The Rwandan High Commission in New Delhi, India in collaboration with the India Africa Trade Council commemorated the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi on April 7.
The 28th commemoration commenced with the lighting of 28 symbolic candles and a minute of silence by the over 150 people in attendance.
Asif Iqbal, President of the India Africa Trade Council, set the theme and elaborated on the UN and AU legal grounds for the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Jacqueline Mukangira, High Commissioner of Rwanda to India, described the Genocide against the Tutsi in its cruelest terms. "That killing machine was the most painful ever in human history. Victims were hacked with sharp machetes, nailed clubs, pregnant mothers tortured by opening wombs with knives, burying the victims alive, babies smashed on walls,” she said.
As if the horror was not enough, killers used to eat the hearts of the victims, she added.
She reminded the audience that the genocidal government was defeated by the Rwanda Patriotic Front under the then High Command of Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda.
Pointing to the UN Resolution 2150 of 2014, Mukangira restated the UN call to countries to enact laws punishing the Genocide, emphasizing that "countries without those laws would not be in a position to punish the perpetrators of the Genocide.” Hence the absolute necessity to adopt those laws and enact them whenever needed, she noted.
She also warned against the denial of the Genocide against the Tutsi, " UN Resolutions condemns without reservation any denial of the genocide, and urges member states to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the genocide in order to help prevent future genocides.”
Equally, she urged countries to erect memorials of the Genocide against the Tutsi to preserve its memory.
Mukangira went on to tell the audience that "Rwanda chose Unity and Reconciliation as a way to sustainable stability and development.” She underscored that today Rwanda is a fast-growing economy and a good example of good governance.
She used her experience as a survivor of the Tutsi Genocide, during which she lost many of her family members, to explain how she had previously chosen the road of reconciliation and forgiveness in order to overcome her sorrow and forge her way forward in Rwanda's reconstruction.
Members of the African diplomatic corps, government officials from India's Ministry of External Affairs and the Delhi government, and members of academia and business were among those in attendance.
Among them were the Ambassador of Armenia, the High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea in New Delhi, and members of academia. They talked about genocides and big human conflicts in their chronological history.
They extended their thoughts around the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi and warned again the world of the possible looming danger of atrocities if preventive measures are not taken by governments and political leaders.
The High Commission of Rwanda in New Delhi is preparing another Commemoration event on 16 April 2022. This will be a virtual event in which the youth shall be given larger importance with more educative sessions by speakers.
The Rwandan Community in India and the other four countries of the High Commission’s jurisdiction is predominantly made up of young students who were born after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, who need "to know more about Rwanda’s history.”