20.06.07 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE - MURDER OF A RWANDAN SURVIVOR IN HIS SIXTIES IN THE SOUTH OF THE COUNTRY

Arusha, 20 June 2007 (FH) - A genocide survivor of 65 years of age, Habib Ganafa Hakizumwami, was killed last Friday by people not yet identified in a village of the Muhanga district, in the south of Rwanda, reported on Wednesday the Rwandan pro-governmental daily newspaper New Times.

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Hakizumwami was attacked in the evening as he returned home, indicates the newspaper; stressing that his murderers ripped off his eyes and a tooth.

The local police force arrested 5 suspects and the investigation continues.

According to Uwimana, the daughter of the victim, the murder would be the result of people who feared to be denounced by Hakizumwami for their role in the 1994 genocide.

"My father was a survivor of the genocide and he had a lot of information on the massacres in this area. The killers always expected that he would divulge this information ", she stated to the newspaper.

"It is an act of intimidation but Ibuka will not be discouraged by blood hungry people", indicated, for his part, Eugene Karangwa, local leader of Ibuka, the collective of associations of survivors of the genocide.

This murder is not the first of its kind in this district, where those that go after genocide survivors also resort to poisoning, the newspaper adds.

ER/PB/MM
© Hirondelle News Agency