00:00Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
00:05Today, genocide denial and genocide ideology is dominated by revisionism.
00:15It acknowledges the facts but sabotages and distorts at the same time its meaning.
00:24It is all the more toxic and manipulative because it presents genocide denial as reasonable and almost legitimate.
00:38In a social media, fake news, world saturated by an overflow of images and heated reactions,
00:47it is no longer lies but rather half-truths that triumph and rule the world.
00:57Despite great achievements and solid unity and resilience, Rwanda and the region at large still face challenges from the genocide
01:10against the Tutsi.
01:13The prevalence of the genocide ideology that led to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda is still being spread
01:23in neighboring countries
01:25and they brought under the cover and support of some Western countries, among which Belgium, a country that has deep
01:35-rooted responsibilities in Rwanda's tragic past.
01:39Unfortunately, after the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi, the perpetrators were and are still given safe heaven and support
01:54to reorganize and establish their bases in neighboring countries.
02:01The same genocide ideology narrative today is re-emerging and, in some cases, state-sponsored in our regional neighborhood.
02:15And again, under the indifference of the international community and, in some cases, even driven by some Western countries.
02:31Genocide ideology against the Tutsi affiliation is being spread in public through dehumanizing language calling Tutsis snakes, serpents, devils, hypocrites,
02:51foreigners.
02:53Genocide ideology is spreading propaganda messages specifically tailored to ignite hate by using, for example, poison Rwandais.
03:05Genocide ideology stating, la guerre sera longue et populaire, which is reviving racial theories from colonial times used to divide
03:16and create conflicts such as the Tutsi hermitic Bantu theory.
03:22The genocide against the Tutsi is distorted to fit into the current narratives, trivializing its consequences and whitewashing its perpetrators.
03:37We even see in our European neighborhood initiatives to suspend commemoration events.
03:46I'm thinking of a communal commemoration recently cancelled in Belgium for purely geopolitical reasons, which marks a particularly worrying precedent.
04:01Ladies and gentlemen, suspending a commemoration because of a tense political climate sends a clear message that remembrance and commemoration
04:15is optional.
04:17That it can wait.
04:20I'm asking myself, is this our concept of human dignity, of history, of respect and responsibility towards the victims of
04:33the genocide?
04:33This sends a sad and wrong signal that memory deserves to be honored only when it does not bother anyone.
04:48But memory by definition disturbs.
04:52It questions.
04:54It confronts.
04:56It forces us to face what others prefer to forget.
05:01Granda, we went through that and we won that battle.
05:07That's where it takes on its full meaning.
05:12The 31st commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi is an occasion for Rwanda and all defenders of humanity to
05:24recall the commitment by the international community.
05:28Under the 1948 UN Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide to enact legislations that engage
05:41them in fighting genocide and its genocide ideology.
05:46A commitment that was reiterated by the UN Security Council in its resolution number 2150 of April 16, 2014 requesting
05:59member states to judge or extradite genocide fugitives on their territories.
06:06We, as countries, reaffirm our commitment to play our rightful role among the international community in fighting genocide ideology and
06:22preventing genocide, ensuring that never again does not become again and again.
06:31And that never again translates into actions for generations to come.
06:40Rwanda has built itself.
06:43Reconciliation has progressed.
06:46But at the same time, unfortunately, one thing remains the same.
06:53Again and again.
06:56The fight against forgetting, distortion and indifference.
07:05And you here today, distinguished guests, are witnesses and actors in the fight, in this fight.
07:14A fight for never again, in spite of an again and again and again.
07:25Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
07:29The genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, from April to July 1994, is the culmination of decades, long ethnic-based
07:43hate and ideology of division,
07:45instigated, instigated, instigated, taught and spread since the colonial period in Rwanda by the colonial administration.
07:55The Catholic White Fathers' missionaries, and emulated by the initial political parties that led Rwanda and built their policies on
08:09ethnic division and hatred against Tutsi.
08:12This led to unpunished killings and massacres of Tutsi.
08:18This led to unpunished killings and massacres of Tutsi between 1959 and 1963, under the supervision of Belgian military officers
08:25mandated by the Belgian administration.
08:29Ethnic division, marginalization and persecution of Tutsi marked both the first and second republics from 1962 to 1994, under President
08:50Grégoire Caibanda,
08:52first and President Juvenaire Habiarimana respectively, installing a culture of impunity, enabling the deep-rooted hatred that led to the
09:06planning and execution of the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.
09:12The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi was planned and systematically prepared before the eyes of the whole world.
09:27This is a fact.
09:28The genocide was state-sponsored, state-planned and executed with Hutu extremist militias, mobilized by local leaders and encouraged by
09:42media, propaganda and exterminated in 100 days 1 million innocent Tutsi lives and those who opposed the genocide.
09:52The genocide was finally stopped in July 1994 by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, RPF in Motani.
10:02Yet, the government of national unity, established on July 19, 1994, prioritized national unity as a foundation for rebuilding the
10:17country.
10:18Reconciliation and resilience were the core objective of the reconstruction and Ndi Umunyarguanda became the cornerstone value of the new
10:32nation.
10:33Ndi Umunyarguanda means I am Rwanda.
10:37Before colonial interference, Rwanda never experienced ethnic-based massacres between its inhabitants.
10:48After the 1884 to 1885 Berlin Conference, Africa, and in particular Rwanda, faced colonial-driven mapping that left Rwanda amputated.
11:03After Germany's defeat in World War I in 1917, its former colony Rwanda was then again amputated by Belgium, which
11:16initiated a deep reform of Rwanda's customary institution,
11:22establishing a division-based political system that destroyed Rwandan culture and the unity of its people.
11:35Contrary to the above mandate, during this period, Belgium supported and enforced ethnic-based divisions among Rwandans,
11:48culminating in the creation of ethnic-based political parties in 1959 that overthrew the monarchy and were granted independence in
12:001962, establishing an ethnic-based republic.
12:05These ethnic-based divisions became the base of the post-colonial governance and culminated to series of killings and massacres
12:17that climaxed into the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
12:23Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 31 years ago, the international community turned its back on Rwanda,
12:36abandoning it in its greatest time of need.
12:43The current situation in our neighborhood is a stench reminder of the failure by this international community to prevent the
12:58genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
13:01Let's take a look here.
13:01We'll be here.
13:01We'll be here.
13:02We'll be here.
