Govt names taskforce ahead of 15th Genocide commemorations

For the first time, the government has appointed an inter-ministerial taskforce that will be charged with preparing this year’s commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The taskforce is made up of officials from the Ministries of Information, Culture and the Foreign Affairs, who are tasked with organizing the 15th Genocide commemoration slated for next April. The commemorations will be held under the theme “let us keep alive the memory of Genocide against Tutsi by fighting its revisionism as we build our country.’ According to Louise Mushikiwabo, the Information Minister, the taskforce was mandated by the cabinet to put together all necessary requirements for this commemoration to be ‘special’ with the help of National Commission to Fight Genocide (CNLG). “Our taskforce has been formed to speed up the preparations and gather the requirements at the national level,” Mushikiwabo reiterated. The week long commemoration which begins on April 7 will be held at national level at Nyanza Memorial Centre in Kicukiro, while its conclusion will be at Rebero Memorial Centre. A Cabinet meeting last year named the Nyanza memorial as the symbol of the failure of the International Community to stop the Genocide in which over a million people lost their lives within only 100 days. The thousands of people who died at the Nyanza Hill were killed after being abandoned by UN troops at the ETO Kicukiro, a technical school. “We thought of Nyanza to portray the failure of UNAMIR forces which left the victims in the hands of Interahamwe when they believed they were in safe hands,” said Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the CNLG Executive Secretary. The taskforce will seek more than 4 billion francs for the refurbishment of the Nyanza site and expropriate the people living around the area. High profile personalities expected to be invited to witness the commemoration include the wife of former British Premier Tony Blair. The commemoration is planned to be held in all parts of the country at national level to local levels. “We are expecting many people including the foreign media houses including CNN, AL JAZEERA and many more to attend,” Mushikiwabo added. The commemoration will also take place in other countries through Rwandan embassies organized by Rwandans in the Diaspora who have since launched what they called the One Dollar Campaign’ that is mobilizing funds to help survivors of the Genocide. Ends