This year’s National Reconciliation week is set to begin today with various activities all aimed at creating awareness on unity and reconciliation in the country.

According to the Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, the Executive Secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), the week will also be a time to look back and see what the country has achieved as far as reconciliation and unity is concerned.

"The reconciliation week is a time to recollect and look back at where we have come from and see what we have so far achieved 15 years since we began this journey,” said Habyarimana in a press conference that he jointly addressed with the head of Gacaca jurisdictions.

According to Habyarimana, Rwandans in the Diaspora will also organise debates on unity and reconciliation in embassies during the week.

"We have organised a community-based initiative of helping at least one family within a community and this family will be chosen by members of a particular community,” said Habyrimana.

He said that the help to be extended will vary according to the needs.

Speaking at the press briefing, the Executive Secretary of the Gacaca Courts, Domitilla Mukantaganzwa, said that her organ joined the drive because Gacaca courts act as a reconciliation factor.

"Gacaca has had a very big role in promoting the reconciliation process in Rwanda because it helped those who killed to come face to face with the survivors and through this process, Genocide perpetrators have been able to seek forgiveness from survivors,” said Mukantaganzwa.

The government has given the Gacaca Commission until the end of this year to complete its activities.

Mukantaganzwa said that 116 sector Gacaca courts out of the 416 around the country have since finished their work.

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