Genocide: Never again, never forget

A ‘Walk to Remember’ is held by youth on every genocide commemoration. Photo/FILE 

By Edmund Kagire Rwanda Today

In Summary

• April 7 will kick off the commemoration week which will end on April 13 at Rebero Memorial Site, where politicians killed during the genocide were buried.
• Rwandan government dedicated the first quarter of the year to preparations of the commemoration

Rwanda is set to host several high ranking delegations from across the world, who will be in the country to take part in the 20th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Several countries including the US, Belgium, UK and Kenya are sending high powered delegations to the April 7 event in Kigali. Several African heads of state are expected to attend the event which is seen as a major milestone for the country. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta is among those who have confirmed their attendance.

According to the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), which is spearheading the preparations along with the President’s Office, the 20th commemoration is set to be different from previous events.

The Rwandan government dedicated the first quarter of the year to preparations of the commemoration, which coincided with other key milestones, including the United Nations eventually making “the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi” the official reference to that dark episode in the country’s history.

READ: UN decides it is officially ‘genocide against Tutsi’

“Being the 20th occasion, this year we started commemoration activities early with the flame of hope which was lit on January 7 and has been going around the country. It will return where it was lit, at Kigali Memorial Centre, on April 7,” said Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the executive secretary of CNLG.

Several scholars are also set to arrive in the country to take part in the International Conference on Genocide, which takes place between April 4 and 6, ahead of the official commemoration event of April 7.

President Paul Kagame is expected to light the 100 days flame at the Kigali Memorial Centre before addressing the nation and visiting delegations at Amahoro National Stadium. He will later take part in the “Walk to Remember.”

READ: Remembering the lost ones, 20 years on

April 7 will kick off the commemoration week which will end on April 13 at Rebero Memorial Site, where politicians killed during the genocide were buried.

US President Barack Obama last week announced the presidential delegation which will attend the 20th Commemoration led by Dr Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

The delegation will also include the US ambassador to Rwanda Donald W. Koran, Karen Bass, Member of the United States House of Representatives, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Stephen J. Rapp, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and Russell Feingold, Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Other high powered delegations will include the Belgian delegation, which will be led by the country’s deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders. It had been earlier reported that Mr Reynders, who is also the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, would not be welcome to Rwanda, over his strong criticism of the government.

READ: Belgian Deputy Prime Minister may skip genocide anniversary

Mr Mucyo called on all Rwandans and the global community in general to be part of the commemoration week amid fears that the momentum to remember what happened in 1994 was slowing.