Commemorating Genocide victims is a mark of nobility

AT THE beginning of this year, the company human resources manager asked us to submit our leave schedules for the New Year, so that she can plan ahead for the next 12 months. Her request is not different from those made by people in her position in other institutions within the country, at every beginning of the year. Now you may be wondering where I am headed with this banter… Not long after she made her request, I met Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the Executive Secretary for the National Commission for the Fight against the Genocide for an interview. He told me that some people make prior arrangements to ensure that their leave days coincide with the seven days of national morning, observed every year between April 7 and 13. This period, locally known as Cyunamo, is always characterised by a sombre atmosphere in the country with commemoration activities and night vigils in different villages and these are the activities that dominate the night life during this period. Mucyo said that some of these people opt to be out of the country during this period, because they do not want to be here during the ‘boring’ period, when there is only mourning and literally no ‘life’. This was not the first time I was hearing of this, as an expatriate acquaintance of mine once told me that this is the time he gets to sneak out of the country, either to Europe or to one of the neighbouring countries, to escape this ‘lifeless’ period. Of course you hear such once in a while but for someone to go an extra mile to plan this ahead in their annual calendar shows how much work still needs to be done in ensuring that the national mourning period is given the honour it deserves rather than being seen as an inconvenience. According to Mucyo, the fact that the government decided to embark on a three-month preparatory campaign ahead of April 7 is partly to bring on board such people, who still think that mourning for the one million innocent souls lost is a preserve for the government and the survivors. It is a duty for every one to pay homage to the Genocide victims, and for each to actively participate in the different activities that are organised as part of the commemoration period. At the time of the interview, government had just launched a three-month preparatory exercise, to precede the 20th commemoration, come April 7. According to Mucyo, this period will involve activities not only limited to reaching out to Genocide survivors and public debates on what role everyone can play in uprooting the Genocide ideology. It will also provide an opportunity to bring on board every Rwandan citizen to embrace the commemoration. Of course, much progress has been made in honouring the departed, but we can only do better, and also continue to take this crusade out of the country, to the international community. It is equally a good initiative that the Walk to Remember is being held in more countries this time around. According to organisers, the Walk to Remember will take place in 15 countries, which means that global recognition of this heinous crime is increasingly spreading. The momentum should be equally sustained, to make sure that the genocide monuments, which Mucyo said discussions are underway to have them set up in different world capitals, are established swiftly. We should therefore make good use of these three months, to make sure we play our respective roles in honoring the victims, be it by reaching out to the survivors, mainly the vulnerable or the contributing towards proper maintenance of the Genocide memorial sites. The writer is an editor at The New Times Publications Ltd

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Commemorating Genocide victims is a mark of nobility