Rwanda’s president reflects on the 30th anniversary of the genocide

During commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Rwandan President Paul Kagame blamed the inaction of the international community for expanding the horrors that befell his nation.

Genocide in Rwanda it began later a plane carrying then-President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down because it flew over Kigali. Tutsis were blamed for Habyarimana’s death and in response a bloody campaign was waged against them. Hutu extremists also killed several moderate Hutus who tried to guard Tutsis during a 100-day massacre that left an estimated 800,000 people dead.

According to the Associated Press, world leaders attended the ceremony, including former US President Bill Clinton, who was US president at the time of the genocide, and Israeli President Issac Herzog.

Kagame said during his speech: “It is the international community that has failed us all, whether out of contempt or cowardice.”

Kagame continued: “Our journey has been long and difficult. Rwanda was completely humbled by the enormity of our loss, and the lessons we learned are etched in our blood. But our country’s tremendous progress is clearly visible and is the result of a shared choice to resurrect our nation.”

Clinton and French President Emmanuel Macron admitted defeat. Clinton did so after leaving office, stating that his administration’s inaction in Rwanda was one of the biggest failures of his term. Macron recorded a message before the celebrations during which he stated that France and its allies didn’t have the political will to achieve this.

Some evaluation of foreign policy towards the genocide in Rwanda seems to agree with Macron, putting the onus not only on America and France, but on the way the UN functions typically.

As Bronwen Everill, lecturer in history and fellow of Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge, writes: “The failure of the United Nations to expand the remit of its peacekeepers on the ground – hampered by a Chapter 6 mandate that limited its actions to implement the Agreements with Arusha – left the soldiers powerless to stop the killing that was happening before their eyes.”

Kagame, who’s credited with leading the rebels that ended the Rwandan genocide accused by human rights organizations creating an environment of fear. He can also be accused of forcing his political opponents to flee the country or causing their disappearance, while others were killed. According to Tafi Mhaka’s column for Kagame he mustn’t be absolved for his own abuses.

Mhaka writes: “Therefore, editors should stop calling Kagame a “pioneer,” call him “inspiring,” and claim he’s a “standard-bearer” in African politics. He can’t be considered any of these people until dissenting Rwandans stop to be threatened, arbitrarily imprisoned or forcibly disappeared. Rwanda and Africa deserve a lot better.”