KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame said Monday he was concerned that the United States had failed to recognize the 1994 genocide against the country’s Tutsi minority.
Kagame told reporters that the issue was an “element of discussion” in his meeting with former US President Bill Clinton. On Sunday, Clinton led a U.S. delegation, most of which included former President Clinton, at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the genocide perpetrated by Hutu extremists that killed about 800,000 people. Tutsis participate in government-led campaigns.
25 years after genocide, Rwanda’s Kagame is admired and feared
Many Rwandans criticized U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for not specifying that the genocide targeted Tutsi people when he wrote late Sunday: “We have committed 100 We mourn the thousands of Tutsis, Hutus, Tswa and others who lost their lives in those days of unspeakable violence.” . ”
Rwandan President Paul Kagame gestures during a press conference at the Kigali Convention Center on Monday, April 8, 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda. Rwandans are commemorating 30 years since the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed and crushed by government-backed extremists. This small East African country continues to grapple with the horrific legacy of genocide. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
In response to a journalist’s question about Blinken’s posts on social platform Stated.
“Give us that day,” he said, adding that on the anniversary of the genocide, he did not want criticism of “all the things that we are considered to not have at all.”
Rwandan authorities claim that ambiguity about the identity of the victims of the genocide is an attempt to distort history and disrespect the memory of the victims.
U.S. officials had no comment Monday. “We will never forget the horror of those 100 days, the pain and loss suffered by the Rwandan people, or the common humanity that unites us all that hatred can never overcome,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday. Probably not.”
“Over the next 100 days, more than 800,000 women, men and children were murdered, mostly Tutsis, but also some Hutu and Twa. It was an extinction, and decades later, its effects are still being felt across Rwanda and around the world,” Biden wrote.
“We honor the victims who died senselessly and the survivors who bravely rebuilt their lives. And we honor our homeland as it heals its wounds, heals its traumas, and builds the foundations of peace. We commend all Rwandans who have worked hard to help build and contributed to the efforts of reconciliation and justice that continue to this day. ”
The question of how to commemorate the genocide comes as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (the rebel group that stopped the genocide and has ruled Rwanda unchallenged since 1994) carried out its own revenge killings during and after the genocide. This stems from the suspicion that he did so.
Kagame had previously said his military had shown restraint. In a speech on Sunday, he said Rwandans were tired of what he described as the hypocrisy of Western countries that failed to stop the genocide.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying then-Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali, sparking a genocide. Tutsis were accused of shooting down a plane and killing the president, and were targeted for massacres by Hutu extremists. It lasted over 100 days. Some moderate Hutus who tried to protect the Tutsi minority were also killed.
Flags were flown at half-staff and entertainment was ordered to be quiet in public places across Rwanda as part of a week of commemoration.
Rwandan authorities also face the problem of how to present commemorative activities in a way that acknowledges the efforts of some Hutus to protect their Tutsi neighbors.
“Look, people who deny genocide are saying, ‘Oh, to commemorate? That’s a big, serious barrier to unity.’ We have to move forward, we need to forget commemoration.” said Naftar Ashakye, executive director of the prominent organization. Stories of survivors of the Kigali massacre. “They are wrong. They have a genocidal ideology. They don’t want to remember what happened.”
The government has long accused the international community of ignoring warnings about the killings, and some Western leaders have expressed regret.
French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide, but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France, Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994, for failing to prevent Rwanda’s slide into genocide. .
Kagame is an ally of the United States and has friendly relations with many Western leaders, but he has come under increasing pressure over Rwanda’s military intervention in eastern Congo, where leaders from both countries have recently supported armed groups. They accuse each other of doing something wrong, and tensions are rising. In February, the United States urged Rwanda to withdraw its troops and missile systems from eastern Congo, describing the M23 as a Rwandan-backed rebel group for the first time.
UN experts say they have “credible evidence” that members of the Rwandan army were operating on the ground in support of M23 in an insurgency that has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Congo’s North Kivu province. He said he grabbed it.
Kagame said on Monday that M23 is fighting for the rights of the Congolese Tutsi people, and that at least 100,000 people who fled attacks in eastern Congo are now seeking refuge in Rwanda.
Rwandan authorities say they want to stop the rebels, including Hutu militants responsible for the genocide, who have fled to eastern Congo.
Rwanda’s ethnic composition has remained largely unchanged since 1994, with Hutus making up the majority. Of Rwanda’s population of 14 million, the Tutsi make up 14% and the Twa only 1%.
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Kagame’s Tutsi-majority government has outlawed all forms of organization along ethnic lines as part of its efforts to build a unified Rwandan identity. National ID cards no longer identify people by ethnicity, and authorities have imposed tough criminal laws to prosecute suspects who deny the genocide or the “ideology” behind it.
But some observers say the law has been used to silence critics who question government policies, including how to build lasting unity and reconciliation.
