10th anniversary of 1994 genocide marked in Rwanda

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 08, 2004

10th anniversary of 1994 genocide marked in Rwanda

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10th anniversary of 1994 genocide marked in Rwanda

Marking the 10-year anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, President Paul Kagame lashed out at the international community Wednesday for failing to stop the slaughter, and pledged that if another genocide should happen, Rwanda would be the first to send troops to stop it.

While he acknowledged that the Rwandan people were ultimately responsible for the massacres that claimed more than 500,000 lives in 100 days in 1994, he said world powers refused to do anything to stop the killing, which eventually ended when his rebel forces seized control of the country.

He said Rwanda would never stand by and allow widespread slaughter to take place unchecked.

"God forbid, but if a similar situation was to occur anywhere else . . . we will be available to come and fight to protect those who will be targeted," Kagame told a crowd of thousands at a stadium in Kigali.

Rwanda will act because "the last 10 years have shaped us differently and have given us the spirit to be able to stand up and fight . . . in defence of others who are targeted in a genocide," Kagame said.

The central African country fell quiet at noon Wednesday as the country observed three minutes of silence in tribute to those hacked to death by their neighbours or shot by the army and Hutu militias following orders of the extremist Hutu government then in power.

As the ceremony continued, people in the stands broke into tears. Others started screaming hysterically and had to be carried off into white tents set up by the Red Cross. Members of the national choir wept as they sang.

When the 100-day slaughter began, the UN had 2,519 peacekeepers in Rwanda. The most heavily armed UN contingent was a 450-member Belgian battalion, but Brussels withdrew days after Hutus killed 10 Belgian soldiers on April 7, 1994.

Other UN troops were busy "tanning at the pool" in neighbouring Uganda and monitoring its border to ensure that weapons did not reach Kagame's rebels, who were fighting to end the slaughter, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said during the ceremony. UN troops at the time had been withdrawn from Rwanda and were staying at hotels in Uganda.

On April 21, as the killing raged, the UN Security Council passed a resolution to reduce the UN force in Rwanda to a token 270 troops. On May 16, the Security Council passed another resolution to send some 5,500 troops, but they didn't begin to arrive until after the genocide had ended.

Earlier, genocide survivors gathered on a hillside to bury the remains of hundreds of victims recovered from pit-latrines and mass graves, marking the beginning of a week of mourning.

Kagame then lit a flame that will burn for 100 days at the new Kigali National Memorial Centre.

The genocide began hours after the mysterious downing of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. But Tutsis, who now dominate the government, say the slaughter began April 7 in part because they don't want the date to coincide with the shooting down of Habyarimana's plane - an event with political meaning for radical Hutus.

Source: agencies

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