In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame lit the flame of remembrance at the Guisozi memorial on the morning of Sunday, April 7, to launch the commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the Tutsi genocide, before the official ceremony. The genocide left at least 800,000 dead.
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With our correspondent in Kigali, Lucie Mouillaud
The ceremony took place in the presence of thousands of people including many international personalities and lasted a little over two hours in the BK Arena stadium.
Five thousand guests including more than thirty heads of state, government, former presidents and representatives of international organizations were all gathered around this black stage with, in its center, a large tree of light.
Half a dozen speeches were delivered, punctuated by artistic performances as well as speeches focused on memory, but also around silence and the responsibility of the international community, because it was necessary “ wait until June 8, 1994, two months after the start of the massacres, for the United Nations to finally speak of acts of genocide “, declared Rwandan Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement, Jean-Damascene Bizimana.
“Sadness and gratitude”
“ No one, not even the African Union, could exonerate itself from its inaction “, commented the President of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, a past of which ” lessons must be learned “, according to President Paul Kagame, last speech of the ceremony calling on African leaders to reject tribal policies and ethnic cleansing and saluting the new Rwandan generation, ” guardians of our future and the foundation of our unity “, he says.
“ Today our hearts are filled, in equal measure, with sadness and gratitude. We remember our dead, but we are also happy to see what Rwanda has become. To the survivors here, we owe you a debt. We have asked you the impossible: to carry the weight of reconciliation on your shoulders and to continue to do so for our nation. Our journey was long and difficult. Rwanda was deeply humiliated by the magnitude of our loss, and the lessons we learned are written in blood. It is the international community that has let us down, whether through contempt or cowardice. “, declared Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
For me, these 30 years of commemorating the genocide also mean giving space to young people so that they can also talk about it, not as Tutsi or Hutu, but to talk about it in a country where Rwandans are Rwandans. It is important for young people to integrate into this way of acting to develop our country.
[Reportage] For Rwandans, a symbolic anniversary, marked by the duty to remember