Quest for decent burials continues in bid to accord Genocide victims honour

Efforts to give befitting burial to remains of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi continue in different parts of the country as part of the 20th anniversary activities. Remains of thousands of victims have not been recovered because killers used concealment methods to dispose of the victims. However, some remains continue to be discovered and are being transferred from where they had been disposed of to memorial centres where they are given descent burial. During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the killers dumped bodies into mass graves, which up to now are being discovered as perpetrators and other eye witnesses contine to provide information on the whereabouts. Remains of relatives that had been interred in family cemetery and those in poorly constructed memorials are being exhumed to be reburied in Genocide memorial centres with required standards within the 100 days of Kwibuka 20 (commemoration period). According to Vedaste Kabera, the director of programmes in Southern Province, remains of about 90,000 people are to be transferred to standard memorials in the province. Ruhango District has the biggest number with remains of more than 60,000 people identified so far, followed by Nyanza and Kamonyi districts, with remains of more than 15,000 and 9,000 victims, respectively. New memorial centre The executive secretary of Busasamana Sector in Nyanza District, Sylvestre Musangamfura, told The New Times, that their memorial centres consist of mass graves in Nyanza, Gahondo, and Kavumu. In Mwima Village, a family tomb contains remains of an estimated 100 victims. On May 3, all the victims in these memorial centres will be reburied at Nyanza Genocide Memorial Centre, currently being given final touches. In Eastern Province, where remains of more than 262 victims were reburied during the commemoration week, there is also a specific case of remains of over 900 people who were thrown in Akagera River and found in Ngara district in Tanzania. “Our government is negotiating with Tanzania so that they can build a decent memorial site there. If this fails, we will ask for the remains to be returned and accorded decent burial here,” said Odette Uwamariya, the Eastern Province governor. In the City of Kigali, with 17 memorial centres, remains of more than 297 victims that were exhumed from mass graves are also due to be reburied. Vestine Mukeshimana, the in charge of good governance in the City of Kigali, said there will be no transfer, rather, they will refurbish the existing memorial centres. In other districts across the country, the transfer is taking place on the same date of paying tribute to the Genocide victims. Rallying call According to Protais Mitali, the culture and sports minister, for purposes of Genocide-related research, security and maintenance, remains of the victims should be buried in national and district memorial centres. Francis Nkurunziza, the Nyanza vice mayor for economic affairs, said the district sunk more than Rwf150 million into construction of the new memorial centre, with residents contributing up to Rwf50 million. Citing research work by the former National University of Rwanda a few years ago, Mitali said the number of Genocide victims is 1,070,000, though not exhaustive. He said to find out the number of victims whose remains have not been reburied would call for making a sum of those in memorial centres across the country, which he said “could be prone to a lot of errors, given the complicity of how people were killed.” Officials at National Commission for fight against the Genocide regretted that some people tend to play around the numbers related to the Genocide victims. Naftali Ahishakiye, the executive secretary of Ibuka, an umbrella organisation of Genocide survivors associations, lauded the efforts in paying tribute to the Genocide victims and called for each and every Rwandan to collaborate so that all the remains can be identified and accorded a decent burial.