“25 years ago, the country came to its knees. It was total devastation; there was no private sector, no government services, just blood flowing across the country,” said Kagame.
“Everything was a priority and the biggest challenge was where you start from. We started from scratch, we started by putting pieces together, bringing people back together, reconciliation, justice, security, rebuilding schools, hospitals, and different public services,” he added.
In a period of 12 years, Rwanda created a traditional justice system through Gacaca court where over one million suspects were tried.
“25 years on we look back and find things have come together in a way that even ourselves are very much surprised. We have reconciled people of our country, national unity has been holding, justice has taken place, there has been forgiving,” observed Kagame.
President Kagame explained that it was challenging because the country experienced a situation where people killed neighbors and family members. “ We had situations where people would kill their family members. For example, a man or a husband at home kills children who don’t look like him, looking like a mother who is from a different identity. So you have a society in this kind of situation. It is really not only troubling but also extremely difficult to try and think of how to move the country forward.”
He explained that women have been empowered with 61.25% in parliament and 50% in the cabinet.
In the 2019 World Bank Doing Business report, Rwanda is the 2nd in Africa in easing doing business and 29th in the World.
President Kagame told NBA board of governors and executives that “Africa is open to doing business with the world, they have a lot to offer but Africa has a lot to offer as well. This is the moment to invest in Africa.”
“You don’t have to wait, invest now and grow with Africa. What we have understood is to create trust among people and trust with their leaders. Trust doesn’t just come about, you have to invest in it. Trust is the single point that binds things together. You have to figure out how you bring things together and people must feel they are relevant,” he added.
In partnership with International Basketball Federation (FIBA); NBA expanded to Africa launching Basketball Africa League (BAL) where it will provide financial, technical support and building infrastructures for the league.
It is expected that nine countries including Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sénégal, South Africa and Tunisia will begin the tournament in January 2020.
President Kagame was accompanied by a delegation including Ambassador Valentine Rugwabiza representing Rwanda to UN.
As Rwanda entered the commemoration period on 7th April 2019, Guterres called on world population to fight against the evil wherever as the best way to honor victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
“As we renew our resolve to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again, we are seeing dangerous trends of rising xenophobia, racism, and intolerance in many parts of the world. Particularly troubling is the proliferation of hate speech and incitement to violence. They are an affront to our values and threaten human rights, social stability, and peace. Wherever they occur, hate speech and incitement to violence should be identified, confronted and stopped to prevent them leading, as they have in the past, to hate crimes and genocide,” reads part of the message.
“I call on all political, religious and civil society leaders to reject hate speech and discrimination and to work vigorously to address and mitigate the root causes that undermine social cohesion and create conditions for hatred and intolerance. The capacity for evil resides in all our societies, but so, too, do the qualities of understanding, kindness, justice and reconciliation. Let us work together to build a harmonious future for all. This is the best way to honor those who lost their lives so tragically in Rwanda 25 years ago,” reads the message.
“It was around midnight and we were in my boss’s car, preparing to go home when all of a sudden men dressed in military clothes, who had come in a double cabin pickup, surrounded us,” narrates the emaciated looking Mucyo.
“They were banging on our car’s windows and ordering the boss and his wife to get out.”
Kayobera and his wife, like Mucyo, are Rwandan nationals. Mucyo says the couple ran a string of businesses in the Ugandan capital. Mucyo managed two beauty spas for them in Rubaga. He was carrying 1.3 million shillings at the time the men accosted them.
He narrates that when his boss and his wife got out of the car, the soldiers immediately snapped handcuffs on them, shoving them into the pickup. “Two of them then came back and barked at me in Swahili, “Wewe mujinga unabaki kwa gari namna gani!” (Fool, you think you will be the one to remain in this car, how?!)
Mucyo says one of them, “Gave me three hot slaps in my face while another dipped his hands in my bag, saw the money (1.3 million) and pocketed it.” Mucyo says he never got that money back, and the fellow that took it did not record it. He just stole it.
The abductors were CMI operatives, Mucyo, and the others would find out shortly.
To anyone that’s been reading about the agency’s harassment of Rwandan citizens, everything they did to Mucyo and the Kayoberas will sound familiar.
