RUHENGERI HOSPITAL workers and their counterparts from affiliated health centres Friday joined Musanze residents to honuor those killed in the health facilities during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The commemoration started with a Walk-to-Remember to Muhoza Memorial where mourners laid wreathe at a mass grave. They later gathered at Ruhengeri Hospital for a night Vigil. Dr Deo Ndekezi, the director of the hospital castigated some former health practitioners in the area who, instead of providing health services, turned into killers. “The fact that those killed were not protected by our former colleagues is something we, as current staff, apologize for on their behalf,” said Ndekezi, adding that as they commemorated, it was also important to comfort survivors. “It is an opportunity to tell survivors that there is a better future ahead that is free of any forms of discrimination,” he said. Hundreds of Tutsi were killed at Ruhengeri Hospital and nearby health centres during the Genocide, but only 27 bodies were recovered and accorded a decent burial. Officials have called for information that can help recover the remains of unaccounted for victims. Those who shared their testimonies revealed that the Genocide ideology ravaged the hospital, just like it did the country, much before 1994 Genocide. Jean Damascene Musonera is among those who worked at Ruhengeri Hospital before the Genocide. He said that some doctors were either directly or indirectly involved in the killings of those they were supposed to offer medical services. The Governor of Northern Province, Aime Bosenibamwe, said it was not enough for the health workers to honor victims of the Genocide, but urged them to work for a common good and fight the Genocide ideology. “We had poor leadership that planned and executed the Genocide, but today, we are lucky because there is no way this can happen again, thanks to the good leadership that we have,” Bosenibamwe said.
