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Senior government officials from Belgium and the families of 10 Belgian peacekeepers murdered during the early stages of the genocide as they tried to protect Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana attended the memorial ceremony in Kigali on Friday. "They fell before the eyes of a hesitant command- the final, irresponsible bastion of a badly planned, badly equipped system that exhibited, to an absurd degree, a culpable lack
of concern" Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said of the men's death, and the subsequent killing of Uwilingiyimana. "The whole international community bears a huge and heavy responsibility in the genocide. I assume here, before you, my country's responsibility - that of Belgium's political and military authorities. On behalf of my country, of
my people, I ask for your forgiveness," the Associated Press agency (AP)quoted Verhofstadt as saying.
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