    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 25, 1998]
    [Pages 431-434]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Genocide Survivors in Kigali, Rwanda
    March 25, 1998

        Thank you, Mr. President. First, let
    me thank you, Mr. President, and Vice President Kagame, and your wives for making Hillary and me and our delegation feel so
    welcome. I'd also like to thank the young students who met us and the
    musicians, the dancers who were outside. I thank especially the
    survivors of the genocide and those who are working to rebuild your
    country for spending a little time with us before we came in here.
        I have a great delegation of Americans with me, leaders of our
    Government, leaders of our Congress, distinguished American citizens.
    We're all very grateful to be here. We thank the diplomatic corps for
    being here and the members of the Rwandan Government and especially the
    citizens.
        I have come today to pay the respects of my Nation to all who
    suffered and all who perished in the Rwandan genocide. It is my hope
    that through this trip, in every corner of the world today and tomorrow,
    their story will be told; that 4 years ago in this beautiful, green,
    lovely land, a clear and conscious decision was made by those then in
    power that the peoples of this country would not live side by side in
    peace.
        During the 90 days that began on April 6 in 1994, Rwanda experienced
    the most extensive slaughter in this blood-filled century we are about
    to leave: families murdered in their homes, people hunted down, as they
    fled, by soldiers and militia, through farmland and woods as if they
    were animals.
        From Kibuye in the west to Kibungo in the east, people gathered
    seeking refuge in churches by the thousands, in hospitals, in schools.
    And when they were found, the old and the sick, the women and children
    alike, they were killed, killed because their identity card said they
    were Tutsi or because they had a Tutsi parent or because someone thought
    they looked like a Tutsi or slain, like thousands of Hutus, because they
    protected Tutsis or would not countenance a policy that sought to wipe
    out people who just the day before, and for years before, had been their
    friends and neighbors.
        The Government-led effort to exterminate Rwanda's Tutsi and moderate
    Hutus, as you know better than me, took at least a million lives.
    Scholars of these sorts of events say that the killers, armed mostly
    with machetes and clubs, nonetheless did their work 5 times as fast as
    the mechanized gas chambers used by the Nazis.
        It is important that the world know that these killings were not
    spontaneous or accidental. It is important that the world hear what your
    President just said: They were most certainly not the result of ancient
    tribal struggles. Indeed, these people had lived together for centuries
    before the events the President described began to unfold.

