#Kwibuka30 celebrations kickoff Sunday 7 April 2024
Kelvin Jakachira in Kigali
KIGALI, Rwanda – World leaders are in Rwanda joining Rwandans in commemorating the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which has kicked off today in Kigali.
The commemorations, known as #Kwibuka30, are being held under the theme” Remember, Unite and Renew”.
Hordes of world leaders in Kigali for #Kwibuka30 commemorations
Among the leaders that are already in Kigali include Czech President, Petr Pavel; South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa; Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed; Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouan; the President of Mauritius, Prithvirajsing Roopun; the President of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina; the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou N’guesso; and the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit. Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, arrived in Kigali Sunday morning. The United States delegation is being led by former President, Bill Clinton.
April 7 marks the beginning of a week-long series of events to honour the memory of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in which more than one million people were killed in cold blood in 100 days.
The mass slaughter was stopped by the then rebel group, Rwandan Patriotic Front – led by the current President, Paul Kagame – which heroically overcame the genocidal regime.
#Kwibuka30 happening at a time when remnants of genocidaires have regrouped in neighbouring DRC waging war against the Tutsi in that country
Remnants of the genocidal forces regrouped in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they are pursuing another genocide of the Congolese Tutsi community in the eastern parts of that country.
The genocidal militia, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), is seeking to destabilise Rwanda and remove its government.
Concerns have been raised over the DRC’s support for the FDLR and the silence of the international community in the face of the ethnic cleansing being perpetrated by the genocidal forces.
This brings back memories of how the United Nations failed to act to stop the Tutsi Genocide despite repeated calls from different people including its own representatives. One person who made such calls then was the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire who was leading the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda.
On 11 January 1994, Dallaire sent a critical telegram from Kigali, in which he described what he had learned from one of his sources: that Hutu paramilitary militias were gathering weapons and compiling lists of Tutsi to kill them all off at a suitable moment.
Dallaire asked for permission to intervene, for example, to take over illegal weapons storage areas. But he did not get the go-ahead to intervene.
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Why #Kwibuka30 – remembering the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi – matters to SA
As a result, more than a million Tutsi were massacred in a short span of 100 days from 7 April.
#Kwibuka30 coincides with World Heritage listing of 3 memorial sites
The commemorations are also coming at a time when UNESCO on Friday, 5 April 2024, handed over official certificates to four Genocide memorial sites in Rwanda that were last year added to the World Heritage List.
The memorials are some of the final resting places of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The certificates were handed over by UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay at Kigali Genocide Memorial.