Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement on the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda:
“Today the global community stops to remember and reflect on one of the world’s darkest hours, the 1994 genocide where some 800,000 Tutsis, as well as many moderate Hutu Rwandans, were slaughtered.
We remember this tragic event as a way of honouring those who perished, and their loved ones left behind. We reflect on what happened – the events leading up to it and why they occurred – as a way of preventing future atrocities.
Canada, which had a long and positive relationship with Rwanda before the genocide, has a key role to play in today’s remembrance. Our commitment to peace can only be reinforced by the fact that some of our own were the first to recognize the scope of the horror and to fight against the world’s indifference to it. Let us resolve to do whatever is necessary to make sure this will never be allowed to happen again.
This is also a time to draw attention to the international community’s ongoing quest to bring those responsible to justice before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). While it is encouraging to see the international community standing firm and in solidarity against genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, I urge all United Nations member states to cooperate fully with the ICTR in its efforts to bring the remaining 11 Rwandan fugitives to justice.
The court’s convictions to date have sent a clear message to the world that such atrocities against humanity will not go unpunished.
On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary caucus, I call on Canada and the international community to continue to work together on solutions for a peaceful world so that no other nation will ever have to know the horrors of genocide.”
