SOUTHERN PROVINCE

NYAMAGABE - A group of visiting Canadian parliamentarians on Friday paid a visit to the Murambi Genocide Memorial site to honour the over 50,000 victims buried there.

The MPs are members of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association, a group of about 100 lawmakers.

"It is important to honour the victims if one cares about people’s dignity,” said Raynell Andreychuk of the Canadian Senate. "It is horrific what Rwandans went through.”

The six parliamentarians who were in Rwanda after visiting Kenya and Burundi, said they want to better understand the East African Community.

Witnessing the mummified bodies of Genocide victims at the centre added something to their understanding of the 1994 Tutsi Genocide, said the parliamentarians.

Raynell who led the delegation said that most Canadians knew about the Genocide from the media and it was a shock because they couldn’t understand how and why it happened.

The Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association was established in 2003, and its members seek to promote democracy and good governance on the African continent.

"They need to have first-hand information on the Genocide and we hope they will help us trace the suspects of the Genocide,” said Senator Valens Munyabagisha who accompanied the parliamentarians to Murambi.

Munyabagisha, who leads the Senate standing committee on Foreign Affairs Cooperation and Security, said that some Canadians don’t have a good understanding of what happened in Rwanda in 1994 and they don’t believe Romeo Dallaire when he recounts the events.

Dallaire, a Canadian Senator, was the Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) which was deployed in the country during the Genocide.

François Rusanganwa, the chief guide at Murambi said that the parliamentarians will be important messengers to tell the world that Genocide suspects still at large should be apprehended and extradited to Rwanda for trial.

Rwanda has continued to call on the Canadian government, just like many other countries, to extradite fugitives that are believed to be on Canadian territory.

According to the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit, at least five masterminds of the Genocide were confirmed to be in Canada by the end of last year.

They include Leon Mugesera, an academic living in Quebec City, former politicians Pierre Celestin Halindintwari, Evariste Bicamumpaka, Gaspard Ruhumuriza, and Vincent Ndamage.

Ends