SPORTS AND CULTURE minister Protais Mitali has urged residents of Nyanza district to stand and speak out against Genocide denial.He was at the weekend speaking in Nyanza district at a commemoration event for the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at the district’s playground.Mourners laid wreaths at Gahondo and Kavumu memorial sites in Busasamana sector before a Walk to Remember, which traversed the town. A requiem mass was also held in honour of those who perished during the Genocide.Speaking at the commemoration event, Mitali told the mourners that revisionits continue to spread wrong information about the planning and execution of the Genocide ‘for their personal interests’.“Those individuals pretend to be intellectually smarter and want to write our history according to their wishes,” Mitali said. “We must stand firmly to defend the truth. Let the Genocide be described as such and nothing else.”Minister Mitali said that 19 years after the Genocide, Rwandans have registered tremendous progress.“No one will hamper our efforts towards building a strong nation,” he said. “We shall continue to strive for self-reliance.”He called on the public to keep extending support to vulnerable Genocide survivors, especially old widows and orphans, so as to help them improve their living conditions.Prof Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, the president of Ibuka, the umbrella organisation of survivors’ umbrella, said 19 years down the road, survivors have gone a long way in rebuilding their lives.He expressed optimism that even the challenges that survivors still face will be tackled.Meanwhile, hundreds of mourners gathered at Murambi memorial site, in Nyamagabe district, to pay respects to the more than 50,000 Tutsis who perished there.Speaking at the event, senator Jean Damascene Bizimana urged the public to keep championing for the truth about the Genocide.
