DATE=4/6/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RWANDA GENOCIDE MEMORIAL (L)
NUMBER=2-261028
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KIGALI
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Rwanda is commemorating the country's 1994
genocide in which an estimated 800-thousand Tutsis and
moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
As Todd Pitman reports from Kigali, six-years after
those horrific events, authorities in the capital are
still searching for more mass graves spread across the
city.
TEXT: Last Saturday, Rwanda began an official
national week of mourning to commemorate the 1994
genocide. Nightclubs are closed, flags are being
flown at half-staff, and national radio is playing
traditional mourning music.
Acting President Paul Kagame is to speak Friday during
a ceremony at the site of a new memorial where
officials say the remains of tens-of-thousands of
people will be reburied in a mass grave.
The reburials are part of a nationwide program to give
genocide victims their last rites, either by handing
identified remains over to families or by burying
anonymous victims together at memorial sites spread
across the country.
Paul Gasinzigwa is Kigali's director of public works.
Before the main commemoration ceremony got under way,
he stood beside a large truck unloading piles of bones
and dirt into a newly constructed tomb.
/// GASINZIGWA ACT ONE ///
Those are the remains of those people, who were
killed in 1994 genocide in Rwanda, exhumed from
various places around the city of Kigali. So
far its estimated that 200-thousand people have
been exhumed and are expected to be buried."
/// END ACT ///
Authorities say genocide victims died in an atrocious
manner. And the only way to return their human
dignity is to bury them properly.
Across the city, bodies are still being recovered from
newly discovered mass graves, many on the property of
private houses.
In the southern neighborhood of Nyamirambo, workers
dig through dark-red dirt to the bottom of a 16-meter-
deep pit that was originally constructed as a septic
tank. Today it contains the remains of hundreds of
people residents say were killed by Hutu extremists.
Survivors say that between five and 20-people were
thrown into the pit everyday during the three-month
slaughter.
Among the bodies workers are searching for is that of
Thifine Mukwende, who was shot and killed when Hutu
soldiers stormed a nearby orphanage and dragged her
away six-years ago.
Now, surviving relatives, including Mukwende's husband
Isaac Kayiranga, are trying to find her remains and
give her a proper funeral.
/// KAYIRANGA ACT ONE IN FRENCH, ESTABLISH AND FADE
///
Mr. Kayiragana says it is difficult after six years.
When you have lost your family and you find their
remains in a hole, it brings back a lot of bad
feelings that people here are trying to forget.
/// KAYIRANGA TWO ONE IN FRENCH, ESTABLISH AND FADE
///
But Mr. Kayiranga says digging up all the bodies is
something that has to be done, especially for
survivors. He says its important to keep alive the
memories of those killed during the genocide, those
who may have been forgotten. (SIGNED)
NEB/TP/RAE
06-Apr-2000 15:09 PM EDT (06-Apr-2000 1909 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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