US President George W. Bush yesterday toured a memorial to the victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, saying that the "horrors" remembered there show that the world cannot let such violence go unchallenged, as he opened the third leg of a week-long Africa tour.
"It's a moving place that can't help but shake your emotions to their very foundation," Bush said after laying a wreath near mass graves that memorial officials say hold remains from 258,000 people.
The 1994 genocide saw the slaughter of about 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi minority, by Hutu extremist militias and government troops.
Reporters visited the displays that Bush was to see on his visit, including a devastating display on children killed in the violence.
Patrick Gashugli Shimirwa, a five-year-old with a striped T-shirt, smiles broadly from one of the large black and white photos of some of the genocide's youngest victims, above a plaque that describes the life taken from him.
"Favorite sport: Riding his bicycle. Favorite food: Meat with fries and eggs. Best Friend: His sister, Alliane. Personality: Very calm, a well-behaved boy. Cause of death: Hacked apart with a machete," the plaque says.
Bush was later to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame on the third stop of a five country tour that has taken the US president to Benin and Tanzania, and will see him travel to Ghana and Liberia.
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