Thousands of people and a dozen heads of State and Government commemorated this Sunday in Kigali the thirtieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, in which more than 800.000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in 1994.
"Today our hearts are filled with grief and gratitude in equal measure. We remember our dead and are also grateful for what Rwanda has become," Rwandan President Paul Kagame said during his speech at the BK Arena in the capital.
"We owe a debt to the survivors among us. We ask you to do the impossible, carrying the weight of unity and reconciliation on your shoulders, and you continue to do so (…) every day," Kagame added at a ceremony that reflected both the country's progress and its wounds.
On the occasion of the event, a huge fluorescent tree-shaped structure was installed in the middle of the pavilion and its changing lights accompanied the different musical performances presented, as well as a contemporary dance show.
"Our journey has been long and difficult. Rwanda was completely overwhelmed by the scale of our loss, and the lessons we learned are etched in blood," Kagame asserted in a forceful statement in which he also sharply criticized the international community and the role played by the United Nations during the massacre.
"Those soldiers (the UN peacekeepers deployed in Rwanda) did not fail Rwanda. It was the international community that failed us all, whether through indifference or cowardice," he stressed.
Macron once again recognizes France's responsibility
French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated France's "responsibilities" in the genocide in Rwanda on Sunday, where at least 800.000 Tutsis were massacred on the orders of the Hutu government, marking 30 years since the beginning of these crimes (April-July).
In his short institutional video, less than a minute long, Macron asserted that he "already said it all on May 27, 2021," when, on an official visit to Rwanda, he assumed France's "responsibilities" for "having abandoned hundreds of thousands of victims in that hell behind closed doors."
In that historic address from Kigali, the French president clarified that Paris "had not been complicit" in the Hutu genocide. In any case, he asked for "the gift of forgiveness" from the survivors affected by the genocide.
Before the solemn ceremony held this Sunday in Rwanda, where Macron was represented by his foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, the French presidency had stated on Thursday that the country "had no desire to stop the genocide," as did Paris's Western and African allies.
This Sunday, the French president chose to ignore that statement, insisting that he fully reaffirmed what he had already said in 2021. He did, however, take the opportunity to thank Rwandan President Paul Kagame for "the way he welcomed" the words of forgiveness in 2021.
In 2022, French Justice closed an investigation that had been opened in 2005 for the alleged involvement, by action or omission, of the French military on mission in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
