{"id":50413,"date":"2024-04-08T09:09:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T09:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwandans-roast-us-secretary-of-state-anthony-blinken-over-his-post-on-kwibuka30\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T10:51:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T10:51:26","slug":"rwandans-roast-us-secretary-of-state-anthony-blinken-over-his-post-on-kwibuka30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwandans-roast-us-secretary-of-state-anthony-blinken-over-his-post-on-kwibuka30\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwandans roast US secretary of state Anthony Blinken over his post on #Kwibuka30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blinken had through a post on X (formerly Twitter) expressed the United States solidarity with Rwanda during the 30th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States stands with the people of Rwanda during Kwibuka 30 in remembering the victims of genocide. We mourn the many thousands of Tutsis, Hutus, Twas, and others whose lives were lost during 100 days of unspeakable violence,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

However, the post did not sit well with netizens, who termed it vague and general, as it did not highlight that the Tutsis were the targeted group in the 1994 atrocities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s distorting and disregarding the truth; in Rwanda, there was a genocide against the Tutsis in 1994. It’s better not to say anything, Rwandans will be okay, as they always have been. No country is powerful enough, even when they think that they are, to change the facts,\u201d Heritier wrote.<\/p>\n

“We remember Genocide against Tutsi! Thank you! #Kwibuka30,” Inkotanyi Ruti said.<\/p>\n

\u201c@SecBlinken it\u2019s called genocide against Tutsi,\u201d Espoir King wrote.<\/p>\n

Others questioned the United States failure to stop the genocide that claimed the lives of more than one million people in just 100 days, while others criticized the country\u2019s biasness in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, where the US has sided with Israel.<\/p>\n

“The 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda, while devastatingly impacting many, was characterized by the systematic targeting of Tutsis. Recognizing this doesn’t diminish your honor or falsify the truth of the events. The U.S.’s statement during #Kwibuka30 reveals that there is a long way to go to recognize what your government failed to stop while you had the full capacity. Understanding history accurately is crucial for healing and preventing future atrocities,\u201d Emmanuel Habumuremyi wrote.<\/p>\n

This is, however, not the first time the US is failing to recognize the official definition of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis. <\/p>\n

In August 2022, Blinken, while on a visit in Rwanda, was asked by a local journalist, Edwin Musoni, to address the vagueness, but could not offer a direct and convincing answer. <\/p>\n

Yesterday, President Paul Kagame, in an apparent reference to the US action, also condemned intentional vagueness in reporting of the genocide against the Tutsi, which he said plays a role in fueling denial.<\/p>\n

\u201cRwandans will never understand why any country would remain intentionally vague about who was targeted in the genocide. I don\u2019t understand that. Such ambiguity is, in fact, a form of denial, which is a crime in and of itself, and Rwanda will always challenge it,\u201d Kagame stated during Kwibuka30.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has come under fire from Rwandans on social media over his message to the country during the 30th commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi dubbed \u2018Kwibuka30\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":2000065449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[72],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-50413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-featured-news-home","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","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":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","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":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000065449,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp_image_2024-04-08_at_10.03_20.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp_image_2024-04-08_at_10.03_20.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp_image_2024-04-08_at_10.03_20.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp_image_2024-04-08_at_10.03_20.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp_image_2024-04-08_at_10.03_20.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp_image_2024-04-08_at_10.03_20.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50413","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\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000065449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50413"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=50413"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=50413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}