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09/22/06 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom ![]() ![]() | | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rwandan President Paul Kagame will visit Morristown. |
| | IF YOU GO, AND TO HELP The 3rd Annual Rwandan Convention will be held at the Hyatt, 3 Speedwell Ave. in Morristown from Friday, Sept. 22, through Sunday, Sept. 24. On Friday, the event will begin with registration at 4 p.m. and a
cocktail meeting from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. On Saturday, the event will continue with an opening statement by the president of the convention association at 9 a.m., followed by the keynote address by Rwandan President Paul Kagame at 9:15 a.m. The event will continue with four panel discussions, a documentary, question-and-answer sessions, a business trade show review and end with a cultural show at 8:30 p.m. On Sunday, the convention will begin at 11 a.m. with recruiting for regional committees by the convention association. It ends at 1 p.m. with sports events. For more information, visit the convention Web site at www.rwandaconvention.org. Donations to Morristown High School to bring Paul Rusesabagina to speak at the school can be arranged by calling Marily O'Connor at (973) 292-2100, ext. 2107. Subscriptions to the Town Hall of Morris Lecture Series can be obtained by writing to P.O. Box 536
Boonton, N.J. 07005. | | |
Rwandan president speaking in Morris In
separate event, man whose life was basis for movie to lecture BY ROB SEMAN
DAILY RECORD High-profile figures from the African nation of Rwanda will visit Morris County during the next few weeks, beginning this weekend with the third annual Rwandan Convention at the Hyatt in Morristown. The conference, which kicks off today, will feature the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, as its keynote speaker on Saturday. The conference ends on Sunday. Nkubito Bakuramutsa, president of the Rwanda Convention Association, said that the organization wanted to hold the event close to New York City, but not in the metropolis, because of traffic. "So we were looking for a small city around New York," Bakuramutsa said. Morristown seemed like a good venue, he said. The event was held in Houston last year and in Atlanta in 2004. The event this year
was scheduled to coincide with the U.N. General Assembly session. The convention is meant to draw American businesses to invest in the rebuilding of Rwanda after the genocide it experienced in the mid-1990s. "All we're trying to do is create a better relationship (with) businesses here in the United States," Bakuramutsa said. Violent decade After a violent decade, Rwanda has been relatively stable under the leadership of Kagame, a former Rwandan exile who returned to his homeland and became leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Army and chairman of the Rwandese Patriotic Front before becoming president in 2000. In 1994, Hutu militias slaughtered up to 800,000 of the roughly 7 million people who lived in the nation at the time. Most of the victims were Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Since the terror ended, Rwanda has twice invaded neighboring Congo to hunt down the extremists who fled there. One invasion, in 1998, led to an Africa war
that involved the armies of six nations and caused the deaths of an estimated 3.2 million people in east Congo, primarily through famine and disease. While the conference will focus primarily on financial networking, Morris residents will be able to hear more about the tragedy that wracked the African nation next month, when Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager depicted in the movie "Hotel Rwanda," will speak twice in Morris County. He helped shelter refugees during Rwanda's 100 days of genocide. Rusesabagina, who was portrayed by Oscar nominee Don Cheadle in the movie, will first speak at the Town Hall of Morris lecture series at the Birchwood Manor in Whippany on Oct. 3. Phyllis Garro, president of the board of the town hall lecture series, said that Rusesabagina's talk will be the first lecture of the series, which will also include author Donna Woolfork Cross in November; New York Times columnist Teresa Riordan in December; grandson of former
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, David Roosevelt in March; and author Judy Collins in April. "Everyone thought he might be very interesting and timely,"Garro said of Rusesabagina. The following day, Rusesabagina will visit Morristown High School where he will speak and answer questions from the students. Marily O'Connor, coordinator of the English department who is helping to organize Rusesabagina's appearance, said that the school heard about Rusesabagina's lecture in Whippany and contacted the American Speaker's Bureau. "When we spoke to the faculty on Monday, they agreed to support this effort and they wanted to give the kids an opportunity to hear him," O'Connor said. Stepping up awareness O'Connor said that she felt that Rusesabagina's speech could be a good way to get students to think beyond their own needs. "For most students, Africa is a blank," O'Connor said. "They know it exists, they know it is a very
large continent, they know it from a historical aspect, they know the African-American heritage but I don't think they know about colonialism or what goes on in Africa. "I think it's stepping up their awareness. I think it's stepping up that when we speak about genocide and holocaust, it's not just something that happened in World War II and never happened again," O'Connor said. The school has raised money through community donations to pay for Rusesabagina's appearance, but is still about $1,600 short.
Rob Seman can be reached at (973) 267-9038 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |
