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
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