The Rwandan community in Russia this last weekend held the 27th commemoration for the Genocide against the Tutsi that took place in 1994, in which over a million people were killed. In an event held at the Rwandan embassy in Moscow on Friday, April 16, Rwandans were joined by members of diplomatic corps and friends of Rwanda to honour the innocent lives killed in the Genocide. The event was also graced by Vsevolod Igorevich Tkachenko, the Director of the Africa Department at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Frank Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Russia; Pastor Pavel Kolesnikov, the Chairman of the Friends of Rwanda Club in Russia, among others. The commemoration started with the lighting of candles as a sign of hope for Rwandans despite the horrendous events of the 1994 Genocide, and a one-minute moment of silence to remember the innocent victims of the Genocide against Tutsi in 1994. Addressing the participants, Lt Gen. Frank Mushyo Kamanzi, the Rwandan Ambassador to Russian said the 27th Commemoration is an important occasion for Rwandans wherever they are. Ambassador Lt General Frank Mushyo Kamanzi addressing the audience during the 27th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. He added that the commemoration is also an occasion to honor the survivors for their resilience, courage and forgiveness that has immensely contributed towards reconciliation and renewal. He called for action against the forces of genocide denial and revisionism in academia and mainstream media. “Genocide deniers are freely using social media and other tools to spread hatred, revisionism and denial of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. At the same time, genocide perpetrators and fugitives continue to roam freely in some countries,” he said. “Genocide perpetrators and their accomplices must be denied a platform to advance this dangerous genocide ideology and harmful propaganda,” he added. He reiterated the government of Rwanda’s call to all countries to abide by their international obligation and hold genocide suspects to account by extraditing them to Rwanda or trying them in their national courts. Alexis Ruhinda, the Chairman of the Rwandan Diaspora in Russia urged Rwandan youth to make good use of the opportunities given to them by the government, to write a new history of the country and eradicate the evil that was done by intellectuals who ruled the country before the Genocide. On his part, Tkachenko conveyed a message of sympathy to Rwandans stating that “the Genocide against the Tutsi will be forever remembered as one of the darkest pages of human history.”
