By AUGUSTINER ODUOR

Tears flowed freely as events that marked one of Africa’s largest genocide were replayed.

Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide claimed more than 800,000 lives in 100 days, a recollection of the events that led to the mass killings presents a bond that the Rwandese have painfully tapped to rebuild their lives.

Delegates in the quiet UN conference hall, Gigiri, emotionally marked 16 years after the genocide.

The attentive audience soaked their handkerchiefs in tears as the memories of the 1994 genocide was evoked, with explanations of the long road of struggle of survivors and the pain of the healing process.

The audience from various countries that gathered in solidarity with Rwanda sobbed in silence as a poem based on a true story was recited.

The poem recollected how a young boy watched helplessly from his hiding place as his father was battered to death, his mother and the little sister gang raped.

"After my father was killed, men in uniform raped my mother in turns as another group of men in uniform and civilians raped my 12-year-old sister. They chopped my mother breast, cut her neck. Blood gushed out and that was the last time I saw her alive," went the poem.

A short clip of confession and reconciliation struggles between the killers and survivors of the violence revealed the painful sacrifices people have had to make in Rwanda.

"How can I forgive someone who raped me, killed my husband and our six children?" asked a woman in the clip.

Escape death

Mr William Kayonga, the high commissioner and permanent representative of Rwanda to the UN-Habitat said they have made remarkable efforts towards reconciliation and justice.

Mr Yves Kamurunsi, a survivor said: "If you escape death, that is when you appreciate life. I think our future will be better than the last 16 years. Today, even when something saddens me, I look for a reason to be happy."

But amid the hard realities that the country has faced in its reconciliation and justice efforts, victims still face many challenges today.

Kamurunsi said: "Orphans are still unable to attend schools, widows who lost their homes and who raise children conceived through rape still face rejection in various quarters."

The statistics paint a grim picture of the occurrence that only lasted 100 days and will live with the country’s citizens for centuries.

As the country marked its anniversary under the theme Justice Reconciliation and Reintegration, a loud call to prevent a repeat of the genocide was made.

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil against it but by those who observe and do nothing about it," said Anania Nduwamungu, a pastor from Rwanda.

In a statement read on his behalf by UN Under-Secretary Anna Tibaijuka, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said: "Together let us pledge our determination to prevent genocide as the best way to remember those who lost their lives so tragically in Rwanda."