The criminal theft of money or property; the arrest by abduction – meaning abruptly and with no warning accosting victims, handcuffing them, shoving them into a vehicle, slapping hoods over their heads, all with no arrest warrant, and without telling the abductees what it is they are supposed to have done – all are hallmarks of CMI methodology.
“They shoved hoods, which are partly big hats, over the heads of all the three of us and drove off. We had no idea where they were taking us,” Mucyo narrates. He says Kayobera told the men: “If it is me you are looking for I am here; this is my wife, and this is my employee release them. There is no reason to take all of us.”
He pleaded with the CMI operatives that he and his wife had three little children back home (the three are 9, 6 and 3) who needed at least one of the parents to be with them. The men told Kayobera that was none of their business and told him to shut up.
Mucyo fell victim to CMI just because he was an employee of Darius Kayobera. The businessman, in turn, fell victim because – he is convinced – a person that he lent money to run a business, in fact, was a CMI informer.
“My boss told me, when we were in detention, that the man, called Ibrahim – a fellow Rwandan – caused problems between the two when Kayobera asked him to repay him the money he lent him,” Mucyo says. Ibrahim wrote Kayobera a check that bounced.
Kayobera through his friends learned that Ibrahim was a CMI informer. The fellow would resort to telling CMI that Kayobera was a ‘Kigali spy’. “That is how we ended up in the hands of CMI,” Mucyo shakes his head, as if still in disbelief.
One of CMI’s ways is just acting on information with zero attempts to verify it.
When the vehicle stopped they were at Mbuya, the headquarters of the agency. “We did not immediately know this place, but we would find out from other detainees that it was the CMI head office,” the weak-looking Mucyo narrates.
Other Rwandan victims of the place, such as Roger Donne Kayibanda described to this news website how once there they order one to take off his belt and shoes, and to hand over properties like wallets, watch, and portable thing. That happened to Mucyo, Kayobera and his wife.
“When one of the men saw Kayobera’s phone, he threateningly asked him for his mobile money pin code. There was 800,000 shillings on the Boss’s account and they made a transaction and withdrew the money,” Mucyo says.
“Then they took Boss’s wife away to the women’s place of detention, and then took me and Boss to a corridor, telling us that’s where we would stay!”
Mucyo describes the torture that followed. “An officer came deep in the night and barked, ‘You Mucyo, come here!’ A soldier came and shoved me upstairs – still with my hood on – and took me to what they call the statement room”. The young Rwandan says the interrogating officer told him to tell him everything about himself: where he was born, when, where he went to school, why he came to Uganda.
“I told him everything. When I was done, all of a sudden the man barked at me ‘I want you to tell me the truth, who sent you to Kampala and what did he send you to do?!”
“I said I had told him everything. “I said I only came to do business and no one sent me,” Mucyo replied. The man told the soldiers to take me downstairs, for “some special treatment”.
He narrates that two soldiers took him down into a dungeon and proceeded to beat him up, kicking and punching him, in the ribs, in the stomach everywhere. Then, he says, the men took me upstairs to another office.
“In that one, the officer spoke to me in fluent Kinyarwanda. He told me, ‘Mucyo, bite! (Hi) The only thing that will save you here is the truth! He too ordered me to tell him everything about myself. Afterwards, the man said, menacingly, “Why don’t you say the truth that it is Rwanda that sent you here?!”
Mucyo told him nothing like that happened.
“He then ordered the soldiers to come to take me ‘upstairs’”, says Mucyo.
Upstairs, there was another man, another Rwandan, Mucyo says. The two soldiers ordered me to take off my clothes. “There was a bathtub in the upstairs room, full of ice water. They told him to lie in the water, up to his neck.
Then after a few minutes, as he was shivering and shaking, they told him to step out of the tub.
Then as Mucyo watched they told the other Rwandan to sit in a metallic chair next to a wall. One of the men got hold of a couple of wires that were sticking out of a wall socket. The other ordered the Rwandan to stick his feet out. “The man with the wire suddenly shoved them onto the soles of the man’s feet.”
Mucyo says the Rwandan leaped up with a piercing scream, eyes bulging, and came thudding down on the floor. “You see that”, one of the torturers told Mucyo, “that is what happens when you do not tell the truth!”
