{{The Foreign Affairs minister of Czech Republic Hon. Jan Kohout has today honoured the victims of the 1994 genocide against ethnic Tutsi’s in Rwanda.}}
Hon. Kohout visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial where he laid a wreath at mass graves where some 250,000 victims of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide lie buried.
The Czech foreign minister was accompanied by CNLG Executive Secretary Jean de Dieu Mucyo and Aegis Country Director Freddy Mutanguha for a tour of the Memorial, where young Rwandans come to take part in peace-building education organised by the Aegis Trust.
“After seeing this exhibition I am still speechless and I am afraid that all my words will sound dull and empty. Nevertheless, today’s visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial is a symbolic demonstration of the solidarity and sympathy of the Czech people,” said Jan Kahout.
He added, “We must commemorate the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and learn lessons so that nothing similar ever happens again. Institutions like the Lidice Memorial in the Czech Republic, and the Kigali Genocide Memorial, serve as reminders of these tragic incidents and play an instrumental role in scientific research, education and enlightenment, especially for a younger generation, and so I’m pleased that we are witnessing today the signing of this memorandum, and on behalf of my ministry, I can promise that we will put every effort into [its] successful implementation in the Czech Republic and other countries.”
Subsidised by the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Lidice Memorial commemorates the extermination of the people of Lidice and Ležáky by the Nazis in revenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich – one of the architects of the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews in Europe. Its mission is also to keep alive the memory of the extermination of up to 1.5 million Romani people under the Nazis; many Romani Gypsies were interned at the Lety concentration camp near Lidice.
“The people of the Czech Republic hold a special place in the hearts of survivors here in Rwanda, because we know that when all the World was silent, in the darkest days of 1994, it was the Czech Ambassador to the United Nations – Karel Kovanda – who fought tirelessly to bring the Security Council to recognize and respond effectively to the genocide against the Tutsi,” said Freddy Mutanguha.“The Aegis Trust is pleased and proud to welcome you, and to formally enter into partnership with the Lidice Memorial. It is our shared mission to preserve the memory of the victims of genocide, and to educate a new generation to help ensure that such atrocities never happen again – whether to Jews, Tutsis, Romany, or any other group who may be similarly targeted for exclusion to the point of extermination.”
Ms Lubomira Hedlova, Deputy Director of the Lidice Memorial, signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Freddy Mutanguha. She commented, “I would like to express how very pleased I am that I can be here today on behalf of the Lidice Memorial to sign this important memorandum. I would like to thank the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs that made this journey possible, and I would like to thank local partners for their excellent support. Education is our only hope that atrocities will not happen again, and I think we have something to give to each other.”
The Czech visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial today also included a delegation of business representatives who are visiting Rwanda to explore scope for greater collaboration between companies in the two countries.
Established by Aegis in 2004 at the request of the Rwandan Government and Kigali City Council, the Kigali Genocide Memorial continues to be run by Aegis on behalf of CNLG (Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight against Genocide) as a place both of remembrance and learning for a new generation.
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