#Rwanda 1994

[liesmyth]

The utopian premise of the Genocide Convention had been that a moral imperative to prevent efforts to exterminate whole peoples should be the overriding interest animating the action of an international community of autonomous states. This is a radical notion, fundamentally at odds, as so much of the internationalist experiment has proven to be, with the principle of sovereignty. States have never acted for purely disinterested humanitarian reasons; the novel idea was that the protection of humanity was in every state’s interest, and it was well understood in the aftermath of World War II that action against genocide would require a willingness to use force and to risk the lives of one’s own. The belief was that the price to the world of such a risk would not be as great as the price of inaction. [...] And I wondered: Can we imagine such an outcome today?

Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

[t0rschlusspan1k]

In occasion of the 30th anniversary from the Rwandan genocide I couldn't refrain from presenting you with this book I read a couple of years ago. It's a memoir/report by Clea Koff, a forensic anthropologist, who worked on the mass graves of the most important massacres in recent history: Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo.

From Penguin Random House Canada:

Published ten years after the genocide in Rwanda, The Bone Woman is a riveting, deeply personal account by a forensic anthropologist sent on seven missions by the UN War Crimes Tribunal. To prosecute charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, the UN needs proof that the bodies found are those of non-combatants. This means answering two questions: who the victims were, and how they were killed. The only people who can answer both these questions are forensic anthropologists. Before being sent to Rwanda in 1996, Clea Koff was a twenty-three-year-old graduate student studying prehistoric skeletons in the safe confines of Berkeley, California. Over the next four years, her gruelling investigation into events that shocked the world transformed her from a wide-eyed student into a soul-weary veteran — and a wise and deeply thoughtful woman. Her unflinching account of those years — what she saw, how it affected her, who went to trial based on evidence she collected — makes for an unforgettable read, alternately riveting, frightening and miraculously hopeful. Readers join Koff as she comes face to face with the human meaning of genocide: exhuming almost five hundred bodies from a single grave in Kibuye, Rwanda; uncovering the wire-bound wrists of Srebrenica massacre victims in Bosnia; disinterring the body of a young man in southwestern Kosovo as his grandfather looks on in silence. As she recounts the fascinating details of her work, the hellish working conditions, the bureaucracy of the UN, and the heartbreak of survivors, Koff imbues her story with an immense sense of hope, humanity and justice.

I also recommend you watch the video and read the articles and posts I shared earlier on my blog to better understand how this horror came to be:

Rwanda: From colonialism to genocide (documentary + article)

Emmanuel Macron's declarations

Some other book recommendations:

[FR] Maria Malagardis, "Avant la nuit"

[FR] Dorcy Rugamba, "Hewa Rwanda: Lettre aux absents"

Fiston Mudacumura, "Born Hutsi: My Imbroglio"

Thank you for your attention.

[almanach-international]

6 avril : le Burundi se souvient du président Ntaryamira

Le président Cyprien Ntaryamira est mort le 6 avril 1994, victime d’un attentat dont il n’était qu’une victime collatérale. L’année précédente son prédécesseur, Melchior Ndadaye, avait été renversé et assassiné, ce qui avait provoqué une guerre civile dans le pays entre Tutsis et Hutus. Ce même 6 avril 1994, Cyprien Ntaryamira participait aux accords de paix d'Arusha, en Tanzanie, en vue de mettre à ce conflit. Les chefs d’États de la région participaient à cette réunion. Le jet présidentiel burundais était en panne. Le président rwandais, Juvénal Habyarimana, propose à son homologue burundais de le ramener chez via Kigali. Alors qu’il amorce son atterrissage à l’aéroport international de Kanombe, l’appareil est pulvérisé par un missile sol-air au-dessus de Kigali. Les deux présidents périssent donc dans un attentat contre l’avion à bord duquel se trouvent également deux ministres burundais Cyriaque Simbizi et Bernard Ciza. Trente et un ans après les faits, les circonstances de l’attentat ne sont pas encore toutes élucidées. Une chose est sûre, ce n’est pas Cyprien Ntaryamira qui était visé.

