In an ongoing retreat by members of the judiciary, Chief Justice Prof Sam Rugege revealed that the remains of about 200 people killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi would be given a decent burial. Honouring Genocide victims has been an ongoing practice for the last 25 years, but the ones referred to by the Chief Justice have a particularity; they were killed inside the chambers of Ruhengeri Court of Appeal, currently Musanze Court of Appeal in Northern Province. They had been lured there on the pretext that they would be protected. They realised the trick when it was too late and were all slaughtered and are buried in a mass grave few hundred metres away. The current Chief Justice wants to go a step further than his predecessors; he wants the court to be turned into a Genocide memorial, just like some churches and schools that were venues of mass killings. Rugege can be excused for taking action this late; as he said, he just came to learn of the incident recently. Concealing information about the Genocide is one thing, but going to the extent of elaborately covering up evidence is another. That is the case of Kabuga town on the outskirts of Kigali and it beats all concealment records hands down. A Genocide convict revealed the presence of many mass graves under most of the buildings in the town. Hundreds of bodies were discovered under the first house to be demolished and then a mass excavation exercise ensued. To date, the remains of a staggering over 60,000 people have been recovered and are set to be reburied on May 4. That is the tragedy of this country, there seems to be no closure as new, even more shocking revelations are always around the corner.
