Call for assistance of Genocide survivors 

ARUSHA - Hundreds of mourners on Tuesday turned up in Tanzania’s northern town of Arusha to join the world in commemorating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, with a call for generous support towards the ‘One dollar campaign’.

The gathering at the Naura Springs hotel included the Arusha Regional Commissioner Isidori Leka Shirima, senior officials of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), officials of the East African Community (EAC), the African Union Court and the Rwandan Diaspora. 

The meeting, marked by a candle lighting moment highlighted the need to support survivors of the 1994 Genocide.

"It is the moral duty of each of us to ensure that we do not become indifferent when those children survivors of the 1994 Genocide languish in abject poverty, ignorance and diseases,” the Special Government Representative to the ICTR Aloys Mutabingwa said.

He informed the congregation that there are countries that still protect Genocide fugitives and warned that the long arm of the law shall reach them.

"All those are part of a joint-criminal enterprise that continues to perpetuate genocide across borders. They have a serious case to answer and one day, I mean one day the arm of justice shall reach them!” he added.

Mutabingwa further explained that there is a group of people who still remain indifferent to what happened in Rwanda in 1994.

He noted that commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis makes the whole world remember and regret its indifference and the shame caused by their inaction at the height of the massacres. 

The ICTR Prosecutor Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow said that those who negate the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were wasting their time because legally, the ICTR Appeals chamber fully acknowledges that it took place.

He added that this did not therefore require any evidence from his office and described it as ‘matter of common knowledge’.

Jallow reiterated an earlier call made by Mutabingwa saying that Genocide fugitives still at large can never escape justice because even if ICTR closes, there will be mechanisms in place that will ensure they face justice.

The Chairperson of the Rwandan Diaspora in Arusha, Leonie Rutanga, said that the ‘One dollar Campaign’ had kicked off with generous contributions from Rwandans and friends of Rwanda and that the proceeds would help in the construction of a hostel and training centre to accommodate over 500 children.

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