Former US President Bill Clinton took his seat and gently scratched his forehead as President Paul Kagame of Rwanda blasted the international community for failing the people of Rwanda and continue to consistently undermine the dark side that Rwanda went through.
President Kagame made the remarks during the 30th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi which claimed more than a million lives.
“It is the international community that has let us all down, whether through contempt or cowardice,” President Kagame said.
Clinton, after leaving office, cited the Rwandan genocide as a failure of his administration just like the international community ignored warnings about the impending genocide against Tutsi.
However, the powerful Western countries still refuse to acknowledge the facts about the genocide against Tutsi which claimed over a million lives.
Some countries still revise the victims figure downwards and also blame the victims including refusing to use the term “genocide against the Tutsi”.
During the 30th commemoration of the Genocide against Tutsi on Sunday, former President Bill Clinton sat slightly scratching his forehead as he listened to a speech by President Paul Kagame who noted, “It is the international community that has let us all down, whether through contempt or cowardice.”
Surprisingly without any shame, US Secretary of State who attended the Kwibuka30 in Kigali, said, “The United States stands with the people of Rwanda during Kwibuka 30 in remembering the victims of genocide. We mourn the many thousands of Tutsis, Hutus, Twas, and others whose lives were lost during 100 days of unspeakable violence.”
President Kagame rejected such ambiguous statements on a serious matter like Genocide against the Tutsi.
“Such ambiguity is, in fact, a form of denial, which is a crime in and of itself, and Rwanda will always challenge it,” President Kagame said.
“Rwandans will never understand why any country would remain intentionally vague about who was targeted in the genocide. I don’t understand that,” the Rwandan leader added.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed in a video broadcast on Sunday that “France assumes everything and exactly that in the terms that I used” on May 27, 2021. The French president, travelling to Kigali then said he had come to “recognize” the “responsibilities” of France.
Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France — Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 — for failing to stop Rwanda’s slide into the slaughter.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné and Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville, born in Rwanda, attended the ceremony.
Just like the Belgian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, Hadja Lahbib and Ludivine Dedonder, and the President of the European Council Charles Michel – also former Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation and Prime Minister.
“No one, no one, not even the African Union (AU), can exonerate itself from its inaction in the face of the chronicle of a predicted genocide. Let us have the courage to recognize it, and to take responsibility for it,” also affirmed the President of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
