This morning His Excellency President of Rwanda Paul Kagame was in a meeting with the press, researchers and writers who have joined Rwanda for 30th Kwibuka.
President Kagame addressed a lot of internal and international queries, including the one on those individuals and countries that are looped in vague position about who were the victims of the Genocide against Tutsi in 1994, a notable example of Secretary Antony Blinken, where he said that he has no problem.
Answering this question, Paul Kagame stressed that there was a discussion with the delegation sent by the United States to mourn with Rwandans, and that among the foci, this issue was discussed.
“that one was an element of discussion… for me that concern was answered a longtime ago, by making our position clear.” President Kagame said.
He reflected to what happened around 2014 and 2015 where Rwanda got messages from all over the word, joining the country in the commemoration. However, it contained double messages one with sympathy and another with blame.
“That time we received a message that talked about, on one hand, sympathize with us and Kwibuka which was correct, and then another part was all kind of thinks of democracy, human rights, freedoms, everything we thought of not having in our country” President Kagame narrates.
As to reply to the message, President Kagame said that he himself authored a letter aftermath with two themes; one saying that Rwanda is fine taking critiques and criticisms of an individual; and the second which was asking to commemorate with Rwandans at least one day in the year and if they want they can blame Rwanda for what they don’t think to be correct for the rest of 364 days.
“Fell free to commemorate with us if you want, and fell free to tell us whatever you don’t like about us, but our ask is one: when it the day of commemoration which is the 7th April, can you be kind enough to commemorate with us and stop there, and then you can have the rest 364 days, blaming us every day, just separate these two things.” President Kagame declares. “For me that problem was solved that day, theses others that are coming and will be coming, I have no problem.” He added.
It was on 7th April 2024 where Secretary of the US Antony Blinken via his page on X passed a not-well received sympathy message to Rwandans, due to the vague position it holds in “…We mourn the many thousands of Tutsis, Hutus, Twas, and others whose lives were lost during 100 days of unspeakable violence.” Continuously, many Rwandans are reporting this tweet under the term of being Abuse and Harassment through Violent Event Denial.