Cet attentat du 6 avril a traumatisé le Burundi qui a fait de cet anniversaire un jour férié dédié à son éphémère président, mais il a aussi profondément marqué le Rwanda où il a été l’élément déclencheur d’un génocide qui a fait disparaître en quatre mois, à partir du 7 avril, près d’un million de Rwandais. Au Burundi, la guerre civile également entre Hutus et Tutsis s’est prolongée jusqu’en 2005 faisant, depuis 1993, quelque 300 000 morts.

Chaque 6 avril, la cérémonie se déroule au monument des Martyrs de la démocratie où le président Évariste Ndayishimiye ainsi que son épouse Angeline, se recueillent au nom de tous les Burundais et dépose une gerbe de fleurs sur la tombe du disparu. Ils sont suivis par les représentants du corps diplomatique et consulaire accrédité au Burundi, la famille de feu le président Ntaryamira, des membres des partis politiques et bien d’autres encore. En 2024, pour le 30e anniversaire, la cérémonie fut une occasion de réécouter un extrait de son discours prononcé lors de son investiture tenue le 5 février 1994 dans lequel il appelait les Burundais à être unis pour la restauration de la paix et la sécurité, le respect des droits humains et à être caractérisés par la discipline dans tous les secteurs de la vie du pays.

La commémoration du 6 avril débute par une messe, célébrée à la cathédrale Regina Mundi, en mémoire des martyrs de la démocratie. Un hommage est également rendu aux ministres Cyriaque Simbizi et Bernard Ciza, qui périrent dans le même attentat.

À Bruxelles, l’ambassadeur du Burundi en Belgique, Ntahiraja Thérence, invite la communauté burundaise d’Europe et les amis du pays à une cérémonie commémorative en hommage au président Ntaryamira Cyprien, ce 6 avril à 15h.

Un article de l'Almanach international des éditions BiblioMonde, 5 avril 2025

[annaberunoyume]

Today is a sad anniversary, apparently. It has been 30 years today since The Tutsis massacre was commemorated. Rest in Peace, poor victims. 😞 🕯️

[hicginewsagency]

Kagame blames the world's inaction as Rwanda commemorates the 1994 genocide.

Rwandan president Paul Kagame.  Courtesy image. Getty ImagesRwanda’s President Paul Kagame said the country was “humbled by the magnitude of our loss” Rwanda’s president said the international community “failed all of us”, as he marked 30 years since the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people. President Paul Kagame addressed dignitaries and world leaders who had gathered in Rwanda’s…

[letsdeconstructtogether]

Ancestry Mood Board

Women of the 1. Fulani (Mali) and the 2. Biafade (Guinea-Bissau), 3. Queen of Rwanda Rosalie Gicanda (1928 - 20 April 1994), 4. a woman of the Mangbetu (Democratic Republic of Congo), as well as women of the 5. Zulu (South Africa) and the 6. Oromoo (Ethiopia)

Our hair is not a curse, it is a gift.

[embodiedfutures]

ID 1: Screenshot of a post by @/key48return on Instagram. Background is of a globe with pinpoints of the israeli flag all over North and South America. Title reads in all caps, “israel is involved in oppression all over the world not just in Palestine…” A yellow arrow points right underneath the title. End ID

ID 2: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE - 1994

ISRAEL EXPORTED SUBSTANTIAL WEAPONS AND ARMS TO THE HUTU MILITIAS WHO MASSACRED OVER 1 MILLION TUTSI CIVILIANS IN RWANDA ACROSS THE DURATION OF 100 DAYS.

WEAPONS USED IN THE GENOCIDE INCLUDED ISRAELI-MADE 5.56MM BULLETS, RIFLES AND GRENADES. THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE IS RECOGNISED AS THE WORST GENOCIDE IN MODERN HISTORY. ISRAEL HAS REPEATEDLY ATTEMPTED TO CONCEAL THEIR ARMS EXPORTS TO RWANDA BEFORE AND DURING THE GENOCIDE, FEARING PROSECUTION.”

Black and white photos below are shown of various Rwandan children in graveyards or in makeshift tents just trying to get by. End ID.

