Students visit Murambi Genocide memorial site

RUSIZI – Students of Group Scolaire Gihundwe in Rusizi district, over the weekend visited Murambi genocide memorial site, located in Nyamagabe district, to pay their respect to victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. The visit was marked by a requiem mass for the 5,000 bodies buried at the site. Françoise Nyirasafari, the head of the finance department at the school, said they facilitated the students’ visit as part of efforts to fight genocide ideology. “No one can comprehend the consequences of the Genocide and wish for it to ever happen again. It’s our role as the young generation to totally eradicate the genocide ideology,” said Theophile Habimana, a Senior 5 student. The school’s headmaster, Eraston Ntamoka, said his school would make such visits to big memorial sites an annual event. “What happened is scary and it’s worth knowing by our children so that it can be fought,” said Ntamoka. The 300 students appealed to other schools in Rusizi to visit memorial sites, saying that it is the way to understand what took place. Ends