BUJUMBURA June 14th (ABP) – The University of Burundi, in collaboration with the association of survivors of the massacres perpetrated against Hutu students on June 11, 1995, on different campuses of the University of Burundi, ZIRIKANA UB-95, organized on Monday June 12, 2023 on the Mutanga campus of the University of Burundi, the commemoration ceremonies of the 28th anniversary of those massacres.
The Minister of Education and Scientific Research, François Havyarimana, the Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Sanctus Niragira and the former President of Burundi Sylvestre Ntibantunganya as well as other executives of the countries honored those ceremonies with their presence.
During Mass in memory of the victims of that period, Father Dieudonné Nibizi indicated that those massacres were committed in an inadequate environment. This is a sign of high-level ignorance in an intellectual milieu, he added.
He took the opportunity to invite the perpetrators of those despicable acts to stand up and dare ask for forgiveness. To the students of the University of Burundi, he told them to take a lesson to prepare for a better future.
In his speech for the occasion, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Burundi, Mr. Audace Manirambona, said that commemorating is not synonymous with wanting to return the past, but that it is a good time for families to remember theirs and to regain hope. It is also a good time for those families to come to terms with those who committed these crimes, he added.
According to Mr. Manirambona, commemorating is a good time for those who planned and carried out those massacres to feel that they committed crimes in order to ask for forgiveness.
In turn, Minister Havyarimana pointed out that those ceremonies had the objective of remembering the students who were victims of the 1995 massacres at the University of Burundi and instilling in the students of the said University, a brotherly love in their diversities because, he added, they are all Burundians.
Mr. Havyarimana also appreciated the presence at those ceremonies of people from all ethnic groups and indicated that it is a good sign of brotherhood and a good gesture to join families who have lost theirs.
Closing his remarks, Minister Havyarimana reminded participants that this moment is not a moment to mourn or to sow ethnic division, but a moment of decision-making so that no Burundian is again a victim of their ethnic group.
He also pointed out that the Government of Burundi is doing its best to bring unity and justice to the country.