[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6130]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING VICTIMS OF RWANDAN GENOCIDE

  (Mr. SCHIFF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago, a plane carrying Rwanda's 
president was shot down, unleashing a genocide carried out by the 
country's dominant Hutu tribe against its Tutsi minority.
  Hundreds of thousands of people, estimates of the dead range up to 1 
million, were killed in a matter of weeks. Many were butchered with 
machetes, their mutilated bodies left to rot in the African sun. Women 
were brutally raped. Entire families were slaughtered at once. The goal 
was simple: to kill every Tutsi in Rwanda. The killing went on for 3 
months, wiping out nearly three-fourths of the Tutsi population, until 
rebel forces toppled the government and took over a deeply traumatized 
nation.
  In the two decades since, Rwanda has made remarkable progress in a 
broad range of economic, health, and social indicators. It has taken on 
the delicate task of bringing those responsible for the genocide to 
justice without tearing the country apart. Rwanda's saga, even as we 
mourn the dead, is ultimately a story of triumph and hope.
  For us in America and the West, Rwanda stands as mute testimony to 
our failure to live up to the post-Holocaust promise of ``never 
again.'' We cannot undo the past, but we can heed the lessons of Rwanda 
by acting now to prevent genocide in the Central African Republic. 
Today's U.N. Security Council vote is a first step, and Congress should 
act by providing resources. I urge us to do so quickly. Lives are on 
the line.

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