ID 3: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA 1948 - 1994

ISRAEL WAS A STAUNCH ALLY TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID REGIME, PROVIDING ANTI-RIOT VEHICLES AND ARMS TO USE AGAINST THE NATIVE BLACK POPULATION, ASSISTING THE REGIME IN CREATING NUCLEAR BOMBS AND ISRAEL ALSO OPPOSED THE GLOBAL EMBARGO AND BOYCOTT OF APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA.

FOR DECADES, THE ZIONIST FEDERATION IN SOUTH AFRICA HONOURED MEN SUCH AS PERCY YUTAR, WHO PROSECUTED NELSON MANDELA FOR SABOTAGE AND CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE STATE IN 1963 AND SENT HIM TO JAIL FOR LIFE. (FOR WHICH HE SERVED 27 YEARS)”

Black and white photos below showcase a Black man being held in a chokehold by a white man, two Black people on their knees and hands up trying not to get shot, and a sign that reads in english and afrikaans “white area.” End ID.

ID 4: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

MAYAN GENOCIDE 1960 - 1996

THROUGHOUT THE GUATEMALAN CIVIL WAR FROM 1960-1996, OVER 200,000+ INDIGENOUS MAYANS WERE MURDERED BY STATE FORCES, AND OVER ONE MILLION MORE DISPLACED, IN WHAT IS REFERRED TO TODAY AS THE MAYAN GENOCIDE.

THE GUATEMALAN STATE FORCES RESPONSIBLE WERE ARMED AND TRAINED BY ISRAEL. WHEN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SUSPENDED MILITARY FUNDING TO THE GUATEMALAN STATE FORCES IN 1977 IN THE MIDST OF THE MAYAN GENOCIDE, ISRAEL GAVE THEM OVER $38 BILLION WORTH OF ARMS TO FILL THE GAP. THE 'GALIL' ASAULT RIFLE, AN ISRAELI-MADE WEAPON, WAS STANDARD ISSUE FOR THE GUATEMALAN ARMY BY 1980, WITH THE STATE OWNED SMALL-ARMS PRODUCTION FACILITY IN ALTA VERAPAZ PRODUCING ITS AMMUNITION UNDER ISRAELI ARMS LICENCES.”

Below are multiple in-color photos of Mayan families mourning, one photo in particular which shows indigenous Mayans carrying a seemingly endless line of coffins off into the distance. End ID.

ID 5: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

SREBRENICA - 1995

ALSO KNOWN AS THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE. IN 1995 OVER 8,000+ BOSNIAN MUSLIMS WERE MASSACRED BY SERBIAN ARMY FORCES ARMED AND TRAINED BY ISRAEL. SERBIAN FORCES ETHNICALLY CLEANSED OVER 250,000+ MUSLIMS IN TOTAL ACROSS CROATIA AND BOSNIA.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHERS WERE WOUNDED, STARVED, WOMEN WERE MASS RAPED AND MANY WERE INCARCERATED IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS. MANY OF THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GENOCIDE FLED TO ISRAEL, WHERE THEY WERE GRANTED ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP IN ORDER TO AVOID ARREST AND PROSECUTION FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.”

Once again, the in-color photos below show various peoples mourning. Two of the photos specifically show people reaching their hands out over extremely long lists of just names of people who have died. End ID.

ID 6: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

TRAINING U.S. POLICE

SINCE 1990, HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN POLICE OFFICERS, INCLUDING AGENTS FROM THE FBI, CIA AND IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), HAVE EITHER BEEN SENT TO ISRAEL THROUGH POLICE TRAINING EXCHANGES, OR ATTENDED SUMMITS WITHIN THE U.S. THAT WERE SPONSORED BY ISRAELI LOBBY ORGANISATIONS.

THE KNEE-TO-NECK 'RESTRAINT' THAT DEREK CHAUVIN MURDERED GEORGE FLOYD WITH, IS OFTEN USED BY ISRAELI POLICE AND SOLIDERS AGAINST PALESTINIANS.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.”

Photos below are in-color and show various B.L.M. protests. End ID.

