Wellars Gasamagera, the Director General of Rwanda Management Institute (RMI), has called on Rwandans to join efforts to defend their country and fight Genocide denial and revisionism. He made the remarks during the start of the 21st commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at Kavumu College of Education in Muhanga District yesterday. Gasamagera said the ‘Rwandanness’ spirit was key to nation building. “We are fighting all those negating and denying the Genocide. We should all support Genocide survivors and remain united,” he said. He explained how the Genocide was well planned before being executed. Muhanga was part of Gitarama Prefecture where Rwanda’s former second president Grégoire Kayibanda and other high-profile militant members of Parmehutu (Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement) hailed from. “The Genocide was well planned and what remained was a roadmap to have it implemented,” he said. In his presentation, dubbed “Truth about the Genocide against the Tutsi”, Gasamagera said derogatory names given to the Tutsi were used to incite the Hutu and justify the Genocide. “Calling Tutsi various derogatory names was intended to depict them as enemies, and as a result, this made Hutu extremists think that killing them was an urgent necessity,” he said. He said, in June 1960, the first election named “the election of communes” was held at Gitarama after Tutsi chiefs and vice chiefs were sent to exile in the 1959 revolution. He said 75 per cent of the votes were obtained by Parmehutu, after which Tutsi were persecuted and their houses set on fire. The Parmehutu Party, led by Kayibanda, had a mission to incite hatred against the Tutsi, he said. Such actions led to the killing of Tutsi mainly in Kaduha, Gikongoro Prefecture, (current Nyamagabe District), where over 20,000 Tutsis died, Gasamagera explained. He said, though colonialists supported divisionism and genocide ideology, Rwandans played a great role in embracing it. Bertin Mudacyahwa, a resident of Mushishiro Sector, said there was need to show those who still live in denial that truth cannot be hidden.
