[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF THE RWANDA GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. KYRSTEN SINEMA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 29, 2014

  Ms. SINEMA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the victims of the 
Rwanda Genocide and to ask my colleagues to join me in commemorating 
the twenty-year anniversary of this horrific period in our human 
history.
  Over the course of just ninety days in 1994, extremists in the 
Rwandan government executed a highly organized plan to exterminate the 
country's entire Tutsi minority population.
  Sadly, they very nearly succeeded.
  Nearly one million Rwandans were killed in this horrendous conflict, 
and it is estimated that over three-fourths of all Tutsis living in 
Rwanda in 1994 were killed before the end of the summer.
  In 2010 and 2011, I traveled to Rwanda while researching my doctoral 
dissertation on the Rwandan Genocide.
  I met the prosecutors in Arusha, Tanzania, where the International 
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was headquartered, as well as the 
archivists and researchers engaged in preserving its history.
  Their stories remind us all why we must recommit to ending genocide.
  Today, on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwanda 
Genocide, I ask that my colleagues join me and the people of Rwanda in 
honoring the victims.
  May we learn from the Rwandan Genocide, and may we ensure that such 
atrocities are never again permitted to take place.

                          ____________________