"Our never again means never again", Kagame vows

Events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide peaked on Wednesday, with President Paul Kagame saying the nation had learnt its lessons from the killings. "We are prepared that what happened here should never happen again not only in Rwanda but anywhere in the world," he said. "Our never again means never again." Kagame made the remarks at the Amahoro Stadium in the capital, Kigali, the venue of the main events of the commemoration. Several African heads of state and government as well as various European delegations attended the event. Commenting on the genocide, Kagame said: "It was a deliberate, calculated, cold blooded and the architects were keen to kill, rape, rob, ravage and inflict pain and agony. This was a result of distorted ideology that preached death and hatred." He added, "If a similar crisis situation was to occur anywhere else, when that duty calls to protect people against genocide, enlist us, we will be ready to protect those people." He appealed to African countries to strengthen national institutions and to work together to prevent similar killings "so that we don't have to rely on external forces". He said: "We have to learn to protect each other for no one owes us anything like the case was in Rwanda. It is clear that the world had the capacity to stop the genocide but deliberately chose to turn a blind eye on Rwanda." He said the international system could be reformed to ensure that what happened in Rwanda did not recur. Referring to the alleged role of France in the 1994 killings, Kagame said: "Their persistent role is self-evident. They knowingly trained armed government soldiers and militias who were going to commit genocide. "For them, killing the relatives of those in RPF [Rwanda Patriotic Front] was a strategy in stopping us from fighting - we were fighting for our rights, to liberate our country." He added, "It was criminal on part of the French to use such a strategy. I am not going to hide behind diplomacy not to reveal their role in the killings here in Rwanda." The French Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday that the junior foreign minister, Renaud Muselier, who was in Kigali for the commemoration, had cut short his trip over Kagame's accusations. "Grave and untrue accusations have been made against France. This is why a decision has been taken for the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cut short the visit to Kigali," the ministry said in a statement. Prior to the ceremony at the stadium, Rwanda officially unveiled a new genocide museum in the presence of foreign dignitaries who had gathered at the Gisozi memorial site to reflect on the 1994 killings. The memorial site, on the slopes of one of Kigali's many hills, is set to become Rwanda's national memorial, and cost at least US $2.5 million to upgrade. There are hundreds of smaller sites and mass graves across Rwanda. Dignitaries present at the opening of the museum included presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Mwai Kibaki of Kenya as well as the Belgian prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt. They all lit candles and lay wreaths of flowers on the tombs in memory of the dead. The museum is on top of five concrete tombs containing hundreds of coffins filled with the remains of an estimated 250,000 people who were killed in and around Kigali. Thousands of survivors of the killings wept as exhumed corpses were lowered into two mass graves. A black granite wall bears the names of 20,000 victims who were buried on Wednesday. Inside the museum are a series of rooms where Rwanda's history is carved into wooden sculptures depicting the colonial era, the build-up to the genocide, the mass killings and its aftermath. Graphic photos and film clips show the levels of violence in 1994, with images of people being decapitated, bodies twitching on the road and the wounded struggling to rise. In the deepest cavern of the museum, bones and skulls rest under smoked glass, with photographs of the dead in a darkly lit room. In a related development, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled on Wednesday a five-point plan for the UN to prevent future genocides, UN News reported. Addressing the Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Rights, Annan voiced his "grave concern" over reported human rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan, citing a recent warning by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator of "ethnic cleansing" in the area. UN News reported that Annan told the commission that decisive action in response would be "the only fitting memorial" the UN could offer to those who died in the Rwandan genocide "If there is one legacy I would most wish to leave to my successors, it is an organization both better equipped to prevent genocide, and able to act decisively to stop it when prevention fails," Annan, who headed the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in 1994, was quoted as saying. He said his thoughts since then had been "dominated" by questions about what more could have been done to stop the bloodshed. UN News reported that Annan's speech was one of many events planned by the UN around the globe to commemorate the genocide, including the observance of a minute of silence at noon throughout the world's time zones and a special meeting in New York of the UN General Assembly and Security Council. Under his Action Plan to Prevent Genocide, Annan said the first step must be to prevent armed conflict by addressing the issues that cause it. "We must attack the roots of violence and genocide: hatred, intolerance, racism, tyranny, and the dehumanising public discourse that denies whole groups of people their dignity and their rights," he was quoted as saying. Protecting civilians during war is a second step in thwarting potential genocides, he added. The third step was to end impunity for those who had committed such crimes, followed by the establishment of a mechanism for an "early and clear warning" about potential genocides, with the fifth step being "swift and decisive action" in response to warnings of genocide. "Anyone who embarks on genocide commits a crime against humanity," Annan was quoted as saying. "Humanity must respond by taking action in its own defence. Humanity's instrument for that purpose must be the United Nations, and specifically the Security Council."