RWAMAGANA – Legislator James Ndahiro of the East African Legislative Assembly has said the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi would have been avoided if bad politics did not take centre stage during the course of the 1990s.

"Genocide would not have been possible, had bad politics not been allowed to take centre stage. This should be a lesson to our current crop of politicians,” he said. 

The legislator made the remarks in Rwamagana district where he and other three members of the Rwandan Parliament paid respect to genocide victims of Sovu, Kigabiro sector at the weekend.

Ndahiro advised a crowd of residents at Sovu to draw lessons from the genocide to prevent its reoccurrence.
Théodore Simburubudari, the chairman of Ibuka who was part of the delegation, reminded residents of the importance of genocide commemorations. 

"We have to cry and mourn as human beings, which is why, remembering is important,” he said.

Charles Kanobana, a survivor who lost 7 children and a wife in Sovu, recounted how Tutsi women and children were lured into a nearby school where they were subjected to torture and murder. 

"They first killed men with machetes before killing women. So the dead in this cemetery are mainly children and women, who were killed after torture.” 

The massacres in Sovu village left over 500 women, children and the aged dead. This is what is regarded today, as the extermination of the last Tutsi in Kigabiro sector.

The survivors say Sovu is unique because there were no female survivors.

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