Nairobi/Kigali - Rwanda Tuesday was opening a week of commemorations on the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the 1994 genocide, which saw 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus massacred.

The bloodshed began after Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down on the evening of April 6.

Within hours, Hutu militia began a pre-planned campaign to wipe out the Tutsis.

President Paul Kagame, who led an invading Tutsi army that ended the genocide after 100 days, will begin the commemorations by lighting candles at a memorial centre at the site of a former technical school near Nyanza-Kicukiro.

Thousands flocked to the school seeking protection from UN peacekeepers. However, the blue helmets withdrew and the civilians were massacred by waiting Hutu militia.

The United Nations is also to hold a commemoration service in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Memorial services will be held in Tanzania and Uganda, where thousands of genocide victims whose bodies floated down the Kagera River and were hastily interred will be reburied.(dpa)