President John A. Kufuor, former President of Ghana and Chairman of the Interpeace Governing Council, opened the national stakeholder conference in Kigali. The conference was hosted by Interpeace’s partner in Rwanda, The Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP), a Rwandan based think-tank that promotes unity.

The objectives of the conference were to present the results of the nationwide consultation with Rwandan society. The discussion focused on the issues of ethnic identity and social cohesion as well as citizen’s participation in democratic governance.

The first Interpeace Chairman from the Southern hemisphere welcomed over 150 representatives from all sectors of society and said that “this conference presents an opportunity for the people of Rwanda to consolidate the peacebuilding process in their country.”

All conference participants had the opportunity to provide input and validation of the results of the research presented to them.

President Kufuor went on to visit the Genocide memorial site where over 250,000 people are buried and paid tribute to all those who fell victim to the genocide.

President Kufuor also visited the IRDP’s newly opened Peace Centre in Kigali. First opened in 2009 the Peace Centre is now complete. “The Peace Centre provides a space to bring people from across Rwanda, Africa and even the whole world together to talk about peace.” said President Kufuor. The Peace Centre houses research on obstacles to peace and how to overcome them by means of dialogue and debate. It also includes a conference facility, an audio-visual centre and a resource centre that contains documents and research results.

President Kufuor ended his visit to Kigali with a meeting with President Kagame to discuss peacebuilding issues and congratulate the President on his re-election.