04.07.11 - FRANCE/RWANDA - FRENCH NATIONALS TO SUPPORT GENOCIDE SURVIVORS' DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Arusha, July 4, 2011 (FH) - A group of French nationals, currently on a tour in Rwanda, Sunday announced their plan to implement a development package worth Rfw80 million meant to support genocide survivors in Bisesero, Karongi District in Western Province.

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Rwandan daily newspaper, the New Times, reported on Monday that the support includes a fully functional nursery and primary school with extra classrooms to cater for the nine-year basic education programme and 170 cows as a support to the Government's Girinka initiative in the area.

Dr. Anne Marie Truc, the head of the delegation from Southern French town of Dieulefit, is quoted in an interview as expressing the group's commitment to ensure that the survivors lead a decent life.

 "We will do everything possible to help Rwandans to recover from the effects of the horrible massacres of 1994," Truc is quoted as saying.

The donation comes at the back of widespread accusations that France, under former president Francois Mitterand, aided the Rwandan extremist government as it killed its own people during the genocide.

In Bisesero, French troops, under Operation Turquoise, are accused of assisting militias in killing of Tutsis who had managed to resist earlier attacks from Interahamwe militia

Meanwhile, lawyers, under the auspices of Kigali Bar Association, over the weekend visited genocide survivors in Rwabicuma and Nyabisozi sectors of Nyanza District in Southern Province and donated 10 exotic cows to them.

The New Times quotes Bar's representatives saying the cows are expected to improve the living conditions of many needy survivors in the area.

FK/GF

© Hirondelle News Agency