President Paul Kagame has said that Rwandans cannot be indifferent to the root causes of the Genocide, adding that the people will always pay maximum attention, even when left alone.

To him and many Rwandans, the reason why any country would remain intentionally vague about who was targeted in the Genocide is not understandable.

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He made the remarks, on April 7, during the 30th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that brought together several dignitaries from around the world including heads of state, members of diplomatic corps, government officials and Rwandan citizens, at BK Arena.

The annual commemoration started with lighting of the ‘Flame of Remembrance’ at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, Gisozi by President Kagame, which will burn for the next 100 days, in memory of the more than one million lives lost from April through July 1994.

This year’s commemoration runs under the theme Remember-Unite-Renew, and also focuses on Rwanda’s transformational journey in the past thirty years.

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"Our hearts are filled with grief and gratitude in equal measure. We remember our dead and are also grateful of what Rwanda has become,” Kagame said on the Kwibuka occasion.

"To the survivors, we are in your debt, we asked you to do the impossible by carrying the burden of reconciliation on your shoulders and you continue to do so every single day, we thank you.”

Kagame said Rwanda’s journey has been long and tough, having been completely humbled by the magnitude of lives lost, and the lessons learned as engraved in blood, however, he noted the tremendous progress is plain to see, and it is the result of the choices made together to resurrect the nation.

"The foundation of everything is unity. That was the first choice: to believe in the idea of a reunited Rwanda, and live accordingly. The second choice was to reverse the arrow of accountability, which used to point outwards, beyond our borders. Now, we are accountable to each other, above all. Most importantly, we chose to think beyond the horizon of tragedy, and become a people with a future.”

‘Rwanda will never understand...’

Kagame noted that Rwandans will never understand why any country would remain intentionally vague about who was targeted in the genocide.

"I don’t understand that. Such ambiguity is, in fact, a form of denial, which is a crime in and of itself, and Rwanda will always challenge it.”

When the genocidal forces fled to Zaire, now called the DR Congo, in July 1994, with the support of their external backers, they vowed to reorganize and return to complete the genocide, he said.

Kagame took note of the cross-border terrorist attacks conducted by the genocidaires inside Rwanda over the last five years, targeting not only survivors, but also other Rwandans who had refused to go into exile, claiming thousands more lives.

"The remnants of those forces are still in eastern Congo today, where they enjoy state support, in full view of the United Nations peacekeepers. Their objectives have not changed, and the only reason this group, today known as FDLR, has not been disbanded, is because their continued existence serves some unspoken interest.”

Consequently, Rwanda is hosting hundreds of thousands of Congolese Tutsi refugees who are completely forgotten, with no program of action for their safe return.

‘Rwanda’s tragedy is a warning’

Kagame also said that there are many actors, even some from Africa, getting directly involved as tribal politics is given renewed prominence, and ethnic cleansing is prepared and practiced.

"What has happened to us? Is this the Africa we want to live in? Is this the kind of world we want? Rwanda’s tragedy is a warning.”

The process of division and extremism which leads to genocide can happen anywhere, if left unchecked, Kagame emphasized, throughout history, survivors of mass atrocities are always expected to be quiet, to censor themselves, or else be erased and even blamed for their own misfortune.

"Their testimony is living evidence of complicity, and it unsettles the fictions which comfort the enablers and the bystanders. The more Rwanda takes full responsibility for its own safety and dignity, the more intensely the established truth about the genocide is questioned and revised.”

He added that over time, in the media controlled by the powerful in this world, victims are rebranded as villains, and even the period of commemoration is derided as a mere political tactic.

"It is not. It never has been. Our reaction to such hypocrisy is pure disgust. We commemorate because those lives mattered to us.

"Rwandans cannot afford to be indifferent to the root causes of genocide. We will always pay maximum attention, even if we are alone. But what we are seeking is solidarity and partnership to recognize and confront these threats together, as a global community,” he said.

Standing against ethnic populism

The Head of State noted that while Genocide is pure form of ethnic populism rooted in politics, the remedies should therefore, be as well political but not organised on basis of ethnicity or religion.

"The life of my generation has been a recurring cycle of genocidal violence in thirty year intervals, from the early 1960s, to 1994, to the signs we see in our region today in 2024.”

Kagame said the job is to provide space and tools for the new generation to renew and redeem a nation after a genocide, and break the cycle.

What gives us hope and confidence are the children we saw in the performance earlier, or the youth who created the tradition of Walk to Remember that will occur later today. Nearly three-quarters of Rwandans today are under age 35. They either have no memory of the genocide, or were not yet born.

"Our youth are the guardians of our future and the foundation of our unity, with a mindset that is totally different from the generation before.”

Jean Damascene Bizimana, Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement, gave a brief narration of how the Genocide was planned and executed under the watch of the international community who were in position and resourceful to stop it but refused to do so.

He mentioned several reports by different commissions that warned the United Nations about the killings that were being prepared, months before the Genocide was executed.

For instance, Bizimana reminded the participants how the Czech Ambassador requested the United Nations in 1994 to send a force that would neutralize and repatriate the genocidaires to face justice, but the UN did not heed to him.

The same perpetrators continue to carry out mass killings in Eastern DR Congo, he added.

"We continue to see the same indifference by the international community to that observed in Rwanda 30 years ago. Do we really need another million deaths to finally act?”

Louise Ayinkamiye, a Genocide Survivor, narrated how she faced death countless times and survived the Genocide that occurred when she was 11 years-old, lost her father and some siblings. She survived with her mother and two siblings.

Ayinkamiye thanked the president for rescuing the survivors from wherever they were dispersed.

Vote of thanks

In his speech, President Kagame thanked Uganda for carrying the burden of Rwanda’s internal problems for so many years, and was even blamed for that, as well as the leadership and the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea that helped in starting to rebuild at that time.

Kenya, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo hosted large numbers of Rwandan refugees, and gave them a home. Tanzania did as well, and also played a unique role at many critical points, including hosting and facilitating the Arusha peace process.

The Republic of Congo has been a productive partner in rebuilding, and more.