In exactly 31 days, the entire world will join Rwandans, both those living in the country and those living abroad, to commemorate the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. This genocide was not only the fastest one in recorded human history in terms of its death rate (over 10,000 people massacred per day), but it was also arguably the cruellest. ALSO READ: Habyarimana's role in planning, implementing 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi The heads of months-old infants were smashed against walls, fetuses were cut out of the wombs of pregnant women, and elderly men and women were hacked to death with machetes, without mercy. What made it even worse was that the victims' killers were often their neighbors, friends, priests, doctors, house helps, and even their own family members. ALSO READ: The former Rwandan Armed Forces' central role in preparation of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi The Genocide, which lasted 100 days, commenced on April 7 and was finally halted by the victorious Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) on July 4. The country they liberated was not only full of destroyed lives, but it was, for all intents and purposes, not really a country. How could it be? ALSO READ: How Kagame masterminded RPA’s decisive campaign against Genocide within hours Most of its citizenry were either dead or in camps outside the country, its infrastructure was totally destroyed, and its coffers were empty. In fact, many believed that Rwanda's social fabric was so torn that the very idea of Rwanda was dead. Famously, a certain African leader of the time proposed that Rwanda be split into two parts: a Tutsi-land and Hutu-land. Thankfully, that proposal was thrown into the dustbin of history. It's been 30 years since those dark 100 days, and the country has, through the work of its leadership and people, climbed out of the hole it had dug itself. Rwanda today is nothing like the Rwanda of 1994. Instead of looking inwards, Rwanda today faces the world and interacts with it with confidence. No longer a poor, middling country wholly dependent on the whims of its European colonial masters and non-governmental organizations, it is now one that puts its hat in the global ring and says, “Visit Rwanda, Meet in Rwanda, Invest in Rwanda. You'd think that what Rwandans learned 30 years ago – that allowing hate speech, corruption, abuse of human rights, breakdown in security, and divisionism to proliferate would lead to disaster – is a lesson the global community learnt. Unfortunately, it seems that the lessons of Rwanda have not been internalized by those who should know better. ALSO READ: Risk factors for genocide visible in DR Congo, says UN advisor What I see today in eastern DR Congo are what I call the 'ingredients of genocide'. Leaders such as Member of Parliament from South Kivu Province, Justin Bitakwira, actively and publicly dehumanize Congolese Tutsi. Mirroring the hosts of the infamous Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), Kantano Habimana, Valérie Bemeriki, and Georges Ruggiu, and using new forms of media to publicize their hate, Congolese journalists are using their platforms to misinform and stoke fear and hate. The national security services are either non-existent or actively in cahoots with the individuals targeting a specific group for destruction, and corruption and human rights abuses are the order of the day. And like what happened in 1994, the UN (as well as the majority of the international community) is either doing nothing as events unfold or actually playing a negative role. Case in point, unlike Romeo Dallaire's UNAMIR, which at least attempted to play a positive role in 1994, Bintou Keita's MONUSCO is actually working with the forces of genocide to potentially perpetrate another one. Why do I say this? Because MONUSCO is actively participating in combat operations alongside the DR Congo government's allies, the 'Wazalendo' (a hodgepodge of Mai-Mai militia) and the genocidal FDLR militia. If things continue as they are presently, with the international community playing an unhelpful role in this political conflict, I worry that what befell us in 1994 will befall them as well. However, this fate isn't cast in stone. With strong political direction from Kinshasa, alongside effective support from the international community, our nightmare doesn't have to become the DR Congo's. Fundamentally, it's up to DR Congo's leadership, and no one else, to choose the road they will travel. I hope they make the right turn because I, and the 13 million or so Rwandans, know what happens when you make the wrong one. The author is a socio-political commentator.
