No Genocide that has happened without a coordinated plan and involvement of government machinery, James Smith, the founder and chief executive of Aegis Trust, has said.

As well as the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that was systematically planned and executed by the genocidal regime of Juvenal Habyarimana, the 1941 Holocaust was the systematic extermination of Jews, by Nazi Germany and its allies, while the 1975 Cambodian Genocide was perpetrated by the Communist Party of Khmer Rouge regime, among others, he said.

"Genocide has always been systematically planned and executed by a few leaders after instilling hatred into a section of the population. If any form of violence is not prevented at an early stage it can lead to the elimination of an entire generation of a society,” Smith said.

Smith was speaking, yesterday, at the opening of the weeklong Peace Week and Ubumuntu International Youth Conference at Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Gisozi.

The conference has brought together about 100 young peace-builders from 16 countries across the world, to learn about genocide and its effects, post-genocide reconstruction, and genocide prevention.

It seeks to inspire and challenge participants to become peacemakers in their communities, with the main target being the youth.

"Genocide never happens spontaneously; it never happens in a day…. governments make laws and people follow them,” Smith added.

In the Holocaust case, he described how 45 per cent of physicians at that time joined the Nazi ranks, and were asked to sterilise Jews from hospital in a bid to eliminate them.

"In Germany, it begun in hospitals as soon as the Nazi went into power in 1933; with doctors sterilising people, then in gas chambers and it went on to become an open mass murder. These were professional people whom you don’t expect to do something like that.

"The ability for a government to ask people to kill a section of people has been there before, it is up to us to stand up as and speak out against any form of segregation and violence before it turns out to become targeted mass killing,” Smith said.

He told The New Times that the importance of bringing young people from different countries together is to bring about social change; to share ideas, develop passion for change, remind elders in power of the failures of the past and stand up against violence.

"For so long we have said, "never again,” but genocide and mass killings continue to happen around the world.

Slogans are good, but we have heard all that and are tired of seeing violence continue to happen. Raising awareness through the world’s next generation (youth) can bring about sustainable solution,” Smith said.

"We have to work together to end violence, if we don’t we will see people being radicalised and becoming more violent.”

Jean Claude Nkundwa, a Burundian peace activist, said the conference was an opportunity for Burundians to create networks of like-minded people and advocate for peace and unity in their country.

"We have the power to be heard, to raise our voice and ask pertinent questions and to compel policy-makers and governments to end violence and the cause of the violence in any society, including Burundi,” Nkundwa said.

"The international community should listen and respond to us because there is danger and we are under an imminent threat of genocide.”

Burundi has been involved in turmoil since April last year, resulting in the killing of more than 450 people with hundreds of thousands fleeing the country.

Marc Gwamaka, the national youth coordinator at Aegist Trust, said the conference challenges the youth to become active citizens in their countries, and become peace builders.

"If the masses choose not to support conflicts, they will never happen. We would like to see the youth become active in determining the course of peace in their communities. We want youth who will say ‘no’ to any form of violence, and to refuse to be used by politicians by choosing to be ambassadors of unity and peace,” Gwamaka said.

Maya Pecanac, a lawyer from Bosnian and Herzegovina, said the youth should look forward to how best they can actively prevent any form of violence, as well as build unity and reconciliation in post-conflict countries.

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