ID 7: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

ARMING INDIA'S VIOLENCE IN KASHMIR

INDIA IS ISRAEL'S LARGEST ARMS CLIENT, MAKING UP OVER 45% OF ISRAEL'S ARMS SALES. BUYING ISRAELI AMMUNITION AND AIR-TO-GROUND MISSILES, ON THE PREMISE THEY HAVE BEEN 'BATTLE-TESTED' ON PALESTINIANS IN GAZA. ISRAEL PROVIDES INDIA WITH THE ARMS INDIA USES TO MILITARILY OCCUPY KASHMIR AND BRUTALISE KASHMIRI'S.

SINCE 1989, OVER 100,000+ KASHMIRIS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY INDIAN FORCES. WITH OVER 7,200+ KASHMIRIS BEING MURDERED IN INDIAN POLICE CUSTODY, OVER 110,000+ KASHMIRI CHILDREN HAVE BEEN ORPHANED, AND MORE THAN 11,000+ KASHMIRI WOMEN HAVE BEEN RAPED BY INDIAN OCCUPATION FORCES. IN ADDITION, OVER 7,000+ UNNAMED MASS GRAVES HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED WITH THOUSANDS OF VICTIMS.”

The photos below show israel and india’s leaders shaking hands and various armed indian soldiers stopping Kashmiris for unnecessary checks. End ID.

ID 8: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

PINOCHET COUP - CHILE 1973

CIA BACKED DICTATOR, AUGUSTO PINOCHET TOOK OVER CHILE ON SEPTEMBER 11, 1973. OVERTHROWING ITS DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT, SALVADOR ALLENDE. THE NEXT DAY HIS FORCES BEGAN KIDNAPPING ANYONE THEY SUSPECTED OF BEING LEFT WING AND PLACED THEM IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS.

PINOCHET'S SECRET POLICE, DINA (DIRECCION DE INTELIGENCIA NACIONAL) RAN THOSE CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND TORTURE CENTRES, AND THEY FREQUENTLY ABDUCTED, 'DISAPPEARED' AND EXECUTED CHILEAN CIVILIANS. ISRAEL TRAINED DINA AND WAS ALSO ONE OF PINOCHET'S MAIN ARMS SUPPLIERS.”

Black and white photos below showcase various scenes of armed DINA officers, with one photo in particular showing them in a tank over bodies on the ground, presumably dead. End ID.

ID 9: In all caps, “ISRAEL'S INVOLVED IN:

ETHNICALLY CLEANSING ARMENIANS - ONGOING

ISRAEL HAS BEEN FUNDING AND ARMING AZERBAIJAN'S MILITARY SINCE 1988, ARMS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED TO KILL ARMENIAN CIVILIANS THROUGHOUT AZERBAIJAN'S ONGOING ETHNIC CLEANSING OF ARTSAKH. THE ISRAELI REGIME SUPPLIES AZERBAIJAN WITH OVER 70% OF ITS MILITARY ARSENAL.

IN ADDITION TO PROVIDING THE ARMS TO KILL ARMENIANS, ISRAEL ALSO REFUSES TO RECOGNISE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, COMMITTED BY THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (TURKEY) FROM 1914-1923, WHO SYSTEMATICALLY MURDERED OVER 1.5 MILLION ARMENIAN CIVILIANS.”

Photos below show israel and azerbaijan’s leaders shaking hands, azerbaijan’s soldiers menacingly standing in front of someone wrapped in an Armenian flag, and Armenians mourning over a shrine with their flags all around them. End ID.

ID 10: In all caps, “THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IS CONNECTED TO STRUGGLES ALL AROUND THE WORLD.

BECAUSE OPPRESSORS LIKE ISRAEL ARE NOT ONLY UPHOLDING OPPRESSION AGAINST ONE POPULATION, ITS ALWAYS INTERCONNECTED TO OPPRESSING MANY MORE.

FREE PALESTINE.” No photos at the bottom of this slide. End ID.

