Rwandan Education Minister Tasks Schools to Intensify Battle Against Genocide Ideology

The Minister of Education in Rwanda, Valentine Uwamariya, says schools should take the lead in fighting genocide ideology and deniers considering that they accommodate a big number of youth that is targeted.

She was speaking at the 28th commemoration event to honour over 8,000 Tutsis who were killed in Petit Séminaire Saint Vincent de Ndera during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The genocide victims in this school include priests, seminary students, employees and thousands of other Tutsi from different areas who had come to seek refuge in Petit Séminaire Saint Vincent de Ndera.

The Education Minister said that the Ndi Umunyarwanda programme is a primary tool which schools should use to prepare a generation with values that build a unified and peaceful country.

Ndi Umunyarwanda programme was initiated in 2013, with an ultimate goal of building a national identity and to foster a Rwandan community that is based on trust and unity.

The programme is inspired by the desire to build a strong, united society after it was torn apart during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

It was initiated as a way to strengthen the solidarity of the people, uphold their moral and spiritual values, as well as make them understand their fundamental rights as Rwandans.

Considering that the regime that planned and executed 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, used schools to spread genocide ideology and divide Rwandans, Uwamariya said the schools should learn a lesson from the history and take a lead in ensuring genocide never happens again.

she said those who are denying the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi are using social media and therefore urged the youth to also use social media in telling the truth about genocide against the Tutsi as a way of fighting against genocide deniers and genocide ideology,

Survivor’s testimony at Petit Séminaire Saint Vincent de Ndera

Adrien Hategekimana is a genocide survivor who survived in Petit Séminaire Saint Vincent de Ndera.

She testified that discrimination against the Tutsi started in schools until 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Hategekimana said that her family would spend many nights in bushes as they were always hunted and tortured as Tutsi.

Hategekimana said that despite having survived, what grieves her most is that she is not aware of the whereabouts of the priest who is her elder brother.

The President of the umbrella body of the survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Ibuka in Gasabo district, Theogene Kabagambire, said that apart from Gisozi memorial site, other sites house over 100,000 genocide victims in Gasabo districts.

Father Pascal Tuyisenge, Father Pascal Tuyisenge, rector of St. Vincent Ndera Minor Seminary said that commemoration is an important activity to learn and preserve genocide history adding that they are set to revamp the memorial site in Ndera.