The United States is one of several countries that stubbornly cling to their own notions of what to call the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. During this year’s commemoration of the Genocide, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken distorted facts about what happened during the genocide, by insinuating that Tutsi “were not the only ones targeted.” “We also mourn the others who were murdered for their opposition to a genocidal regime,” read Blinken’s tweet.
Blinken’s message is well explained in the remarks of Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary Bureau of Affairs who joined Rwanda in the USA to commemorate the Genocide against the Tutsi. “We also remember the Hutu, Twa, and others who were murdered due to their opposition to a genocidal regime.” This is the unchanged stance that USA took for a very long time.
This isn’t the first time; the US chose to redefine Rwanda’s history. In mid-August last year, Blinken made a visit to Rwanda where he also left a message in the book at the Kigali Genocide Memorial that portrays the genocide as ‘genocidal violence’. This appellation moved genocide deniers and revisionists. For instance, Jambo Asbl, a Europe-based group of offspring of top fugitives of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, found it an ammunition to further their ‘Double Genocide’ theory.
In this period where the whole nation mourns over one million Tutsis who were murdered in the course of only three months; we really demand countries like US, the one that ‘turned their back on Rwanda’, to at least fall silent. We don’t need classes to what we lived, endured and overcome.
Again, the US should stop with the arrogance, and superiority complex, and stick to the verified facts of Rwandan history, or kindly keep quiet.
ellenkampire