At Kigali Genocide Memorial, President Kagame and First Lady Jeanette Kagame joined Rwandans and friends of Rwanda in marking the 28th Commemoration of the Genocide Against the Tutsi.
President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame laid a wreath in memory of over one million victims of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi before proceeding to light the Flame of Remembrance.
During his keynote address, President Kagame recalled the decision of the Rwandan Patriotic Front not to exact revenge on the perpetrators of the Genocide against the Tutsi:
“Imagine if those of us who were carrying arms, if we had allowed ourselves to pursue those who were killing our people indiscriminately and also killed them. First of all we would be right to do so. But we didn’t, we spared them,” President Kagame said.
“We are a small country but we are big on justice and some of those are big and powerful countries but they are very small on justice. They have no lessons to teach anyone, because they are part of this history that saw over a million of our people perish,” the President added.
Speaking on the future of Rwanda, President Kagame said:
“But the most important thing is these very hard, bad lessons should never be wasted. In the last 28 years, every year, that passes makes us stronger and better people.”
“The lessons learnt for the young people, for our country, in this land is to say, let’s just do for ourselves what we need to do, to be what we want to be and, the rest, it’s a struggle. It’s a fight, we shall give it a good fight,” the President concluded.
Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement, Dr. Jean-Damascène Bizimana, delivered a presentation on the importance of annual commemoration activities and the fight against genocide denial. Dr. Bizimana’s presentation was followed by a testimony by Jean Nepomuscene Sibomana, who survived the Genocide Against the Tusti in the Eastern Province district of Gatsibo at the age of 11 and was the sole survivor in a family of five children and two parents. (End)