President Kagame praised those who joined Rwanda in commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi. #Kwibuka31
He said, “I want to first thank everyone here who has come to stand with the country and Rwandans, especially those coming from abroad or those representing them here in our country. I thank you all.”
President Kagame stated that, in this era, truth no longer prevails, as lies have taken the stage. People no longer want to hear the truth, particularly the history of Rwanda, which ultimately led to the Genocide against the Tutsi.
He said, “The way we see things now, the way things are, truth no longer prevails.”
President Kagame shared a story about a friend who once asked him how he reconciled the dark history Rwanda went through with the current suffering the country faces, showing that Rwandans have always been prepared to face whatever comes their way.
He said, “But let me put it this way; one of my friends once asked me how I, as a person, live with the darkness of the past and the suffering I’m going through now. How do I reconcile the two? How do I make sense of it? What I understood from that question was that they weren’t just asking me as an individual, they were asking about Rwanda. They were asking, how does Rwanda survive? What I answered them is that from the very beginning, we knew that both of these things go hand in hand, and we must face them as they come.”
President Kagame told Africans and others in general that no one should decide how they should live, and therefore, if someone chooses to stand up and fight for their rights, they should live the life they deserve.
He said, “I would never ask anyone to let me live, I never begged anyone. We will fight, and we may lose, but there is hope, there is a chance that if you stand up and fight for yourself, you will live, and we will live the life that everyone deserves.”
President Kagame expressed disbelief at how Congolese citizens are oppressed and forced to flee their country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, yet the international community treats this as a problem of Rwanda.
The Head of State said it is shameful that those people who fled to Rwanda, some of whom were granted asylum by Western countries, are accepted as Congolese, but the issue is misrepresented as a problem of Rwanda.
He said, “The hateful rhetoric, the killing of citizens because of who they are, forcing them from their homes, here we have thousands of people living in camps, displaced from their homes in Congo. […] Initially, they were accepted knowing they were refugees from Congo, but they were not treated as Rwandans. The remaining issues have become my problem.”
President Kagame also addressed the falsehoods often spread by those who call themselves experts, who go to the Democratic Republic of Congo and create reports claiming that Rwanda is the source of the problems in the DRC.
The Head of State said it’s hard to understand how those people, calling themselves experts, claim to know more about what is happening in the region than the local people who live there.
He said, “You see this all the time, have you heard of the group of experts? Have you heard about these things? These are people who go there thinking they know our issues better than us, and the leaders of these groups are some of the people who caused these atrocities here, some of them, as Dr. Bizimana mentioned.”
President Kagame said that the challenges Rwandans have faced over the past 31 years have prepared them to face whatever lies ahead, no matter how difficult it may be.
He said, “You’ve given us nothing, and you come and hit us with everything. This is a world caught between the darkness of the past and the suffering of today. But what hasn’t killed us in the past 31 years has strengthened us, it has prepared us for whatever lies ahead, no matter what these people want and wish. I want to assure them that we will not die without fighting.”