Today The Rwandan Community and Friends of Rwanda in Brisbane, Queensland, (Australia) on Saturday, May 28, 2023, marked the 29th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda.
In his message, First Secretary for Consular Affairs, Bertin Mugiraneza, representing Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, High Commissioner of the Republic of Rwanda to the Commonwealth of Australia with residence in Singapore, highlighted the need to step on the gas in terms of fighting against genocide ideology and denial, ethnic divisions and fostering unity.
Mugiraneza commended the Rwandan Community in Queensland for contributing to the preservation of the memory of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda through holding Kwibuka activities year after year.
Taylah Wooten Stokes, daughter of Miles Wooten, an Australian peacekeeper who served in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, said although she did not experience first-hand the effects of the genocide, her father’s experiences in Rwanda, which he openly shared with her growing up, gave her a deep feeling of empathy and connection to Rwanda and her people.
Janvière Dusabinema, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, depicted the horrors she and her sister endured at the hands of Interahamwe militia and ex-FAR (former government soldiers) during the 100 days of the genocide, before being rescued by the RPF Inkotanyi.
“A genocide took place in Rwanda” Dusabinema emphasised, before adding: “Those who deny this reality hinder the healing process and perpetuate the pain endured by survivors. Let them know that their attempts will not succeed”.
Taylah Wooten Stokes loves Rwanda and she has realize the painful of Genocide survivors
Rwandans in Queensland-Australiacommemorate