Mucyo says they then took him downstairs, as he was shaking with fear.
He says one of his fellow prisoners, another Rwandan called Damascene Rugengamanzi, advised him to bribe an officer to save himself from further torture. Mucyo describes how he did exactly that. He called one of the officers that regularly came down the dungeons, and offered him half a million shillings.
“I gave him the contacts of my friend that stayed with me in Mengo. The officer also got me a paper and pen and I sent written instructions to my friend to give the officer the money.”
That probably saved the young man. The beatings lessened. After three months at Mbuya, CMI transferred him to its Kireka post.
The story Mucyo tells further reveals the intricate relationship between CMI and Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC. The officer that spoke fluent Kinyarwanda to him, Mucyo is convinced, is an RNC operative. The prisoner he was handcuffed to, Damascene, kept urging him “to tell the CMI torturers that he was ready to join Kayumba’s army”.
“That is the only thing that will save you, otherwise these men will torture you until they break your bones,” Damascene urged.
It would seem this Damascene himself must have undergone the same torture and was ready to be recruited into RNC, Mucyo thinks.
In the end, he was adamant that nothing would ever make him join the terrorists, not even death would!
Then one morning the officer I had given money appeared in the doorway of the Kireka jail and told me to step outside. They were deporting me to Rwanda.
That was this month, last Saturday on 6 April 2019. They dumped me at Kagitumba border post. On his deportation papers they had written, “illegal entry”, though he was in Uganda lawfully, he says.
“They had also robbed me of all my money, and I had nothing, But I was so thankful to be back home.”
Kayobera and Claudine still languish in CMI detention, held incommunicado, and have not been produced in court. They have not been allowed consular access. Their children have been deprived of parental care, and endure the distress of missing a mother and father.
People wonder when such lawless abductions, arrests, and torture of innocent Rwandans will ever come to an end in Uganda.
The duo was arrested at Bunagana border in December 2018 returning from Uganda to attend a meeting held between15-16 December bringing together representatives of RNC belonging to Kayumba Nyamwasa and FDLR.
They are accused of being part of FDLR rebel group, treason and inciting the public to engage into terrorism, developing relationships with a foreign country intending to provoke a war, propagating messages abroad with the intention to incite the public against the government of Rwanda and forming an illegal military group.
The court read the ruling yesterday around 3 pm on remand or release on bail following a previous hearing held two days ago.
The court said that there is evidence pinning them where Nkanka admitted his position as FDLR spokesperson; that he went with co-accused to Uganda to meet RNC and he held speeches on FDLR attacks in the media like BBC among others.
Nsekanabo admitted to the prosecution that he was aware of some attacks to Rwanda like the ones carried in 2001 among others. He also admits to having traveled to Uganda to meet RNC to plan different attacks to Rwanda; all of which considered as evidence pinning him.
Considering the severity of accused crimes and suspicion that they would join the rebel group again if released; the court ruled 30 days remand as the investigation is underway.
The defense lawyer, Nkuba Milton Munyendatwa said they respect the court ruling and will appeal if necessary.
“The changes saw Major General Jean-Jacques Mupenzi promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed Army Chief of Staff (ACOS) while Lieutenant General Jacques Musemakweli has been appointed Reserve Force Chief of Staff (RFCOS),” reads a statement released by RDF.
Before his appointment as the Army Chief of Staff in 2016; Lt.Gen Musemakweli was Commander of the Republican Guards.
Among other changes, Major General Aloys Muganga has been appointed Commander of the Mechanised Division.
The appointments and redeployments take immediate effect as per a statement released by RDF.
Maj. General Muganga was previously the Acting Reserve Force Chief of Staff. He is among senior officers promoted in January last year from the rank of Brigadier General to Major General.
Maj General Muganga holds a master’s degree in project management from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and is a graduate of the United States of America War College (USAWC – 2007).
His other previous postings include Defence Liaison Officer for Rwanda at EAC – Arusha among other RDF command and staff responsibilities.
Different reports indicate that France was aware of the plan of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, supplied arms to the government which planned and executed genocide, declined to rescue Bisesero residents and provided passage for fleeing genocide perpetrators among others.
