IBUKA wants Burundian Genocide suspects prosecuted

The President of IBUKA, a Genocide Survivors’ umbrella organization has called for the prosecution of Burundian nationals who participated in the 1994 Genocide. He made the call yesterday during the official function to end the national mourning week, a function that coincided with honouring politicians who were killed during the Genocide. We have seen many Rwandans who participated in the Genocide tried, but there is a number of Burundian nationals who played a significant role in the killings and they have not been prosecuted, said Théodore Simburudari, the IBUKA leader at the function that was held at Rebero hill where many politicos who were killed in the genocide are laid to rest. He said that most of these Burundians crossed back to Burundi while others were given asylum in the United States. We call upon politicians present here to facilitate the process of having these people face justice because they participated in killings especially in Umutara, Bugesera (eastern province), Ntongwe and Ntyazo (Southern Province), he said. He also rapped international media houses which give forums to people widely known to negate the Genocide and this has fuelled the impeding genocide ideology in the country. Media outlets like the BBC and VOA have been persistently hosting well known revisionists in their studios and this has boosted the genocide ideology, he said. The President of the Senate Dr Vincent Biruta who presided over the function said that the government had not ceased in fighting the ideology, giving an example of the law punishing genocide revisionists which will soon be promulgated. We cannot sit about and let this ideology spread. We have to fight it with full force because this is what culminated into the Genocide. That is why a commission against Genocide was established, said Biruta. The government last month appointed a National Commission against the Genocide and former Minister of Justice, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, was appointed as its first Executive Secretary. Other speakers at the function included François Ngarambe, who on behalf of the forum for political parties, called upon Rwandans to be proud of the political system that Rwanda has chosen to lead the country. We should not let people intrude on us to the extent of dictating to us how we run our country. We don’t want politics of this country to be played in capital cities of those countries that colonized us, said Ngarambe, who is also the Secretary General of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). The function marked the end of the week-long mourning period. Ends