The weeeklong Commemoration of Genocide against Tutsis ended Thursday, with a tribute to the politicians killed during mass murder campaign in 1994.
Twelve personalities were buried in Rebero a hill overlooking Kigali, including Agathe Uwilingiyimana who was Prime Minister at the outbreak of the genocide. Fierce opponent of the former regime of the then President Juvenal Habyarimana, she and her husband were killed in the early hours of 7 April 1994.
“These politicians were killed because they did not accept the policy of discrimination and division, and for fighting the ideology of genocide. We remember their good example by distancing themselves from evil and rejecting injustice among Rwandans,” said Rwandan Senate President Kalinda François-Xavier at the ceremony.
Kalinda reminded that for anyone who try to bring back the evil politics of hatred and the ideology of genocide will not be tolerated and Rwandans will defeat them
Commenting on the commemoration, Rwanda Minister of National Unity Jean Damascène Bizimana recalled that the genocide against Tutsis was caused by bad governance supported by well-known politicians who were then affiliated from extremist political parties.
“Tutsis have been discriminated against from education, the properties of Tutsi refugees have been plundered and those who have not fled the country have been persecuted,” he said.
In addition Bizimana observed that this bad policy was reinforced by the then ruling political parties until they planned and executed the genocide, or even killed politicians who did not support this inflammatory policy.
“The politics that divide Rwandans no longer have a place in our country,” he said.
The commemoration-Kwibuka 29 starts with a national mourning week from April 7-13 and proceeds until July 3 with commemoration activities.
On 7 April, Rwanda President Paul Kagame together with the First Lady Jeannette Kagame lighted the flame of remembrance at Kigali Genocide memorial and laid wreath at the mass graves in tribute to more than 250,000 victims who lay to rest at this memorial.
CU/abj/APA