Meeting of one of Avega’s section from the province of Gisenyi (North-West) in the district of Cyanzadrwe. Several national leaders made the journey from Kigali, the meeting being followed by a commemoration in front of the new memorial, encouraged by the association. The 34 members of the local section are present. After the maiden speeches in use, the leaders of Avega will announce the financial assistance directed to the purchasing of goats for the widows : since the genocide, many survive in extreme material precarity.
At the meeting’s end, many widows will mention the problems encountered in the “Gacaca”, the villages’ traditional courts, in charge of giving justice for the criminals “of second order” acting in the genocide : when the widows speak their testimony, the audience often in considerable numbers, boos, assuring they lie and the pressure is set upon the victims, outweighed in numbers.
June 2005 – Gisenyi - Rwanda.
© Pierre-Yves GINET