MPs suggest 16th Commemoration of Genocide be held in Uganda

PARLIAMENT - The fate of Genocide remains buried in Uganda will soon be decided as the two countries reach final stages of discussions on how to exhume remains and given them a decent burial.

Appearing before parliament yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister, Rosemary Museminali, informed the house that she took up the initiative herself to head talks on behalf of Rwanda, to have the remains given a respectable burial.

"At the beginning, the proposal of exhuming the bodies was rejected by the Ugandan authorities claiming that their culture does not allow exhuming bodies,” minister Museminari told the house. 

"But we have managed to convince them, soon we will be entering into final stages of owning the land where the bodies will be re-buried,” Museminali said.

During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, victims were dumped into Akagera and Nyabarongo rivers both tributaries of Lake Victoria.

The world went into shock after television images captured decomposing bodies floating on one of the world’s largest fresh water lakes.

Since 2007, Rwanda Embassy in Kampala has been engaged in discussions with various Ugandan authorities to have the remains reburied.

The issue came to the limelight after a parliamentary standing committee on Unity, Human Rights and the fight against Genocide, chaired by MP Evariste Kalisa, released a damning report on the general situation of Genocide remains buried in Uganda.

Part of the report indicated that in some areas the remains were being exhumed for witchcraft purposes an issue that enraged survivors.

Though no actual figure has been quoted on the number of victims buried in Uganda, unofficial estimates put it at approximately 11,000.
Museminali said her ministry was setting up a technical committee to come up with an MOU with Ugandan authorities on the how the memorial site will be managed.

Some MPs said government needs to facilitate Genocide survivors to travel to Uganda to identify and honour their relatives.  MPS also said government should come up with a plan of remembering victims thrown into Lake Kivu and River Nyabarongo and ended up in DRC and Tanzania.

MP Henriette Sebera proposed that a memorial site on a regional level be built in Uganda as a symbolic call to uproot and condemning the crime of Genocide.   

"We should also have the 16th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi held in Uganda,” Sebera suggested.

Museminali said that the proposal to hold the commemoration in Uganda would be looked into by government.

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