{"id":37282,"date":"2018-04-11T12:28:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T12:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwandan-community-diplomatic-corps-united-nations\/"},"modified":"2018-04-11T12:27:56","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T12:27:56","slug":"rwandan-community-diplomatic-corps-united-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwandan-community-diplomatic-corps-united-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwandan Community, diplomatic corps, United Nations staff in Kenya commemorate 1994 genocide against the Tutsi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The major highlight of the event was a testimony by Josephine Murebwayire, a 64-year-old widow who lost all her six children, a husband and two brothers during the 1994 massacres.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the night of 6th April 1994 when the plane that was carrying President Habyarimana was shot down, two soldiers and two Interahamwe came to our home. They demanded for money and before they left, they said that those coming to finish us were on their way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>On 7th of April, Murebwayire and her family sought refuge at Ndera Seminary school and this is where almost all her family perished.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn 11th of April 1994, hundreds of Interahamwe militias descended on us butchering us aimlessly, all my six children, my husband and two brothers died on spot. As I was socked in a pool of blood with wounds all over my head, killers left me thinking that I was dead. A few days later, RPF soldiers came to my rescue, took me to their base in Byumba for protection and treatment,\u201d Murebwayire recalls.<\/p>\n<p>Rwanda\u2019s High Commissioner to Kenya Ambassador James Kimonyo thanked United Nations for recognizing what happened in Rwanda in 1994 as genocide against a particular group. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the United Nations General Assembly for finally adopting resolution recognizing that what happened in Rwanda between April 7th and July 1994 was Genocide against the Tutsi,\u201d he expressed. <\/p>\n<p>The envoy challenged members of diplomatic corps to act more swiftly in fighting against genocide denial and bring perpetrators to book.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany perpetrators who committed this heinous crime in Rwanda are still at large in your respective countries. Rwanda has done its part by sending the indictments to different countries seeking their extradition. If we are really serious about our collective pledge of fighting the culture of impunity, I humbly call on you to support us in making these individuals face justice by either extraditing them to Rwanda or at least take them through domestic prosecution though we would prefer the trials to take place in Rwanda where crimes were committed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like also to mention the issue of trivialization and denial of genocide. I know many European countries have enacted stringent laws to fight holocaust denial. Without comparing the magnitudes of the two crimes, we call upon these countries to enact same laws to fight the denial of other genocides including the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda,\u201d Kimonyo added. <\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the event, Kenya\u2019s Amb. Macharia Kamau, Principal Secretary in the ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade who was also chief guest lauded Rwandans for their fortitude and resilience after the tragedy that befell the country 24 years ago. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn this day of remembrance, Kenya joins People of Rwanda to honour the memory of the victims who perished in the genocide, and, salute people of Rwanda especially the survivors for their tremendous courage and resilience in their unyielding journey of healing, reconciliation and national recovery. We laud Rwanda&#8217;s astute leadership and resolute political will which has been at the centre of the transformed governance and socio-economic fabric of the Rwandan Society,\u201d Macharia said. <\/p>\n<p>The event was characterized by testimony, songs and poems.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24733 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-both_rwandans_and_friends_of_rwanda_attended_in_numbers_.jpg\" alt=\"Hundreds of Rwandans and friends, diplomatic corps and the United Nations Staff yesterday gathered at United Nations headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya to honor victims of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24739 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-dsc_4002.jpg\" alt=\"Rwanda\u2019s High Commissioner to Kenya Ambassador James Kimonyo challenged members of diplomatic corps to act more swiftly in fighting against genocide denial and bring perpetrators to book.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24738 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-amb._macharia_kamu_delivering_his_remarks.jpg\" alt=\"Amb. Macharia Kamu delivering his remarks\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24736 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-unnamed_2_.jpg\" alt=\"Josephine Murebwayire, a 64-year-old widow who lost all her six children, a husband and two brothers during the 1994 massacres.  \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24734 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-director_general_unon_madame_sahle-work_zewde_giving_her_remarks.jpg\" alt=\"Director General Unon Madame Sahle-Work Zewde giving her remarks\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24737 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-unnamed_3_.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-24735 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-unnamed_1_.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of Rwandans and friends, diplomatic corps and the United Nations Staff yesterday gathered at United Nations headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya to remember and honor victims of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-37282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37282"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=37282"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=37282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}