Deo Mazina, Director of RESIRG Asbl
April 7, 1994 – April 7, 2023, 29 years, The worst of the worst has happened, the unnamable, the inexpressible, the unspeakable, the indescribable. What do we know of this reality brought to the scale of just over a million victims who, before Raphaël LEMKIN, in 1943, had not yet found a name in any language?
29 years of Commemoration of the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi which claimed more than a million lives, from the oldest to the youngest, to those fetuses who will never see the sun… And then we would be asked to forget.
To those who would be tempted to forget, or who are already stricken with amnesia, even aphasia, Elie WIESEL challenges, not only survivors, but humanity as a whole “The executioner kills twice: the first time by the sword, the second time by oblivion. »
This year, the commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi comes at a time when the harbingers of genocide are appearing in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as if the “Never again“, proclaimed in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was futile or utopian.
In its December 19, 2022 press release, RESIRG launched an appeal to the international community in the context of a civil war in the DRC.
Emanating from both official and public authorities, hate speech and calls for violence lead to the stigmatization of Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese Tutsi and the demolition of symbols, such as temples mainly attributed to them.
The modus operandi here recalls the hypothesis of John GREGORY STANTON, a hypothesis which is broken down into 10 stages: classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, project of extermination, denial of the genocide. With obvious impunity, incitement to hatred and ethnic cleansing is relayed by social media, which have a field day, because they are implicitly or explicitly supported by the highest authorities in the country.
History shows that the international community has in the past, unfortunately, largely ignored such appeals, until the worst happened. There is a risk, here too, of late intervention. But later might be too late.
However, the United Nations, as well as some governments and organizations, have developed so-called “early warning” mechanisms, based, in particular, on observers in the field, to intervene in good time, with legal means, both humanitarian and military. We hope that the UN, which has designated April 7 as the “International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda”, is already drawing lessons from the past and not passively assisting in the development of mass killings, as it did for the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda.
Taking the full measure of its mission, its goals and its objectives, the International Research and Genocide Network (RESIRG asbl) plans to carry out research work, not only on the preservation of the memory of the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi, but it is also determined to alert the public, to any possibility of genocide, so that the torch of “Never again” is always lit.
“The process of dehumanization brought to an end inspires an inexhaustible reflection on the conscience and the dignity of men, because the worst is always possible” (Simone Veil, speech at the UN, January 29, 2007)
