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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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