NURC turns focus to inmates, scoops peace award

The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) Wednesday took its customary message of unity and reconciliation to prisons country-wide. A job the national body has scooped a peace award for, from the United Nations Religious Initiative (UNRI), because of its contribution in fostering peace. Mussie Haila, who is also UNRI’s Regional Coordinator for Africa and Representative at the Economic Commission for Africa, will present the award to the commission today. Haila said that Rwanda’s remarkable improvement and development only 14 years after the Genocide is what enabled the commission to win the award. The award ceremony will take place at Kigali Serena Hotel where NURC has organised a cocktail to mark the end of the National Unity and Reconciliation week that started Monday this week. The last event in a series of activities over the week, has been the prison visits. Officials from the commission visited 14 prisons countrywide, most of which harbour convicts accused of the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. This was an effort meant to sensitise this section of the Rwandan population for it to play a pivotal role in promoting unity and reconciliation. The Commission’s Executive Secretary, Fatuma Ndangiza, told prisoners in Kibungo Prison, Ngoma district that the commission was committed to promoting unity and reconciliation. “We could not make it given the busy day that was taken over by the demonstrations. But we are still making efforts to reach them,” Habyarimana told The New Times. At Butare prison, Huye district, Oswald Rutimburana explained the need to mobilise and sensitise Rwandans of all walks of life and to also publicise the National Policy for Unity and Reconciliation. Other prisons visited include; Gisenyi prison in Rubavu district, Mpanga prison, Nyanza district, Nstinda prison in Rwamagana and Ruhengeri prison, Musanze district, among others. “Prison is not your home. After serving your sentences you will return to the community, so such a message of living in harmony is needed here,” Richard Kananga told Nyagatare prison inmates. Ends