PM pushes for settlement of survivors’ property ownership

Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi has called for the immediate intervention by the concerned authorities to resolve all the issues concerning property of Genocide survivors.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi has called for the immediate intervention by the concerned authorities to resolve all the issues concerning property of Genocide survivors. He said this on Tuesday while chairing a meeting aimed at coming up with concrete solutions to challenges faced by survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, especially children and other vulnerable survivors.According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the meeting resolved to establish a probe committee to investigate the root cause of the delays in handing back of the property."The committee was given two months to find out the gravity and the exact number of survivors who need support, and the team was mandated to table their findings by end of February next year,” the statement reads in part.  The issue, which has come up at different forums, concerns some guardians to survivor children, who illegally held onto  properties inherited by the children. Others have since sold off the property.The premier requested that the problems that will not be resolved will be discussed and a solution found on higher level.The committee that will be spearheaded by the Ombudsman’s Office will work in collaboration with the Ministries of Local Government, Justice, Culture and the National Police as well as National Commission for the fight against Genocide.Meanwhile, the same meeting resolved to have a separate committee to handle the issue of survivors’ houses that will be led by the Ministry of Local Government.In September, this year  Theophile Ruberangeyo the Executive Secretary of the Fund for the Assistance to Genocide Survivors (FARG), told to The New Times that they had set aside Rwf1.6 billion for the renovation of survivors’ houses that were built between 1999 and 2002.