17.12.07 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE - PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR ACTION AGAINST GENOCIDE IDEOLOGY IN SCHOOLS

Kigali, 17 December 2007 (FH) - The Rwandan parliamentarians are concerned that there are some negative forces that are spreading the obnoxious genocide ideology in secondary schools, according to state-owned Radio Rwanda.

 The United Nations estimates that at about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the April-July 1994 genocide.

Radio Rwanda reported that out of about thirty schools visited by a special parliamentary committee, 26 were encountered with the problem, which notably manifests itself by the marginalization of students who survived the 1994 genocide.

The observed group included school officials, teachers and students.

The parliamentarians have urged the governmental authorities, including concerned ministers, to visit the schools and help to reverse the unacceptable trend.

The Minister for Education, Jeanne d' Arc Mujawamariya, has promised to act against the teachers conveying the genocide ideology.

"A teacher conveying the obnoxious genocide ideology should be immediately removed from the profession and charged", stressed Mrs Mujawamariya.

Rwanda's government under President Paul Kagame instituted a law against divisionism and sectarianism in December 2001 to encourage reconciliation and unity in the tiny central African country.

SRE/MM/SC
© Hirondelle News Agency

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