[portraitsofsaints]

Happy Feast Day

Our Lady of Kibeho

Feast day: November 28

Our Lady of Kibeho is the name given to Marian apparitions concerning several adolescents, in the 1980s in Kibeho, south-western Rwanda. The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren, including an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred, possibly foretelling the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Our Lady of Kibeho became the first and only Vatican-approved Marian site in Africa.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[reasonandempathy]

Saw this and I actually wanted to add some actual details, in case people didn't know/weren't curious.

US Specific Recessions:

Recession of 1990 and 1991

2000 to 2001 Recession

The Great Recession, from 2007 to 2009 (this does not include the recovery, which took years and arguably never really happened)

The COVID Recession

Genocides:

Rohingya (2016 and ongoing)

Iraqi Turkmen (2014-2017)

Yazidis Genocide (2014-2019)

Darfur (2003 and ongoing)

Congolese (2002-2003)

Hutus (1996-1997)

Rwanda (1994)

Bosnia (1992-1995)

I'm presuming we can all agree he was also referring to Ghaza right now

So yeah. 9 Genocides and 4 major recessions since 1990. If he was born in 1985 there are 3 more genocides (Anfal, Gukurahundi, and Isaaq).

[saintmelangell]

it is suspected that a genocide has occurred in darfur and is ongoing in south sudan. the situation is being compared to rwanda in 1994. black activists have been saying this. i am curious if the genocide in palestine attracts more, in fact pretty much all, attention from the west because it's a narrative in which the west is complicit and can actively center themselves as activists. hard to care about a genocide if you don't feel guilty by association i guess.

[eretzyisrael]

by Peter Baum

Since the third but most  recent creation of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948 and the various conflicts she has faced since, the total number of deaths including those since October 7, has been no more than 200,000 inclusive of both sides and of various nationalities – Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian , Jordanian , Israelis and Arab Palestinians. Averaging circa 2500 deaths per annum with a heavily swayed death total to the Arab Palestinian population.

Statistics only being identified by the Hamas Authorities state over 40,000 Arab Palestinians killed but this must include Hamas operatives, estimated to be nearly 20,000 perhaps more. If one compares this to the deaths of civilians during a similar period in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mexico and Columbia then by equivalent statistical data these conflicts were also genocides – but not according to mainstream media, political commentators or the United Nations. Only the Palestinians apparently are victims of genocide. The only contemporary wearers of the Crown of Genocide.

So, let’s revert to the DRC and attempt to make sense of global conflicts, their victims and the role of our media and political leaders. By any intelligent research it is a truth that in less than thirty years over six million indigenous, black, African Congolese have been killed in internal conflict sometimes extending to the countries directly bordering the DRC. It is also an undeniable fact that a multiple of three to four times that number killed have been displaced from their homelands. Given the lack of knowledge about the country itself I would wager there is even less knowledge relating to the armed militias, groups or interested parties participating in this human tragedy. In all truth who of you have heard or read about the FARDC (Congolese Army) or the M23 rebel militia?

How can it possibly be in this day and age that six million black Africans can be slaughtered, and mainstream media totally ignores these tragedies. It is not only in the DRC a true genocide occurred. In Rwanda in 1994 nearly one million black Africans were butchered. And if I asked who butchered who, I would wager the majority don’t know the answer. Apart from a lack of knowledge of the two tribal protagonists, Hutus and Tutsis, I would wager that very few know who the perpetrators were and who were the victims. I’m not telling – dyor as we scribe lazily use such terminology.

So, two true genocides in Africa go unreported by our mainstream media. The six hundred thousand killed in Syria or the 250,000 deaths in Yemen have also gone similarly unnoticed. In Sudan, Eritrea and Libya the total death toll in the last five years is one million plus. But again, no media coverage.

And with lack of reporting there will be no protests, no outrage, no boycotts, no attacks on ordinary folk by activists, no UN sanctions, no political management.

So, four genocides occur but no outrage and a non-genocide receives global attention and political activism often bordering on criminality leading to the deaths of innocents. How can this be? I will tell you.