During a press conference yesterday, President Paul Kagame revealed that he has talked enough on the role of foreign countries in genocide.
During the 20th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, Kagame talked on the role of France, Belgium and Catholic Church in genocide and said “Les faits sont têtus.” A message he reproduced in English at the 25th commemoration on Sunday saying “The facts are stubborn.”
Speaking to the media yesterday, President Kagame said it is not necessary to repeat the same thing over time.
“Once you have stated the facts that live on as long as the problem lives on, does it makes sense that I have to keep repeating it? Because if I have said it more than once or twice, then you assume it was for the purpose of reminding people but you can’t just keep reminding people. Sometimes you give them room to think for themselves,” he noted.
Commenting on people who have asked whether what Rwanda needs from France or anybody else has been an apology, Kagame said it is not true.
“You can’t ask people to apologize or keep asking them to apologize or tell them how to apologize. That after all kills the whole meaning of an apology. For an apology to have meaning, it must come from somebody who is apologizing,” he said.
“You can’t ask the person who is offended whether he needs an apology or not. What would be the meaning of an apology extracted by somebody who deserves an apology? If you put all these things together you will realize that it is up to anyone. It is up to France, individuals to write the wrong they think they would agree they have inflicted on other people. This has been our approach,” added Kagame.
He, however, noted that it is not to deny the fact that the presence of Macron to the office because there has been very significant progress in terms of complicated environment of politics and all kinds of things.
“We still make progress from things that you know that happened including the way archives have been treated, being treated because they contain truth that people can make interpretation of. Thinking about bringing up the truth even making one step, next day two, all the steps required is good progress and we have seen that happening,” highlighted Kagame.
He also lauded the commission set up by Macron to investigate France role in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
The ceremony which took place at Nyanza Genocide Memorial yesterday was attended by government officials, representatives of umbrella organizations of genocide survivors, representatives of international organizations and envoys to Rwanda.
The garden is one of parts making Nyanza memorial where over 11,000 genocide victims are laid to rest.
Nyanza is particularly known as the place where thousands of Tutsis were killed after they were abandoned by UN peacekeepers.
They had sought refuge at the former ETO-Kicukiro, (currently IPRC-Kigali), which was protected by UNAMIR peacekeepers, until the Belgian contingent decided to leave the country, leaving them in hands of Interahamwe militia.
Jeannette Kagame said the memorial was built to demonstrate a place where tragedies took place that “it is an unforgettable symbol reminding us that life went on.’
She laid a foundation stone to the garden in 2000 six years after the genocide was stopped.
“When we laid the foundation stone at this garden, it was few years after stopping the genocide which took lives of our beloved ones. It was too earlier that people didn’t think that life would be possible,” she noted.
“As years passed, the hope for life improved and the country progressed. Then we thought that the garden should be part of the memory and hope for life,” added Jeannette Kagame.
The memorial will portray truth on genocide, share testimonies of survivors and resilience with the aim of eliminating genocide ideology. It also reminds us of the task to preserve history, remembrance and promoting humanity.
“We need a place like this in a garden helping us to come together and keep the memory of those who departed,” said the First Lady. were killed for innate personality.
The architect Bruce Clarke, conceived the design of the garden after engaging with genocide survivors on creating other forms of keeping the memory and after visiting genocide memorials and historic sites.
He closely worked with IBUKA, umbrella of genocide survivors during the project.
Bruce Clarke said that the garden was sophisticatedly built and depicts hard times Tutsi passed through.
“Each symbol in this garden represents sorrow, loss of hope and rebuilding of hope. It is not an achievement of one person,” he said.
The president of IBUKA, Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu said that those visiting the garden will find the right place to reflect on what happened during the genocide. “We will be in conversations with ours in comfortable place having symbols of life. It will be a moment for everyone to understand that life exists and building hope for the future,” he observed.
The memorial garden is made of different sections including stones depicting victims killed during the genocide, how environment took part in rescuing hunted Tutsi, open holes representing where some genocide victims were thrown and rivers flowing through marshlands and the section of forest to remember among others.
The memorial garden built on around three hectares is expected to be completed within a year at Rwf 700 million.
