A hundred days of tears marks Rwandan genocide anniversary
● Memorial service to 800,000 victims of slaughter 25 years ago
Rwanda has begun 100 days of mourning as it sombrely commemorated the start 25 years ago of a genocide in which some 800,000 people were killed.
President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame laid wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of 250,000 victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in the capital.
The country will mourn for 100 days, the time it took in 1994 for 800,000 Rwandans to be massacred.
Those attending the ceremonies included the leaders of Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union.
“I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy,” said Jean-claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.
The service was followed by a procession through Kigali to the National Stadium where 30,000 were expected to participate in an evening candlelit ceremony.
“Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda fell into a deep ditch due to bad leadership. Today, we are a country of hope and a nation elevated,” Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide said in Kigali.
“Today, the government has united all Rwandans as one people with the same culture and history and is speeding up economic transformation,” said Oliver Nduhungihere, Rwanda’s state foreign affairs minister.
The mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.
The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police and militias.
Kagame’s government has previously accused the Hutuled government of 1994 of being responsible for shooting down the plane and has blamed the French government for turning a blind eye to the genocide.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron finally ordered a government study into the country’s role in Rwanda before and during the genocide. Mr Macron ordered a commission of researchers and historians to investigate the “role and involvement of France” in Rwanda from 199094. It is to reach conclusions within two years.
Mr Macron also called for each April 7 to become an annual day of commemoration of the genocide. In a brief statement he expressed “solidarity with the Rwandan people”.
A remembrance service was held yesterday in Paris.
Mr Kagame has won praise for ending the violence and making advances in economic development and health care.
Ethnic reconciliation is a cornerstone of the rule of Mr Kagame, Rwanda’s de facto leader since the genocide ended in 1994 and the country’s president since 2000. He is credited with bringing Rwanda stability, economic growth and improved health and education.
However, Mr Kagame’s critics allege that he is intolerant of criticism and his government is repressive, jailing opposition leaders. Some opponents say that Rwanda’s reconciliation is forced.
A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found. Last year, authorities in Rwanda found mass graves they say contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims.
“Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the centre of everyone’s thoughts, but we should also take stock of progress and the need to ensure accountability for all those who directed these horrific acts,” Human Rights Watch said.