Adama Dieng, the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General for the Prevention of Genocide has joined other global leaders to comfort Rwandans in the 26th commemoration of the Genocide against Tutsi. In his video remarks on Tuesday, the former registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, commended the countrys brave rebound from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He described it as the darkest chapter in humanity, saying that the world witnessed a murderous madness. Over one million innocent people were killed massacres that lasted 100 days. Today 26-years later, we celebrate their lives. Today, we remember all the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and recognise the pain and courage of those who survived,” Dieng. Let us always remember that genocide is the most serious crime and that we have both collective and individual duties to prevent it. It is the best way to honour the memory of victims by ensuring that nothing like this can ever happen again. Emphasising that every genocide is a vehemently planned crime, Dieng reminded that the Holocaust didnt begin with gas chambers and neither did the Tutsi genocide with machetes. As a matter of fact, he said, hate speech had begun way before April 7—spread through the infamous radio of Mille Collines and publications such as Kangura newspaper. Dieng stressed the global urgency to stop the swelling genocide negationism the world is witnessing. In its 2014 resolution adopted unanimously, the United Nations Security Council condemns, without reservations any negation of the Tutsi genocide and urges its member states to establish mechanisms designed to teach future generation the lessons from the genocide. It is important, Dieng noted, to preserve the memory and to focus on the present while raising generations mobilized against the genocide ideology. In his 4-minute speech, the Senegalese commended Rwandans and the government who have worked with courage and dignity for the reconstruction of the country. Rwanda has developed an exemplary model of diversity management, which stirs a national identity, transcends differences and stimulates admiration, he concluded.
