Press Releases

Remarks and Releases: Genocide Commemoration

POTUS RELEASE:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release                                           April 7, 2009

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE 15^th ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENOCIDE IN RWANDA

This week marks the 15^th commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.  It is a somber occasion that causes us to reflect upon the deaths of the more than 800,000 men, women, and children who were killed simply because of their ethnicity or their political beliefs.  The memory of these events also deepens our commitment to act when faced with genocide and to work with partners around the world to prevent future atrocities.   The figure of 800,000 is so enormous, so daunting, that it runs the risk of becoming a statistic.  Today, we must remember that each of the 800,000 individuals who died in 1994 had their own story, their own family, and their own dreams.  As we mourn their senseless passing, we must also acknowledge the courageous men and women who survived the genocide and have since demonstrated remarkable strength and generosity in forgiving those who committed these heinous acts.  These individuals inspire us daily by working to restore trust and rebuild hope in Rwanda.  The United States is committed to its partnership with Rwanda and will continue to support efforts to promote sustainable development, respect for human rights, and lasting peace in Rwanda.

                  ###

STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
For Immediate Release                                                   April 7, 2009
2009/297

Statement by Secretary Clinton

15^th Commemoration of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide 
We pause today to remember and pay our respects to the more than 800,000 victims who died in the 100 days of carnage in 1994.  On this solemn occasion, we recall this event as one of the most tragic chapters in recent history.
Rwandans from all walks of life have worked heroically over the past 15 years to repair their lives and move forward.  We are inspired by their example and offer our support in their extraordinary political, economic, and social rebuilding. 
Today, as we memorialize the victims of the genocide, we commit ourselves through our diplomacy, our development, and our private and public efforts to protect the human rights and dignity of all.

                                 # # #

USUN PRESS RELEASE #071                                                                    April 7, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, United States Permanent Representative, Remembering the Rwandan Genocide , at the UN Genocide remembrance, April 7, 2009

Thank you very much.  Excellencies, Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President of the General Assembly, Ambassador and his beautiful family, young people, survivors, Ladies and gentlemen, on this day, 15 years ago, Rwanda began its awful descent into the inferno of genocide.

On this night, 15 years ago, Major General Roméo Dallaire of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda rushed to the morgue of the Kigali Hospital. In the gathering dark, a 250-watt bulb outside the morgue revealed what was left of ten murdered Belgian peacekeepers, mutilated beyond recognition. In the same hospital compound, one hundred times that number of innocent Rwandans lay dead. 

Rwanda holds its own tragic place in the 20th century’s grim litany of mass murder. The killing in Rwanda was terribly swift and horribly personal. Hannah Arendt has written of the banality of evil, but there was nothing banal about the evil that stalked Rwanda 15 years ago. That evil came in the form of soldiers with machineguns, of men with machetes, lurid calls to murder hissed out of transistor radios, whispered word that one’s neighbors were not people but cockroaches, lists of innocents marked down for the knife, of deliberate and direct cruelty that still leaves us shocked and shaken.

Rwanda did not suffer from “ancient hatreds” between Hutu killers and Tutsi victims. It suffered from modern demagogues, from the ex-FAR, from the Interahamwe, from Radio Mille Collines. It suffered from those who were willing to kill in the warped name of ethnic difference, from those who saw division and death as a path to power. And it suffered from an international community, international institutions, and individual governments—including my own—that failed to act in the face of a vast, unfolding evil.

Nothing we can say can ease the grief of those robbed of their parents, their children, their hope in the future, their trust in humanity. Nothing we say can bring the victims back. Nothing we say can make it right. Nothing anyone can ever say will ever make it right.

Today, what we can do—both for the victims and for those whose daily lives are still marred by the aftereffects of the genocide—is to rededicate ourselves to our shared commitment to human rights and human dignity. We believe that even in war, there are rules. We believe that even in the pursuit of power, there are limits. We believe that even in a violent world, there are rights. We must be voices for action, even if we are sometimes lonely ones.

