Senators have said that there is a need for concerted efforts to address the existing challenges that hinder the effective implementation of the Presidential Order of May 2019 determining modalities of consolidation of genocide memorial sites for the Genocide against the Tutsi. They made the request on Thursday, July 29, as the virtual Plenary Sitting of the Senate adopted the report of the Senatorial Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Security on discussion on the Genocide memorial site consolidation plan for effective management purposes. In June, this year, the Committee held discussions with the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), districts and organisations striving for the interests of Genocide survivors on the implementation of the Presidential Order. During the talks, Senator John Bonds Bideri, Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Security said, the Committee realised that there are six districts that have consolidated genocide memorial sites, but that there are others which still face hindrances. Among the challenges, districts expressed concern that there are some Genocide survivors who have not yet understood the advantages of consolidating memorial sites because they do not want that the bodies of their relatives buried in some of the memorial sites be relocated. In some cases, it was realised that relocating Genocide memorial sites would result in people trekking long distances to commemorate their loved ones. Another issue is that some districts have not yet documented their history about the Genocide, yet, this is one of the factors considered while consolidating memorial sites. Article 2 of the above-mentioned Presidential Order provides that consolidation of memorial sites is based on the reasons including the relocation of all graves of victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi and burial of bodies therein in memorial sites. Others are the memorial sites for the Genocide against the Tutsi erected in high-risk zones, which may lead to their destruction or damage by natural hazard-induced disasters, due to the state of the location where they are erected. In addition, the consolidation criterion can be that the memorial sites that contain less than 1,000 bodies with the exception of memorial sites with particular history to the extent that their preservation may be difficult once consolidated. Still talking about the challenges, some of the districts do not indicate the memorial site merging plan, those that do not know the number of memorial sites that they would remain with after the merger of some of them. There are also districts that do not know the number of memorial sites that can be preserved because of the particular history they hold such that it would be difficult to do that once they are merged. For instance, Senators said that Nyamagabe District has nine memorial sites, including Murambi which is a national memorial site. However, the District has not yet decided the number of memorial sites it will remain with because it is still in talks with partners. Nyanza District has seven genocide memorial sites and five mass graves. After considering the criteria for merging memorial sites and having consultations with partners, it wants to remain with three, including that of Mayaga, Nyanza and Gatagara. However, the Committee said that CNLG recommended the District that the Kibirizi Genocide memorial should not be relocated because it has a particular history of how women and children were killed, after being separated from the rest of the crowds. So far there are 172 genocide memorial sites and 53 mass graves in the districts of the country. “These figures imply that progress was made in reducing the number of genocide memorial sites because the count that was made by CNLG in 2015 indicated that there were 234 genocide memorial sites and 115 graves,” Senator Bideri said. “Districts which still have challenges in consolidating memorial sites should scale up efforts in talks with Genocide survivors whose relatives(’ remains) should be relocated so that the process does not take too long and should start preparing their relocation sites,” he said. Moreover, the Committee said that during the relocation of memorial sites, those with particular history should be given special treatment in line with furthering the preservation the history of the Genocide against Tutsi. Senator Evode Uwizeyimana said that sometimes districts don’t enough capacity to deal with the memorial relocation and consolidation. “There should be a task force comprising concerned entities including national organs, districts and organisations defending Genocide survivors’ rights in order to fast-track the implementation of the Presidential Order on memorial site consolidation,” he said.
