On Friday, April 7, the High Commissioner of Rwanda to the UK, Johnston Busingye, joined the Rwandan Community and friends in Newcastle to pay tribute to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The High Commissioner was invited by the Rwandan community in Newcastle in collaboration with Newcastle City Council to raise the Rwandan flag to half-mast over the city, in honour of the over one million Rwandans that were killed in the 1994 genocide. The flag will remain at half-mast for the remaining days of the Commemoration week and this ceremony shall be happening every year onwards. While at the flag raising, Councillor Habib Rahman, the former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, who was representing the City Council of Newcastle said that: I am happy today to have once again been able to join our Rwandan brothers and sisters who are also residents of Newcastle for this significant cause, which is to remember the over one million lives of Rwandans that were lost during the 1994 Genocide committed against the Tutsi in Rwanda. · There is no hiding place from facts of our history – Kagame · April 7, 1994: What really happened on the day killings unfolded? · First Lady: Kwibuka can’t be defined by the past 29 years · Arsenal joins Rwanda in commemoration · Global eminent persons call for action over genocide in DR Congo “Today the people of Newcastle stand with Rwandans to remember those that are no longer with us, and I am proud that the Council, together with the leadership of the Rwandan Community and the High Commission managed to launch this great gesture of solidarity last year (2022) and which we intend to undertake every year. The council and community have a long and close relationship, and the council decided that a memorial plaque will also be installed in Newcastle in due course. Busingye thanked the Local Council through Councillor Habib Rahman, for recognising the importance of remembrance and for the support offered to the Rwandan Community in Newcastle especially during the Commemoration period. Busingye emphasised that we can prevent Genocide, the crime of crimes from happening again in the future only if we can remember and commemorate every year. He said that while the world stands with Rwanda to remember the over one million lives lost during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, genocide denial as the last and final stage of the crime of Genocide remains a challenge. It is therefore everyone's responsibility, he noted, in the Rwandan community and beyond to ensure the facts of history are preserved and not distorted. On Wednesday, April 12, Rwandans, diplomats and friends of Rwanda in the UK will gather in London for a Commemoration event to pay tribute to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Other Kwibuka29 events will take place across the UK, from Edinburgh in Scotland to Oxford, to Portsmouth and Leeds, all in different regions of the United Kingdom.
