Genocide commemoration vital for unity – survivors

Annual commemorations of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi are important in fostering unity and reconciliation among Rwandans, survivors in Nyange sector, Ngororero District said.Nyange sector is probably one of the places, where ethnic divisionism continued to manifest long even after the Genocide had stopped. Killings were carried out on the same terms of off the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.Talking to The New Times, last Saturday, most survivors said the messages which are disseminated during commemoration help to restore hope for a better future.“Every time we gather to comfort each other on the tragedies that befell us 18 years ago, there is a ray of hope to move forward,” said Claudine Mukeshimana, a survivor of the 1997 killings at Nyange Secondary School.She is part of the group of students who were ordered to cluster themselves along ethnic lines, but they refused insisting they were all Rwandans.When they disobeyed orders to separate themselves along ethnic lines, the school was ambushed on March 18, 1997, resulting in the murder of six students and a night guard.Mukeshimana says some people only hear of stories about what happened but adds it is the responsibility of those who witnessed the tragedies to narrate the real stories.“There is no better time to tell this other than during such commemoration anniversaries. That is how important they are,” she emphasised.Additionally, Mukeshimana says she gets a sigh of relief every time she speaks out.“Even though I have moved on and decided to put that in the past, it feels better every time I narrate my personal experience,” says the 35-year old mother of two.Just like Mukeshimana, the memories of the horrific events of 1997 are still fresh in the minds of most of the other survivors.Aloys Murigande, a survivor and former teacher at the school, vividly recalls how the infiltrators first killed the night guard who was at the entrance of the school before shooting at students.Murigande recalls that the soldiers who were camped at a nearby barracks are the ones who rescued them.Nyange is also the unfortunate scene of mass massacres at a catholic church ordered by a former priest who is currently serving a life sentence handed down by the Arusha based International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).The priest, Father Athanase Seromba, gathered Christians in the guise of providing them refuge but instead ordered their massacre on April 16, 1994.The brutality exhibited by killers when the fully packed church was demolished under his orders will also probably never be forgotten.Out of the 7,161 people suspected to have perished during the massacre, only 6 miraculously survived.Froduard Maniraguha, Seromba’s house help at the time, remembers how the events leading to the killings unfolded.“A series of meetings were conducted to prepare the mass slaughter of Christians who had been fooled to seek refuge in the church,” Maniraguha said. He recollects that Seromba was always among the main organisers of the meetings.

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Genocide commemoration vital for unity – survivors