24.03.09 - RWANDA/GACACA - MPS WANT DIGNIFIED FUNERAL FOR 1994 GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Kigali, 24 March 2009 (FH) - Within the framework of the 15th commemoration of 1994 genocide committed against ethnic Tutsis, Rwandan deputies have called for a dignified burial site for thousands of victims whose bodies were thrown in rivers in Rwanda and which surfaced on the banks of Lake Victoria in Uganda.

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A Rwandan parliamentary delegation travelled to Uganda last month and visited six sites where about 10,000 bodies have been buried, very often hastily, according to a press dispatch sent by the deputies to Hirondelle Agency Tuesday.

Except for the site in Ggolo, Mpigi District, Central Uganda, which was looked after by an Indian national, Muhamud Toban, all others are apparently abandoned and sometimes even profaned by sorcerers who unburied the bodies, according to the statement.

The deputies asked the Rwandan government to accelerate negotiations with their Ugandan counterparts so that the bodies not yet buried can be given a befitting funeral as soon as possible.

"These bodies should be gathered and buried in three places, Ggolo, Lambu (district of Masaka, central Uganda) and Kansesero (district of Rakai), while waiting for the construction in Ggolo of a regional memorial", urged the Rwandan deputies.

The legislators also deplored the inscription: "Victims of the conflict in Rwanda in 1994", which appear on the majority of the visited sites and asked that it be immediately replaced by: "Victims of the genocide committed against Tutsis".

They also wished that all the sites where victims of the genocide against Tutsis were buried become the property of Rwanda.

In 1994, several thousands of people were thrown, sometimes still alive, in rivers in Rwanda, which carried them until Lake Victoria.

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© Hirondelle News Agency