The United Nations-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Joint Special Representative Ibrahim Gambari has expressed his regret of why United Nations watched as 1994 Genocide was taking place in Rwanda.
Professor Gambari who has visited Kigali Genocide Memorial Cite is in the country for a two-day meeting on post-conflict peace building.
The meeting aims at drawing from Rwanda’s experience in addressing some of the critical challenges the country faced in building peace and bringing unity and reconciliation after the Genocide.
“Every time I come at this Genocide memorial I am hurt and saddened by what befell on Rwanda. United Nations should put in action Never Again,” Gambari said at the Memorial cite.
Gambari was accompanied by Lt. Gen. Patrick Nyanvumba UNAMID Force Commander who said that Rwanda was exemplary in building peace and also contributing to peace building elsewhere.
Several other dignitaries who turned up for the high level peace building meeting has also visited the memorial cite.
The meeting was organized by the government of Rwanda, in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the U.N. Peace Building Commission.
The meeting with a theme ‘Peace and State Building; The Rwandan Experience’ have also attracted the leadership of the six countries currently on the UN Peace Building Commission (PBC) agenda, namely Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
It also included four other countries emerging from conflict like Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, South Sudan and Timor Leste; as well as the Chairs of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) Country Configurations.
Countries whose top leadership is confirmed so far at the Kigali meeting are South Sudan, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, and Timor Leste.
Recently Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the meeting aimed at enhancing the ongoing global dialogue on peace building, and getting Africa to be a more important contributor to the process.
Participants will assess Rwanda’s journey towards reconciliation, reconstruction and development, with a focus on leadership and national ownership; innovative approaches to reconciliation and socioeconomic development; and the strategic use of aid, as the key drivers.
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