The global order which includes the Theatre of the Absurd – the United Nations, together with global mainstream media and an ever-increasing Muslim population with numerous countries subservient to that religion have adopted a truly successful agenda. Within that agenda money paid to corrupt African politicians has played a crucial role and has garnered support from the political left who are rabid anti-Semites and thus the saturation negative reporting on Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinian as victims. The fact that the Palestinians adhere to Charters demanding Jew extermination has been for decades conveniently ignored.

Atrocities in Africa are purposely overlooked and total concentration is beamed on Israel a state no bigger than New Jersey in the USA. Disproportionate, saturation negative reporting on Israel by mainstream media take total precedence above all other global conflicts.

[almanach-international]

7 avril : la mémoire du génocide tutsi au Rwanda

Il y a 30 ans, jour pour jour, commençait un génocide qui allait faire disparaître, en trois mois, un million de personnes dans un pays de moins de 7 millions d’habitants, le Rwanda.

Tutsi et de Hutu sont des appartenances fixées par le colonisateur belge. À l’époque coloniale, les Européens ont voulu catégoriser les populations soumises en ethnies bien identifiables. Dans le cas du Rwanda, cette construction était très largement artificielle, car Tutsis et Hutus habitent le même territoire, partagent la même langue et ont adopté la même religion, le catholicisme. L’ethnie figurait sur les cartes d’identité, c’est ce qui facilita les massacres, car comment identifier à coup sûr les individus à éliminer ?

En 1962, le colonisateur belge avait laissé le pouvoir à un mouvement radical Hutu, aussitôt des massacres se sont produits. En 1973, quand Juvénal Habyarimana prend le pouvoir à la suite d’un coup d’État, les Tutsis ne sont plus désormais que des citoyens de seconde zone ce qui engendrera la création du FPR (Front patriotique rwandais) pour combattre le dictateur. Ce mouvement rebelle, implanté dans les pays voisins, est composé de Tutsis et de Hutus modérés qui ont fui leur pays. Le dictateur Juvénal Habyarimana fini par accepter un partage du pouvoir (accord d’Arusha, en août 1993) mais en même temps le pouvoir de Kigali laissait se développer une propagande anti-tutsi aux accents meurtriers. La radio Mille collines qui appelle quotidiennement à éliminer tous les Tutsis du pays est fondée en juillet 1993. Par ses discours de haine, elle joua un grand rôle pendant le génocide. Le 6 avril 1994, l’avion présidentiel est abattu par un missile, on n’a jamais su qui avait tué Juvénal Habyarimana, mais la propagande hutue désigne aussitôt les Tutsis. Le 7 avril 1994, commence des massacres qui ne s’achèveront que le 17 juillet par la prise de contrôle du pays par le FPR et la fuite des extrémistes Hutus au Zaïre (aujourd’hui RDC).

Depuis, le FPR a pris le pouvoir, son leader Paul Kagamé est président de la république. Il appartient à une famille de Tutsis qui s’était réfugiée en Ouganda, bien avant le génocide. Son régime est autoritaire, mais le pays a retrouvé la paix et a prospéré sous son règne.

Le régime organise tous les ans, le 7 avril, une commémoration du génocide mais sans pour autant avoir cherché à identifier les coupables et les victimes. La mention de l’ethnie sur les cartes d’identité a été enlevée dès août 1994, aujourd’hui il n’y a officiellement plus de Hutus ni de Tutsis, rien que des Rwandais. Néanmoins, la cohabitation entre victimes et bourreaux pose de grandes difficultés à la reconstruction du pays. Dans un souci de réconciliation nationale, les victimes ont été enjointes de pardonner à des bourreaux qui ont rapidement débité un texte de contrition. Un lourd silence pèse sur le génocide qui est commémorés aujourd’hui. Le pays a mis beaucoup de temps à le faire entrer dans les manuels d’Histoire. C’est fait à présent mais que ce n’est plus qu’un fait historique pour une très large partie de la population. Le Rwanda est un pays très jeune : 70% de la population a moins de 30 ans et n’a pas vécu le génocide.

