07.04.09 - GENOCIDE/EAC - EAC: RWANDA GENOCIDE SHOULD NEVER RECUR

Arusha, 7 April, 2009 (FH)-The Secretary General of East African Community (EAC), Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, has said that the 1994 Rwanda genocide should never happen anywhere and it should serve a lesson that violence was not solution in resolving conflicts.

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In a statement issued Tuesday on the occasion of the commemoration of the 15th genocide anniversary, the EAC Chief  said that the magnitude and severity of what befell in Rwanda  evokes deep emotions and begs many questions. Rwanda is a member of the EAC, a regional economic bloc. Other members are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.

"Let us all learn today that Rwanda genocide represents only one thing that we all ought to realize; and this is that this was a road that we must never travel ever again."

Ambassador Mwapachu saluted the Rwandan people for the courage and great dignity demonstrated in rebuilding  their nation in post-genocide days.

"Both, the Rwanda genocide and the reconstruction that we are commemorating, sends a message not only to Rwanda, but to the international community as a whole as to the inadmissibility of violent recourse to the management of human affairs," the EAC boss stated.

The April-July slaughter, one of the worst human tragedies of the 21st century, claimed lives of about 800, 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

SC/GF

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