Rwanda yesterday somberly commemorated the start, 25 years ago, of a genocide in which about 800,000 people were killed, as the country continues to grapple with the lasting consequences of the mass killings.
Rwandan 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 Center in the capital, Kigali.
Among the dignitaries attending the ceremonies were the leaders of Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, the African Union and the EU.
Photo: AP
“I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
The ceremony marked the beginning of 100 days of mourning and a week of events to honor the dead.
Paul Kagame was scheduled later in the day to join a procession through the capital to Kigali’s Amahoro National Stadium, where as many as 30,000 people were expected to participate in an evening candlelit ceremony.
The stadium — whose name means “peace” in the Kinyarwanda language — was used by the UN during the genocide to protect thousands of Tutsis from being massacred on the streets outside.
“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,” Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Oliver Nduhungihere said.
The mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying then-Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down and crashed in Kigali.
The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsis, with support from the army, police and militias.
The fighting ended in July 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-led rebel movement led by Kagame, swept in from Uganda and seized control of the country.
A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found.
Last year, authorities in Rwanda discovered mass graves they say contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims.
Additional reporting by Reuters and AFP
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the