Today Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to honour the memory of the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi, meeting survivors and learning about their experiences.
The final resting-place for 250,000 victims of the genocide, in which a million people were killed in just 100 days, the Kigali Genocide Memorial is the result of collaboration between Rwandan authorities and the Aegis Trust, born from the UK National Holocaust Centre.
Opened in 2004, the Memorial became the starting-point for peace and values education now built into Rwanda’s national schools curriculum. Strengthening community resilience against division, it has inspired leaders from divided communities internationally to partner with the Aegis Trust on their own peacebuilding.
Greeted by Rwanda’s Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement the Hon. Jean-Damascène Bizimana, Their Royal Highnesses were guided through the Kigali Genocide Memorial by Aegis’ Executive Director Freddy Mutanguha and Memorial Director Honore Gatera, who are both themselves survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
After touring the Memorial exhibitions and signing the Visitors’ Book, Their Royal Highnesses laid a wreath at the mass graves where the Tutsi murdered in Kigali during the genocide lie buried. They then proceeded to the Memorial’s Amphitheatre to meet Mary Balikungeri, Founder of the Rwanda Women’s Network, together with women supported by the Village of Hope, who shared their testimonies.
