 Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the genocide |
Ceremonies are being held in Rwanda to mark the 15th anniversary of the start of the genocide.
The president will lead commemorations near to the spot where UN peacekeepers turned their backs on thousands of Rwandans seeking refuge at their base.
A BBC reporter says it will serve as a warning about the international community's failure to act.
Some 800,000 people were killed within 100 days by ethnic Hutu militia after the assassination of the president.
Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down on 6 April 1994, triggering the violence.
 |  There is absolutely no justice and therefore for me there is no forgiveness  Survivor Mary Kayitesi Blewit  |
The genocide came to an end when Tutsi-led rebels under now-President Paul Kagame took control.
The BBC's Karen Allen in the capital, Kigali, says Rwanda has taken many practical steps to build bridges between the Tutsi and Hutu communities.
Some of the most senior perpetrators of the violence have faced a special tribunal in Tanzania although scores of key suspects remain at large.
On Tuesday evening a candle-lit vigil - to be attended by some 20,000 survivors - is planned with messages of support expected to be received from around the world.
| RWANDA'S 1994 GENOCIDE 6 April: Rwandan Hutu President Habyarimana's plane shot down April-July: An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed July: Tutsi-led rebel group RPF captures Rwanda's capital Kigali July: Two million Hutus flee to Zaire, now DR Congo |
Although the younger generation is spear-heading efforts at reconciliation, many older people are finding in harder to forgive, she says.
Mary Kayitesi Blewit lost 50 members of her family in 1994 and went on to become the founder of the Rwandan Genocide Survivors Fund.
She told the BBC's Network Africa that her younger brother died in the first week of the genocide and some of those responsible were known to the family.
"It was a very close neighbour actually. In fact two were neighbours in the nearest neighbourhood. The rest we didn't know. They were groups of people that used to come together and he was killed near his house."
What concerns her now, she says, is the lack of justice.
"What's bothering me currently is that everyone else apart from survivors is talking about forgiveness and nobody is talking about justice.
"There is absolutely no justice and therefore for me there is no forgiveness."
Source-BBC
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