UNHCR Representative to Rwanda Azam Saber has recommended use of individual effort to tell Rwanda’s history to those who are not informed as one of the ways of fighting against the genocide ideology.
He made this remark on Friday during the Commemoration event held at the UNHCR Headquarters to pay tribute to UNHCR workers who were killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis.
Saber emphasised that fighting the genocide ideology can be achieved when there is individual role on top of institutional effort. “The role of individuals is a very big force and there is no small or big effort in fighting the ideology. The same way that this force was used to brutally murder people, it can be used to fight the genocide ideology,” he said.
He believes that the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis did not happen abruptly. Instead, he said, it had been planned. “Killing ten thousand people per day just cannot come by accident. It was premeditated. Some people wanted it to happen and it happened.”
Saber called upon everyone to denounce with his or her utmost effort, the genocide ideology.
He said that the genocide shattered the aspirations, hopes, and expectations of those who wanted to live a good future, but were brutally killed.
Therefore, he noted, it so important that we have to fight the ideology of harming people so that every individual who is born on earth regardless of their affiliation or nature. “We human beings never understand, we never learn from our own history. And this is something which is really tragic.” “If we want the slogan never again to happen, the new generation must know the consequences of a mass killing and brutality”.
Meanwhile UNHCR staff laid flowers before the names of 11 victims who were killed, some of whom were UNHCR drivers and humanitarian workers.
