Nyarubuye: The armed forces participated into the genocide

People who lived in the Nyarubuye during the genocide against the Tutsi opposed the Interahamwe militias until the armed forces formerly called Gendarmerie came and obliged the Hutu to separate from the Tutsi and started killing the Tutsis .

This is what the survivors of told the assembly during the commemoration event which took place this Saturday in Nyarubuye genocide memorial site.

The commemoration event was attended by officials from the National Youth Council, the Permanent secretary in the MYICT, and MPs who represent the youth in the parliament namely Justine Mukobwa.

The commemoration event was held in a catholic church where numerous Tutsi were hiding against the killers.

One of the workers in charge of explaining to the visitors about the history of Genocide in the region, told visitors that at that time bith Tutsi and Hutu were fleeing towards Tanzania coming from Kayonza, Birenga, Rukira and the region nearing Nyarubuye.

They took refuge in the local Catholic Church thinking that the God’s house could not be attacked by killers.

As the Interahamwe attacked the church, the fugitives resisted against them.

One of them who underwent a military training throws a grenade into the killers to hinder them from attacking.

This alerted the former leader of the Rusumo Commune, Sylvester Gacumbitsi who called upon the armed forces called Gendermerie.

They came and started killing the Tutsi who were in the church. These military obliged the Hutu to separate from the Tutsi.

According to one of the survivors Mukandayambaje Leoncia, the Hutu separated from the Tutsi and then the Interahamwe and the military started killing each and every Tutsi.

The military started to throw grenades and the Interahamwe entered in the church and killed Tutsis with machetes, spears, arrows and sticks that the injected into the genital parts of the bodies of killed Tutsi women.

After visiting the memorial site, the National youth council provided to the site with 750 hundred thousand Rwandan francs for its functioning.

All the guests collected 800 hundred thousand Rwf to help a local cooperative of orphans and widows to sustain the sewing activities of the COCOUNYA cooperative (COCOUNYA, Coopérative de Couture de Nyarubuye) .

The Ministry of youth and ICT promotion accepted to provide the cooperative with working tools worthy 2 million Rwandan Francs.

UM– USEKE.RW