He has made the revelation today in a press conference with local and international media covering the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
Following the meeting with representatives of Ibuka-France on Friday last week, President Macron said that the committee of eight experts led by Prof. Vincent Duclert will assume the task of ‘Assessing writings kept in France related to genocides between 1990 and 1994 to analyze the role of France activities during that period and contributing to better understanding of Genocide against Tutsi.’
President Kagame said that the commission is a good stride by France leadership in response to repeated questioning of the role of France in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
“The commission set up by President Macron is a significant milestone in France leadership to address the issue because they do more solving problems of their concern. However, that is a milestone in matters concerning Rwanda,” he said.
“If they made that milestone, it is because they want more improvements. Let’s wait and see what will happen. But I think it emerged with new leadership, new moment and the right time that must characterize new cooperation different from the previous one. At this time the situation can even improve more,” added Kagame.
Since Macron became the President of France in May 2017, President Kagame said that he has ushered transformations in France’s international relations especially with Africa.
Apart from the establishment of a commission to probe France role in the genocide, President Macron also unveiled that a platform to explain the history of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi and mobilizing people to engage in research projects on genocide with an emphasis on Tutsi genocide is set to be established.
He has revealed this Monday, during a press conference with local and international media covering the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
The press conference follows commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi held on Sunday 7th April 2019 at Gisozi memorial where Rwanda was joined by friends and the international community, diplomats, different heads of states and government to pay homage to genocide victims.
“We are not thinking of creating a war outside our borders. It is a warning to anyone who thinks about war and on our territory. If somebody has ideas that they want to bring war to Rwanda, they should also be aware of the danger they face if they do that,” said Kagame.
Attackers have at different times raided regions in the neighborhood of Nyungwe National Park but repelled by Rwanda’s soldiers.
Commenting on threats to Rwanda, President Kagame said that “In defense of the future children of Rwanda and our stability, we are prepared for that, as we fought many threats and challenges before, we are now better prepared for any threats that would come today.”
President Kagame, however, said that war should not be an emergent thing noting that people should be watchful using the word. He highlighted that war should neither be the first, nor the second nor the third choice considering its disastrous impact.
On the attacks in Nyungwe forest, President Kagame said that there are people behind it to provoke a war against Rwanda mistakenly pretending to benefit from it.
“Those who are behind it have in mind to provoke a war from which they mistakenly think they will benefit. They are trying to hide problems of their own and create a scenario where when war happens, you look the same. We refused this provocation,” he said.
President Kagame also assured everyone that Rwanda with its history of suffering has grown in all bounds including the strength, capacity to wage a war in defense of its stability and peace.
To you, the friends by our side on this heavy day, including the different leaders present, we say thank you. Many of you have been with us all along, and we cherish you for contributing to the healing and re-building of Rwanda.
I also thank my fellow Rwandans, who joined hands to recreate this country. In 1994, there was no hope, only darkness. Today, light radiates from this place.
How did it happen?
Rwanda became a family, once again. The arms of our people, intertwined, constitute the pillars of our nation. We hold each other up. Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone. Together, we have woven the tattered threads of our unity into a new tapestry.
Sisters became mothers. Neighbours became uncles. Strangers became friends. Our culture naturally creates new bonds of solidarity, which both console and renew.
Rwanda is a family. That is why we still exist, despite all we have gone through.
There is no way to fully comprehend the loneliness and anger of survivors. And yet, over and over again, we have asked them to make the sacrifices necessary to give our nation new life. Emotions had to be put in a box.
Someone once asked me why we keep burdening survivors with the responsibility for our healing. It was a painful question, but I realised the answer was obvious. Survivors are the only ones with something left to give: their forgiveness.
Our people have carried an immense weight with little or no complaint. This has made us better and more united than ever before.
At a memorial event some years ago, a girl brought us to tears with a poem. She said, “There is a saying that God spends the day elsewhere, but returns to sleep in Rwanda.”
“Where was God on those dark nights of genocide?”, she asked.
Looking at Rwanda today, it is clear that God has come back home to stay.
To survivors, I say thank you. Your resilience and bravery represent the triumph of the Rwandan character in its purest form.
Joining us today are families from other countries, whose husbands, fathers, sisters, and aunts were claimed by the same deadly ideology.
The Belgian peacekeepers, murdered twenty-five years ago this morning.
