Over 30,000 Genocide victims to get decent burial at new site

NYAMAGABE – Bodies of over 30,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi killed at Cyanika Parish, Nyamagabe District will be reburied at a new memorial site in the same area on Sunday, February, 26.The new memorial site was constructed at a cost of Rwf22 million.According to Venuste Kanamugire, an official with Genocide survivors’ umbrella group, Ibuka, at Cyanika Sector, the victims were killed by Interahamwe militias and later buried in mass graves, but were not accorded a decent burial.“They were just dumped in three mass graves around the Parish using tractors. It was so sad,” explained Kamugire. After the Genocide, a priest only identified as Father Nichols, who was the Cyanika Parish priest attempted to create mass graves to protect the victims’ remains. However, he was unable to put a roof to cover the graves. The new memorial site is an initiative by area survivors, the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), with support from Unity Club and World Vision. Vedaste Kabalisa, a survivor, said the number of people killed in the area is estimated to be over 25,000.“The number of bodies discovered here could even surpass those at Murambi Memorial Centre. We are not counting the bodies of young children who were under ten years because their limbs cannot be found,” says Kabalisa.Also based in Nyamagabe District, the Murambi Centre is home to close to 50,000 victims. Kabalisa said before the Genocide, their houses were burnt down. “Many escaped to the church but we were still hunted down and our family members brutally killed.”Juvenal Gasasira, 75, who was a Parish driver, also confirmed that the killing of those hidden there commenced on the same day on the orders of Desire Ngezahayo and another man identified as Didas of Rukondo. On April, 23, 1994, Ngezahayo ordered Hutu militia to gather all dead bodies and throw them into graves.The notorious killers in the area also included Desire Ngezahayo from Nyamagabe, currently serving a 29-year sentence in Gikongoro Prison.The Executive Secretary of Cyanika Jean Chrysostome Ndorimana told The New Times that re-burial would be an ongoing exercise.“The delay to give our departed ones a decent burial was due to financial constraints,” Ndorimana noted.