The regional course entitled “Genocide, Mass Atrocity Crimes and Transitional Justice in Peace Support Operations (PSO)” that was conducted at the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) training facility from 8 May ended on Friday 19th May 2017.
The course was organized in partnership between the Rwanda Peace Academy and the British Peace Support Team, Eastern Africa (BPST-EA). It attracted a total of 26 military, police and civilian officers from seven African countries namely Comoros, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Malawi, and Rwanda as well as one officer from the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
Nicola Dahrendorf, who represented the BPST-EA, attributed the success of the course to the continued partnership between BPST-EA and the RPA. She thanked everybody who contributed to the successful development and delivery of the course.
The High Commissioner to Rwanda, H.E William Gelling, also thanked the RPA for hosting the course and remarked that good co-operation between BPST-EA and RPA contributed to the success of the course.
He pointed out the diversity of course participants from a variety of countries was encouraging and that is a result of good cooperation between the RPA and the BPST – EA. “I am sure that this diverse makeup provides for rich learning experience. It also shows Rwanda’s growing role as a regional hub for this kind of work,” Gelling said adding that the UK is committed to this type of training and to working with its African friends to develop the capacity of the exceptional peace support personnel that hail from the continent.
The Director of the Rwanda Peace Academy, Col. Jill Rutaremara, who officially closed the course, thanked the government of the United Kingdom (UK) represented by the High Commissioner to Rwanda, William Gelling and the BPST-EA representative Nicola Dahrendorf for funding the course and the curriculum development workshops that preceded it.
“The British Peace Support Team in consultation with the RPA have earmarked other courses that they are going to conduct this year. The RPA is therefore grateful for this on-going partnership,” he added. “The knowledge and skills that you acquired will be very useful in helping you to understand the relationship between violent conflicts and genocide as well as mass atrocity crimes although all violent conflicts do not necessarily translate into genocide and mass atrocity crimes,” the RPA’s Director told course participants.
“You must have also internalized that without effective and efficient transitional justice mechanism, it would be very difficult to achieve stability, unity, reconciliation and social harmony in a post- conflict society particularly one that has been a victim of genocide and mass atrocity crimes. It is this background that should inform the nature of assistance, advice and contribution that you will render as peacekeeper in the development of transitional justice mechanism,” he added.
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