Canadian students hail Rwanda’s transformation

URUGWIRO VILLAGE - Visiting Canadian law students have hailed the country’s tremendous transformation after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The 14 person delegation made the remarks yesterday, after visiting and holding talks with President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro. Under their programme SHOUT OUT Canada, the students have been in the country for three weeks to learn about the history of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and the post Genocide efforts and recovery. “We are pleased by Rwanda’s tremendous developments after a short period of time. We can’t believe that Rwanda should be where it is now after what we saw at the Genocide memorial sites and heard from survivors,” said Dane Degenstein, leader of the delegation. He added that as part of their programme, it was important for them to come to Rwanda and visit memorial sites and also hear testimonies from survivors. “We are taking back to Canada the awareness of the Genocide, its history and how important it is to always remember the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi,” he said.Degenstein said that the Head of State answered all of their questions and told them to come back to Rwanda and learn many more things about the country. Faustin Bizmarck Murangwa, a Rwandan member of the delegation, told The New Times that the students visited the country to begin the 2011 reflections on Rwanda programme run by SHOUT OUT Canada. “The group wanted to get first hand information from the President about the Genocide because he was the one who led the forces that stopped it,” he said. “Their aim is to bring this knowledge back to Canada and not only share it with other Canadians, but also work towards positive efforts of Genocide prevention worldwide”. The team met with officials from the National Commission to fight against Genocide (CNLG), the Genocide widows association (AVEGA), the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), and the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP).They also visited several Genocide memorial sites. Ends