Statement 

H. E. Moussa Faki Mahamat

Chairperson of the African Union Commission

on the Occasion of the 28^th Annnniversary

of the Genocide Against the Tutsis in Rwanda

 Madame Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission,

Distinguished Representative of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,

Madame Permanent Representative of Rwanda,

Commissioners,

Distinguished Ambassadors and Representatives of International   Organisation,

Representatives of Religious denominations,

Brothers and Sisters of the Rwandese Community in Addis Ababa,

Dear Fellow citizens of Africa and the Diaspora,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

28 years ago, to the day, one of the most horrible genocides in contemporary history, that of Tutsis in Rwanda, began. In the space of three months, nearly one million people were killed in atrocious conditions, thus crowning a succession of massacres perpetrated against this group since the independence of the country in 1962.

As a duty of memory for the victims of the genocide, triggered on 7 April 1994, as solidarity with the survivors, the families of the victims and with Rwanda, the African Union commemorates every year, since 2010, this terrible Day when a whole country plunged into an unspeakable horror.

The objective of this commemoration is also to remind Africa and the rest of the world as well as new generations of this tragedy lived by a country and a people so that this tragedy never falls into the oblivion hole in history.

While maintaining this flame of horror in the minds of people, we want this tragedy never to recur. Twenty-eight years later, Rwanda has learnt to forgive, but has not forgotten. Better, it got up with incredible courage to face the difficult challenges of reconciliation and reconstruction.

In this respect, the strides made by Rwanda elicit admiration and respect as both the successes are fast and spectacular. I would like to pay once again a special tribute to the Rwandese people for their incomparable resilience and to its leaders, particularly President Paul Kagame, for their admirable management of the post-genocide situation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda continues to prick our conscience. How human beings, endowed with reason and feelings, living in the same space for centuries, sharing the same language and religion, could carry out such an extreme act?

Beyond all the explanations given to us by the history of Rwanda and which teaches us about the complexity of human nature, there is this sociological reality that most African countries share. As in Rwanda, colonisation has helped forging, around Africa, identity-based reflexes among peoples who have always lived in harmony.

Ethnic and tribal rivalries, exacerbated for all sorts of reason, have spread wide. Violent religious extremism has been added, all giving rise to extremely murderous clashes often.

I would like to engage African leaders on the danger of ethnic and religious antagonisms that, exploited or poorly managed, may be a threat to the very existence of States. Exactly, what happened in Rwanda is the result of the failures of all political systems from independence, marked by the exclusion, contempt and injustice, of the flaws still existing in some parts of the Continent.

Rwanda skillfully removed this threat through an appropriate post genocide management of the situation, particularly in the fields of justice, reconciliation and security. It drew in its ancestral traditions and shown rigour in governance to ward off hatred and revenge, all things that enabled the physical reconstruction of the country and a moral rearmament of the Rwandese people.

Twenty-eight years after the genocide, memories are still vivid, but they did not prevent the protagonists from yesterday to unite today and to turn into a powerful force of rehabilitation and affirmation of their country.

Afflicted to its foundations, Rwanda has achieved its regeneration. Better, it offered Africa a great lesson of transcendence and courage, a good example of dynamism and creativity.

On this anniversary of the genocide, the African Union expresses once again its support for Rwandese leaders and people.

May the Almighty Bless Rwanda and Africa.