Unite Rwandans, religious leaders urged

Religious leaders play a leading role in promoting unity in society, Pastor Antoine Rutayisire, the Vice President of The National Commission for Genocide (CNLG) has said. He made the remarks during a two-day workshop organised by CNLG in partnership with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) at a Kigali Hotel on Thursday. He added that the country was deeply torn apart during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and survivors need a message of hope. “We have to unite all Rwandans and preach the message of unity and forgiveness between survivors and those who wronged them,” Rutayisire said. “Religion is a unifying factor that Rwandans can find as a common ground since many survivors go to the same church with those who killed their loved ones,” Rutayisire said. He added that religious leaders have completely changed and will never go back to the poor ideology that fueled seeds of divisionism among Rwandans. “We castigate that divisionism ideology of the past and we are committed in promoting unity among our people,” Rutayisiye added. The Mufti of Rwanda, Sheikh Saleh Habimana, welcomed the idea of various religious groups working together to unify the country. “We should take part in helping people who still live with the trauma left behind by the Genocide,” Habimana said. During the workshop, a documentary was screened, showing the work that CNLG and NURC had done to help genocide survivors reconcile with people who killed the families. Ends