20.04.07 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE - RWANDA PREPARES A CENSUS OF GENOCIDE SURVIVORS

Kigali, April 20, 2007 (FH) – Rwanda is to organize from Saturday until next Wednesday a general census of genocide survivors, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, Mrs. Christine Nyatanyi, announced Thursday morning during a press conference.   This census was ordered on the basis of Presidential decree no. 2/98 of November 22, 1998.  “A survivor is any person who survived the crimes of genocide committed between October 1, 1990 and December 31, 1994, with the aim of exterminating an ethnic group or the ideas of any person or person’s family which opposed the genocidal ideology,” the text says.   This operation is organized by the Ministry of Local Administration and by the National Office of Statistics.  The provisional results are expected next June.  It aims to establish an exhaustive list of genocide victims and to determine from this list indigent persons eligible for different state support programs, Mrs. Nyatanyi stated.   The census was made necessary because figures from the 1998 census were no longer considered accurate.  Differences between lists established by survivors’ groups and those from official lists were noticed which had repercussions for planning assistance strategies for indigent survivors.   To avoid these types of errors, the current census will be conducted by heads of village (UMUDUGUDU) on place.  The validation of the lists will be done by the prison population as part of their community work on April 28, 2007.  The census form was decreed in concertation and consensus with victims’ groups, which are participating in the supervision of the exercise, the Secretary of State stated.  Training was conducted before the census.   The official theme of the 13th commemoration of the genocide is “Perpetuating the memory in assisting victims and in applying justice.”   ESR/PB/KD  © Hirondelle News Agency