Beware Genocide, East African Community Warned
Saved under CENTRAL AFRICA, EASTERN AFRICA, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, News, Rwanda, Tanzania
Tags: Arusha International Conference Centre, Arusha Regional Commissioner Mrisho Gambo, Cyprien Ntaryamira, EAC, East African Community, Genocide, President Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume, Rwandese Patriotic Front, Tutsi, Zanzibar
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The East African Community (EAC) citizens have been advised to be on the look out for symptoms of looming genocide and take the preventive measures.
Arusha Regional Commissioner Mrisho Gambo said the region should learn from the horrific killings that took place in Rwanda in 1994 during which nearly one million people got killed.
“The EAC must be at the forefront of preventing conflicts and fighting against genocide ideology,” he said here on Friday in his remarks during the day to commemorate the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
He said mass murders, extermination and the genocide experienced in Rwanda should be a wake-up call for the region to contain symptoms that could lead to its replica. Every April 7, while Tanzanians are marking the assassination of the first Zanzibar President Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume, Rwandans commemorate the beginning of manslaughter which shook the world in the 1990s.
The killings in Rwanda were triggered by the assassination of the country’s president, Mr Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6, alongside his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira.
The two leaders and their officials were heading for Kigali from the Rwanda peace mediation talks in Dar es Salaam. On leaving Dar es Salaam, they took the same plane which was shot down just as it was about to land.
Mr Gambo said it was a pity that the international community failed to stop and prevent “this horrible event in the history of mankind” in which about one million innocent men, women and children lost their lives.
“We have to ensure that it will never happen again whether in our region or elsewhere in the world,” he said, further noting the international community should not only fight genocide ideology by genocide denial.
He implored on the EAC states to put in place policies geared towards preventing conflicts, cautioning more specifically on adoption of measures to combat the spread of genocide ideology and its denial in our community.
He called on the EAC and the African Union member countries to always find solutions that would prevent and stop conflicts that could lead to violence and mass murders.
Speaking during the commemoration held at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC), the chairperson of the Rwanda Diaspora – Arusha, Mr Daniel Murenzi, said the Rwandese appreciated the sympathy from the international community over the tragic events of 1994.
He affirmed that the genocide was stopped by the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) combatants and that thereafter, the government which took over embarked on a journey of nation building.
