By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 Speaking by video on the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres urged the world community to choose humanity over hatred; compassion over cruelty; courage over complacency and reconciliation over rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anyone missed the underlying message, the UN chief had quietly linked the horror of the genocide of one million Rwandans to the \u201csickening violence\u201d now taking place in the Ukraine. While we honour the memory of those who died, he said poignantly, \u201cwe must reflect on our failures as an international community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Secretary-General spoke, Rwandan President Paul Kagame on April 7 laid a wreath at a memorial site in the capital, Kigali, where more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed. The ceremony marked the beginning of a week of sombre events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Imagine people being hunted down day and night for who they are,\u201d the President said. \u201cAlso imagine if those of us who were carrying arms, if we had allowed ourselves to pursue those who were killing our people indiscriminately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“First of all, we would be right to do so. But we didn\u2019t. We spared them. Some of them are still living today, in their homes, villages. Others are in government and business.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Secretary-General drew attention to the principle of Responsibility to Protect; his Call to Action, which puts human rights at the heart of the organization. \u201cI have placed the agenda of prevention at the centre of our work\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, he added, \u201cmuch more could have\u2014and should have\u2014been done. A generation after the events, the stain of shame endures\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRwanda today stands as a powerful testament of the human spirit\u2019s ability to heal even the deepest wounds and emerge from the darkest depths to rebuild a stronger society\u201d, he continued. After having suffered \u201cunspeakable gender-based violence\u201d, women in Rwanda now hold 60 percent of parliamentary seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Rwanda is the fourth largest UN peacekeeping contributor, which Mr. Guterres said was helping to spare others, \u201cthe pain they themselves have known\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Ukraine is in flames; old and new conflicts are festering in the Middle East, Africa and beyond\u2014while the Security Council is agreeing \u201cmostly to disagree\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While looking back with remorse, the Secretary-General urged everyone to look ahead \u201cwith resolve\u201d and commit to \u201cbe ever vigilant\u201d and never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet us pay meaningful tribute to the Rwandans who perished by building a future of dignity, tolerance, and human rights for all,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe always have a choice,\u201d he said, \u201cand perpetrators can no longer assume impunity.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 13 April 2022]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: Celebrating International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Credit: UN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 Speaking by video on the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres urged the world community to choose humanity over hatred; compassion over cruelty; courage over complacency and reconciliation over rage. If anyone missed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,18,56,16,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-injustice-corruption","9":"category-goal16","10":"category-news","11":"category-regions","12":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6019,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions\/6019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}