RWANDA: Remembering victims of the 1994 genocide

In remembering victims of the1994 genocide against Tutsi, RSSB promises survivors to never be alone

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | We will continue to support families of the former Social Security Fund of Rwanda (Caisse Sociale du Rwanda –CSR) employees who perished in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi”, Jonathan Gatera the Director General of the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) said during a commemoration event held at the institution’s headquarters in Kigali on April 27. During the genocide, 19 employees of CSR were killed leaving behind orphans and widows and destitute families.

In the aftermath of the genocide, CSR and later Rwanda Social Security Board –RSSB–after the former was merged with La Rwandaise d’Assurance Maladie (RAMA) to form the latter took the step to support these families to heal and rebuild, financing education for eight orphans and supporting entire families to forge forward.

Addressing RSSB staff, and families of survivors and friends at the 24th commemoration of the genocide against Tutsi, Gatera called for continued efforts by all Rwandans to fight genocide ideology as the only means to ensuring a better and harmonious future for the country.

He reminded the mourning congregation that the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were leaders in high positions, including some at the pension fund explaining that there was a lot of discrimination, marginalisation and abuse directed at the Tutsi employees.

During the event, orphans and families of those who were killed in the genocide read out the deceased’s names and the memories of them that remained in efforts aimed at ensuring that they are never reduced to being just numbers instead of people who had characters, aspirations and hopes, all of which were prematurely cut short in brutal massacres that characterised the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Survivors who throughout the reading of their loved ones’ names cried and mourned them thanked RSSB for always giving them the opportunity to remember with the knowledge that there are loved ones to give them a shoulder.

To facilitate remembrance of their loved ones, RSSB erected a genocide monument at its headquarters from where survivors can mourn. The event is part of ongoing annual activities countrywide to commemorate the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi for its 24th anniversary.

Killing of former CSR employees planned by colleagues at the fund

Innocent Rurangwa, the Director for Internal Affairs Unit at RSSB said that the killings in CSR were planned, according to research on the events before and after genocide conducted by the Fund. Signs that pointed to the planning of the killings included finding files of the 19 workers separated from the rest. “Though the high level of discrimination against the Tutsi workers and plans to kill them were known by managers, they kept a blind eye and never intervened to protect them,” he narrated.