UNITED NATIONS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday asked for courage and resolve to act on the occasion of the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda.

"We remember all those who were murdered and reflect on the suffering of the survivors, who have shown that reconciliation is possible, even after a tragedy of such monumental proportions," Guterres was quoted as saying by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

"To save people at risk, we must go beyond words. We must nurture the courage to care and the resolve to act. Only by meeting these challenges can we honor the victims," Guterres was quoted as saying.

A commemoration event will be held at the UN headquarters in New York next Friday, said the spokesman.

April 7 was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2003 as the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda to commemorate the 1994 genocide committed by members of the Hutu majority government.

An estimated 500,000 to 1 million Rwandans were brutally murdered during 100 days from April 7 to mid-July, the overwhelming majority of the victims being Tutsis.