Pondering the failure of humanity

TO describe 11-year-old twins Cynthia and Sonia Dushime as being lucky wouldn’t tell the true story of their tragic lives.

Nobody knows how the sisters, then only babies, miraculously survived the genocide in Rwanda, when their entire Tutsi family was wiped out by rampaging Hutus.

Not as fortunate were sister and brother, Yvonne Uwera, aged five, and Yves Mugisha, aged three, who were brutally hacked to death by machete at their grandmother’s house.

And, proof positive of the merciless nature of the slaughter, neither his tender age nor his family seeking refuge at the Muhuru Church could save Fabrice Cyemezo. The happy 15-month-old baby enjoyed making gestures and had just learned to say ‘Auntie’ when he was murdered.

Raised by foster parents, yesterday Cynthia and Sonia joined with their compatriots to remember the needless deaths of Yvonne, Yves, Fabrice and up to a million others who died in just 13 weeks in 1994.

Standing on the rolling hillsides and in the lush valleys surrounding the area of Gisovi, thousands of Rwandans watched as a ceremony marked the occasion at the site where a staggering 250,000 bodies are buried.

At the official opening of the Kigali Memorial Centre, another 20 coffins, each containing the bones of up to 50 victims, were buried by families carrying photographs of their lost loved ones, as an eternal flame was lit in their honour.

The normally bustling roads of the capital Kigali came to a virtual standstill yesterday as Rwandans recalled the harrowing events of 1994.

The event also caused the international community, which stood by as the genocide occurred, to reflect upon its inaction in the face of the horror.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, as Ireland holds the EU Presidency, Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen admitted it was clear that tragic mistakes were made by the international community before and during the genocide. “The response to the genocide came too late and proved insufficient,” he said.

Describing the massacre of almost a million Rwandans in 100 days as a disastrous failure of humanity, Mr Cowen said the challenge to never again fail to prevent such horrors lies at the heart of the EU’s policy.

“The EU is ambitious in its objective to avoid the reoccurrence of genocide anywhere in the world, yet humble in knowing that whatever it does, it may not be enough,” he said.

Mr Cowen was due to deliver his speech at the main ceremony in the National Stadium yesterday afternoon, but his address was deferred until last night as preference was granted to African leaders.

The 60,000 Rwandans and international visitors present in the afternoon sun heard South African President Thabo Mbeki apologise for not shouting loudly enough at the time, as his people were preoccupied with extricating themselves from their own nightmare of apartheid.

“The severed heads and skeletons point an accusatory finger at all of us, reminding us we did not do what we should have done,” he said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame pointed the finger of blame at Ireland’s EU neighbours, France, for training and arming the militias to commit genocide, and the UN for giving his people a false sense of security.

“I want to pay tribute to the survivors, who are the real heroes, not the so-called peacekeepers who fled when their duty called them to act,” he said.

In the EU statement last night, Mr Cowen outlined the EU’s efforts to learn from the lessons of 1994, by improving its ability to react quickly to crisis situations.

“If Rwanda continues to climb from the abyss, if the European Union and the whole world can at last make “never again” a reality, then we will have at least begun to make amends. It will not be easy, but to any less is not thinkable,” he said.