{{Survivors of the Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda have called upon the arrest of some Burundians formerly refugees to account for their role in the genocide which claimed over a million lives.}}
In 1989, the political instability in Burundi led to the fleeing of some Burundians that were hosted as refugees in Rwanda however, the Burundi refugees that later participated in the genocide in Rwanda have never been brought to account.
IGIHE visited Kinazi sector in Ruhango district the site of former refugee camp that hosted Burundians. The site is now a forest of Eucalyptus trees.
Samuel Dusengiyumva representing Genocide survivors in Kinazi sector said he survived massacres in the former Ntongwe Commune.
He says he has requested authorities to follow up the former Burundi refugees and bring them to Justice for their actions in the genocide.
Dusengiyumva says the former Burundi refugees are today living a free life in Burundi.
“There is information about the former refugees and also there is vital information provided about the suspects during Gacaca. Their names were provided in various cases during Gacaca trials,” he said adding that the suspects need to be located and apprehended.
Dusengiyumva also told IGIHE that his colleagues liaised with the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) which later said they are were working in collaboration with the Burundi Embassy in Kigali as well as the Rwandan embassy in Burundi but there has not been any breakthrough.
Meanwhile the Senate President Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo noted that he was aware of the issue of Burundian refugee’s involvement in the Genocide against Tutsi in 1994 at Ntongwe but he hasn’t obtained any solution so far.
Dr. Ntawukuriryayo made the remarks while attending the ceremony during which bodies of Genocide victims killed in Ntongwe were given a decent burial.
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