Kigali:

Rwandans will mark on Sunday the 30th anniversary of a genocide orchestrated by Hutu extremists that divided the country and pitted neighboring countries against each other in one of the bloodiest massacres of the 20th century.

The massacre lasted 100 days before the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel militia seized Kigali in July 1994, claiming the lives of some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsi but also moderate Hutu people.

The small country has since found a foothold under the iron-fisted rule of President Paul Kagame, who leads the Rwanda Patriotic Front, but the scars of violence remain, leaving a trail of destruction across Africa’s Great Lakes region.

According to tradition, on April 7 – the day when Hutu militias launched a massacre in 1994 – Kagame will light a memorial flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are believed to be buried.

Kagame will lay a wreath at the mass grave, flanked by foreign dignitaries including former US President Bill Clinton, who called the genocide his government’s greatest failure.

The failure of the international community to intervene has been a lingering shame, with French President Emmanuel Macron expected to announce on Sunday that France and its Western and African allies “could have prevented” the bloodshed but lacked the will to do so. .

Kagame is also expected to speak at a 10,000-seat arena in the capital, where Rwandans will later hold a candlelight vigil for the victims of the massacre.

national week of mourning

Sunday’s event marked the start of a week of national mourning that has brought Rwanda to a virtual standstill, with flags flying at half-mast.

No music is allowed in public places or on the radio, and sporting events and movies are banned from televising except in connection with the so-called “Kwibuka 30” event.

Commemorative ceremonies will also be held by the United Nations and the African Union.

Karel Kovanda, a former Czech diplomat who was the first U.N. ambassador to publicly call the 1994 events a genocide, said nearly a month after the killings began that they should never be forgotten.

“This page cannot be turned over,” he told AFP in Kigali, urging all parties to work to ensure “the genocide is not forgotten.”

On the evening of April 6, Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down over Kigali and he was assassinated, triggering a wave of protests by Hutu extremists and the Interahamwe militia. of riots.

Victims were shot, beaten or hacked to death in killings fueled by vicious anti-Tutsi propaganda broadcast on television and radio. According to United Nations figures, at least 250,000 women have been raped.

New mass graves are discovered across the country every year.

In 2002, Rwanda established community courts so that victims could hear “confessions” from their persecutors, but human rights watchdogs said the system also led to miscarriages of justice.

Today, Rwandan identity cards do not indicate whether a person is Hutu or Tutsi.

Secondary school students learn about genocide as part of a tightly controlled curriculum.

The country is home to more than 200 genocide monuments, four of which were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list last year.

flight from justice

According to Rwanda, hundreds of genocide suspects remain at large, including in neighboring countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Only 28 people have been extradited to Rwanda from around the world.

France, one of the top destinations for Rwandans fleeing justice at home, has tried and convicted six people involved in the killings.

The French government has long been a supporter of Habyarimana’s regime, leading to decades of tension between the two countries.

In 2021, Macron acknowledged France’s role in the genocide and refused to heed warnings of an impending massacre, but did not formally apologize.

Ahead of the 30th anniversary, human rights watchdogs have renewed calls for remaining genocide suspects to be held accountable.

“I urge countries around the world to redouble their efforts to bring all surviving suspects to justice – including through universal jurisdiction – and to combat hate speech and Incitement to genocide.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)