Rwanda begins commemorations for the 30th anniversary of the Tutsi genocide, which ended with 800,000 deaths of this ethnic group, murdered by Hutu extremists. It is suspected that several of those responsible are still fugitives from justice, some of them in France, which has not extradited anyone for the massacre.
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Starting this Sunday, Rwanda commemorates the 30th anniversary of the genocide perpetrated by Hutu extremists against the Tutsi, a massacre that caused 800,000 deaths in 100 days and is considered one of the bloodiest massacres of the 20th century.
Like every year, on April 7, the day Hutu militias began the killings, a flame was lit at the Gisozi Memorial in the capital Kigali, where some 250,000 people are believed to be buried. The ceremony will be led by President Paul Kagame, founder of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the rebel group that took power and ended the killings in July 1994 and has ruled the country since then.
Foreign leaders and dignitaries participate in the commemoration, including former US president Bill Clinton, who was president in 1994 and who described inaction in the face of these massacres as the greatest failure of his government.
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France sent the Foreign Minister, Stéphane Séjourné, and the Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, born in Rwanda and evacuated in the first days of the genocide.
The violence began the day after the attack that killed President Juvénal Habyarimana, of Hutu ethnicity, after months of a virulent propaganda campaign against the Tutsi. For three months, the army, the Interahamwe militias, but also ordinary citizens massacred Tutsis, whom they denigrated as “inyenzi” (“cockroaches” in Kinyarwanda), and Hutu opponents.
Incomplete reconciliation and fugitives from justice
For 30 years, Rwanda has been carrying out reconciliation work, in particular with the creation in 2002 of community courts known as “gacaca”, where victims could hear the “confessions” of their executioners.
Justice also played an important role, but according to the Rwandan government, hundreds of people suspected of having participated in the genocide remain at large, especially in neighboring countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
A total of 28 fugitives were extradited from abroad, including six people from the United States.
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France, which is the main country to which fugitive Rwandans have fled, has not extradited anyone, but convicted half a dozen people for their role in the killings.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), are calling for the trials of those responsible for the genocide to be expedited.
