The Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, has told the youth that they have every opportunity at their disposal to take advantage of and develop themselves.

He was speaking in Nyanza District over the weekend, during a commemoration event to pay tribute to young people who were killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

He said the youth have a responsibility to protect the country.

"Now we are standing on the shoulders of our elders, we can actually look beyond where they can. We must, therefore, take advantage of this and develop ourselves,” he said.

He said that many young people, including children, who would be at the fore front of building the country today, were killed during the Genocide.

The minister told young people to detach themselves from the genocide crimes that their parents committed, and rather live in harmony with and support Genocide survivors to be able to build a better country.

Recapturing misused youth force

Dr Diogene Bideri, the Principle Legal Advisor at the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), said that, in the past, the youth were misguided by the then government to participate in the Genocide that it had long planned, instead of using their strength to build their country.

He said Interahamwe militia allied to the MRND political party of former president Juvénal Habyarimana and Impuzamugambi, a youthful extremist group for CDR political party, another extremist party, were given military training by the army of the time.

The training sessions were supervised by high ranking military officers, and authorities at various levels including local leaders.

Bideri said Habyarimana, was the first to sponsor the Interahamwe militia with Rwf500,000 to buy clothes (made of the ‘Kitenge’ bearing MRND logos).

The youth were urged to actively embrace media and other means of communication to counter the "toxic” ideology that is being spread by those who committed the Genocide.

Ezechiel Ngirinshuti, the coordinator of Indangamirwa za Mukingo, an association of youth Genocide survivors in Mukingo Sector, Nyanza District, said they collaborate in various activities in a bid to develop the country.

He said the youth should take measures to fight those who negate and minimise the Genocide, especially through social media by exposing the truth about the Genocide.

On May 15, the commemoration event was held in the Eastern Province’s Gatsibo District and it will be taken to Musanze in the north, on May 21; then to Ngororero District in the west, on May 22. It will be concluded on May 28 at Petit Stade Remera, in Kigali at the national level.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw