The RPP message of Commemorating the 21st Anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide against the Tutsis


Fellow Rwandans, today, the seventh of April, is the twenty-first anniversary of the most horrific systematic genocide of modern times.  The terror, agony and suffering our people faced during that, time was immeasurable. We gather here to mourn today for every drop of innocent blood that shed, every life that was lost and every family that wept. Today, I, and my party, the Rwanda People’s Party, join millions of Rwandans and friends of Rwanda, to commemorate the 21st Anniversary of the 1994 Rwanda genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis.

My Beloved Rwandans, today, is a day to remember the 100 days of harrowing scenes and abominable, violence in which 1,000,050 Tutsis and moderate Hutus lost their lives. It is a day to share the sorrows, pains and experiences of 500,000 heroic women and girls that have lived a life with HIV-AIDS as result of brutal rapes committed during these shameful 100 days. These 45,000 females have courageously fought against the psychological pain, mental anguish, shame and prejudice that plague their lives, even today. The children they bore will grow up as orphans, not knowing their fathers; they too bear the scars of the indescribable rapes that ripped their mother’s lives apart on an industrial scale, during the infamous 100 days of genocide.
Such is the jolting truth! We grieve, today, at this horrendous calculated crime against humanity. 

We remember the millions of Rwandans that survived the horrors, afflicted by permanent physical and mental disabilities. We offer our support to all those Rwandans who suffered trauma due to the tragedies of the 100 black days that destroyed our country. Today, we commemorate the 21st anniversary of the genocide of Tutsis. Today we renew our vow to all Rwandans that survived these tragedies. We love you and that “Never, and never again” will the tragic events of the 100 days that scarred our country and left so many traumatized happen again in our beloved Rwanda. We will miss the victims of the genocide and never forget them, to this extent, our heart goes out to all our families, relatives, friends, neighbours and to Rwandans from every background that were devastated in the 100 days of grim darkness of genocide.

We are utterly at a loss to understand the genocide’s cause. Why would anyone wish to hurt the innocent, especially, pregnant women, toddlers, children, elderly, the sick and all the defenseless people that were not a part of the Rwandan civil war, in such a dreadful and barbarous way?   
Fellow Rwandans, reflections on and the memories of the 2400 grim hours of the 1994 genocide of the innocent still haunt our mind. However, these dark thoughts and memories have not destroyed our moral values. Our humanity has not and never will darken our moral judgment and caused us to forget out social and political obligations. The 1994 genocide against Tutsi, it is something that we are compelled to live with on a daily basis and a burden that we must bear, during our working hours and leisure time.  Our wounds are still healing but the 1994 tragedies have scared us forever.

My fellow citizens, the example of the Rwandan genocide against Tutsi, should have taught the world the dangers of lies, discrimination and hatred. Yet the world has not learned these lessons from our nation’s great tragedy. Intolerance and hate still goes on-and-about unpunished. You are all familiar with the recent incidence involving Racist soccer fans on the Paris METRO where an innocent person, who was returning home from an honest day’s work. They tormented, abused and physically prevented him from boarding a train. He did not abuse anyone, cause a disturbance or in any way provoke the attack. Fellow Rwandans, the perpetrators of that despicable crime, on the Paris METRO knew that no one would ever question their right to dispel the rights of others because they are of a different race to them.  They singled out the victim, abused, tormented and endured mental rape because of the colour of his skin and this is an everyday occurrence in many so-called tolerant Western countries. 

Another example of the intolerable attitude towards non-western cultures in Europe and the Western World has been the recent BBC libel on Rwanda and its deliberate distortion of our history and our sufferings. I believe, you also, were shocked at the appalling and indescribable “Rwanda Untold Story” This is a story planted and cultivated by the “A false Prophets” that has so recklessly re-opened so many old wounds. In this program, there was nothing but contempt for the Rwandan people and the BBC spat on the graves of our loved ones. Like the Racist Train Thugs on the Paris METRO, the culprits believe that they will remain free from punishment for their hateful and deeply offensive words.  Indeed, they will never face the rule of law. However, because of their needless agitation and rewriting of Rwandan history, to suit their taste and those with a sinister agenda, the BBC will always stand accused of malpractice and dishonesty in the eyes of all true Rwandans. The incidents on the Paris METRO and the BBC are examples of the continuing western sense of superiority towards all those who are not from the west. A streak of intolerance runs deep in the Western societies. Some of the old colonial attitudes persist with regard to non-Western people.
 