De commémorations en commémorations, les choses évoluent à l’international. En 2021, le président Macron, mettait un terme au déni de la France et admettait des responsabilités dans le déroulement du génocide du fait d’un soutien coupable à la dicature extrémiste hutue. En 2024, pour ce 30e anniversaire, le président français affirme que la France, « avec ses alliés occidentaux et africains » aurait ou arrêter le génocide mais n’en a pas eu, à l’époque, la volonté. Il rappelle que, « quand la phase d'extermination totale contre les Tutsis a commencé, la communauté internationale avait les moyens de savoir et d'agir, par sa connaissance des génocides que nous avaient révélée les survivants des Arméniens et de la Shoah ». Le Vatican, en revanche n’a jamais fait le moindre commentaire sur l’aveuglement de l’Église face à ce génocide.

En l’an 2000, le Premier ministre belge, Guy Verhofstadt, avait été beaucoup plus clair : « J’assume ici devant vous la responsabilité de mon pays, des autorités politiques et militaires belges, et au nom de mon pays, je vous demande pardon pour cela. » La même année, le secrétaire général de l’ONU, Kofi Annan, avait juste exprimé des remords : « Au nom de l’ONU, je reconnais cet échec et j’exprime mon profond remords. » En 2003, l’ONU institue le 7 avril comme la Journée internationale de réflexion sur le génocide au Rwanda qui deviendra, en 2018, la Journée internationale de réflexion sur le génocide des Tutsis au Rwanda en 1994. Chaque année, à cette date ou aux alentours de cette date, l’Organisation des Nations Unies organise des manifestations commémoratives à son siège, à New York, et dans ses bureaux dans le monde entier.

Le Rwanda a deux jours fériés pour commémorer le génocide. La période de deuil national débute avec Kwibuka (“se souvenir”, en kinyarwandais), la commémoration nationale du 7 avril et se termine avec le Jour de la libération, le 4 juillet.

Un article de l'Almanach international des éditions BiblioMonde, 6 avril 2024

[soon-palestine]

It weighs on me a lot heavier this year because I’m away from home but also because I, like many, have spent the past 6 months witnessing Isra*l’s intensification of its genocide against the Palestinian people in real time.

My heart is shattered and its pieces are in Rwanda with my people and in particular with my family as we remember the senseless killings of our loved ones (of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) and the many other horrors that were perpetrated as the world watched.

In Palestine, in Sudan, in Congo, in Haiti, in too many places where people continue to witness the murders of their loved ones while fighting for their lives against impossible brutality…as the world watches.

Here on this land with First Nations people who also continue to struggle against a settler colonial state that seeks their annihilation. They are everywhere the lives of people continue to be sacrificed at the altar of power and profit.

I can barely put in words what I have felt watching institutions provide platform after platform to the Isra*li embassy in Rwanda to continue to legitimize the genocide their country is committing in front of all of our eyes

I am especially revolted by all of this in the context of the Isr*eli sale of arms to the genocidal government of 1994 while it was under international embargo…and the continued refusal to unseal the documents pertaining to this

But even on the darkest days I HAVE to believe that we can and should do everything in our power to bring forth a world in which Never Again is a reality everywhere. In which we refuse to allow this to happen to ANYONE ever again because if not then IDK what the point is

May the memories of all of our loved ones be our strength. Tuzahora tubibuka! Palestine will be free! This world will all one day be free!

[sissa-arrows]

Macron said that France could have stopped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, especially with the help of its African allies and its Western allies as well. But he then added that “France did not have the will/desire to do it”.

Apparently he is planning a speech on that specific subject on Sunday.

Dude needs a whole speech and so many words to say that France was an accomplice and active participant in the genocide in Rwanda? Like having the means and ability to stop a genocide but refusing to or “not having the will/desire” to stop a freaking genocide is called being a fucking accomplice.

[strathshepard]

Gilles Peress: Rwanda, 1994

[aparrotandaqrow]

A lot of folks, especially in the Jewish community, have mixed feelings about Harris picking Walz as her VP over Shapiro. Some wanted Shapiro for the Jewish representation, especially a Jew who is Zionist and yet decries Netanyahu and expresses the desire for peace that so many of us have. Some worried that having two Jews in the White House would provoke yet more antisemitism and possibly even sink the ticket, given the massive surge in leftist antisemitism recently.

