An investigation has been launched after remains of 119 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were recovered under a house in Huye District.

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The first six bodies were discovered in October, 2023, as workers constructed a fence at the compound which belongs to a one Jean Baptiste Hishamunda in Ngoma sector.

After exhuming remains of 87 victims around the home, and from the kitchen, a decision was taken to demolish the main residential house to continue exhumation activities which led to discovery of 32 more bodies.

"As Ibuka, we are working with other security agencies and local officials to monitor the exhuming activity and identification of the victims,” Theodate Siboyintore, the president of Ibuka in Huye district, told The New Times. Ibuka is the umbrella of Genocide survivors.

The oganisation said that neighbours and the owners of the home concealed information about the victims’ whereabouts.

"The homeowners are being investigated by the institutions in charge,” he said.

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According to testimonies, the area was inhabited by soldiers of the genocidal regime, including the son of the landowner, a one Jean Baptiste Hishamunda.

The two soldiers are said to have committed genocide crimes.

One of the sons, whose name we could not establish by the time this story was filed, is currently serving a sentence in Huye prison after pleading guilty to genocide crimes.

However, "despite pleading guilty he never shared information about genocide victims’ bodies dumped in mass graves at their home.”

The ongoing investigation, for owners of the home, aims to detect if there is a crime of withholding information regarding victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

So far, a man and his daughter who were living in the house as well as one neighbour have been arrested for concealing information about genocide remains.

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Concealing information about genocide remains is a crime according to Law n° 59/2018 of 22/8/2018 on the Crime of Genocide Ideology and Related Crimes. Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10, prohibit any actions that are aimed at denying, undermining, or trivialising the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Any person who commits the said offence, upon conviction, is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years and not more than seven years, with a fine of not less than Rwf500, 000 and not more than Rwf1,000,000.