Rwamagana District on Sunday paid tribute to thousands of women who were victims of rape during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The event took place at Sovu Primary School in Kigabiro Sector. A number of women rape survivors gave chilling testimonies that shocked mourners. Consessa Kayiraba, 56, one of the survivors narrated how she was raped and left for dead. She recalled how all Tutsi women in the area were gathered at the school and indiscriminately raped. “Grandmothers were raped in front of their grandchildren while mothers were forced to see their daughters being raped. All the women were murdered following weeks of rape and only a handful of us survived,” Kayiraba said. “All survivors of the sexual violence were infected with HIV while others live with permanent physical impairment,” she added. Kayiraba, a retired teacher, added: “After several days of rape, the victims were dumped in the school pit-latrines. It was done hastily because the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) was approaching. Some of us were left unburied and that is how we survived,” she said. The mass rapes were carried out by the Interahamwe militia, with help from female extremists in the then Rwandan military, she said. Ibuka president Jean Pierre Dusengimuremyi told the mourners that there was extensive use of propaganda through media to incite violence against women, adding that Tutsi women were portrayed as dishonest and acting against the “Hutu majority.” Witnesses said use of rape was a pre-planned and deliberate strategy of the genocidal government. Rwamagana mayor Nehemie Uwimana, noted that rape and other gender-based violations carry a severe social stigma. “We are still suffering the aftermath of the Genocide, particularly rape. The majority were infected with HIV and need help,” he said. An estimated 400 women were raped, sexually mutilated or murdered in Sovu village in Rwamagana in 1994.
