The Campaign Against Genocide Museum was officially opened this week to coincide with festivities to celebrate Rwanda Patriotic Front’s (RPF-Inkotanyi) 30th anniversary.

The museum is a tribute the 600 gallant members of RPA’s 3rd Battalion who had been tasked with the protection of RPF politicians who were supposed to join a broad-based transitional government that was supposed to be installed in early 1994.

The museum is situated at CND, the current location National Assembly building where the 3rd Battalion was based.

To really understand the extraordinary feat accomplished by the RPF protection battalion, it was completely surrounded by no less than six elite military installations; Kanombe Para-commando Battalion next to the airport, the GP (presidential guard battalion) just across the road, Camp Kami, the Gendarmerie headquarters in Kacyiru and two elevated military positions on Rebero hill and Mont Kigali.

The 3rd Battalion managed to hold off the enemy and at the same time saving lives until reinforcements arrived from the north, having had to punch through Kigali’s defenses in a perilous operation.

Visiting the Campaign against Genocide Museum takes one back 24 years; real life-like sculptures of various operations and a step-by-step description of the rescue operations, especially around Kigali.

The museum has a lot to teach the current generation of youth, the same age bracket as most of the 600 holed up at CND; determination and purpose can overcome whatever is thrown at you. That museum has a very deep message it sends and it would do the youth some good by paying it a visit and learning that they have it in them to either succeed or fail. It is their choice