A Genocide Widow Killed as she Seeks Compensation

According to the Rwandan daily newspaper Izuba Rirashe,[1]Speciose Mukamurara, a 52-year-old genocide survivor, was found dead on February 3, 2014, in her house in Rulindo District, in Rwanda’s Northern Province.

Jurithe Mujijima, executive secretary of Cyinzuzi sector, where she lived, said Mukamurara was allegedly killed by neighbors who took part in looting and killing her family during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Many people think her death is linked to her efforts to seek compensation from the neighbors who looted her family’s property during the genocide, Mujijima explained. The majority of genocide survivors are yet to be compensated for both their moral and material loss.

Many choose to give up their right to reparations for their safety. Maria Mukandandego, a survivor in Huye District, said she decided not to seek compensation because she feared retaliation from the Hutu neighbors who massacred her entire family.

Mukamurara, who survived the genocide along with one son, was living alone in a remote part of Rulindo.

According to eyewitnesses, Mukamurara was strangled. Blood had flowed from her nose. The murder of survivors in Rulindo district is not unusual. Another survivor, Leonald Ntagorama, was murdered on December 6, 2013. Many more cases go unreported, allegedly to protect the government’s claims of progress on unity and reconciliation between survivors and perpetrators.[2]

Security for genocide survivors has been a major concern in post-genocide Rwanda.  Many survivors in Rwanda have no choice but to live next door to those who tried to exterminate them in 1994. Aged widows have recently been the primary targets of killers. In 2013 alone, IBUKA’s district representatives reported thirteen cases of survivors who were killed because they testified before the Gacaca courts or simply because they were trying to claim compensation for their loss during the genocide.

Despite the scale of the problem, the government of Rwanda has no concrete measures to prevent or deter this new, disguised form of genocide. End.

By Albert Gasake

[1]http://www.izuba-rirashe.com/m-10656–bafunzwe-bakekwaho-kwica-umuturanyi-bakanamusahura-.html),

[2]https://justice-survivors.com/2013/12/07/uwacitse-ku-icumu-uhagarariye-ibuka-mu-kagari-yishwe-atewe-ibyuma/