In Rusororo Sector of Gasabo District in Kabuga trading center at an area commonly known as Gahoromani, activities to unearth remains of victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi are ongoing.
Kabuga is a developing area located 16.4 kilometers from the seat of Rwanda Parliament in Kimihurura.
Information revealed during Gacaca Courts and local residents shows that in 1994, Kabuga trading center was a killing site for Tutsi from capital city, Kigali and surrounding areas including Ruhanga, Mbandazi, Muyumbu, Ndera, Remera, Kanombe, and Masaka.
The victims were fleeing to the Eastern parts of the country while others were heading to the Capital city.
Escaping Tutsi could come across five deadly roadblocks, where they were killed and their bodies dumped into several mass graves around Kabuga trading center.
The first roadblock was in front of Gatarama’s houses. The second one was close to houses that belonged to a one Mbambanyi. The third was located along the road to Bugesera, at a place known as Kwa Mayisha who was a renowned trader and a notorious Interahamwe together with his two sons Nshimiye and Rudomoro.
At Mayisha’s home, Interahamwe carried out all forms of killings including organizing themselves before setting off to carry out killings in the surrounding areas, issuing reports of the killings and giving instructions.
The fourth roadblock was located at a place known as Kuri Kariyeri by the home of Sibomana Faustin. At this home, it is where the first mass grave was discovered in the area which consisted of remains of more than 150 genocide victims.
The fifth roadblock was situated at the road heading to Gahoromani, which was codenamed ‘CND’, it was named after the Parliamentary building before 1994. It is at this roadblock that fleeing Tutsi were intercepted and told to have been taken to ‘CND’, insinuating that it’s a safe place yet it was a site for mass murder.
According to the Executive Secretary of National Commission for the Fight Against the Genocide (CNLG), Dr. Jean Damascène Bizimana, the residents in the area say that in 1992-1993, several ditches were dug in people’s homes around ‘CND’.
“There was also a big number of Interahamwe militia members including the head of the militia in the area known as Richard who had an MRND, former ruling party’s flag always flying at his home,” he said.
Other notorious members of the militia, Bizimana said include Kibuye, Rusangiza (Mbambanyi’s son), Kajinya, Rwamuhama Selemani, Kamali Abudarahamani commonly known as Gisaka, Maguru who was a soldier, Theogene Hakizimana, Jeanne a welder, counsellor of Rusororo sector, Mwongereza Bernard and his sons Mudakemwa and Satire who were drivers of Ignace, a genocide convict who completed his sentence.
It’s Hitamungu vehicle that used to transport the militia men to kill.
“This area experienced atrocious killings due to the fact that it was home to many republican guard soldiers including Chief Warrant Officer Gasana, Corporal Nsengiyumva, and other soldiers from Kanombe Military Barracks who came to give support to killers and prominent traders including Safari Heliminigiride, John also known as Gikapu, John Nduwamungu, Phenias and Corporal, a renowned potato trader among others,” he said in a statement.
To date, 17 ditches have been identified. Of them, eleven have been dug and six are remaining.
{{Findings in dug ditches }}
In ongoing activities to unearth the remains of the genocide victims, CNLG established that in some mass graves, killers burnt the bodies of victims with acid.
Others indicate that on top of the bodies, killers piled horns and jaws of cows, placed some old vehicle spare parts on top before they sealed the graves with concrete.
In some other mass graves, victims had their heads cut off and dumped the remaining parts into the mass graves together with the weapons used like machetes. After, the mass graves would also be sealed with concrete.
In one of the mass graves, remains of children were found, an indication that killers identified children and threw them in a separate mass grave.
In all mass graves, some tools belonging to victims including their clothes were discovered and helped relatives to identify them.
{{Survivors vividly recall the murder}}
Exhumation activities in the area started in April and remains of 150 victims were given decent burial in Ruhanga Genocide Memorial Site in Rusororo Sector.
Claudine Uwizeyimana, a survivor in the area vividly recalls how the genocide was cruelly implemented and facilitated by soldiers.
In her testimony at the burial ceremony on April 15th, Uwizeyimana said that she lost 30 family members including seven blood relatives in the area.
She said that in early days of the genocide, Tutsi in the area had managed to resist attacks by Interahamwe from surrounding areas, but later on republican guard forces intervened by throwing grenades in a crowd that had sought refuge in a church before burning their bodies using petrol.
“Luckily enough, I survived the attacks but left me with wounds on head,” she recounts.
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