Arusha: The East African Community Secretariat is exploring a possibility of having a Commemoration of Genocide Against Tutsi on 7th April of every year as an EAC day for it to be observed by EAC Partner States, Organs, and Institutions as any other EAC days and given commemoration budget in the EAC Annual Budgets.
Speaking during the the commemoration at the EAC Secretariat on behalf of the EAC Secretary General, EAC Deputy Secretary General, Hon Andrea Ariik Aguer Malueth said that a proper request will be very soon tabled to the Council for consideration as EAC set to take a front role as the region to make sure that what happened in Rwanda in 1994 never happens again anywhere in region.
He disclosed that in an effort to show solidarity with the Government and people of Rwanda to commemorate Genocide Against Tutsi, the EAC Heads of State Summit erected a Genocide Monument in the EAC Gardens at the EAC Headquarters in memory of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Furthermore, the EAC Secretariat has marked 7th to 13th April each year as silent week in the EAC Calendar of Activities.
“We are going to lay strategies to ensure that the genocide vice is uprooted from our region, through discussions and reflections on the dangers of genocide ideology and its denial.’’
He commended the Republic of Rwanda for tremendous strides that have exceeded expectations making the impossible became possible and the unexpected became a reality where unity and reconciliation is being realized in a very convincing and highly significant level.
The Deputy Secretary General underscored the importance of the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal with certain unalienable rights that include the right to life and no one has the right to take it away as it was done 30 years ago from the innocent men and women of Rwanda.
On her part, the Arusha District Commissioner, Hon Emmanuela Kaganda noted that genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda was a tragedy not only to Rwanda as a country but to humanity as a whole.
“With the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, the entire humanity was put to test and the sanity of human nature was put into serious doubts,”
She said 30 years may seem like a long time but surely those who went through the genocide both as victims and/or survivors continue to suffer unbearable pain of remembering their loved ones who perished and vividly remembering those terrible moments they went through as if they happened a fortnight ago.
“I therefore call upon the international community in general and the EAC countries in particular to work together at different levels to fight against all forms of genocide ideology or any slightest signal of its kind”
Mr. Louis Uwimana, EAC Laison Officer from the Republic of Rwanda underscored the Rwandan commitment to continue sensitizing the international community to put in place laws that criminalize genocide and genocide ideology and its collaborating with national and foreign partners in the fight against denial and revisionism of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
The Chairman of Rwandan Diaspora (Arusha and Moshi), Eng. Murenzi Daniel informed the commemorators that after 1994, the Rwandan community abroad embarked on a journey of nation rebuilding and promotion of peace and reconciliation with the support from the government of Rwanda.
The Commemoration brought together a broad spectrum of stakeholders including representatives from various religious groups, the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR), the African Union Advisory Board Against Corruption (AUABC) UN-MICT, and students from various universities and secondary schools in Arusha, and EAC staff. (End).