Speaking in an exclusive interview with IGIHE, Bizimana said that the lectures that will be given during the commemoration have already been sent to all districts and other institutions both public and private.
He said that all districts have prepared people capable of providing these lectures and CNLG has sent staffs to train them.
He said that the commission has had meetings with different institutions and ministries so as to organize ways discussions will be conducted.
Bizimana said that they have partnered with Rwanda’s embassies and sent them lectures that will be used in different discussions during the commemoration period.
{{Commemoration at village level}}
In 2013, the commemoration week was taken at village level. Bizimana said that since they took the activity there, all people found it as all Rwandans’ responsibility.
“Previously when it was at national level, people used to take it as the activity for some and others didn’t attend,” he said.
He said when at national level, some people used to neglect the activity.
“Some used to neglect to attend different programmes due to different reasons like opposing the activity, but when it is taking place close to them, they can’t refuse to attend,” he said.
He said that some commemoration activities used to take place far from people residences and caused some to miss attending.
“Take an example when the activity takes place at District level, the district is very big for all people to attend, but when it takes place at village level, it is very easy to reach there. Also, it facilitates people to discuss genocide history related problems in their villages, and take decisions related to cases in their localities” he added.
{{Commemoration activity should be similar everywhere}}
At the beginning of this year, CNLG issued new directives regulating commemoration activities.
Bizimana says that before they issued new directives, they consulted different institutions including the Ministry of Local Governance, the Ministry of Sports and Culture and different Survivors’ Organisations among others.
He said that different reports from districts revealed some problems during the activity and obliged them to introduce directives that regulate commemoration across the country.
He said that in different places, the activity used to be conducted based on individuals’ decisions.
Using an example, he said that in some places the activity used to take many hours and cause people to get tired.
“In some places, the activity used to take like eight hours and more or about the whole day. Now we urge that the activity should take at least three hours ,” he added.
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