UK students to honour ’94 Genocide victims

Students from Hampton School and Humpton Community College in the United Kingdom (UK) have decided to mark the 15th Anniversary of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda by collecting people’s views on ‘why should we remember what happened to the victims,’ The New Times has learnt. The children have set up a website (http://www.whyshouldweremember.org/) that serves as a medium for respondents as they try to collect at least 8,000 answers for the question ‘why should we remember’ what happened to the genocide victims. “We’re trying to collect as many responses as possible and will pass each one onto survivors of the genocide to prove that they are not forgotten. Our aim is to collect 8,000 answers…one for every hundred men, women and children who were murdered in 1994,” the pupils wrote on the website. According to their project’s website, they had received responses from people in twelve countries around the world until yesterday. Some of the respondents are famous people in the UK like the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and former-Prime Minister Tony Blair. “We should remember so that we do not repeat. We know humankind has the capacity to do great good and also great evil. When we forget the evil, we run the risk of learning the lesson again. And we should remember also to honour the victims. Each was a person. Each life was sacred; each a human tragedy and each had a family, loved ones and friends. “Each victim represents opportunities missed and talents wasted. Each one matters and since lives were taken just because each was of one tribe or nation it is right to make their collective loss also a matter of remembrance,” Tony Blair responded. The pupils claim to have received responses of people from the UK, Norway, the USA, France, Spain, Rwanda, South Africa and Australia. “Thank you to everyone that has contributed…please do encourage your friends and colleagues to respond,” they urged through the website. The 1994 Genocide against Tutsis claimed more than a million lives. Preparations to mark the 15th commemoration of the genocide are now underway in Rwanda and it will be particularly dedicated to the activities of support for survivors of the genocide and the fight against the genocide ideology, revealed the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide. Ends