Kigali, April 6, 2014 (FH) \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve had difficulties raising my nephews and my niece since the death of their parents because their property was sold by a distant relative,\u201d says Eug\u00e8ne Ndayisaba. \u201cTheir land is occupied by six families. I only managed to get a little bit of it in 2006.\u201dNdayisaba, now about 50, has had to work hard since 1994 to feed and clothe not only his own children but also those of his sister who was killed in the genocide.<\/p>\n
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With help from the government\u2019s Assistance Fund for Genocide Survivors most in Need (known by its French acronym FARG), his two nephews and niece have been able to finish secondary school. \u201cBut compared with what their parents had, this assistance is nothing,\u201d he says.Ndayisaba, who works as a mason in the Kicukiro district of Kigali, has been struggling for years to help these young people get their family assets back. \u201cI filed a request to the district authorities and I was interviewed by the special commission set up by the Prime Minister,\u201d Ndayisaba recounts. \u201cAnd those people who are occupying the land promised to give it back to us. But we are still waiting.\u201d He urges the commission to step up a gear. For Odetta, a genocide survivor who lives in the same district, things are harder. Now married to a driver, she has struggled for a long time to support the three daughters of her older sister who was killed in the genocide. \u201cI have done the best I can with the help of the authorities,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I can\u2019t meet their needs like their parents did. Two of them have left school, even though the FARG was paying their fees\u201d. She says her sister\u2019s family owned two houses and two hectares of land on the outskirts of Kigali, and her brother-in-law had a civil servant\u2019s salary. \u201cAt this time of commemorating, my nieces\u2019 trauma is all the greater, for they feel that if their parents\u2019 were alive their lives would be much better. We want the authorities to help us get back what belongs to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA big obstacle to reconciliation\u201d<\/p>\n
Jean-Pierre Dusingizemungu, head of the main genocide survivors\u2019 organization Ibuka, hails the government\u2019s efforts to help orphans and widows get their rights. He says some property has been recovered, but much still needs to be done. \u201cWhen the ad hoc commission was set up, the aim was to end this problem once and for all before the 20th commemoration of the genocide,\u201d he says. \u201cToday that is not at all the case. But there is still hope, because the political will is there.\u201dWhereas in some cases assets have been seized by members of the family, there are also genocide perpetrators who have managed to sell the seized property of people killed, thinking no one would claim them, according to Ibuka Executive Secretary Naphtal Ahishakiye. \u201cThis is an enormous obstacle to reconciliation,\u201d he says. \u201cHow can you reconcile with someone who is living off the sweat of your father, when you are living in poverty?\u201d The main problem, according to him, is that even if a survivor manages to gather all the necessary evidence, she or he needs to embark on a lengthy judicial process. \u201cWe need to simplify the procedure,\u201d he suggests. As well as furniture and parcels of land, there are also bank accounts. \u201cThe money belonging to lots of people killed in the genocide appears to have vanished along with them, and their heirs cannot find any trace of it,\u201d says Ahishakiye. \u201cWe have just come across some forty cases and we are doing all we can to get this money restored to the heirs.\u201dAnd then there remains the question of goods looted or destroyed during the genocide. The people who have been convicted for such crimes are either indigent or simply don\u2019t want to pay compensation. For President Paul Kagame, real reparations for victims can only come with a national impetus involving everyone, whether guilty or not. \u201cWe are working hand in hand, in solidarity, to rebuild through community service (umuganda) what people destroyed during the darkest days of our history,\u201d he said in March as he put his own hand to the construction of a house in a widows\u2019 village in Kigali. This monthly community service (umuganda in the Rwandan language) is inspired by Rwandan tradition. SRE-ER\/JC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kigali, April 6, 2014 (FH) \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve had difficulties raising my nephews and my niece since the death of their parents because their property was sold by a distant relative,\u201d says Eug\u00e8ne Ndayisaba. \u201cTheir land is occupied by six families. I only managed to get a little bit of it in 2006.\u201dNdayisaba, now about 50, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-24845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n