More than 1,200 members of youth survivor organisations AERG and GAERG travelled from Kigali and Huye to Nyamagabe District yesterday for activities leading up to Kwibuka21. The day of activities followed those conducted in Rukumbeli, Rulindo and Bisesero to support genocide survivors and thank those who stood against the genocide. Kwibuka is the Kinyarwanda word for remember and describes the annual commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
The young survivors were joined by the local community in Cyanika Sector to build 32 kitchen gardens in Munyinya Village and plant more than 20,000 trees. They also gave a cow to genocide widow Xaverine Kamuyumbu (56).
The Governor of the Southern Province, Alphonse Munyentwali, commended the activities initiated by AERG and GAERG:
“I thank you all for this important lesson, the lesson of unity and reconciliation and the lesson of not being lost in history. Your initiative is a sign that Rwanda has young people who have the aim to develop their country,” he added.
GAERG President Charles Habonimana said that after the genocide they were young and were raised by the few parents who survived: “As they get older and we grow up, we need to acknowledge the role played by them after the genocide and support them.”
Cyanika is well-known in the history of genocide in Rwanda. On the eve of Christmas in 1963, systematic killings occurred and more than 21,000 Tutsi were killed. The organisers of the Cyanika massacres in 1963 included the then President of Rwanda, Gregoire Kayibanda, who arranged a meeting on 21 December 1963 which lead to the killings.
After international media reported the massacres, President Kayibanda expelled the Swiss teacher who informed the media and who had pleaded for an end to the massacres. Tutsi survivors who fled to Cyanika catholic parish with the help of Belgian Father Stany de la Gemblinne were forcibly moved to Rukumbeli, Mushiha in Burundi and Bibwe in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were transported in Belgian trucks. Those who resisted the massacres and deportation at Nyarushishi and Gasaka hills were bombed by Belgian helicopters.
Photos of AERG / GAERG Week Activities in Cyanika
