The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was not an accident but rather a deliberate and methodological effort to erase this group (Tutsi) and to bring suffering for generations and to the future, Dame Cindy Kiro, the Governor-General of New Zealand has said.

Kiro was speaking on Saturday, April 20, in Auckland, where she joined around 200 members of the Rwandan community and friends of Rwanda in New Zealand for the 30th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

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Also present at the event was Colin Keating, the former representative of New Zealand to the UN and recipient of Rwanda’s campaign to stop the Genocide medal, Jim McLay former Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, and former Chief Prosecutor at the ICTR, Jonathan Moses.

The Governor-General, who represented His Majesty King Charles, King of the Realm of New Zealand, described the events that took place in Rwanda, from April to July 1994, as one of the darkest moments in human history and criticised the international community for its dithering and inertia as the genocide unfolded.

"The genocide (against the Tutsi) was a moment in our shared history where the world looked on at the advance unfolding in Rwanda and did not act. It showed us the terrible dangers not only of intolerance but also ambivalence and inaction”, Dame Cindy Kiro said.

Kiro said she was filled with such admiration for the people of Rwanda, for their staunch pursuit of peace, hope and prosperity.

Commending the bond of friendship between Rwanda and New Zealand, she noted that it continues to be strengthened, particularly through the former’s membership in the Commonwealth of Nations.

New Zealand Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Andrew Bayly, echoed similar sentiments, citing that much as Rwanda and New Zealand are geographically far apart, "in remembering those killed during the genocide we are not apart”.

He hailed Rwandans, and in particular genocide survivors whom he said, after emerging from the abyss of 1994, had worked to make Rwanda one of the most economically progressive states in Africa.

Little to no support

Reflecting on his country’s appalment in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, former representative of New Zealand to the United Nations (UN), Colin Keating, narrated how they stood up in the United Nations Security Council to fight for the UN action to stop the genocide against the Tutsi.

"I was confronting daily the evil of genocide happening in two different countries on two different continents, at the same time. In Rwanda, it was an intense cataclysm, lasting a few months. In Bosnia, the genocide was drawn out. In both cases, the security council failed to do its duty,” he recalled.

"New Zealand and some others tried to get an agreement to stop the genocide in Rwanda. But we had too little support. Too many major powers were against us and the veto was always lurking in the background”, Keating further narrated.

UN reforms required

Keating pointed out that a much wider updating of the UN system is "desperately” required, despite being upbeat about the recent ongoing efforts demanding action to reform the UN system, and in particular the veto.

He noted that a summit meeting of political leaders convened by the UN slated for September in New York, can be the first step towards a significant updating of the UN.

New Zealand is home to around 100 Rwandans, including genocide survivors from the southern province of Rwanda, a region where the French-led military operation, Operation Turquoise, was deployed in June 1994.

Their wounds still raw

"The scale of the genocide in the southern part of Rwanda was larger simply because of this operation. Troops thwarted the advance of RPF forces to come and help. In a way, they made the job easier for perpetrators to continue killing people”, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to New Zealand, Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye asserted.

Uwihanganye highlighted the egregious nature of genocide as a crime against humanity and underlined that any attempt to deny the truth about the genocide must be confronted decisively.

"The wounds are still raw. All you just need is to spend some time with survivors and discover that”, High Commissioner Uwihanganye said.