President Barrack Obama has named delegation from the United States that will join Rwandans to take part in the forthcoming 20th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The delegation will be led by Dr. Samantha Power, United States Ambassador to the United Nations. The event will take place on April 7, 2014.
Among the delegates will be Ambassador Donald W. Koran, who is also U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda since April 2011; Karen Bass, Member of the US House of Representatives, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs – who has been supportive of the peace building initiatives on the continent and especially Rwanda’s Defence Forces (RDF) peacekeepers in the International Support Mission in Central Africa Republic (MISCA).
Others include, Stephen J. Rapp-who has been at the forefront of helping and supporting Rwanda in a renewed focus on efforts to apprehend the top genocide fugitives on the US State Department’s Rewards program, six of whose cases were handed over to Rwanda by the ICTR.
During Rapp’s visit in Rwanda on February 6, 2014 he told the Prosecution office that it is important for his office to send the signal that atrocities such as those committed in Rwanda in 1994 cannot be committed and perpetrators escape justice.
Michael Gerson, Senior Fellow at the ONE Campaign and Columnist for the Washington Post, and Russell Feingold, Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Christine Hjelt, a retired employee and former Program Coordinator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will also be on board.
Rwanda will mark the twentieth commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi on 7 April 2014. It is an important occasion to remember the lives that were lost, to show solidarity with survivors and unite to ensure that genocide never happens again in Rwanda or elsewhere.
The commemoration is also an occasion to share Rwanda’s story of reconciliation and nation building with the world.
The US delegation will be among the many invited delegates from the west, who may have to use this as an opportunity to tell the world the story of what really happened in Rwanda.