Many of us were frustrated and angered by seeing leftists campaign for Walz being the pick over Shapiro more or less entirely because Shapiro is Jewish—and felt a sense of dismay that perhaps Harris had caved to the antisemites.

I'm a Jew but I'm also a Minnesotan. I was glad to see the Walz pick for many reasons unrelated to my Jewish identity or Israel. But I want to also submit that Walz, uniquely among the politicians Harris could have picked, brings something to the table that is desperately important both to the nation more broadly and our community more specifically.

I present as Exhibit A, this archived NYT profile of Walz from back in 2008:

The teacher, Tim Walz, was determined that even in this isolated place, perhaps especially in this isolated place, this county seat of 9,000 that was hours away from any city in any direction, the students should learn how and why a society can descend into mass murder.

...

“The Holocaust is taught too often purely as a historical event, an anomaly, a moment in time,” Mr. Walz said in a recent interview, recalling his approach. “Students understood what had happened and that it was terrible and that the people who did this were monsters. “The problem is,” he continued, “that relieves us of responsibility. Obviously, the mastermind was sociopathic, but on the scale for it to happen, there had to be a lot of people in the country who chose to go down that path. You have to make the intellectual leap to figure out the reasons why.”

My ancestors immigrated to the US around the turn of the century from Mariampol, Lithuania and Luboml, Ukraine. When the Nazis arrived in those towns some 40 years later, the Jews there (many of whom would have been my ancestors' relatives) were massacred not by Nazi soldiers, but by their neighbors, who welcomed the Nazis with open arms. You cannot truly help protect the Jewish community from antisemitism if you don't understand this crucial detail about how the Holocaust happened.

So Mr. Walz took his students [...] and assigned them to study the conditions associated with mass murder. What factors, he asked them to determine, had been present when Germans slaughtered Jews, Turks murdered Armenians, the Khmer Rouge ravaged their Cambodian countrymen?

...

They read about civil war, colonialism and totalitarian ideology. They worked with reference books and scholarly reports, long before conducting research took place instantly online.

...

When the students finished with the past, Mr. Walz gave a final exam of sorts. He listed about a dozen current nations — Yugoslavia, Congo, some former Soviet republics among them — and asked the class as a whole to decide which was at the greatest risk of sliding into genocide. Their answer was: Rwanda. The evidence was the ethnic divide between Hutus and Tutsis, the favoritism toward Tutsis shown by the Belgian colonial regime, and the previous outbreaks of tribal violence. Mr. Walz awarded high marks. The next April, in 1994, Mr. Walz heard news reports of a plane carrying the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, being shot down. [...] Mr. Walz’s students, now juniors, saw their prophecy made into flesh and blood.

...

“You have to understand what caused genocide to happen,” Mr. Walz said, with those grim anniversaries in mind. “Or it will happen again.”

Y'all, Tim Walz is not Jewish. He's a white guy who grew up in Nebraska and then lived in one of Minnesota's smaller cities, up until going to Congress and then the Governor's mansion. No, he does not provide us with representation, nor will he ever truly understand what it feels like to be Jewish in America in 2024.

But he gets it. He understands not just academic history but people, and understands that "Never Again" is only feasible if we look at root causes, and strive to nip the factors that lead to genocide in the bud. We have all understood that allyship for Jews is only meaningful if you're here defending us before it gets violent.

Governor Walz represents an opportunity to have someone in the White House, on the national stage, who understands the big picture and the history well enough to actually be able to navigate incredibly complex and painful issues like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, like the regional conflicts within the Arab world, like the experience of progressive Jews in the US who would have found ourselves ostracized and alienated from increasingly hostile leftist movements. I cannot begin to explain how rare it is to have a politician at this level who also carries an experienced teacher's grasp of both history and empathy.

Maybe Josh Shapiro would have also brought that. But honestly, I'm not so sure. Walz may not be Jewish. But I think we're going to find that he'll be an ally, and a deeply learned and wise one at that. And I think we really need that right now.