The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) Dr Jean Baptiste Bizimana yesterday delivered a lecture to over 500 police officers and spoke at length about the preparation of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, right from the colonial period to its execution and its current effects and the role of security organs in prevention and handling effects of the Genocide.
Dr Bizimana’s lecture to officers at the Rwanda National Police (RNP) General Headquarters in Kacyiru, was in line with the 24th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi where he pointed out that the Genocide affected all Rwandans and “to overcome the effects will take a long time though there is need for collective efforts.”
He shared with them the background, preparation, and execution of the Genocide and emphasized on how the genocidal regime invested in brainwashing, training and equipping the killers.
Dr Bizimana focused mainly ten stages of Genocide which include, classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, extermination and denial and how they manifested during the preparation and execution of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Bizimana spoke about how hatred for Tutsis was institutionalized in a way that it was tutored in Military and Gendarme of then.
The Genocide against the Tutsi was perpetrated with unprecedented violence and took the lives of 1,074,017. According to Dr Bizimana, “Prior to the Genocide, Felicien Kabuga, who is among the chief financers of the Genocide purchased 581 tons of machetes and this is why during the genocide, all killers had new machetes.”
“Today we are facing cases of denial, after the physical extermination, comes the attempt to revise history and erase the memory of the victims. Denial is never done out of ignorance; to deny facts as obvious as the attempted extermination of a people, requires premeditation and persistence,” Dr Bizimana told law enforcers.
During the function, Silas Ntamfurayishyari a former Rwandan military (ex-FAR) who is now a Protector of Friendship Pact (Umurinzi w’Igihango) shares his testimony on how, at the height of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, risked his life to hide or abet in helping Tutsis flee or escape death.
During that time, Ntamfurayishyari, who a Corporal in the Ex-FAR detailed how smuggled Tutsis out of Rwanda into Burundi by leading them through a thick forest stretching twenty kilometers, using the little military supply he had.
“I knew very well that my decision could cost me my life, but it was a risk I was willing to take. I believed that if I was able to save a single life, it was my duty to do so,” he said.
He also detailed how his commanders discovered what he was doing and ordered his fellow soldiers to shoot him on sight for being a “traitor.” Fortunately, he escaped death.
The Commissioner for Operations, CP George Rumanzi said that RNP will hold different reflective functions on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in a way that they reach out to all police officers.
The Express News
