Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who is in Rwanda for a four-day official visit, says the world needs to be tolerant.
After a sixty-minutes tour of the Rwandan genocide memorial, Lagarde wrote a message in the visitors’ book condemning the atrocity.
“Que grâce à l’oeuvre de votre musée triomphe la paix et la tolerance”….loosely translated as “Would peace and tolerance triumph thanks to the work of your museum.”
Lagarde, who was dressed in black, was accompanied by Finance Minister, Claver Gatete, who escorted her to lay the wreath.
Did not want any journalist in. She also turned down interviews after the tour.
Freddy Mutangana , director of the memorial told KTPress Lagarde was asking quite a lot of questionsduring the tour.
“She was sad…,” Mutangana said.
Lagarde arrived in Rwanda on Sunday for a four-day visit to bolster her institution’s ties with Rwanda.
France and Rwanda have had strained diplomatic relations which result from France’s role in the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. France has not apologized to Rwanda.
Lagarde has previously held various ministerial posts in the French government.
She was Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment and before that Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade in the government of Dominique de Villepin.
Lagarde was the first woman to become finance minister of a G8 economy, and is the first woman to head the IMF July 2011.
Christine Lagarde the IMF Managing Director lays a wreath of flowers to honour victims of the Genocide against Tutsi
