It's a somber day - April 7, 2024. It's the 30th anniversary of the day when all hell broke loose against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Within 100 days, over one million Tutsis, and their Hutu allies, were dead. Killed. In Rwanda. Please take a moment to remember them with me now.
Today, at 10 AM in Israel, the country stood still for two minutes to pay their respects to the six million Jews who were murdered by Nazis during World War II. Around the world, others stood in solidarity with them. And in Poland, thousands of people marched silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau to remember the victims of the Holocaust who died there, by participating in the annual March of the Living.
It's 25 years since the beginning of the 100 day massacre that left one million Rwandans dead. At the time, I watched helpless and horrified from my home in distant Canada. Today, I am writing this overlooking Rwanda's beautiful hills from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This year, Liguorian magazine gave me a dream commission — writing four articles on diverse aspects of peace. We began with an exploration of interfaith peace and ways the Bible embraces the whole world, including people of varying faiths. Next, we ventured into the valley of the shadows of death and terrorism, and saw how the light of God shines even there.
"I’ve covered many wars and seen many acts of courage. But for sheer grit and determination I’ve never known anyone to compare with Captain Mbaye Diagne, a United Nations peacekeeper in Rwanda," said Mark Doyle, an international development correspondent. Armed only with cigarettes and whisky, and an indefatigable sense of humour, Diagne talked his way through numerous checkpoints, transporting people to the safety of Hotel Mille Collines, or bringing messages between the UN and government forces.
Reverend Désiré Rutaganda is the Coordinator of the Centre for Documentation and Training in Kigali, Rwanda. This interfaith organisation was established in 1999 to live out the Christian values of peace and reconciliation, which were disappointingly absent from some churches and believers during the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Today, as people of God, they model how peace can transform communities for peace at the grassroots.
