Global migration experts to assess reparations for Genocide survivors

The Ministry of Justice has signed a deal with the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) that will see the global agency conduct a study on how reparations to survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi will be carried out. The comprehensive report, expected to be out in August, will assess and identify in detail options that could be developed, established and implemented, in the Rwandan context. The report will also include how the reparation will be funded, while suggesting strategies to operationalise the proposed compensation option. After the signing, the Minister for Justice, Johnston Busingye, told journalists that the government’s priority with regards to survivors has been to ensure that they access all the basic needs to better their livelihood. “After miraculously surviving Genocide, it was, and is impossible to restore all that was lost and nothing really can. However, government has had to ensure that survivors do not need another miracle to get education, healthcare, shelter and some social-economic progress,” said Busingye. The government annually commits 5 per cent of the State revenues toward the fund for support to Genocide survivors (Farg). The Ministry of Justice clarified that the priority for the Farg Fund was education, healthcare, shelter and social economic boost for the section of the population whose survival would be at risk if the government spent time debating the tagging of the funds. The issue of reparation for survivors is one of the long-awaited justice issues in the aftermath of the Genocide, mainly because most of those that were convicted either do not genuinely have capacity to pay, or have lied about their ability to pay. Others are fugitives who have never been brought to book. The survivors have believed that government should be responsible for establishing a compensation fund. Proud progress However, Minister Busingye said the country is proud of how it has provided for the survivors, as the government continue to seek other possible mechanisms for reparations. “Today, we stand tall and proud as a country, that within meagre means we have provided a shoulder (for the Genocide survivors) to lean on. We are proud that child survivors, many of them orphans, are now fine young men and women, educated and able to engage in issues concerning them, including reparations,” said Busingye. The minister added that the recommendations on survivors’ reparation will be made based to the final report produced by the research. Of the 599,025 Gacaca judgements related to property, 158,095 were not executed by mid-2013, according to a special taskforce commissioned by Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi to analyse injustice faced by Genocide survivors. In another report, the Justice ministry established that in 2013 alone, 200,000 Gacaca cases that involves reparation out of which around 300,000 were enforced.

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Global migration experts to assess reparations for Genocide survivors