Sports events on hold for next 7 days

THE 19TH commemoration of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi officially starts today, and there will be no local sports events for the whole week. The next seven days will be to remember victims, including players, coaches, administrators, fans among others, who passed away during the 100-day tragedy that claimed the lives of over a million Rwandans. “We need to honor our families and friends who died in the Genocide against the Tutsis, so we cannot have sports events,” Edward Kalisa, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Sport told Sunday Sport. “We will take time with all federations to remember and we are preparing to have two weeks for that, but we have not yet decided the dates.” Since 1994, the Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa) is one of sporting federations that have never held a Genocide commemoration tournament. Federations that have tried to hold such kind of tournaments despite financial constraints include basketball, volleyball, Karate and handball. Primus National Football League side Mukura Victory Sports is set to organize a memorial tournament to rmember footballers, who were killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. According to Mukura secretary Olivier Mulindahabi, the memorial tournament will be held in either late June or early July. “We are doing everything possible to have this event, but we are yet to agree on the dates because we are still in contention for the two competitions. We plan to use Southern clubs to spice the tournament,” he revealed. Elsewhere, the 2013 Genocide memorial volleyball tournament will be held in May, according to the chairman of the Rwanda Volleyball Federation (FRVB), Gustave Nkurunziza. Under the partnerships of FRVB and Tunisia volleyball federation, the Northern African country is expected to send two teams to spice the Rutsindura tournament. Last year’s edition was never hosted due to financial constraints, but this time round, the local volleyball federation is optimistic funds will be available since they have already started planning early. Basketball used to organize the ‘Never Again’ and Gisembe Memorial Tournament, but due to lack of finances, the tournaments have not been held in the last two years.