Tanzania Amateur Handball Association (TAHA) has yet to receive an official invitation to the Genocide Memorial handball tournament in Rwanda.
The two-day event is scheduled to be held from June 6-7, this year, in Kigali. TAHA Secretary General Nicolas Mihayo told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam they have not yet received an invitation from their counterparts Rwanda National Handball Federation (Ferwahand).
“We only learnt from newspapers that we are invited to the forthcoming Genocide Memorial event to be staged in Kigali,” he said. “TAHA have tried to follow the news, but there is no official communication from Kigali and we can’t do anything for now,” he added.
Mihayo said they cannot prepare the national team for an event they have not been invited to. It was reported recently that Tanzania is among five countries invited to the two-day event.
According to reports from Rwanda, Ferwahand has sent invitations to Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
They quoted Ferwahand Secretary General Jean Paul Ngarambe as saying that he believes the participation of the neighbouring countries will make the tournament more competitive and the foreign teams will learn first hand about the tragedy that befell Rwanda in 1994.
Ngarambe told ‘The New Times of Rwanda’ recently: “This year’s edition will be a lot more competitive because of the participation of more teams from our region, but we also want them to learn about what happened to this country.
“The teams will visit some memorial sites and be briefed about the dangers of bad leadership.” The 21st Genocide commemoration activities honouring the victims continue for 100 days through July 4.
The Rwandan Ministry of Sports and Culture last year urged all federations to organise memorial tournaments in honour of players, coaches and administrators who were killed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
The handball fraternity lost over 23 of their members including coaches, players, administrators and fans. Last year Police Handball Club won the tourney after beating Muzinga of Burundi 35-34.