Gen (Rtd) Fred Ibingira has urged young Rwandans to take ownership of the country’s future, warning that the responsibility to protect what has been built since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi now rests largely with them.

"This country's life is in your hands. Do not allow it to slip away, only to look back later with regret,” Ibingira said.

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He was speaking on Thursday, April 30, at Kigali Genocide Memorial, where the Ministry of Local Government, alongside the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Public Service and Labour, the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration, and the Chancellery for Heroes, National Orders and Decorations of Honour (CHENO), commemorated the Genocide and honoured over one million victims.

The event particularly honoured former employees of the former ministries MINITRASO, MININTER and MINIFOP who were killed during the Genocide.

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In a historical reflection, Ibingira traced the origins of the Genocide to colonial rule, which entrenched division and institutionalised discrimination against the Tutsi, laying the groundwork for mass violence.

Ibingira explained that successive efforts to resolve these injustices through peaceful means failed, prompting those in exile to organise politically, eventually forming the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi), and later its armed wing, the RPA, which launched the liberation struggle in October 1990.

"The struggle arose from prolonged injustice. Every peaceful avenue was pursued, but none yielded results,” said Ibingira, who fought the liberation war.

He stressed that the Genocide was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence, but a carefully planned and executed campaign by the government of Juvenal Habyarimana, involving state structures and militia such as the Interahamwe.

"The Genocide was methodically prepared, openly executed, and ultimately stopped in broad daylight by the RPA. No international force or the neighbors intervened to end it,” he said, dismissing narratives that seek to distort this history.

"RPA’s wish was to save as many people as possible, but because of the enemy’s strength which they had prepared for a long time, it was not possible as it should have been.”

Ibingira also criticised the inaction of the international community, noting that despite repeated appeals, foreign actors failed to intervene in time to prevent or halt the massacres.

Reconciliation and rebuilding

Reflecting on the aftermath of the Genocide, Ibingira described the difficult task of rebuilding a nation where survivors and perpetrators had to live together again.

"The liberation struggle was followed by all those wounds, by reconciling victims and perpetrators, bringing them together. Genocide in our country involved a Rwandan killing another Rwandan, imagine putting these two back together,” he said.

He emphasised that this required restraint and discipline, even among those who had lost family members, noting that revenge was deliberately avoided in favour of national unity and long-term stability.

"I want to say that the way you manage your family at home is the way it reflects outside,” Ibingira said.

"That management was done by RPA under President Paul Kagame, now 32 years later all that is history.”

"He has built the country, and the rest is up to us to help him build it further.”

The veteran general added that rebuilding the country came with further challenges, including insecurity caused by infiltrators, but progress was made through collective effort and leadership.

Persistent ideology and regional threat

Ibingira warned that the ideology behind the Genocide has not disappeared, but continues to exist, particularly in the region.

"What is happening in the neighbouring country, DR Congo, this is not something invented. They say it openly,” he said.

"They have gathered the Interahamwe; the FDLR is there with them openly, and their plan is to bring that ideology back here. They have built it strongly, and that should tell us something as Rwandans.”

"For those who are building the ideology, feeding the FDLR, our choice is nothing else but to guard our borders well. But whoever nurses Interahamwe will see the consequences.”

He stressed that the current struggle is largely ideological, requiring vigilance from all citizens.

"Today, the struggle we have is to fight ideology, which is dominant in our region, especially in DR Congo,” he said.

Ibingira urged the youth to understand their responsibility in safeguarding the country’s future.

"A person who was born during the Genocide is now 32 years old. You are mature enough and knowledgeable enough. I do not understand how colonial legacy could remain in someone, still in the minds of our children,” he said.

Reflecting on his own generation, he said they used their youth to fight for the country’s survival and to rebuild it.

"I often tell my colleagues that if I die today, I will not die with sorrow. I would go contented, because I used my youth for what I had to use it for,” he said.

"Now you young people, if you misuse your youth and the country slips away from you, what will happen? The life of this country is in your hands.”

He called on institutions and individuals alike to play their part, noting that the struggle is not limited to the military.

"The struggle is not only to take a gun and shoot. Wherever you are and in all you are doing, you must fight the struggle there and win it well, play your role responsibly,” Ibingira said.