Rwandans in Russia, diplomats, and friends of Rwanda gathered in Moscow on April 14 and paid tribute to victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in an event that was marked with lighting candles, a moment of silence to honour the victims, a film and a song that described how the Genocide against Tutsi was planned and executed. Speaking at the event, Director in charge of the Department of Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vsevolod Tkachenko, honored the memory of the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. ALSO READ: 29 years later, Rwanda remembers He further stated that the consequences of these atrocities led to a deep social-economical and humanitarian crisis. The memory of this bloodshed remains a never healing wound in the hearts of Rwandans and all those who cannot remain immune to human suffering. Vsevolod commended Rwanda’s leadership that for restoring peace and security after the Genocide and eliminating ethnic differences. He stated that the leadership’s balanced policy allowed Rwandans to overcome social-economic implications stemming from the Genocide and make a giant leap toward sustainable development. ALSO READ: Rwandan community in Russia honour Genocide victims He noted that Russia and Rwanda this year would be celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations due to good bilateral ties and common areas of interest such as mining, energy, medicine, education, and military and technical cooperation. “That will further be expanded due to the positive attitude of the leadership and the people of Russia and Rwanda and the experience accumulated over the years,” he said. Rwanda’s Ambassador to Russia Lt Gen Frank Mushyo Kamanzi, state that the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was not an accident; instead, it had roots in colonial history. “Consequently, as early as 1959, systematic and targeted mass killings and forced exile of a large section of the Tutsi population were carried out; with the encouragement and active participation of the colonial administrators and their structures,” he said. Over the decades, the Kayibanda and Habyarimana regimes carried out persecution, mass killings, and forced exile of Tutsi in 1963, 1972, and the1990s. “The global community looked the other way, while some powerful countries sided with the perpetrators. Ultimately, Habyarimana's genocidal regime deliberately planned and executed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in the cruelest and merciless manner, murdering more than one million innocent Tutsi in just one hundred days,” said Gen Kamanzi. He reminded that: “In 1994, as the genocide against the Tutsi was being carried out by the government's genocidal forces and militia, the international community and UNAMIR peacekeepers from Rwanda at the peak of the 1994 Genocide abandoned Rwanda and left the victims to the merciless killers at a time where the mission should have been reinforced and given a clear and strong mandate to save lives. Kamanzi also spoke about the liberation journey Rwanda's rebirth: “We have chosen unity and reconciliation.” The Ambassador further expressed that for more than 29 years now, denial and trivialization of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi are still rife among some in the academia, the media, politicians. He condemned some of the most powerful countries that allow genocide perpetrators to live freely without trial or extradition and called upon all countries to abide by their international obligation to arrest and try genocide perpetrators in their national courts or extradite them to Rwanda. ALSO READ: Inside the secret DR Congo-FDLR pact He referred to the recent report by the UN Special Advisor to the SG on prevention of genocide about the situation in eastern DR Congo saying: “The current violence is a warning sign of societal fragility and proof of the enduring presence of the conditions that allowed large-scale hatred and violence to erupt into a genocide in the past. ALSO READ: DR Congo crisis: UN re-echoes possible Genocide in Kivu The crisis in eastern DR Congo stems from the remnants of those who perpetrated the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, fled to DR Congo and formed armed groups such as the FDLR, which actively target civilians based on ethnicity. She also expressed concern over an escalation of hate speech, and incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence – specifically against the Kinyarwanda speaking Banyamulenge people.
