The Commemoration of genocide on April 7 in Rwanda marks 20th anniversary of the evilest slaughter, in which close to one million people were murdered within 100 bloody days.
African heads of state, foreign dignitaries and former leaders from around the world joined commemoration events in Kigali, beginning with a ceremony of wreath laying and lighting of the Flame of mourning at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
Speaking at the memorial event, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the bravery of some UN personnel and the organization's shortcomings in preventing the genocide.
"I heard and felt the silence of death. The silence of all those lost - and the silence of the international community in your hours of greatest need", said the UN secretary general. "Many United Nations personnel and others showed remarkable bravery. But we could have done much more. We should have done much more. In Rwanda, troops were withdrawn when they were most needed. The shame still clings, a generation after the events", he said.
The Secretary General also praised the resilience of the genocide survivors, saying that it "defies belief"
"Over the past generation, you, the people of Rwanda, have shown the world another essential truth: the power of the human spirit. Children witnessed enough brutality to age them overnight. Yet you, and your country, have found a way to emerge from the depths, overcome their frightful memories, and live again".
Ban added that the international community still has more to learn from the lessons of Rwanda, noting the failure to stop the conflicts in Central African Republic and in Syria.
"No corner of the world, no matter how advanced, is free from opportunists who manipulate identity for political gain", he said.
In his commemoration speech, Rwandan President Paul Kagame paid tribute to the genocide survivors and Rwandans who defied the call to genocide and those who give voice to their remorse.
Kagame said that there should be no country, in Africa or anywhere else, ever needs to become "another Rwanda". He affirmed that if a people's choices are not informed by historical clarity, the danger is ever present.
President Kagame said that Rwanda was supposed to be a failed state.
"We could have become a permanent U.N. protectorate, with little hope of ever recovering our nationhood. We could have been engulfed in a never-ending civil war with endless streams of refugees and our children sick and uneducated. But we did not end up like that. What prevented these alternative scenarios was the choices of the people of Rwanda", he said.
Today, half of all Rwandans are under 20 and three-quarters are under 30. Kagame said that these are "the new Rwanda".
