Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Didier Reynders, and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo, visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial while on their official one week visit to Rwanda on 8 January 2015. The Two Ministers paid their respects to the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi buried at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and took the time to visit the archive and documentation centre that is also located at the Memorial.
During the tour of the archive and documentation centre, the two Ministers got to explore the genocide Archive of Rwanda collections. They were given a thorough guided tour through the processes of physical and digital preservation of the collected genocide related materials, and to discover the different ways these collections are accessible to researchers, student and academics, both physically and digitally, for historical purposes.
Yves Kamuronsi, Deputy Director of the Aegis Trust Rwanda, shared his concerns about the challenges faced while saving the remaining materials from the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda: “We have to continue informing and advocating so that policy makers understand the urgent need to protect our common heritage though improved archive skills and technology”, he said.
“What you do here is important in educating future generations about the history of Rwanda and therefore very useful to prevent future mass atrocities and genocide here but also anywhere in the world,” said Prime Minister Didier Reynders. He also tweeted, “There is the possibility to partner with the Kigali Genocide Memorial and @GenArchiveRw [the Genocide Archive] in the preservation of documents.”
With the launch of the upgraded Genocide Archive of Rwanda website, both the local and international public will have an opportunity to explore the archive’s collections and to be able to contribute in various ways to its development.