By Michel Nkurunziza, The New Times
Prosecutors have filed about 400 cases of attacks on survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi over the past two years, The New Times has learnt.
The attacks took different forms including verbal, written, physical assault and even murder.
More than 430 suspects were involved, of whom 126 were female, according to the National Prosecution Authority (NPPA).
The information about the prosecuted suspects for genocide ideology and related crimes was disclosed by the NPPA, following the murder of Pauline Nduwamungu, a 66-year-old survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Ngoma District on November 14.
The main suspect in the murder confessed to killing her and throwing her head in a pit latrine, according to Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB).
NPPA’s spokesperson Faustin Nkusi said that 206 cases of violence against survivors of the genocide were filed in 2022/23 while 186 cases were filed in 2023/24. Up to 115 cases were referred to courts of law in 2022/23 and 111 cases in 2023/24, he added.
According to RIB spokesperson Thierry Murangira, over the past four years, the investigators received 2,660 cases of genocide ideology and related crimes involving 3,563 suspects. Attacks on against genocide survivors accounted for 50 percent of these cases reported between 2019 and 2023, while genocide ideology cases accounted for 22 percent.
Following the murder of the Ngoma genocide survivor, various survivor organisations renewed their condemnation of the persistence of genocide ideology three decades after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was stopped.
“It strikes fear into the hearts of survivors who have already endured unimaginable suffering. These crimes, seen in districts like Ngoma, Karongi, Nyaruguru, and Ruhango, threaten the safety and security of survivors,” said Alphonsine Mukarugema, the vice president of the Association of Genocide Widows, AVEGA Agahozo, of which Nduwamungu was a member.
“This is a message to everyone that the toxic ideology of hate is still in some people’s hearts and we will not stop the fight against it,” she said.