Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay, will on Saturday, April 6, visit the Murambi Genocide Memorial in Nyamagabe District where she will meet survivors, the management of the site and young people from local communities, The New Times has learnt. Azoulay will be in Rwanda from April 5-7 for the 30th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. “During her visit, she will discuss UNESCO’s efforts to teach new generations about violent pasts, following the recent inscription of four of the country’s memorial sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List,” reads part of the statement to The New Times. ALSO READ: UNESCO inscription of memorial sites will help in fighting Genocide denial- Bizimana Murambi is one of Rwanda’s Genocide memorials that was inscribed on September 20, 2023, as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Nyamata Genocide Memorial in Bugesera District, Kigali Genocide Memorial, and Bisesero Genocide Memorial in Karongi District, are also on the list as sites of remembrance and national reconciliation. Azoulay is also expected, on Sunday, April 7, to participate in the official inauguration of commemoration week in Kigali. According to the statement, “On the same day, at its Paris headquarters, UNESCO will hold a ceremony in memory of, and in homage to the victims, at the initiative of the permanent delegation of Rwanda.” During her previous stay in Rwanda, Azoulay visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to pay tribute to the more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi laid to rest there. “It is essential that this history is transmitted and explained to different generations, to pay tribute to the victims and prevent such crimes from happening again. The Kigali memorial and the network of memorials across the country play a very important role in this purpose,” she noted in a previous interview with The New Times. ALSO: Genocide: Remembering the 15,593 wiped-out families Upon her second visit to Rwanda, Azoulay will present the official certificate of inscription of the above-mentioned genocide memorials on the World Heritage List to the Government of Rwanda as the statement adds. About Murambi Genocide Memorial Murambi Genocide Memorial is the resting place for more than 50,000 Genocide victims. Located in Nyamagabe District, the memorial was initially a technical school, which became a place for killing in 1994. It’s at this school that a large number of victims were killed and close to 1,200 bodies were preserved together with their belongings like clothes as evidence of the Genocide that took place in the area.
