By Lisa Irambona
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
WASHINGTON – Several hundred people gathered at McPherson Square in the nation’s capital on April 7 to participate in the “Walk to Remember,” a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide that left an estimated 800,000 Tutsi’s dead.
The march to the National Press Club was led by young people from the local area as well as students who have traveled from Texas Christian University and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
Mathilde Mukantabana, the ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States, and other diplomats silently followed behind in honor of the lives that were lost.
“We march for those who were savagely killed and also to teach the younger generation,” Mukantabana said during her keynote address. “Part of our job is teaching. We travel all over the country to major institutions and help organize conferences to teach people about Rwanda. Learn about what we’ve done as a country and about the genocide.”
As guest entered to National Press Club, the hallway leading to the main conference room was filled with posters outlining Rwanda’s story of recovery, reconciliation and development.
There were brief testimonies on the posters from survivors, perpetrators and witness of the genocide. Some of the messages talked about commitment from younger generation to the older generation on how they plan on keeping the memories alive of those lost in the genocide.
Zilfa Irakoze, who was born in 1997, three years after the genocide, said it was important for Rwandans to remind younger generations of what happened and to fight against those who deny genocide.
“The blood of the people we lost was not spilled in vain,” Irakoze said.
Jean Pierre Karegeye, a visiting international scholar at Dickinson University and a former Rwandan refugee, recalled the events that preceded the genocide.
“Your own nation has denied you of your own basic rights,” Karegeye said. “The rights had been reserved, mainly by ethnicity. We were divided by ethnic lines. I wasn’t given access to education or services.”
The ceremony was organized by the Rwanda Embassy and attracted about 300 people. The march finished at the National Press Club building, where a three-hour ceremony featured speeches from government officials, survivors of the genocide, and genocide researchers.
The genocide occurred from April 7 to July 15, 1994 when the Hutu-led Rwandan government organized the mass slaughter against the Tutsi minority. Official estimates put the number killed at between 800,000 and 1 million people.
Former President Bill Clinton was heavily criticized later for not taking action to stop the genocide. In a video to commemorating the anniversary, he said that his biggest regret as president was not intervening in the Rwandan crisis.
One of the genocide’s survivors, Jeanne Celestine Lakin, spoke during the remembrance. Lakin, who was 9 at the time, told the audience of the shock she had when she discovered the mutilated body of her mother and three-month-old brother who had been butchered using machetes.
She said she was threatened each day with death while enduring repeated rapes during the rampage. Yet, she said, she had the courage and strength to endure so that she could raise her 3-year-old twin sisters.
The atmosphere of the commemoration turned dark and emotional as Lakin told her story. Mothers held onto their children’s hand tightly and members of the audience shed tears softly as Lakin spoke.
“Despite the tragedy of my family and my country, I chose to forgive and be the parents of my twin-sisters who are now 28 years old,” Lakin said “These labels that are attached to people such as Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas are meaningless labels. When we speak about Black, Whites, Hispanic, etc., when you look at a human, there’s much more to them than those things that are associated with their name.” She is now married to an American and lives in Seattle.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, an American diplomat who was in Rwanda during the first four days of the genocide, spoke about the resilience and the hope for a better future.
Quoting the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Thomas-Greenfield said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
Brig. Gen. Vincent Nyakarundi, the Rwanda military attaché, said in an interview before the remembrance that he participated in the struggle to stop the genocide in 1994.
“I was 21 years old when I joined the military struggle to liberate my country,” Nyakarundi said. “I was happy to do so knowing I could risk my life but for the freedom of Rwandans.”
Mukantabana said in an interview that the main reason for the remembrance was to educate people about the genocide.
She said part of that education is to encourage individuals, especially young people, to visit Rwanda so that they can learn what caused the genocide, how it was stopped, how the country rebuilt itself, and how Rwanda is working to make sure such a tragedy never happens again.
“We must remember not to dwell on the past, but to strive for a better future,” Mukantabana said in her speech.