Captain Mbaye Diagne from Senegal, who saved so many lives.
Tonia Locatelli, killed in 1992 for telling the truth of what was to come.
The only comfort we can offer is the commonality of sorrow, and the respect owed to those who had the courage to do the right thing.
Other people around the world also stood up and made a difference.
Ambassador Karel Kovanda from the Czech Republic joined colleagues from New Zealand and Nigeria to call for action to stop the Genocide, despite the indifference of more powerful states.
And my brother, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, knows where Rwanda is coming from, having served in an Ethiopian peacekeeping contingent after the Genocide, together with troops from elsewhere in Africa and beyond.
Thank you all for your presence.
Those among us who perpetrated the Genocide, or stood by passively, are also part of our nation. The willingness, in a number of cases, to tell the truth, pay the price, and re-join the community, is an important contribution.
The witness of perpetrators is irrefutable proof, if any was still needed, that genocide happened.
Genocide hibernates as denial.
Both before the killing and after, there is a long chain of events which are interconnected. Revisionism is not merely demeaning, but profoundly dangerous.
The genocide did not begin on one specific day. It has a history.
Why were refugees Rwanda’s biggest export, for decades? Why were the same people repeatedly targeted for persecution and massacre, from the late 1950s to the 1990s? Why were bodies dumped into rivers, to send them back up the Nile, where they supposedly came from? Why did some parents even kill their own children, who looked a certain way?
None of that started with a plane crash. So where did it come from?
Through it all, we had guardians of virtue, Abarinzi b’Igihango, and other righteous citizens. Our rebirth was seeded by their actions.
The young girl, portrayed in the play we just saw, who took it upon herself to care for a baby survivor despite the objections of her family. That is a true story and today both women are home and fine.
The Nyange students who refused to be separated into Hutu on one side, Tutsi on the other. They never betrayed each other. Six were killed. Forty were wounded. All are heroes.
These are examples of the Rwandans who kept us from losing everything.
But most of us are neither survivors nor perpetrators. Three-quarters of Rwandans are under age thirty. Almost 60 per cent were born after the Genocide.
Our children enjoy the innocence of peace. They know trauma and violence only from stories. Our aspirations rest in this new generation.
Mature trees can no longer be moulded, but seeds contain endless possibility. Rwanda’s young people have everything needed to transform our country. They have the responsibility to take charge more and more, and participate fully in securing the Rwanda we want and deserve.
We are far better Rwandans than we were. But we can be even better still.
We are the last people in the world who should succumb to complacency. The suffering we have endured should be enough to keep our fighting spirit alive.
Our country cannot afford to live by twists of fate. We must be deliberate and decisive, guided by humility and the content of our hearts. Rwanda has to stay one step ahead. Otherwise, we are insignificant.
The facts are stubborn, but so are we. We really have to be.
Our nation has turned a corner. Fear and anger have been replaced by the energy and purpose that drives us forward, young and old.
Rwanda is a very good friend to its friends. We seek peace, we turn the page. But no adversary should underestimate what a formidable force Rwandans have become, as a result of our circumstances.
Nothing has the power to turn Rwandans against each other, ever again. This history will not repeat. That is our firm commitment.
Nothing is required from those who wronged us, except an open mind. Every day we learn to forgive. But we do not want to forget. After all, before asking others to repent, we first have to forgive ourselves.
As for the dishonourable who remain impervious to regret, it is not our problem. It does not stop Rwanda from making progress, even for one moment.
The decimation of Rwanda was more absolute than any known weapon of mass destruction. Not only bodies were destroyed, but the very idea of Rwanda itself. That shows the ferocious power of human sentiments and designs.
Our prayer is for no other people to ever endure the same tribulations, especially our brothers and sisters in Africa.
Never accept it. Confront the apostles of division and hatred who masquerade as saviours and democrats. Our commonalities are always infinitely greater than our differences. No society is above any other, much less immune to fragility.
In the end, the only conclusion to draw from Rwanda’s story is profound hope for our world. No community is beyond repair, and the dignity of a people is never fully extinguished.
Twenty-five years later, here we are. All of us. Wounded and heartbroken, yes. But unvanquished.
We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do, in order to remain faithful to that choice.
