On the night of April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryarima of Burundi was shot down as it descended into the Kigali airport. The plane was returning from Arusha, Tanzania, where both presidents had been involved in peace talks to end the decades long fighting between Tutsi and Hutu in their respective countries. Within an hour of the plane coming down, roadblocks had been set up in and around Kigali and the massacres had begun.
Today, April 7 is the 15th anniversary of the 100 day long genocide that claimed roughly a million lives. As I look up at the International Rwandan Tribunal now located in Arusha, it is a stark reminder that the atrocities that mostly occured during April, May and June of 1994 could have been largely prevented by the intervention of the international community.
Please take a moment today to educate yourself about what is going out in the world outside of your home. Do not ever think that you are powerless to act. It is your responsibility.
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