Biruta addresses Californian University on Genocide

Former Senate president, Dr. Vincent Biruta, last week represented President Paul Kagame at the 3rd International conference on Genocide at California State University, Sacramento. Addressing the gathering, he pointed out that the initiative of the conference is to address a subject of “deep human concern that we in Rwanda know only too well because we have lived it.” Biruta explained the circumstances around the Genocide against the Tutsi that happened in 1994. He said that Rwanda experienced the most horrendous period in the country’s history. “More than one million Tutsi were killed in only three months, in what is the fastest and probably most vicious, Genocide in human history. It was not an accident or instinctive reaction to an event as some would like the world to believe,”Biruta said. He stated that the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda is a historical fact whose occurrence should no longer be debatable. He said testimonies of survivors, eye witness accounts, confessions of perpetrators and physical signs provide incontrovertible evidence. Biruta observed that various individuals, groups and organizations question whether the 1994 mass killings in Rwanda was Genocide. “The weight of evidence is so heavy and cannot easily be overturned, they propagate a parallel Genocide, and in a cynical revision of history shift responsibility and culpability from perpetrators to victims,” he added. Biruta went ahead to mention some individuals and groups involved in the attempt to rewrite history and their motives for doing so drawing from Rwanda’s experience. “First, there is what may loosely be termed the coalition of the guilty. They include perpetrators and their accomplices who seek to escape punishment, and the international community that stood by as the Genocide was being committed and want to deflect blame for their inaction,” he said. He also cited local and external politicians who seek to make political capital out of misrepresenting reality. Biruta said that these often claim there was no Genocide but that there was a civil or tribal conflict in which there were deaths on both sides. He however added that Rwanda is determined to overcome the consequences of Genocide and move on. “We have been able to do this by restoring hope and dignity to all Rwandans. “Rwandans have resolved to end impunity and to build a cohesive society and a capable state that guarantees the rule of law, equality of all citizens and provides social justice to all. Our commitment against Genocide is borne by Rwanda’s resolve to give her contribution in preventing and fighting against it wherever needed,” noted Biruta. Ends