Rwanda last week launched three months of 20th Genocide commemoration activities ahead of April 7 when national mourning rolls off. The events include taking the Remembrance Flame (Kwibuka Flame) on a lap of honour to all districts countrywide and several other activities such as debates to encourage all citizens to be part of the commemoration.

In an exclusive interview with The New Times’  Felly Kimenyi, the Executive Secretary for the National Commission for the Fight against the Genocide, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, said time has come for the commemoration not to be looked at as a preserve for Genocide survivors and government, but for the entire Rwandan community. Below are the excerpts;-Why did you start commemoration activities three months earlier?Over the years, we organised symposiums that took place within a week of April 7, the day that national mourning officially begins. But in the different forums with our partners, we decided to make the 20th commemoration an exception, because of the significance attached to it.We have been, over the years, making progress in the way we organise the commemoration activities, and our main aim is to bring on board every citizen of this country, and not forgetting the international community. And with everybody’s involvement, here you look at issues like testimonies and everything that will help us commemorate, in a befitting way, the innocent lives that were lost in the Genocide against the Tutsi.So, coming back to your question, concerning the commemoration activities, we have activities in three categories; there are memorial activities, where we have testimonies on how the killings took place and other activities related to it, then we have debates on the Genocide, and particularly this year, debates related to the Ndi Umunyarwanda programme, which need ample time to ensure that by April, at least every Rwandan understands these issues.The third category involves outreach activities to help vulnerable survivors and also attend to the memorial sites, to ensure that they are in good shape by the time of the commemoration.Who are the key people organising these activities?We have set up taskforces in different decentralised entities. These teams are composed of Genocide survivors from those particular areas, local authorities, security organs, medical officials to help deal with trauma cases, and opinion leaders; teachers, religious leaders, businessmen, and the like.This is why we have chosen to start commemorative activities early to make sure all these activities are well coordinated, and the debates are tailored to those particular areas, because we realised that, previously, these debates were hastily organised and ended up having less impact.We also want more involvement of corporate companies. We have banks, insurance companies and other entities with a presence throughout the country. We want deeper involvement of these groups in the different communities they serve.The other group we are targeting are the youth. They need to be actively involved; some of them, we realised in previous years, decided to go out of the country for the entire mourning week of April 7 to 13. So, we gave ourselves three months to ensure that preparations involve everyone, meaning by the beginning of the mourning week, people will be already involved.Similarly, the activities will be conducted outside the country where embassies are being involved to ensure that there is ample time to make the world understand the genocide that was committed against the Tutsi, this, especially is because, it is where we still have a problem of Genocide deniers.In marking the 20th commemoration, we needed enough time to reflect on where we were 20 years ago, assess ourselves and lay strategies that will move us forward, as envisaged in this year’s theme.Does it mean that going forward each year preparatory activities will now start three months earlier like you are doing this year?No, this is a bit different or special for that matter. If you remember correctly last year, the commemoration was not done at the national level where you had people going to the stadium to mark it as a national event. It was marked at the village level and this is going to be the trend next year. We shall be holding national events every after five years.This is not to say that in between we shall not have commemoration activities, but occasions such as this year when we are marking 20 years, are considered special, and we have to make sure that these activities are not left to government and the Genocide survivors, which is why we want to leverage the Ndi Umunyarwanda programme. The Genocide was committed in Rwanda, by Rwandans against Rwandans, meaning that it concerns us all.How are you going to leverage the Ndi Umunyarwanda to bring everyone on board in these commemoration activities?Actually, encouraging all Rwandans to participate is not something new. Since the formation of commission (National Commission for the Fight against the Genocide) there have always been steps in this regard. Year by year, we have seen people coming on board as we continue to sensitise and nationalise the commemoration activities. That is how perpetrators continued to come up to openly speak out on what happened.And this awareness is done in two ways. Some survivors felt they would rather be left to mourn their loved ones alone, and would not tolerate other people but as we continued to educate them, we have seen them becoming more receptive and it has helped in very many ways.So this programme of Ndi Umunyarwanda will serve as a catalyst to bring everyone on board, and that is what we are going to do in these three months. By April, everyone should be on board. This approach has proven helpful, besides fostering national unity and reconciliation, people become more open, and this has continued to lead to discovery of remains of victims that had never been accorded decent burial.What is the significance and meaning of the Kwibuka Flame that is going to be taken to all districts in the country during these three months?This Flame will be taken to at least one site of historical significance in every district. This flame is a symbol of hope for a better future; despite all that happened in this country 20 years ago.Basically, what it symbolises is that despite everything that happened, there is some hope, however dim that remained in the aftermath of the Genocide, on which we have to capitalise to build a prosperous nation.Regarding the sites where the Flame will be taken to every district, these places were chosen because of their historical importance; for example in Ngororero where it was taken first, the Nyange school was chosen as a befitting site because of the act of great courage that was displayed by students at that school, by refusing to sort themselves out along ethnic lines, even faced by killers, and some of them paid the ultimate price, and this is the spirit that the Ndi Umunyarwanda programme aims to entrench in our communities.Another example, in Karongi District, we chose the place where French soldiers under ‘Operation Tourquoise’ had camped to symbolise the role of the international community, of not only doing nothing to stop the Genocide, but even those that did come, only gave a hand to the Genocide perpetrators to decimate the Tutsi. With each site, there will be a specific topic for discussion, depending on what the site symbolises.Another clarification I want to