The visiting head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, yesterday toured the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where she called for love and tolerance to end global atrocities that are on the rise.

"We need to exercise love and tolerance and see to it that genocide never happens anywhere else in the world,” Lagarde said after paying tribute to the over 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi at the Gisozi-based memorial site.

Lagarde laid a wreath at the mass graves at the memorial.

"I felt a lot of pain. Humanity needs to come together and ensure that such horrendous crimes are never committed again.”

The IMF chief, who has been in the country since Sunday, said the memorial is a reminder of the dark days and a symbol of how destructive human beings can turn out to be once they lack visionary leadership.

She said facilities like the Kigali memorial show humanity and all its facets – the violence, blindness, savagery, obscurantism as well as hatred.

"But then, it also shows those who did good and helped others come out of those atrocities and reconcile. It is equally powerful,” she added.

"May this museum be a vehicle for peace and tolerance to triumph,” she wrote, in French, in the guest book at the Memorial.

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