The UN chief recalls that in April 1994 “a dark spirit of intentional and brutal violence took hold of a nation”
April 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, has advocated “fighting united against all forms of hatred and discrimination” in the commemoration of the Rwandan genocide, which cost the lives of some 800,000 people during one hundred days of extermination of the Tutsi population and moderate Hutus.
“Let us ensure that the acts that began on April 7, 1994 are never forgotten and never repeated. Nowhere,” he declared, after noting that “we will never forget the victims of this genocide” or the “bravery.” and resilience of those who survived, whose courage and willingness to forgive remain a ray of light and hope in the midst of this dark chapter of human history.
On this occasion, the UN chief recalled that hatred is “the rancid root of genocide”: “We can draw a straight line between the senseless slaughter of a million Tutsis – as well as some Hutus and other opponents to genocide–and the decades of hate speech that preceded it, inflamed by ethnic tensions and the long shadow of colonialism.
“Today, around the world, humanity's darkest impulses are being awakened once again by the voices of extremism, division and hatred. To those who seek to divide us, we must convey a clear, unequivocal and urgent message: never again “, Has expressed.
Likewise, Guterres lamented that “on that day in 1994”, when a million children, women and men “were murdered by their fellow Rwandans, families turned against other families, friends became enemies, and a dark “spirit of intentional and brutal violence took hold of a nation.”
A devastating report by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) published in 1999 extended part of the responsibility for the massacres to both UN staff and the three foreign governments mainly involved in Rwanda.
To the former, “for not having provided adequate information and guidance to the members of the Security Council”; to Belgium, for having “precipitously withdrawn its troops and for having advocated the complete withdrawal of UN force”; to the United States “for having put saving money before saving lives and for stopping the sending of a relief force”; and France, “for having continued to support a government involved in genocide.”
