Dear Friends,
Here in Rwanda, today is a national holiday, a day of remembrance. I would like to share with you some of the things I am reading tonight as I reflect and learn about what happened then and what is happening now. Please take a moment to pray for the country of Rwanda and please take a moment to learn about what happened and what we can do to prevent things like this from ever happening again.
Anna
Anna
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| Gary Haugen, IJM's founder standing in a Rwandan church |
From International Justice Mission, the organization we are serving here in Rwanda, was started because of what happened here in Rwanda 20 years ago. I am so proud of my husband, Lane Mears for working for IJM and standing up for justice in this country.:
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the
Rwandan genocide. Gary Haugen, who was there as the lead UN
investigator, realized the victims’ need wasn’t food or microloans, but
for “someone to restrain the hand with the machete—and nothing else
would do.” He founded IJM soon after. As we look back 20 years, we
remember those who were lost and hope for an end to violence even today.
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| Nyamata Church |
On
April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying the Rwandan president was shot down
over Kigali. On April 7 - twenty years ago today - extremist Hutu
government and militia leaders began executing one of the fastest
and most devastating genocides in all of history, killing one million
Tutsis and moderate Hutus, or about 20% of the country's population, in
just one hundred days.
Unlike genocides perpetrated primarily by governments, Rwanda's leaders twenty years ago called upon Hutu citizens to slaughter their Tutsi neighbors, friends, and family members. Many who opposed or resisted the call to genocide were also killed, regardless of their ethnic group.
On April 10, ten thousand Tutsis from Nyamata gathered in the Catholic church, seeking safe haven from the wave of death engulfing their village. The church would become their final resting place, as the interhamwe militia and neighbors breached the fortified walls, first throwing grenades into the sanctuary and then entering to kill survivors with machetes, spears, and blunt force. Babies and children were not spared, as the attackers smashed them against the wall of the sanctuary.
Today, Nyamata church and the 45,000 people buried there remind us of the horror of genocide which began 20 years ago and continued for 100 days, ending when the Rwandan Patriotic Front defeated the forces of the former government, military, and genocidal militias.
Today, Rwanda's people have not allowed themselves to be defined by their past, building a nation that is a beacon of peace, stability, and growth in an often troubled region. Rather than seek vengeance for the crimes committed during the genocide, Rwanda has undertaken a process of national reconciliation, seeking to set aside the ethnic labels that divided the country in order to move forward as one nation and one people.
Today, we and all of Rwanda's friends pause to remember those whose lives were lost twenty years ago, to stand in solidarity with the survivors, and to promise to work together to continue the miraculous transformation of this country from a place of despair to one of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope.
Unlike genocides perpetrated primarily by governments, Rwanda's leaders twenty years ago called upon Hutu citizens to slaughter their Tutsi neighbors, friends, and family members. Many who opposed or resisted the call to genocide were also killed, regardless of their ethnic group.
On April 10, ten thousand Tutsis from Nyamata gathered in the Catholic church, seeking safe haven from the wave of death engulfing their village. The church would become their final resting place, as the interhamwe militia and neighbors breached the fortified walls, first throwing grenades into the sanctuary and then entering to kill survivors with machetes, spears, and blunt force. Babies and children were not spared, as the attackers smashed them against the wall of the sanctuary.
Today, Nyamata church and the 45,000 people buried there remind us of the horror of genocide which began 20 years ago and continued for 100 days, ending when the Rwandan Patriotic Front defeated the forces of the former government, military, and genocidal militias.
Today, Rwanda's people have not allowed themselves to be defined by their past, building a nation that is a beacon of peace, stability, and growth in an often troubled region. Rather than seek vengeance for the crimes committed during the genocide, Rwanda has undertaken a process of national reconciliation, seeking to set aside the ethnic labels that divided the country in order to move forward as one nation and one people.
Today, we and all of Rwanda's friends pause to remember those whose lives were lost twenty years ago, to stand in solidarity with the survivors, and to promise to work together to continue the miraculous transformation of this country from a place of despair to one of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope.
Today, I will walk to remember the Million + lives lost during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis of Rwanda. This is 1 family which is all gone save 1 person because absent from Rwanda. I mourn all the lives lost to this abomination, especially the families, which are left with no 1 to tell.
From the official remembrance website (www.kwibuka.org):
Kwibuka means ‘remember’ in Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s language. It describes the annual commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
More than one million Rwandans died in the hundred days of the genocide. It was one of human history’s darkest times. Twenty years later we, Rwanda, ask the world to unite to remember the lives that were lost.
We ask the world to come together to support the survivors of the genocide, and to ensure that such an atrocity can never happen again – in Rwanda or elsewhere.
Kwibuka20 is a series of events taking place in Rwanda and around the world. These events lead up to the national commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda, which begins on 7 April 2014. The genocide began on 7 April 1994.
Kwibuka20 is also a time to learn about Rwanda’s story of reconciliation and nation building.
A New York Times article with powerful photography and stories of reconciliation:
The people who agreed to be photographed are part of a continuing national effort toward reconciliation and worked closely with AMI (Association Modeste et Innocent), a nonprofit organization. In AMI’s program, small groups of Hutus and Tutsis are counseled over many months, culminating in the perpetrator’s formal request for forgiveness.
The people who agreed to be photographed are part of a continuing national effort toward reconciliation and worked closely with AMI (Association Modeste et Innocent), a nonprofit organization. In AMI’s program, small groups of Hutus and Tutsis are counseled over many months, culminating in the perpetrator’s formal request for forgiveness.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/06/magazine/06-pieter-hugo-rwanda-portraits.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=MG_POR_20140404&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=3
From Isaiah 65:
From Isaiah 65:
"Behold I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things
will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and
rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be
a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take
delight in my people; the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in
it no more. Never again will there be an infant who lives but a few
days, or an old man who does not live out his days...They will build
houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their
fruit..."
Never Again.
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