I am deeply honored to be a part of this event. I speak on behalf of the international student committee of Pune. On this day, we stand with the people of Rwanda to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Around one million people were slaughtered during the violence: which was a culmination of longstanding ethnic tensions between the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu people. Two decades on, survivors and perpetrators are still healing from the trauma left by the genocide.
A crime of genocide is the greatest injustice a human being can commit against one another- to be discriminated against, tortured, raped, killed simply because you belong from a different ethnic group, religion, race, cast. I believe it is the worst crime any one can commit. The Rwandan genocide should be a case study for all African nations to face the facts that division based on tribe, race, religion, cast, will only tear a nation apart. The divide and rule logic has been deeply rooted into our systems that sadly, for us, we see genocide happening very frequently in African and other continents.
Remembering is a tricky thing. It can release a river of volatile emotions that can drown you in sorrow or shame, and it can also unleash a torrent of vengeful anger.
Wounds take time to heal, no
…show more content…
More than 80 per cent of the growing population is employed in subsistence-level agriculture. Adding to that Rwanda's rising standard of living, steady economic growth, and low incidence of corruption, now you have a country that in many ways is the envy of the African continent. The terms Tutsi and Hutu have vanished from the public discourse, as if the ethnic fault line never even existed, and that may be for the best; time and again we are told that in the new Rwanda there are only Rwandans. Its rapidly modernizing capital, Kigali, is one of the jewel cities of