Sports scribes set to remember fallen colleagues

The Association of Sports Journalists in Rwanda (AJSPOR) plans to organise a football match between print and electronic media aimed at remembering their colleagues, who were killed during 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi on July 2 at Amahoro national stadium.This one-off match was supposed to be played on May 29 between Primus league archrivals SC Kiyovu and champions Rayon Sports but it was called off due to the inaugural memorial tournament organised by the local football federation on June 5-8, which was won by Rayon, who beat La Jeunesse in the final on penalties.According to AJSPOR officials, names of the sports journalists who were killed in the 1994 atrocities will be revealed on the same day of the match, however, one of the famous names is that of former radio Rwanda’s journalist Viateur Kalinda.The president of the sports journalists association Jean Butoyi, a veteran journalist at the Rwanda National Television, while confirming the match, said, “We are organizing this match as sign to remember our fellow sports journalists, who lost their lives during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.”“Since there were a few newspapers, radio stations and only one television station, it means there were not very many sports journalists then, nonetheless, we have got a few names that we feel it’s very important to remember them,” he told this paper on Tuesday.