Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Sunday accused the outside world of deliberately failing to prevent genocide, opening a week to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of some 800,000 fellow countrymen.
The UN, the US and European countries have all faced criticism for failing to intervene during the three-month genocide in Rwanda, which ended in July 1994 when Kagame seized the capital at the head of a rebel army.
"We should always bear in mind that genocide, wherever it happens, represents the international community's failure, which I would in fact characterize as deliberate, as convenient failure," Kagame told the start of a genocide conference.
"How could a million lives of the Rwandan people be regarded as so insignificant by anyone in terms of strategic or national interest?" he told the meeting at a hotel used 10 years ago as a base by military planners directing the massacres.
"Do the powerful nations have a hidden agenda? I would hate to believe that this agenda is dictated by racist considerations or the color of the skin, I hope it is not true," he said.
Speakers opening the three-day conference said the world had compounded its lack of intervention to stop the slaughter by failing to help the survivors, many of whom were infected with AIDS by the militiamen who raped them during the massacres.
"The international community still continues after the genocide to display total indifference to the survivors' unspeakable moral and physical suffering," said Francois Garambe, chairman of the Ibuka genocide survivors group.
Stephen Smith, director of Aegis Trust, a British-based charity dedicated to preventing genocide, said the world's failure in Rwanda had left the country with a terrible legacy of trauma which should encourage preventive action in future.
"In this city, you know, there are still more nightmares than dreams, because you know personally, that just 10 years ago, someone hacked your father to death, sliced through your brother, raped your mother," he told several hundred delegates.
"Never forget Rwanda, let it be a dangerous, unsettling, unnerving memory," he said.
On Sunday, a Rwandan Cabinet minister said a 2001 census showed there were 937,000 victims of the genocide, reviving a debate over the death toll which has seen conflicting numbers of deaths ranging from 500,000 to 1 million.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, created by the UN to prosecute perpetrators, estimates that "some 800,000 Rwandans were killed" between April and July 1994.
The genocide began after a plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down on April 6, 1994, triggering an attempt by Hutu extremists to exterminate their opponents to preserve the Hutus' decades-long dominance.
The conference ahead of a formal memorial ceremony tomorrow will draw participants from around the world, including Canadian former lieutenant-general Romeo Dallaire who led a UN force in Rwanda during the killings. He has been haunted by guilt over his failure to save more lives.
Kagame paid tribute to Dallaire in his speech as a "very good man," and revealed for the first time that he had considered seizing the weapons of Dallaire's force to use in his military campaign but had decided against the idea.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS