The Rwandese Embassy in Nairobi will not be commemorating this year’s 23rd anniversary of the country’s internal conflict at the UN compound in Nairobi as it has been in the past. Instead the ceremony will be marked at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC).
The Rwandese government representatives in Kenya don’t like the continued reference by the UN of the conflict as a “Genocide in Rwanda”. In 1994, close to 1 million were killed in a vicious conflict that saw President Paul Kagame come to power.
The country’s ambassador to Kenya, James Kimonyo indicates in a section of media, more Tutsis died in that conflict. He indicated a head of today’s ceremony that the Embassy will lead the Rwandese people in Kenya in skipping the event at the UN in Gigiri, Nairobi.
Over the years, the UN Office in Nairobi (UNON) has hosted the event annually at the Gigiri Complex. The Rwandese government is seeking the international community’s recognition of the conflict as a genocide against the Tutsi community.
“Our diplomatic mission here has decided to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Genocide Against the Tutsi at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) not at the UN like it has been in the past,” Amb. Kimonyo was reported in a section of the media yesterday.
The envoy explained that during 22nd Commemoration event at the UN, he differed with the framing of the genocide that saw the killing of over 800, 000 people in three months.
The envoy says that massacres in Rwanda in 1994 were directed at a specific group of people, the Tutsi, and that it was incorrect to refer to it as ‘Genocide in Rwanda’.
“It is wrong to continue referring to the genocide against a particular community generally as genocide in Rwanda,” he said.
He said the continued reference of the conflict as a “Genocide in Rwanda” will make it sound like people from another country committed acts of Genocide against Rwandans in general yet it was one Rwandan community instigated by the state who turned against another and that is a historical fact,” he said.
He also added that, that some members of the Hutu community and any other persons who opposed the Genocide, were also killed.
“From now on, commemoration events will continue to be held outside United Nations premises until the UN calls this horrific event in its real name,” he said.
However UN officials are welcome to deliver the message on behalf of the Secretary General on that day.
In December 2016, the envoy demanded that France apologise for her participation in the 1994 genocide. Earlier, the Catholic Church in Rwanda had publicly sought the Rwandese’ vindication for its role in the massacre that claimed close to one million people in about 3 months.
Kimonyo said the Rwandese people don’t see any reason why France should take long to apologise yet it was the key perpetrator in the mass murder.
Addressing about 300 Rwandese nationals in KICC, the diplomat called on the French to emulate other countries and institutions that have apologised for their role in the genocide, without delay.
He also asked all those who participated in the 1994 ethnic cleansing, to apologise. It took long for the Catholic Church to come forward to say sorry, but a move that has been embraced by the country, Komonyo noted.