Rwanda: 'Former Genocidaires Still Wandering Free'

1 September 2011
interview

United Nations — The year 1994 was marked by blood. Between April and June, more than 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days, in a terrible genocide that followed the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and the explosion of racial tensions between the country's two major ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis.

Odette Kayirere was one of the thousands of women who lost their husbands during the genocide. She helped to create AVEGA Agahozo, a non-profit organisation launched in 1995 with 50 members to help Rwandan genocide survivors to rebuild their lives. "AVEGA" is an acronym for the French name "Association des Veuves du Genocide" (Genocide Widows Association) while "Agahozo" means "consolation".

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