make is that it does not mean that people should only start preparations for the commemoration after the flame has been brought to that particular area. All preparations should have started on January 7.Besides, outside the country, our embassies are also actively involved in lighting the flame and taking it across the different cities. Specifically, we chose four sites where it was lit: New York, Washington DC, London and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Other embassies will have similar events.You have for the past few years been encouraging institutions to participate in commemoration activities, especially by having monuments erected in their premises in memory of their employees killed in the Genocide, how far have you gone?We have had positive results in this regard but it is still work in progress. Actually we do not want it to stop at having monuments; we want them fully involved in all activities of commemoration. There are some institutions which still think that these activities are only for government entities, and others which are managed by foreigners who think that these are a preserve of citizens.It is not to say that all foreigners do not participate, no; actually we have a number of foreign-based companies with operations in Rwanda, which are fully participating at all levels, but we need to stay the momentum.Another thing, we encourage people to always make a step further each year. If a monument has been put up this year, for example, with the names of employees killed inscribed on it, make another step the following year, by, say, writing about how each of those employees were killed for future reference.It has been 20 years after the Genocide, how do you assess the welfare of Genocide survivors at the moment?To clearly assess the livelihood of the survivors, it is important to look at the different stages the country went through right from the aftermath of the Genocide. In the Immediate aftermath, the primary concern of the survivors was survival itself.Security was key at that time, where many thought that they would eventually be finished off, and this, especially when you look at the attacks by infiltrators in the late 90s until the country was completely securitised. After this was addressed, the next concern was now how to help the survivors sustain themselves.That is when the Fund for Support for Genocide Survivors was established, to help children go to school, and facilitate provision of other necessities such as shelter and medical attention.So based on that, measures have been put in place for the different problems that came up but I cannot say that all is good, we still have problems; even the houses that were built, some are now dilapidated, plus other problems like children with property bequeathed to them by their parents either taken over by their guardians or, at worst, those guardians have sold them off.Another problem that is now becoming evident is of the survivors getting old, and some do not have family members to look after them, which is why we are encouraging people to look out for such survivors in their communities to help them in any way they can, instead of leaving all the burden to the State.The problems are many but there is political will to address them as they arise. For instance, there are committees that have been set up, right from the Prime Minister’s office to seek solutions to problems faced by survivors.What is the state of genocide ideology currently, given the situation prevalent a few years ago where survivors were being persecuted in their villages mainly during commemoration periods?These problems are still there, though the incidence rate has significantly reduced. The issue of people physically assaulting survivors is not as alarming as before but people still use offensive and derogatory language against survivors; there are such cases in the Office of the Prosecutor-General.Other related cases include people looting from memorial sites. Such actions are tantamount to genocide ideology and I think besides invoking the law to put a stop at this, everyone should play a role to educate these people, and the more we talk about it, the more we bring such people on board toward nation building.Of course, this goes with the problem of Genocide denial, which remains rampant outside the country, mainly propagated by the very people who planned and supervised the Genocide.That is why among the activities we want to embark on is encouraging countries to adopt laws that criminalise the denial and negating of the genocide that was committed against the Tutsi, because we are aware of countries that have in their laws provisions that criminalise the denial of genocide that was committed against the Jewish, the Holocaust.This is a campaign on which we want to work with our embassies overseas.The state of memorial sites has continuously come up in your annual reports, and a casual tour in the country shows some sites that are rundown...This is a major problem whose solution should not be left to the Commission; everyone should play a role in this. In trying to mitigate it, we embarked on a programme to amalgamate the sites so that we remain with few that can be well taken care of.Our plan is to get the remains of the victims in a particular area and put them under one site, and just have monuments in these places. The problem we have encountered is that some people are still reluctant to have their loved ones taken far from where they live, but it is important that we preserve these bodies with the honour they deserve.Another positive development is that districts have started putting maintenance of memorial sites in their performance contracts and people have started looking at these sites as their obligation and not just for the government and the survivors.Some districts have made strides and the sites are well tended. We also have problems where money is released to refurbish the sites and some unscrupulous people take off with the money, or do shoddy work.With such monuments set up in different parts of the world, it will even be easier to counter the efforts of Genocide deniers.Outside Rwanda, besides the three memorial sites in Uganda where people thrown into River Nile ended up on shores of Lake Victoria, we are planning to have monuments in countries like South Africa, where there is a centre dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust and they have earmarked space on the Genocide in Rwanda.There is also a planned monument at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and others in France, and Liverpool in the UK, among other areas, and we shall continue encouraging having more of such.Twenty years after the Genocide, what is your take on the way justice is being delivered?  A lot has been done especially within the country; if you look at the work done by the Gacaca courts, I think we have not only seen justice served at unimaginable rate, it also played a role in fostering reconciliation.At the international level, there has been progress albeit marred by setbacks; we have the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that has convicted people, some of them key masterminds of the Genocide, but it has all not been rosy, we were dissatisfied by some of the rulings.Elsewhere, we have also seen progress whereby some countries have started extraditing fugitives to Rwanda for trial, which was unheard of a few years ago. However, some countries are not at the same pace with the rest.