Remembrance is Hard work

After 16 years, the Remembrance of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, is becoming hard work. If there was a theme to the May 16, 2010 Northern California gathering of “Friends of Rwanda Association” hosted by the group’s President Mathilde Mukantabana, it was that remembrance is not only hard work, but also a mission. Right at the end of the solemn event, Professor Margee Ensign took the mike to change the mood. “We need a sense of urgency. Remembering and honoring the genocide victims is not enough! We must counter deniers and revisionism, we must counter it with all our energy those who would deny the genocide even happened, or revise what happened so much as to minimize what happened. To that end, I plan to set up a web page/blog when I get to Nigeria for the sole purpose of countering these charges. As I told you, I am taking a teaching position in Nigeria. Nigeria can learn a great deal from Rwanda on how to rehabilitate and unify a country. Nigeria will also have to learn that once they reach of place of unity, it will take work to counter the nay-sayers.” Allen Campbell, a US Marine pilot, gave the Keynote Speech of the program telling his “April though November 1994, One Man’s Journey through Genocide”. Campbell told brutal stories on his incursions from Uganda back and forth into Rwanda during this time period. He told one fact that Ensign’s blog could use. “I made 23 trips into Rwanda from Uganda. I went through 23 roadblocks set up by the Intermamwe. At every roadblock, I saw people being killed and dead bodies next to the roadblocks. It was sickening. After July 1994, I went through numerous RPF roadblocks and never once saw anyone killed or any dead bodies near by. This was the truth! These were crimes against not just Tutsis, but at every Rwandan, every African, and every human being. We can all be victims of genocide. Never again!” Ensign’s blog could also gain insight from Christyne Davidian telling the history of the 1915-17 Genocide against Armenians. “While 1 ½ million Armenians were killed by the Turks, a half million were killed in the first four months. However, very few Armenians returned to Turkey after the Genocide while most Rwandans eventually returned home. Still the key similarity that it is disturbing about the Armenian Genocide, like the Rwandan Genocide, is that revisionism comes from those who were not even there. So never stop speaking the truth. Write down your memories!” One of the highlights of this event in Stockton, California, at University of Pacific campus, was a poem of hope read by Zimbabwe poet Emmanuel Sigauke called “Many Trees, Many Hearts”. BobLangfelder@aol.com