Parliament is to launch a comprehensive anti-genocide campaign in the Southern Province as a stepped up strategy to uproot the vice among residents there. This is one of the resolutions that were adopted after two days of intensive discussions on field reports by MPs on the presence of the genocide ideology in schools. Mps reports showed a decline in ideology in schools apart from areas in the Southern Province. MP Aaron Makuba partly attributed the high prevalent levels of genocide ideology in the province to the area’s history of genocide, saying it saw the worst crimes during the 1994 Genocide. “People in the Southern Province have not yet understood the relevance of fighting genocide ideology; that’s why there is need to have a special anti-genocide campaign for them,” he said. Makuba, who headed a team of MPs to the province during the recently concluded legislators’ tour, said that during their visits to schools, they were told that genocide ideology highly present among residents. He noted that that is manifested in the common harassment and killings of Genocide survivors that has been on the increase since the introduction of Gacaca courts. “People there are covering up for killers; they do not speak the truth in Gacaca courts,” Makuba said of the residents’ attitude towards the semi-traditional justice system, devised to help prosecute hundreds of thousands of Genocide perpetrators. The campaign by MPs will include teaching the population about the history of the country and the dangers of genocide ideology. Legislators will also seek to sensitise residents to denounce any person harbouring genocide ideology. MPs also said that there was need to extend local radio coverage to all parts of the province to enable residents have access to constructive information on national reconstruction other than depending on hate messages from media outlets in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi. Makuba also proposed that the campaign could also be extended to communities along the borders in the two neighbouring states. In their report, Makuba’s team indicated that they were denied access to students in some faith-based schools in Nyanza District. MP Francis Kaboneka challenged his colleagues to find a way of deterring negative propaganda from nearby Congolese and Burundian villages from spreading to Rwandans resident along the borders. Lawmakers also recommended that all religious leaders in the country should be sensitized about the dangers of genocide ideology as a measure to curb the ideology among them and the people they lead. Furthermore, it was resolved that such campaigns should also be launched in the country’s higher institutions of learning. Ends
