Hundreds of youth from across the country, yesterday, gathered at Musha Memorial Site in Rwamagana District, to remember an estimated 20,000 Tutsi that were killed during the 1994 Genocide. The memorial site hosts one of the worst affected communities in the former Gikoro and Bicumbi communes, where Tutsi were tortured, killed and their bodies dumped in huge open cassiterite mines. The victims were lured into hiding at the Musha Church, where they were pursued and systematically butchered, before they were dumped in the open mines. The youth majority of whom were former students of Cornerstone Secondary School, braved heavy rainfall to walk 5 kilometres, before they assembled at the memorial site. Survivor after another recounted how the massacres were systematically carried out in the area. The youth were also brief on the history of Rwanda before and after Genocide. Claude Makombe, the coordinator of Ibuka, urged the young generation to avoid ideologies and ethnic hatred that divided Rwandan society. “The church you see today was a killing house. Tutsi were starved and tortured to death. The then regime used government machinery to crack down every individual Tutsi family. Only a handful survived,” Makombe said. “Tribalism takes us nowhere. It was once preached and resulted into killing infants, old men and women. Thousands of Tutsi were brutally murdered due to politics of hatred that characterised the past despotic regimes. As young people your challenge is to bury the ugly past and forge a better society for the future posterity,” he added. William Kinunu, a youth leader, said young people were committed to continue supporting Genocide survivors mainly the widows and orphans. The youth also visited homes of survivors they have been supporting. “There are families we help build houses for and normally visit them with more helping hands. Today, we brought them food, beddings and other basic needs, all got from fundraisings we make as youth. The attitude of the youth is promising,” Kinunu said.
