On April 7, Rwanda commenced 100 days of remembering victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Thirty- two years ago, between April and July of 1994, over one million Tutsi lives were brutally cut short in a wave of targeted killings that saw neighbour turn against neighbour, resulting in the destruction of entire social fabric. ALSO READ: Rwanda’s commemorations in the shadow of indifference In Rwanda’s capital Kigali, President Paul Kagame addressed a grief-stricken audience at Kigali Genocide Memorial where the remains of 250,000 Tutsi victims are laid to rest. In a speech, delivered in a calm and measured but emphatic tone, President Kagame declared: ‘‘We will not ask anyone permission to live and this country will not die twice’’. ALSO READ: This country will not die twice Underpinning RPF-Inkotanyi’s philosophy of putting human life first, Rwanda’s head of state said ‘’our deepest source of grief was always that we could not arrive earlier’’. The United Nations recognized the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 2004 under the International Day of reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and it is marked globally. At the UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General António Guterres said: The United Nations stands with the people of Rwanda. And we stand with all those, everywhere, who refuse to surrender our future to fear, division, or silence. ALSO READ: A genocide decades in the making, not a spontaneous tragedy The United Nations in India marked the day with message headlined “Resilience and unity shine bright as Rwanda remembers Genocide’’. Genocide does not begin with weapons. It begins with words, with misinformation, with dehumanization, with hate speech that hardens lines between communities until violence becomes thinkable, said UN Resident Coordinator in India Stefan Priesner, as he led the New Delhi commemoration of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. A personal reflection on the level of savagery displayed by humans against fellow humans in Rwanda in 1994, and what is happening in the world today; reminds me of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. In this 1950s allegory the author presents a pessimistic view of humanity, arguing that “man’s inhumanity to man is not a learned behaviour but an inherent quality that emerges when societal constraints are removed’’. Written in the aftermath of World War II, and amidst the anxieties of the Cold War, Golding’s novel suggests that beneath a thin veneer of civilization, human beings are naturally savage, destructive, and capable of extreme cruelty for pleasure, power, or fear-driven survival. Having endured the horrors of World War II, William Golding believed that people are fundamentally attracted to brutality and are only constrained by society's rules and regulations. His message is more pertinent today as we witness the breakdown of international norms and global structures of law and order. The author is a keen observer of global affairs.
