University students mourn fallen refugees

SOUTHERN PROVINCE HUYE— Students and other residents at the National University of Rwanda (UNR) have concluded a two-day mourning period in memory of Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese who were killed at Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi in 2004. The massacres of Gatumba claimed death of at least 156 refugees and wounded about 100 more people, according to reports gathered from the media and from human rights groups. The mourning period was organised by a student group called Isoko, an association of students for the promotion of Banyamulenge Culture, Peace, and Unity. The mourning period ends today. Some placards read: “Forgetting the victims would be killing them for the second time. The perpetrators of Gatumba genocide should appear before justice.” The Gatumba camp was mostly accommodating Congolese Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese commonly called Banyamulenge. The killings that some survivors referred to as ‘genocide’ took place in the night of 13th to 14th August 2004 when a Hutu-led attack set the camp on fire and murdered the victims. Witnesses say that the killers used guns, machetes, knives, and hoes to exterminate the refugees after setting fire on their tents. “I was very frightened, I didn’t feel like I wanted to continue living,” said Aimable Mudakikwa, one of the survivors. Survivors of Gatumba say that they were attacked by Burundi’s Hutu rebels called National Liberation Forces (FNL) in coalition with Hutu extremists based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mudakikwa who is a first-year Statistics student at NUR lost his girl friend, his elder brother, and many family relatives in the attack. He wonders why Burundian Hutu rebels like Agathon Rwasa and his allies have not been tried for war and genocide crimes. Agathon Rwasa is the leader of FNL rebel group that publicly claimed responsibility for the attack on the refugee camp located near the Burundian border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. As part of the mourning days, the mourners held discussions on the “role of youth in fighting genocide and its ideology in the Great Lakes region” as a theme of the commemoration of the Gatumba massacre on the fourth time. The panellists in the discussions include Rwandan and Burundian researchers, and representatives from IBUKA, an umbrella of genocide survivors in Rwanda. “The youth are the first to take part in playing a role so that all humans can be considered the same,” said Eddy Ndabunguye, the President of Isoko association at NUR. During the mourning, witnesses give account of what happened, watch films on massacres. A peaceful march in Butare town to protest the killings was also part of the commemoration. Ends