GASABO - The obligation to ensure security of Genocide survivors should be for every Rwandan, the Minister for Trade and Industry has said. Monique Nsanzabaganwa said residents were better placed to gauge security threats to their neighbors than law-enforcement organs which are often distant from the grassroots. She was speaking over the weekend during a night vigil at Kacyiru Primary School held in commemoration of the over one million Tutsis killed during the 1994 Genocide.

"It is neighbours who are normally in the know whenever there is a threat in their area, and not the Government,” she told hundreds of people who turned up for the occasion.

She said the continued harassment and killings of survivors emanate from the fact that genocide ideology was still prevalent in the society, adding that the population should take a leading role to fight it.

She was speaking just two days after an attack at Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre killed a policeman and injured another one.

A student of Kigali Institute of Management (KIM) also died on the same day (Thursday) when a speeding vehicle rammed into a roadside procession of people who had just returned from honouring Genocide victims buried near the institute along Kigali-Kayonza road.

Besides those two incidents, Ibuka, the umbrella of Genocide survivors, says that at least nine survivors have been killed since the beginning of this year. Most of their killers are said to be Genocide suspects who fear they could testify against them.

Nsazabaganwa urged the population to embrace community policing and to report to authorities people with ill-motives.

The minister said hate should be replaced with unity and reconciliation among the Rwandan people and urged religions to help spread the massage since many Rwandans believe in God.

She said that while survivors recalled how they were being persecuted and the atrocious conditions in which their beloved ones were killed, the perpetrators should reflect on their crimes with remorse.

Nsanzabaganwa said there was need to roundly deal with people harboring genocide ideology.

The country officially ended a one-week Genocide commemoration period on Sunday although Ibuka stretches the period through July 4 – the date when the former Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA)  rebels took Kigali and officially halted the Genocide orchestrated by the former regime of Juvenal Habyarimana.

The function was among others attended by Cabinet Affairs Minister Dr. Charles Murigande, and MPs Francis Kaboneka and Emmanuel Mugabowindekwe.

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