The family gave testimony during an event to give decent burial to 333 new bodies that were retrieved
We have had cases of Genocide denial/ideology where people utter weird words during Genocide commemoration – Kwibuka, but a case in Busanze, Nyaruguru district left Genocide survivors shocked.
In this village of the remote Busanze sector of the far South of Rwanda, 333 new bodies were retrieved from different places where killers had carelessly left them.
As the community was holding Kwibuka which coincided with decent burial of the bodies on Wednesday April 17, a man gave a testimony according to which a new body was brought in a coffin of his father.
In the wake of the Genocide, his family retrieved the body of their father from where he was dumped by Interahamwe.
“We gave him a decent burial, but when we checked the coffin before bringing the body to this memorial, we found that unknown people had exhumed it, and added in the coffin a body of a child,” said Anatole Uwiragiye, a family member to the Genocide victim.
“From the clothes, we found evidences that the new victim was my father’s grandchild called Mukangenzi. Who brought that body? We had always tried to know the whereabouts of the child, yet some people knew how she was killed and kept deaf ear only to disappoint us this way,” Uwiragiye further said.
The survivor said the act was beyond his understanding and requested that an investigation be conducted to establish the person behind.
Uwiragiye however suspects some neighbors who, days after the burial of their farther, told them that there were two bodies in the coffin.
“We shall definitely investigate and whoever is behind this, will be held accountable,” said Emmanuel Gasana, the governor of Southern province.
During the Genocide, Interahamwe in Nyaruguru could have been among the harshest in Rwanda. Some clerics from Kibeho – the holy land according to Pope Jean Paul II – and government officials participated in the Genocide and contributed weapons and soldiers to exterminate the Tutsi.
In the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, over 1 million Tutsi were massacred in three consecutive months.
About 2 million cases were tried in Gacaca, a community justice in Rwanda. The country is still fighting genocide ideology and denial while also calling the whole world to join the battle.
