So this Saturday is April 7th. For those of you unaware of the relevance of this date, let me give a short history lesson about Rwanda. In 1994, early in the morning of April 7, President Habyarimana (former president of Rwanda) was flying in a plane into Kigali from Arusha, Tanzania. Along with him also was the president of Burundi, the country just to the north. The plane was shot down by a rocket and it landed in the Kigali airport. Of course, there were no survivors. Within an hour of the plane being shot down, roadblocks were set up all over Kigali. A group of soldiers blocked anyone from getting near the crash site, blaming the fault on the RPF (a group of Rwandan militants led by current president Paul Kagame who were infiltrating from the north, trying to force the government into allowing them to enter and live in Rwanda once again, after thousands had been exiled in the late 1960s). All through that first day, at the road blocks people were having to present their identity cards which would indicate whether they were Hutus or Tutsis (two different tribes which are now just part of the past in Rwanda). If someone proved to be a hutu, they were allowed to pass. If they were Tutsi, they were slaughtered. Also throughout this day, a group of soldiers trained to kill innocent civillians (mostly trained and armed by France) called the Interhamwe started going around to the homes of everyone in the government who was Tutsi, or was a Hutu who did not hate Tutsis. They and their families were all slaughtered. The first day, April 7th, I believe about 30,000 people were killed. People from all over were dragged out of their homes and slaughtered for simply being a Tutsi, or even for not sharing hate for Tutsis that the killers had.
This genocide carried on mostly like this, with little to no interference from the international community whatsoever, for 100 days. After 100 days, over 800,000 people had been killed. The RPF won the war and chased the corrupt government out of the country into the eastern bordering D.R.C (Democratic Republic of Congo). In those camps where the refugees were living, due to disease and famine, tens of thousands more died.
All of this started on April 7th, 1994. The main focus of the killers was women and children, because the killers wanted to wipe out the next generation so that Tutsis would never exist again. They failed, but they did managed to kill off many, many innocent lives. This Saturday at Amahoro Stadium, there are opening events for the Week of Mourning in which all of Rwanda will remember the terrible hundred days of tragedy that happened 13 years ago. The closing event comes on the following Saturday, April 14.
Now while I would not expect anyone to keep up with us by mourning over this for the whole week, I would ask that anyone who reads this would remember to take at least two minutes of quiet silence sometime on this Saturday to remember the terrible events of 13 years ago. Nearly a million lives were cut off because of blind hatred, racism, fear and prejudice. In rememberance of this, please take at least a couple minutes on Saturday to join us in quiet mourning over those lost lives. Thank you, and God bless
