The United States of America which had previously resisted using the officially recognized term “Genocide against the Tutsi,” has now adopted this terminology as approved by the United Nations.
On January 26, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly officially recognized the term “Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994.” Since then, some countries had continued to avoid using this term, including the United States, which instead used phrases like “the Rwandan genocide.”
As Rwanda and the world commemorated the 32nd anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a statement released by Nick Checker, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, used the officially recognized term.
The official said “I am honored to participate in this commemoration of Kwibuka 32 with you.
As we gather here today to mark the solemn occasion of Kwibuka, let us do so in somber recognition of the unspeakable horrors that befell the Rwandan people during the Genocide against the Tutsi.”
He stated that on April 7, the world remembers more than one million innocent Tutsi who were killed during the genocide, as well as others who were murdered for opposing the genocidal regime.
He said “In the difficult heaviness of this moment, I join with all of you in reflecting on the innocent lives that were lost, the families that were torn asunder, and the communities that were destroyed. I have personally visited Rwanda and seen the sites where genocide was committed firsthand, at Nyamata and Ntarama, former Catholic churches where tens of thousands of Tutsis sought refuge and were brutally murdered by extremists.”
He said that standing in those memorials, he witnessed the painful history of what happened in Rwanda, and that it deeply affected him.
“The stains that remain in those sanctuaries are not abstract symbols: they are the physical traces of lives stolen, of violence brought into a place consecrated to communion” he added.
He noted that even at the altar, meant to be a sacred place, horrific crimes were committed and was here mingled with the “blood of the innocent during the Genocide against the Tutsi.”
He said “For Catholics, such as myself, the altar is never just a table, it is Calvary. As the Church teaches, every mass makes present the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. To see an altar stained with human blood is therefore to encounter, in a deeply unsettling way, the intersection of Christ’s sacrifice and humanity’s capacity for sin.”
He continued by saying that even today, the altar remains a symbol of hope. He referenced the final words of Jesus on the cross, emphasizing that “that does not explain away the horror, but it affirms that even this is not beyond redemption.”
The U.S. official stressed that what happened in Rwanda was not accidental, but rather a genocide that was carefully planned and executed by a bad regime.
He also acknowledged that the current leadership, which stopped the genocide, has promoted unity and reconciliation, and that Rwanda is now a model nation. He added that the United States continues to partner with Rwandans in strengthening unity, reconciliation, and peace.
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