are interred in Uganda after they were thrown in rivers and ended up in Lake Victoria.

The event was held on Saturday, April 9, at Ggolo Genocide Memorial Site, one among the three Uganda-based burial and memorial sites for the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Ggolo is a burial site for 4,771 genocide victims whose bodies were washed into Uganda by tributaries of Lake Victoria like River Nyabarongo and Kagera where they were thrown by the killers.

Flame of Hope H.E Joseph Rutabana and Dean of Diplomatic Corps and Guest of Honor Amb. Julius KIVUNA

During the event, the Rwandans were joined by friends, the diplomatic community and locals of Ggolo landing site (Mpigi district). Genocide survivors had also travelled from Rwanda to join the mourners in Uganda.

Rwanda’s High Commissioner of Rwanda to Uganda Joseph Rutabana together with guest of honourAmbassador Julius Kivuna, the Head of Regional Peace and Security at Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomats lit a flame of remembrance.

Many sat in the tents staring deep at the flame, remembering the brutal and inhumane ways in which their own were killed during the Genocide.

Rutabana thanked the people of Ggolo and the government of Uganda for allowing a decent burial for the Genocide victims, as he emphasized the need to raise the awareness about the evils of Genocide and the need to fight its denial and ideology.

"It is important to remember, and raise awareness about the evils of Genocide and the need to fight its denial and ideology. All forms of denial or the evil conspiracy of double Genocide should be condemned collectively.  It is the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that happened in 1994 in Rwanda, there is no ambiguity whatsoever,” he said.

Ambassador Kivuna also called for more efforts in the fight against genocide, and genocide denial, and praised Rwanda’s tremendous recovery after the Genocide.

Group photo of H.E and Diplomatic corp and a member Humura survivor

"The country’s recovery is a rightful source of pride and comfort for not only the people and government of Rwanda, but the region, Africa and the world as a whole,” he said.

The commemoration in Ggolo ended with a visit to the shores of the lake, from where the bodies were retrieved, at a beach owned by Mhamood Noordin Thobani.

Thobani is a Ugandan businessman who played a significant role in preserving the bodies and donated the land on which the site was established.