Africa report
Genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda: the testimony of the survivors of Murambi
Audio 02:23
This court sketch shows Laurent Buciybaruta at the opening of his trial in Paris on May 9, 2022. He is accused of complicity in the genocide in Rwanda.
© AFP / BENOIT PEYRUCQ
By: Laure Broulard Follow
2 mins
Since May 9, the trial of the Rwandan Laurent Bucyibaruta has opened in Paris.
The former prefect of Gikongoro, a region in southwestern Rwanda, is accused of genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity.
The judges will have to determine whether he played a role in the many massacres organized in his prefecture during the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994, and in particular in the massacre of the Technical School of Murambi, one of the worst of the genocide, in during which 50,000 people lost their lives according to the Rwandan authorities.
Laure Broulard went to meet the survivors of this massacre.
Advertising
From our correspondent in Kigali,
In April 1994, Ali Kabuge came to take refuge here, at the Technical School of Murambi, with his whole family.
They hoped to be safe there while on the surrounding hills, the genocide began: the houses of Tutsis were burned and roadblocks were erected by Hutu Interahamwe militiamen.
“
I remember that we were here, on this ground.
We were very many.
There was nothing to drink, nothing to eat.
And those who went to fetch water in the valley, the Interahamwe killed them and they did not come back.
»
While tens of thousands of people had gathered there, the school was attacked with rifles and grenades on April 21, 1994 in the early morning.
“
I had seven brothers and sisters but I am the only survivor.
My father also died here.
My maternal aunts died here, my paternal aunts died here.
But also my maternal uncles.
There are so many
of them,” says Ali Kabuge.
Memorial sites at Kaduha and Cyanika
“
This place was chosen as a place of concentration for the victims because of its strategic position.
Stanley Mugabarigira is the manager of the Murambi memorial: “
As you can see, this hill is surrounded by other higher hills.
So the victims had no chance of survival.
After the massacre, the killers brought diggers and dug mass graves where they put all the bodies to hide the evidence of genocide here
”.
The same day, the militiamen attacked two neighboring parishes: Kaduha and Cyanika.
This is where the family of Remy Kamugire, now vice-president of Ibuka in Nyamagabe, took refuge.
“
We all used to take refuge in churches.
We thought it was a sacred place that no one could attack.
But at dawn, around 4 a.m., those who had survived Murambi came running.
They had grenade and gunshot wounds.
They told us that the Interahamwe were coming for us
,” he recalls.
According to the Rwandan authorities, approximately 35,000 people were killed in Cyanika, more than 45,000 in Kaduha.
Like the Technical School of Murambi, these two parishes are today memorial sites where the bodies of the victims rest.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Africa
Rwanda