Rwanda's Memorial 'Re-Enactment' Of Genocide Leaves Spectators Hysterical With Grief

Weeping and grimacing, dozens of spectators at the Rwandan genocide memorial in Kigali have had to be carried from the stands as the emotional turmoil of the ceremony left many overcome with grief.

In disturbing scenes, performers at the Amahoro stadium in Kigal re-enacted events of the 2004 genocide, which resulted in almost a million deaths. Actors dressed in grey and white played dead on the football field, while sorrowful wails and uncontrollable sobs resounded.

Thousands of Rwandans were in the country's main sports stadium on Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the devastating 100-day genocide. Global leaders, past and present, were also in attendance to remember the tragedy in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus were slaughtered over an 100 day period, mostly with machetes.

More on the Huff. Post

5,000 rapes in 2012 as unrest engulfs DR Congo

Some 5,000 women have been raped this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern province of North Kivu as a new rebellion has sown fresh unrest in the conflict-prone region, a local hospital said Thursday. "The number of rapes has risen dramatically: we have registered around 5,000 women raped since the start of the year in North Kivu. It's very dramatic," said Justin Paluku, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Heal Africa hospital in Goma, the provincial capital.

Renewed instability has engulfed the region since a group of soldiers mutinied from the army in April and began battling their former colleagues and sowing terror in the east. The group, the M23, was formed by former fighters in an ethnic Tutsi rebel group that was integrated into the army under a 2009 peace deal whose terms the mutineers claim were never fully implemented.

Its members have been raping women and girls, abducting young men and boys to fight with them, and carrying out summary executions, including the killing of young recruits who tried to escape, according to the United Nations and rights groups.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide - Kivu conflict on Wikipedia

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence the Rwandan version or: ‘you’re not alone’  has got its blessings! Some 600 people visited the two first performances in Kigali and have approved its right to be.

There is a difference caused by the opposite governmental policy after genocide. While Cambodian government, till now, is frustrating the open debate on (the Khmer Rouge) genocide and its juridical aftermath, Kagame has been provoking every citizen to speak up during the gacaca’s. He has found it necessary to dictate strict rules to the debate – like to forbid to speak about Tutsi’s and Hutu’s and to make jokes about the genocide. The audience did speak up and proved to be very interested in the history of the Cambodians – and how it does and does not mirror their own experiences.

More on Breaking the Silence blog – Cambodian (radio) version

Myth and Reality After the Genocide in Rwanda

Rwandan president Paul Kagame has been hailed as a liberator and highly principled leader. But his post-genocide record tells a different story. A distinguished panel attempts to separate myth from fact. open society institute

Dutch government helping Kagame rig election?

Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen recently answered questions (Google translated) in Parliament concerning Rwanda’s election. (These answers were published online in Dutch on July 30, 2010.) The rush transcript shows that the Dutch government refutes claims by the Rwandan opposition parties of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Frank Habineza and Bernard Ntaganda that the process so far has been rigged and since July the Dutch government is apparently co-presiding over the Rwandan National Electoral Commission.

The translated answer by Maxime Verhagen which specifically refutes an important claim by the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties states:

“The claim of the PCC that the independence of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) would only be guaranteed through the participation of opposition is not shared by me. The PCC ‘falls over’ the fact that the chairman of the NEC is a member of the RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front, Kagame's army and party]. Neutrality, however, is effectively monitored by the co-chair, a donor (The Netherlands). The Netherlands since July 2010 as acting co-chairman of the NEC is co-responsible for setting the agenda and for bringing specific topics to the table. The NEC is directly involved in the process for the adjustment of the electoral law and also responsible for the electoral process. The NEC shall also ensure fairness of the campaign, for example, by checking that the media focus on the current four candidates is distributed evenly. The registration of the presidential candidates was also done at the NEC.”

Full story at San Francisco Bay View

Also see:

Rwanda's Paul Kagame Center of Controversial Election – VAnews.com

Kagame Says Critics of Rwandan-Style Democracy Can ‘Go Hang’ – Bloomberg

Does this picture make you think of Rwanda? … if so, a British PR firm has done its job, and many states want a similar makeover – Read all about it on the Guardian