In an exclusive interview with IGIHE, Bishop Rucyahana said that those who had a role in the Genocide and those who were not targets know a lot more on the preparation and the execution of the genocide than the survivors.
The statement raised controversy among people as some said that testimonies on what happened during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi given by other people that survivors can bring about trauma to survivors instead of healing them.
“It was understood by some people as if I said that those who had a role in genocide should give testimonies which is not the case. There are those who saw Tutsi being killed and where their bodies were buried. Those should give testimonies so that the victims’ bodies are exhumed and given decent burial, accelerating the healing process,” Bishop Rucyahana said.
“It hurts survivors more when they do not know where the bodies of their family members were buried. But if the one who knows where it was buried disclosed the information, survivors would hurt and cry, bury their people in respect and then time would come where they would heal,” Rucyahana explained.
Speaking to journalists on Friday, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Dr. Jean Damascène Bizimana said Rucyahana’s opinion is valid and understandable.
However, he said that if people who are not survivors told testimonies in genocide commemoration days, it could cause trauma among many survivors.
“We agree that those who had a role in genocide and those who saw it happen, including those that were not targeted, have complete information on the genocide because survivors were hiding and they (survivors) could see less,” Bizimana said.
“The one who attended the killing meetings, the one who was where weapons were distributed and that one that was present where the militia trainings were held have more complete information,” he added.
Bizimana admitted that those who had a role in the genocide should be given time to share what they know about it but not in days set for commemorating the genocide.
“We think that they [perpetrators] should give testimonies but it would not be good to bring someone who committed the genocide and cut people’s throats and stabbed mothers to death and ask him to share that cruel story on the day of commemoration,” Bizimana said.
“Bringing people like those [convicts] can cause trauma among survivors,” he explained.
“The activity to remember is done to pay respect to innocent people who were killed for merely how they were born and acknowledge those who saved the targets and also those who fought and stopped the killings,” he added.
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