Rwandans and friends of Rwanda in Senegal, diplomats and government officials have joined the world in honoring the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. On Thursday, April 7, the community organised a commemoration event in Dakar that was opened by laying a wreath at “Place du Souvenir Africain” which hosts a monument of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Some of the prominent figures that had attended the ceremony included various members of the diplomatic corps in Senegal, government officials among others. Sidiki Kaba, the Senegalese Minister of Defence reiterated his government’s solidarity with the Rwandan people during this mourning period. “We stand with Rwanda during this period to commemorate over 1 million lives slain in 100 days, which is affirmed by the bilateral relations between our two countries,” he noted. Minister Kaba also commended Rwanda’s progress 28 years after the Genocide saying; “I also want to commend the development of Rwanda in this short period of time...I also salute your participation in different reforms in African Union. Senegalese officers were part of the UN Mission in Rwanda during the genocide, and one of them, a senior UN observer at the time, Captain Mbaye Diagne was decorated with a UN medal for his role to save the lives of hundreds of Tutsis who were hiding at Hotel des milles collines in Kigali. He was also decorated posthumously in Rwanda. He died almost two months after the genocide had started. Rwanda’s envoy to Senegal, Jean Pierre Karabaranga explained that genocide was not accidental, but a prepared plan to exterminate all Tutsis. He highlighted that genocide ideology was taught in schools, and several massacres were conducted in different regions of Rwanda in preparation of the main plan to exterminate the Tutsis. Karabaranga then said that remembrance is a call for the world to avoid falling into the same horrendous trap. “This is a time to show the world that what happened should not happen again anywhere and that genocide deniers should be pursued anywhere they may be located,” he said. This is also a moment to pay tribute to those who stopped it, added Rwanda’s ambassador to Senegal, Gambia, Cap-Verde and Guinea Bissau. On his side, Boris Babacar Diop, an author on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi who was among the speakers in the event’s panel tackled the role of Rwandan officials at the time, and the international community as well. He recalled the intense massacres that took place in Southern Province which is the main focus of his book, “Murambi, le Livre des Ossements “ which is translated as Murambi, the book of bones.