The twenty-one years since the 1994 genocide, have been a living hell for many of us. Yet beyond Rwanda, there are men and women that have exploited our tears, our sorrow and the victims of the genocide for their own gain. The genocide deniers and revisionists have exploited our sufferings and have been spreading their lies throughout our region and in most of the European and American capitals for their own selfish reasons. They have attacked the victims and survivors of the Genocide and they are inciting a new genocide. 

Fellow Rwandans, I do not need to remind you, of those grantee men and women that permanently, live with the horrors of the genocide after being maimed or disabled. As our moral duty, we remember those who suffered because of the Genocide. We cannot endure the unbearable consequences again. Do not ignore the millions of genocide survivors who lost their beloved ones, whose wounds are just starting to heal.  Groups such as the BBC, reopen the harsh chapters of life callously and maliciously. They believe that they are always above the rule of law and morality. As long as their criminality falls on people beyond the western world, this problem remains unsolved. 

Fellow Rwandans, the past 21 years have been so difficult and painful for those of us who lost our siblings, mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends and neighbours. The campaign, to turn the victims into aggressors and twisting our history is taking its toll upon the survivors.   However, I would like to tell you that this is not new. It is has been the norm and a tradition for intolerant people to deny the reality of genocides, throughout history.  Even, today, many Europeans deny that there was genocide against the Jews, such as those who vandalized and desecrated the graves of Jews some 60 years after the Holocaust. Hatred of Jews and the denial of the Holocaust are still alive and strong. Therefore, there is sadly nothing new or unique when people deny that there was genocide in Rwanda. We know the truth – our dead loved ones and those who live with the scars of the 100 days are witnesses to the reality of the genocide. 

Fellow Rwandans, we all know they killed, tortured and raped our people most cruelly. They suffered many indignities. Nevertheless, today, we remember the dead with great dignity and solemnity.  

Fellow Rwandans, let us not make the mistake to believe that the 100 days of shame and brutality that turned Rwanda into a vast graveyard will happen again or not remembered. Let us make this clear, that the 100 days that saw 500,000 Rwandan women raped on an industrial scale, is firmly the past, forever. Let us emphasize that those grime 100 days in which 45,000 Rwandan children were born as result of rape will never return. We must all stay alert, strong and firm so that the tragic decades when people lived in fear and terror, and were ‘labeled’ and graded into “Category one and Category two” are long gone. This ‘’labeling’’ was a feature of the White South African apartheid regime or the era of slavery where Africans were traded as commodities.  Let us be clear and definite, that those terrifying  times of indignities, anguish,  tears, sorrows, segregation and fears are now compounded, crippled and consigned to our history and they will never return to Rwanda. No matter, the dangers or threats, we will always have the strength to prevent a repeat of that Genocide in our homeland. 

Fellow Rwanda, let us stand firm to say “Never, and never again” to the politics of hate, ethnicity, fear, terror and genocide ideology that continues to be woven into the fabric of our society. 
I truly believe we are at a time that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity and that once it is taken; we will never look at Rwandan society in the same way again, and will be very different from the society of twenty-one years ago.

Fellow Rwandans, we will not fail you!
We will never turn our back on you. We will always do whatever it takes. The memory of our dead and the terrible carnage inflicted on our country and people, will always give us strength and the courage to protect our country. Fellow Rwandans, let me make a promise to you.
If we fail to preserve the dignity of the Rwandan people and the memory of the victims, if we fail to give justice to the innocent dead, if we prove unable to protect all Rwandans from any threat posed to them, then there is no legitimate reason for our desired place in public life. We will exclude ourselves from participation in the Rwandan political system. The RPP is dedicated to the protection of the human rights and freedom of all Rwandans.

Fellow Rwandans, the RPP will bring to justice those responsible for piling shame on our country and drowning our nation in blood.  There is no time limit in our quest for justice.  Let no one have any illusions about this. We will not rest until we have brought every murderer, rapists and criminal, especially the ringleaders, involved in the orchestrating, execution and supervising of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi to justice. 
My fellow citizens, my party and I, the Rwanda People’s Party, on the 21st Anniversary of the genocide join the citizens and friends of Rwanda to Commemorate the 21 years of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis.
May God bless you.  

Thank you.

John V Karuranga, President
Rwanda People’s Party
www.rwandapeopleparty.org
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