Rwamagana remembers youth killed during the Genocide

Rwamagana- Hundreds of mourners walked over five kilometres in Rwamagane town to commemorate youth who perished in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The walk, that took place over the weekend amidst drizzles, was jointly organised by young survivors and Ibuka, the umbrella organization of Genocide survivors’ associations. The event attracted hundreds of youth and was characterised by testimonies from survivors, including accounts of how children were executed. Adrian Kanyenganji, who was five years old then, told The New Times that he reflects on the Genocide with much concern. He said that he witnessed gruesome scenes of children being killed, a memory that cannot be erased. “I cannot tell how I survived, I would be a liar...but what I saw was horrible. Children were smashed on walls or slaughtered like chicken in my sight. Babies were removed from their mothers’ backs and hacked to death,” he narrated. Jeanine Uwambaye, a 15-year old high school student said that the Genocide had left wounds that needed time to heal. She noted that, as a student and youth, she had read and listened to stories about the Genocide. “It took years to plan the Genocide; it may take us the same time or even more, to transform some of the poisoned minds. Genocide happened two years before I was born, but nothing can stop me from paying tribute to the victims,” she said. The coordinator of Ibuka in Rwamagana District, Dativa Mujawayezu, said the number of youth killed was still difficult to determine. “An unspecified number of children were mercilessly killed in this district...it is very difficult to ascertain the exact numbers. Most of them were dumped in pit latrines and we never retrieved them,” she said. The walk was the first of its kind in the district. Ends

National

Rwamagana remembers youth killed during the Genocide