Rwanda Burns 1,500 Arms Used In 1994 Genocide
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer Kigali, Rwanda (AHN) - Rwanda on Thursday burned some 1,500 weapons in a second public ceremony since the country's 1994 genocide. The weapons were mainly the assault rifles used in the massacre. According to a report by the AFP, the ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, brings to 7,500 the number of weapons destroyed by Rwanda since it joined nine other countries in central and east African region in a 2000 pledge to work to prevent the proliferation of illicit arms. "This act can be considered as a message to whoever illegally holds a weapon, and whoever would ravish the life or belongings of others," Makuza said. Mary Gahonzire, deputy chief of police, said at the ceremony, "We must recall that most of these weapons belonged to people who took part in the genocide." Some of the weapons were caked in dirt as if they had been buried. Most had been handed over voluntarily after a public awareness program, Gahonzire said. Who had the first batch of 6,000 weapons was burned in April last year. The Foreign ministers from nine countries, namely, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, signed the anti-proliferation "declaration" in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in March 2000. According to the United Nations, the genocide in Rwanda claimed some 800,000 lives. Most were eth |
