Rwanda commemorates 30 years since genocide
Published: 04:04 PM,Apr 07,2024 | EDITED : 08:04 PM,Apr 07,2024
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame delivers his speech during the commemorations at the BK Arena in Kigali. — AFP
KIGALI: Rwanda's President Paul Kagame on Sunday said the international community had 'failed' his country during the 1994 genocide, as he paid tribute to victims 30 years after Hutu extremists tore apart the nation.
'Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss. And the lessons we learned are engraved in blood,' Kagame said in Kigali during a solemn ceremony to commemorate a 100-day massacre that claimed the lives of 800,000 people, largely Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.
'It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice,' he said, addressing an audience that included several African heads of state and former US president Bill Clinton, who had called the genocide the biggest failure of his administration.
In keeping with tradition, the ceremonies on April 7 -- the day Hutu groups unleashed the carnage in 1994 -- began with Kagame placing wreathes on mass graves and lighting a remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are believed to be buried.
Rwandans will also stage a march and hold a candlelit vigil in the capital for those killed in the slaughter.
The tiny nation has since found its footing under the iron-fisted rule of Kagame, who led the rebel militia which ended the genocide, but the scars of the violence remain, leaving a trail of destruction across Africa's Great Lakes region.
The international community's failure to intervene has been a cause of lingering shame, with African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat saying in Kigali that 'no one, not even the African Union, can exonerate themselves from their inaction.'
French President Emmanuel Macron released a video message on Sunday, saying he stood by his comments in May 2021 when he acknowledged France's role in the genocide and its refusal to heed warnings of looming massacres, but stopped short of an official apology. 'I have no word to add, no word to take away from what I told you that day,' Macron said Sunday.
The French presidency had said on Thursday that Macron would release a message saying France and its Western and African allies 'could have stopped' the bloodshed but lacked the will to do so. — AFP
'Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss. And the lessons we learned are engraved in blood,' Kagame said in Kigali during a solemn ceremony to commemorate a 100-day massacre that claimed the lives of 800,000 people, largely Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.
'It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice,' he said, addressing an audience that included several African heads of state and former US president Bill Clinton, who had called the genocide the biggest failure of his administration.
In keeping with tradition, the ceremonies on April 7 -- the day Hutu groups unleashed the carnage in 1994 -- began with Kagame placing wreathes on mass graves and lighting a remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are believed to be buried.
Rwandans will also stage a march and hold a candlelit vigil in the capital for those killed in the slaughter.
The tiny nation has since found its footing under the iron-fisted rule of Kagame, who led the rebel militia which ended the genocide, but the scars of the violence remain, leaving a trail of destruction across Africa's Great Lakes region.
The international community's failure to intervene has been a cause of lingering shame, with African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat saying in Kigali that 'no one, not even the African Union, can exonerate themselves from their inaction.'
French President Emmanuel Macron released a video message on Sunday, saying he stood by his comments in May 2021 when he acknowledged France's role in the genocide and its refusal to heed warnings of looming massacres, but stopped short of an official apology. 'I have no word to add, no word to take away from what I told you that day,' Macron said Sunday.
The French presidency had said on Thursday that Macron would release a message saying France and its Western and African allies 'could have stopped' the bloodshed but lacked the will to do so. — AFP