The international community “let us all down” during the Tutsi genocide, the Rwandan president said on Sunday. Paul Kagame was speaking on the occasion of the commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the massacres, the shadow of which still hangs over the country.
The official commemorations began this Sunday, April 7 – the anniversary of the first killings of what would become the last genocide of the 20th century, leaving 800,000 dead, mainly from the Tutsi minority, but also from moderate Hutus.
The international community had been strongly criticized for its inaction before and during the genocide in this African Great Lakes country. “It is the international community that has let us all down, whether through contempt or cowardice,” declared Paul Kagame during a speech given to several thousand people at the BK Arena, an ultra-modern multipurpose hall from the capital Kigali.
Flame of Remembrance
“No one, no one, not even the African Union (AU), can exonerate itself from its inaction in the face of the breaking latest news of an announced genocide. Let us have the courage to recognize it, and to take responsibility for it,” also affirmed the President of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
President Paul Kagame – who has ruled the country with an iron fist since the end of the genocide – had earlier in the morning lit a flame of remembrance at the Gisozi Memorial. Shortly before, alongside foreign dignitaries, he stood in front of a wreath of flowers, in tribute to the victims of the massacres.
Former US President Bill Clinton, who was in the White House during the massacres, and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné were among those participating in the ceremony.
“Responsibilities” of Paris
On the occasion of this anniversary, French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed in a video broadcast on Sunday that “France assumes everything and exactly that in the terms that I used” on May 27, 2021. The French president, then traveling in Kigali, said he had come to “recognize” the “responsibilities” of France.
Paris, which maintained close relations with the Hutu regime when the genocide began, has long been accused of “complicity” by Kigali.
“We have all abandoned hundreds of thousands of victims to this infernal closed door,” added Mr. Macron in 2021, specifying that Paris had “not been complicit” with the Hutu genocidaires. The French president did not apologize, while saying he hoped for forgiveness from the survivors. “I have no words to add, no words to take away from what I told you that day,” Mr. Macron said on Sunday.
On Thursday, the Elysée reported that, according to Emmanuel Macron, France “could have stopped the genocide” of 1994 in Rwanda “with its Western and African allies”, but “did not have the will”. Words then interpreted as a further step in the recognition of France’s responsibilities in the genocide, but which the Head of State did not utter on Sunday.
After decades of tensions, going as far as a breakdown in diplomatic relations between Paris and Kigali between 2006 and 2009, a rapprochement was made possible between the two countries following the establishment of a commission by Emmanuel Macron which concluded in 2021 that France had “heavy and overwhelming responsibilities”.
The Paris town hall announced that on Sunday evening the Eiffel Tower would display in capital letters: “Kwibuka 30”, “remember” in Kinyarwanda and the official name of the commemorations of the genocide in Rwanda.
Carnage
In Rwanda, for seven days, music will not be allowed in public places or on the radio. Sporting events and films will be banned from broadcast on television, unless they are linked to commemorations.
The killings of spring 1994 were triggered the day after the attack on the plane of Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana, in a frenzy of hatred fueled by virulent anti-Tutsi propaganda.
The carnage ended when the Tutsi RPF rebellion seized Kigali on July 4, triggering an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Hutu to neighboring Zaire (today Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC). Thirty years later, mass graves continue to be unearthed.
Rwanda is carrying out reconciliation work, notably with the creation in 2002 of community courts, the “gacaca” where victims could hear the “confessions” of the executioners.
Justice has played a major role but, according to Kigali, hundreds of people suspected of having participated in the genocide are still at large, particularly in neighboring countries, such as the DRC and Uganda.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, have called for accelerated prosecutions of those responsible for the genocide. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, for his part urged “States around the world to redouble their efforts to bring to justice all suspected perpetrators still alive”.