Survivors at UN commemoration ask that suspects be pursued and ICTR archives be returned

Two survivors who addressed the General Assembly recounted childhood survival during the 1994 killings and urged stronger international action to secure justice and preserve historical records.

Marcel Musinda Shaka, who identified himself as president of Ibuka USA (self-identified at SEG 432), recounted losing immediate and extended family members and cited a figure of 1,074,017 Tutsi killed in his remarks. He urged the United Nations and member states to ensure no genocide convict finds safe haven and to strengthen international cooperation on extradition and prosecution. He called for the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to be preserved and meaningfully connected to Rwanda, saying those archives are essential to survivors’ dignity and to the historical record.

Serge Gasore, an author and survivor, delivered a personal testimony about hiding in a church, losing family, and later rebuilding his life through sport and education. He described founding a nonprofit that now serves about 1,500 people daily and said he stands before the Assembly to ensure victims’ names are not forgotten.

Both survivors stressed that remembrance is a foundation for action: justice, survivor support (including long-term mental health services), and continued efforts to confront denial and distortion. The survivors’ appeals were framed as calls for practical steps — extradition or prosecution of suspects, preservation and accessibility of judicial archives, and sustained survivor assistance — though no formal legal measures were adopted during the commemoration.

The ceremony included a film and youth poetry that reinforced the survivors’ calls to counter dehumanizing rhetoric and to place memory at the center of prevention.