Gatsibo Residents Honour Genocide Victims

{{Twenty years later, during April, Gatsibo District and surrounding areas formerly under Commune Murambi were a zone of silence, fear and death as bodies of murdered Tutsi’s dotted the entire area.}}

Gatsibo formerly part of the larger Commune Murambi was controlled by the notorious Bourgmestre Jean Baptiste Gatete, he is remembered for ordering and supervising the merciless murder of ethnic Tutsi’s in his area of control.

The mutilated bodies of babies, fathers and mothers of ethnic Tutsi’s were dumped in a large deep ditch and left to decompose.

It’s estimated that more than 14,686 Tutsi’s in Gatsibo alone were killed during the hundred days of intensive murder under the close supervision by {Bourgmestre} Gatete.

On April 7, 2014, the people of Gatsibo district joined the rest of Rwandans in honouring the victims of the genocide against ethnic Tutsi’s that claimed more than a million Tutsi mothers, fathers and babies in the whole country.

The 20th commemoration event was held at Bugarura Genocide Memorial site located in Rwarenga Cell, Remera Sector just 11Km off the Kagitumba-Kigali Highway in Eastern Province.

During the Genocide period, Bugarura Sector was part of Commune Muhura under the control of {Bourgmestre} Muramutsa who was later Killed accused of collaborating with Tutsi.

After the death of {Bourgmestre} Muramutsa, Muhura Commune control swiftly switched to the hands of notorious Bourgmestre Gatete that later worked in collaboration with {Conseiller} Claver Iyamuremye who headed Bugarura a sector in Muhura Commune.

Gatete and Iyamuremye closely identified Tutsi’s in Bugarura Sector and summarily executed them in their Hundreds. In Bugarura sector 122 Tutsi’s were killed in just three days.

Currently 252 Bodies of Genocide victims lay at Bugarura Memorial site. Several other bodies of Victims are laid to rest at Kizuguro Memorial site in Kiziguro sector.

According to the testimony of Mr. Manuel Manuveri who survived the genocide in Bugarura sector; “Trouble began in 1990 with hatred and pinpointing of Tusti’s as ‘trouble causers’. Later some of our neighbors would tell us that we would be killed. The killings became frequent until it turned into a genocide”, said Manuveri.

Bonita Yamuragiye, who was four years says she lost 10 members of her family members including parents, brothers and sisters. “I only survived because I had gone to visit my uncle at Kiziguro who later sought protection from Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA).

At the 20th commemoration of Genocide, the current Mayor of Gatsibo District, Ambroise Ruboneza said, “During the commemoration period, I recall three things; the suffering Tutsis endured during the genocide, the power of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) to stop the genocide and the cause of the genocide”.

Mayor Ruboneza emphasized reconciliation and participation in all elements of development.
{Below is a Pictorial from Gatsibo on the 20th Commemoration of Genocide against Ethnic Tutsi’s.}