6,000 Genocide remains discovered in quarry

EASTERN PROVINCE RWAMAGANA— Six thousand remains of the 1994 Genocide victims were recently unearthed in a tin quarry in Nyakiriba village, Eastern Province. According to residents, the remains are those of the victims who had sought refugee in the nearby church where they were hounded and killed by the members of the then presidential guard and Interahamwe militias. One survivor who The New Times talked to, Immaculee Uwimana revealed that atrocities were horrible in Musha because caterpillars bundled the dead, wounded and dumped them all in the mine. “After the genocide they had to clean the walls stained with blood. Inside, everything was stained. Even the roof had to be changed. These are new iron sheets today,” Uwimana, remembered with tears rolling down her cheeks. “The Tutsi had fled to a nearby church, when members of the Presidential Guard and Interahamwe militias attacked them,” Djamari Baramba, a local leader said during an interview. “Like many other victims of the Genocide across the country, the Tutsi of Musha Sector, thought that by hiding in church they could be saved by the men of God, unfortunately, they met hell.” When The New Times this week visited this Catholic Church in Musha, it was observed that Christians pray next to the heaps of remains that have so far been exhumed from the mine. Musha is one of the few places in the country, still struggling to decently rebury victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The local authorities had been asked by private companies to pay Rwf27 million for the work, but they failed to raise it. They later wrote to the National Commission for the fight Against Genocide (CNLG) seeking assistance reburial but nothing has come out. “It is extremely a tough task…but we have managed to do it as a community. We however, don’t have the capacity to burry them decently. That is why they are still heaped in bags and so on. We need help,” Gaspard Gatete another survivor in the area said in a resigned tone, further appealing to the government for assistance. The residents simply don’t have any facilitation beyond the physical capacity they offered to unearth the bodies. Residents are still digging out the remains Ends