I am here today to speak for my country, but I am also here to speak from my own heart. In 1994, I served as a director on the National Security Council staff. That December, six months after the genocide, I visited Rwanda for the first time. I’ll never forget the horror of walking through a churchyard and schoolyard where one of the massacres had occurred. Six months later, the decomposing bodies of those who had been so cruelly murdered still lay strewn around what should have been a place of peace. For me, the memory of stepping around and over those corpses will remain the most searing reminder imaginable of what our work here must aim to prevent.

In the early days of this new century, we must work together to apply the lessons of the last century’s bitter succession of genocides. We must work together to mete out justice to the perpetrators. We must work together to build up the capacity of every nation and of the world to respond surely and swiftly to mass slaughter. We must develop a collective will to respond when tragedies occur.  And we must work together to prevent conflict before an ember becomes a blaze.

Despite all the blood that has been shed—or perhaps because of itwe still believe that hatreds shall someday pass,” as my president, President Obama, has put it. We still believe in the promise that, in his words, “as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself.”

Until that day comes, we bow our heads to mark the memory of those who were slain. And we bow our heads to mark the sorrow of all who stood by.

Thank you. 
                                                   ########

                            

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CARTER REMARKS:

BUILDING BLOCKS FOR ACTING AF ASSISTANT SECRETARY CARTER –-
15th COMMEMORATION OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE

· Ambassador Kimonyo (Kee-MOAN-Yo), thank you for inviting me to speak today to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Genocide that ravaged Rwanda in 1994. 

· I am humbled by the testimony of genocide survivors.  Thank you for sharing your stories.

· Rwandans from all walks of life have worked heroically over the past 15 years to repair their lives and move forward.  Rwanda’s path of reconciliation is a remarkable testament to the resilience of all those who suffered during the genocide and who suffer still. 

· It is fitting to pause as we do today to pay our respects to the victims, the 800,000 thousand people who were brutally slaughtered in 100 days of carnage. 

· What took place from April to June 1994 should never have happened.  It left an entire country shattered and triggered a conflict that engulfed an entire region and continue to threaten that region’s stability today.  

· The international community failed Rwanda in her greatest time of need.  All of us should have done more.  The international community continues to shoulder the pain of this failure with Rwanda. 

· Fifteen years after the genocide, the pain and suffering and the sense of emptiness among those who lost family and friends is not diminished. 

· Yet from this deep sorrow and hardship has come new hope and truly extraordinary rebuilding of Rwanda:

· Survivors have restored their homes and their lives , many adopting orphaned children.

· Refugees have returned home to assist in the rejuvenation efforts.

· Former combatants have returned and the people in communities throughout Rwanda are living and working together again.

· Rwanda’s economy has re-emerged as the government invests in people and infrastructure, attracts partners, opens its markets to embrace global trade and tourism.

· Rwanda’s domestic institutions that provide justice and prevent future conflict are growing stronger daily.

· Rwandans are moving forward, united in the pursuit of a common mindset towards reconciliation and healing.

· The United States is a strong partner in Rwanda’s efforts to improve the well-being of all Rwandans.  We contribute to this goal through programs in health, democracy and governance, economic growth, agriculture, food security and civil society. 

· We are also the largest contributor to the International Criminal Court of Rwanda, which has tried nearly 40 of those most responsible for the genocide. 

· We also work closely with Rwanda to bring peace to Darfur, where nearly 3,500 Rwandan peacekeepers now serve.  Worldwide, Rwanda is now the UN’s sixth largest peacekeeping troop contributors. 

· Regarding their service in Darfur, President Kagame said, “Our forces will not stand by and watch innocent civilians being hacked to death like the case was here in 1994".

· Rwanda’s contribution is powerful proof of its commitment to ensure that there is “Never Again” genocide anywhere in the world. 

· Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said eloquently, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” 

· Rwanda is acting abroad and at home to defeat that threat by weaving justice and reconciliation into the fabric of their society.

· Today, we remember the victims of the genocide and remind ourselves that such atrocities committed anywhere violate our collective humanity and dignity.

Thank you.