NUR students and staff pay tribute to genocide victims

Students and staff of NUR-Kigali Campus visited Kigali Genocide Memorial located at Gisozi, Gasabo District in Kigali City.

The visit was preceded by a walk to remember-a journey that started from Camp-Kigali located in the middle of the Kigali City to Gisozi located in Gasabo District about 8 Kilometers away.

According to NUR, the main of this visit was to commemorate the victims of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, but more so, the visit was also important for students to understand more Genocide in order to strongly avoid anything that could cause its happening again.

On their arrival at Kigali Genocide Memorial, staff and students paid tribute to the victims of 1994 Tutsis buried in the mass graves at the site.

They observed one minute of silence in honor of the victims and shortly after they were taken on a tour and were shown the various components of Kigali Genocide Memorial.

They got explanations of the history of Rwanda from the pre-colonial period to the genocide against the Tutsi. During the tour, it was observed that the Genocide against the Tutsi was the result of bad governance caused by the colonial policy of ’divide and rule’ which caused ethnic discrimination based on bare facts and ungrounded reasons that were in favor of the colonialists at the expense of Rwandans.

Dr. Rose Gasibirege, the Director of NUR-Kigali Campus said: “The purpose of our visit to Gisozi memorial site is to understand the history of our country. Lecturers, students and all other people working in NUR- Kigali Campus should be able to realize the cruelty and aftermath of genocide on our society at the end to guard against anything that might result in genocide,” said Gasibirege.

Mfitimana Venuste, president of Journalism and Communication Students’ Association at the National University of Rwanda said that the media had a strong involvement in the wrongs that were committed and misled Rwandans to committing Genocide against the Tutsi and now the media has the intention to restore this through good practices.

“The same forces that the media used to destroy our country should be used in rebuilding it to achieve the happiness of Rwandans,” he said.

He added that those who visit the memorial sites have a duty to act as ambassadors to make the history of the genocide, its ideology and cruelty understandable to those who do not grasp it.