The victory of the Czech team in Rwanda. In addition to President Peter Pavel, then-Czech Ambassador to the UN Karel Govanda took part in the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the massacre, during which 800,000 people died, and he was given a round of applause for how the country had progressed. It called for an active solution to the tragedy and to mark the event for genocide.
It is difficult for humanity to learn from its own mistakes, but the world has learned some lessons from the Rwandan genocide. This was announced by Czech President Peter Pavel, who on Sunday, along with other statesmen, took part in a commemoration ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the start of the massacre in Kigali, during which 800,000 people died. But according to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the world has not learned from the horrific events. His country had come a long way, but it should never forget the bloody events, he said.
The main purpose of my visit to Rwanda was to remember the victims of the 1994 genocide. Thirty years ago, it wiped out a fifth of Rwanda's population in a hundred days. I honored his memory with Carl Gowanda at the Kwipuka30 ceremony. The word means “remember” in the local language.… pic.twitter.com/4fVatfc8kV
— Peter Pavel (@prezidentpavel)
April 7, 2024
In a 100-day genocide that erupted exactly 30 years ago, Hutu extremists massacred 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutu. About 2.7 million people had to flee their homes and 1.6 million sought refuge abroad. An estimated 20 percent of the country's population and 70 percent of Rwandan Tutsis were killed.
“This is a lesson written in blood,” Kagame, who led the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) during the genocide, said during a ceremony to end the mass killing. According to him, his country has moved remarkably in three decades and is now stable and secure, but it should not forget its tragic past. He said it was a lesson for Rwanda not to rely on foreign aid that did not come then. Such killings could happen in any other African country, Kagame said, if extremism and ethnic hatred took hold.
“Humanity is very resistant to learning from its mistakes. However, at the same time, I see as progress the growing understanding between the many states of the world, which, despite differing opinions, are united in their main principles,” announced Czech President Pavel.
According to him, it was a positive development that after the Rwandan bloodshed, genocide began to be recognized as one of the worst crimes and the creation of other similar institutions following the first International Tribunal dedicated to Rwanda.
“Moral clarity came from 🇨🇿, 🇳🇬 & 🇳🇿 at the UN Security Council in 1994. Their ambassadors had the courage to call genocide by its rightful name. 🇳🇬 are with us today and we applaud you” – President Kagame @#Kwibuka30 pic.twitter.com/CV4Rjs0rLr
— Rwanda in the Czech Republic (@RwandaInCzechia)
April 7, 2024
“This country was in hell 30 years ago. What he achieved in those 30 years is an absolutely admirable success,” Pavel told Czech reporters after the ceremony. According to him, Rwanda has managed to prevent the continuation of ethnic conflict and has done all it can to punish the perpetrators. According to the Czech president, Rwanda can be an example of the countries of the former Yugoslavia where ethnic reconciliation has not yet fully succeeded.
Many Western politicians are concerned about their country and the UN. They admit failure when they failed to stop the carnage during the brutal bloodshed in Rwanda. The Czech Republic was one of several countries that advocated a proactive approach at the United Nations and designated the killing as genocide, which Kagame recalled. Karel Govanda, the then Czech ambassador to the UN, received a standing ovation from the venue in Kigali.
“The scale of those atrocities was absolutely incomprehensible,” Gowanda described, describing, according to him, one reason why Western politicians rejected the label of genocide and did not want to intervene in the events in the country. At the same time, “they had other interests than looking at what was behind the disaster,” said the Czech ambassador, who was recently awarded the highest state award by the Rwandan government.
According to him, some representatives were friendly with the then Hutu government which was responsible for the massacres. In particular, Gowanda named France as having significant influence in the country. French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged on Sunday that Paris could have stopped the killings but was unwilling to do so.
In addition to Powell, Sunday's ceremony was attended by current or former politicians including Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, several African heads of state, and former presidents of the United States and France, Bill Clinton and Nicolas Sarkozy. In addition to commemorating the genocide, the Czech president also indicated an opportunity for short meetings with several politicians, including Herzog and Clinton.
