Members of the Private Sector Federation in Eastern Province Tuesday honoured businesspersons who were killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Business operators gathered at the new memorial site of Kibungo Sector in Ngoma District.

The site is home to around 25,000 Genocide victims from Kibungo, Remera, Kazo and Rurenge sectors.

Private sector members gave testimonies, saying that their properties are now safe.

Elias Hakizamungu, who was born in former Birenga Commune — in today’s Ngoma District – in 1960s and started business in the late 1980s, was jailed and harassed many times in the early 1990s for allegedly supporting Rwanda Patriotic Front-Inkotanyi.

"We should work together to make our country greater,” he said, adding that; "We should denounce hate and promote love.”

According to Jean Bosco Ndungutse, Chairman of the Private Sector Federation in Eastern Province, the Genocide caused enormous loss to the private sector.

"We lost traders and farmers,” he said, estimating that at least 70 per cent of the victims in Eastern Province were business operators and farmers.

Fred Mufulukye, the Governor of Eastern Province, urged the business community to take advantage the government’s  business friendly policies. 

"The Genocide did not only take lives of our people, but it also destroyed our country’s economy, we should think about that and draw lessons,” he stated.

The PSF members also donated eight cows to vulnerable survivors from seven districts across the province – in Ngoma and one in each of the other six districts.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com