“Rwanda is truly devastated by the magnitude of the losses we have suffered. And the lessons we have learned are etched in blood,” Kagame said at a solemn ceremony in Kigali to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre of mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
“It was the international community that failed us all, either through contempt or cowardice,” he told an audience that included African heads of state and former US president Bill Clinton, who called the genocide his administration’s greatest failure.
The ceremonial traditions on April 7, which marked the Hutu militia’s massacre in 1994, began with Kagame laying wreaths at mass graves and lighting a memorial fire at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The place is believed to be more than 250 thousand victims of genocide.
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As the commemoration drew to a close, a choir performed before thousands in a Kigali arena while holding up candles in memory of those who died in the massacre.
This small country was under the rule of Kagame who led a rebel militia that ended the genocide. But traces of violence still remain in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The failure of the international community to intervene has been the cause of this long-lasting embarrassment, and African Union Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in Kigali that no one, not even the African Union, might absolve itself of the sins of the past. “Let’s have the courage to admit it, and take responsibility for it,” he said.
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French President Emmanuel Macron released a video message saying he stood by his comments as in May 2021. At that time he acknowledged France’s role in the genocide but did not offer an official apology.
“There are no words I need to add, no words can take away from what I said to you that day. We have all left hundreds of thousands of victims behind this terrible closed door,” Macron said.
At the time of the genocide, the French government had long been a supporter of the Hutu-dominated Rwandan regime, leading to tensions between the two countries for decades.
The French presidential office said that Macron would issue a message saying that France and its allies in the West and Africa might have prevented the genocide. However, France preferred to let the genocide happen.
United States (US) President Joe Biden said the impact of the massacre was still being felt throughout Rwanda and around the world. “We will never forget the horror that occurred during those 100 days, the pain and loss experienced by the Rwandan people, or the humanity that unites us all, which cannot be overcome by hatred,” he said. (AFP/M-3)
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