16.10.08 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE - RWANDA PLANS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENOCIDE NEXT YEAR

Arusha, 16 October 2008 (FH) - Rwanda intends to mark the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the genocide committed against Tutsis in 1994 by hosting an international conference, reports Thursday the Rwandan pro-governmental newspaper, The New Times.

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"The conference will take place next year shortly after the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the Tutsi genocide in 1994; it is expected that it will be held in the districts of Nyanza (southern Rwanda) or Kicukiro" (Kigali), added the newspaper.

"It now remains to the Council of Ministers to decide the place where the conference will be held", writes The New Times, which quotes Jean de Dieu Mucyo, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide.

Within the framework of the preparations of the 15th commemoration of the genocide, the commission held Monday in Kigali a consultation meeting with representatives of the presidency, the senate, the government and civil society.

According to The New Times, this 15th commemoration will be especially dedicated to the activities of support for survivors of the genocide and the fight against the genocide ideology in Rwanda and in the region.

The National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide was created by the Rwandan government in March. In addition to Mucyo, it includes 7 other members, including the current executive secretary of the National Service of Gacaca Courts (SNJG), Mrs. Domitilla Mukantaganzwa.

According to the Rwandan constitution, this commission "is an autonomous public institution in particular charged to organize a permanent reflexion on the genocide, its consequences and the strategies of its prevention and its eradication".

It has also the mandate "to put in place a research and documentation centre on the genocide; to plead the cause of the survivors of the genocide inside as well as outside the country; to conceive and coordinate all the activities in order to perpetuate the memory of the 1994 genocide".

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