Rwanda begins mourning week for 20th anniversary of genocide

[The Hammer]

Rwanda begins mourning week for genocide anniversary

www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26917419

Rwanda is beginning a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of the country's genocide on Monday.

President Paul Kagame is to light a torch which will burn for 100 days - the length of time the genocide lasted.

A diplomatic row has prompted France's justice minister to pull out of the commemorative events, but Paris says its ambassador will be present.

At least 800,000 people - mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus - died at the hands of Hutu extremists in 1994.

[The Hammer]

[Weltschmerz]

That was brutal. I remember watching the news at the time being still just a kid.

[-MEGA-]

Must have been why Hotel Rwanda was on this weekend...........

[The Hammer]

[bojangles1987]

It's sad how many people know nothing about this. It's extremely messed up.

I did a report on this for an English class and no one had even heard of it.

[Russian Crushin]

It's sad how many people know nothing about this. It's extremely messed up.

I did a report on this for an English class and no one had even heard of it.

Most people are completely unaware of atrocities that happen outside of Europe or America, especially Africa.

[squealpiggy]

It's sad how many people know nothing about this. It's extremely messed up.

I did a report on this for an English class and no one had even heard of it.

How can people know nothing of it? Doesn't make much sense to me. I can't recall meeting anyone who while playing word association wouldn't respond to "Rwanda" with anything other than "genocide". Do I sincerely walk in such rarified air that I only know people erudite enough to have heard of one of the most notorious atrocities of the latter 20th century?

[The Hammer]

I remember hearing something about it on the news back in April 1994, but I never gave it much thought until I saw the movie Hotel Rwanda. After that I did some reading about it, and watched another two movies, Sometimes in April and Shooting Dogs, as well as the documentary Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire.

What's shocking is nearly a million people were killed within 100 days. Most were killed in the first six weeks.

Dallaire said that when the dogs became so used to eating human flesh, after the bodies were removed by early July they started attacking living people. He said a dog tried to take a bite out of his arm, and left a nasty wound.

[Mike Tyson77]

And we all set on the sidelines while 5.4 million died in WWIII in Africa.