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        These events grew from a policy aimed at the systematic destruction
    of a people. The ground for violence was carefully prepared, the
    airwaves poisoned with hate, casting the Tutsis as scapegoats for the
    problems of Rwanda, denying their humanity. All of this was done,
    clearly, to make it easy for otherwise reluctant people to participate
    in wholesale slaughter.
        Lists of victims, name by name, were actually drawn up in advance.
    Today, the images of all that, haunt us all: the dead choking the Kigara
    River, floating to Lake Victoria. In their fate, we are reminded of the
    capacity for people everywhere, not just in Rwanda and certainly not
    just in Africa, but the capacity for people everywhere, to slip into
    pure evil. We cannot abolish that capacity, but we must never accept it.
    And we know it can be overcome.
        The international community, together with nations in Africa, must
    bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy, as well. We did not
    act quickly enough after the killing began. We should not have allowed
    the refugee camps to become safe havens for the killers. We did not
    immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide. We
    cannot change the past, but we can and must do everything in our power
    to help you build a future without fear and full of hope.
        We owe to those who died and to those who survived, who loved them,
    our every effort to increase our vigilance and strengthen our stand
    against those who would commit such atrocities in the future, here or
    elsewhere. Indeed, we owe to all the peoples of the world who are at
    risk because each bloodletting hastens the next as the value of human
    life is degraded and violence becomes tolerated, the unimaginable
    becomes more conceivable, we owe to all the people in the world our best
    efforts to organize ourselves so that we can maximize the chances of
    preventing these events. And where they cannot be prevented, we can move
    more quickly to minimize the horror.
        So let us challenge ourselves to build a world in which no branch of
    humanity, because of national, racial, ethnic, or religious origin, is
    again threatened with destruction because of those characteristics of
    which people should rightly be proud. Let us work together as a
    community of civilized nations to strengthen our ability to prevent and,
    if necessary, to stop genocide.
        To that end, I am directing my administration to improve, with the
    international community, our system for identifying and spotlighting
    nations in danger of genocidal violence, so that we can assure worldwide
    awareness of impending threats. It may seem strange to you here,
    especially the many of you who lost members of your family, but all over
    the world there were people like me sitting in offices, day after day
    after day, who did not fully appreciate the depth and the speed with
    which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror.
        We have seen, too--and I want to say again--that genocide can occur
    anywhere. It is not an African phenomenon and must never be viewed as
    such. We have seen it in industrialized Europe; we have seen it in Asia.
    We must have global vigilance. And never again must we be shy in the
    face of the evidence.
        Secondly, we must, as an international community, have the ability
    to act when genocide threatens. We are working to create that capacity
    here in the Great Lakes region, where the memory is still fresh. This
    afternoon in Entebbe leaders from central and eastern Africa will meet
    with me to launch an effort to build a coalition to prevent genocide in
    this region. I thank the leaders who have stepped forward to make this
    commitment. We hope the effort can be a model for all the world, because
    our sacred task is to work to banish this greatest crime against
    humanity.
        Events here show how urgent the work is. In the northwest part of
    your country, attacks by those responsible for the slaughter in 1994
    continue today. We must work as partners with Rwanda to end this
    violence and allow your people to go on rebuilding your lives and your
    nation.
        Third, we must work now to remedy the consequences of genocide. The
    United States has provided assistance to Rwanda to settle the uprooted
    and restart its economy, but we must do more. I am pleased that America
    will become the first nation to contribute to the new Genocide Survivors
    Fund. We will contribute this year $2 million, continue our support in
    the years to come, and urge other nations to do the same, so that
    survivors and their communities can find the care they need and the help
    they must have.
        Mr. President, to you, and to you, Mr.
    Vice President, you have shown great vision in
    your efforts to create a single nation in which all

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    citizens can live freely and securely. As you pointed out, Rwanda was a
    single nation before the European powers met in Berlin to carve up
    Africa. America stands with you, and will continue helping the people of
    Rwanda to rebuild their lives and society.
        You spoke passionately this morning in our private meeting about the
    need for grassroots efforts, for the development projects which are
    bridging divisions and clearing a path to a better future. We will join
    with you to strengthen democratic institutions, to broaden
    participation, to give all Rwandans a greater voice in their own
    governance. The challenges you face are great, but your commitment to
    lasting reconciliation and inclusion is firm.
        Fourth, to help ensure that those who survived, in the generations
    to come, never again suffer genocidal violence, nothing is more vital
    than establishing the rule of law. There can be no place in Rwanda that
    lasts without a justice system that is recognized as such.
        We applaud the efforts of the Rwandan Government to strengthen
    civilian and military justice systems. I am pleased that our Great Lakes
    justice initiative will invest $30 million to help create throughout the
    region judicial systems that are impartial, credible, and effective. In
    Rwanda these funds will help to support courts, prosecutors, and police,
    military justice, and cooperation at the local level.
        We will also continue to pursue justice through our strong backing
    for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The United States is
    the largest contributor to this tribunal. We are frustrated, as you are,
    by the delays in the tribunal's work. As we know, we must do better. Now
    that administrative improvements have begun, however, the tribunal
    should expedite cases through group trials and fulfill its historic
    mission.
        We are prepared to help, among other things, with witness
    relocation, so that those who still fear can speak the truth in safety.
    And we will support the War Crimes Tribunal for as long as it is needed
    to do its work, until the truth is clear and justice is rendered.
        Fifth, we must make it clear to all those who would commit such acts
    in the future that they too must answer for their acts, and they will.
    In Rwanda, we must hold accountable all those who may abuse human
    rights, whether insurgents or soldiers. Internationally, as we meet
    here, talks are underway at the United Nations to establish a permanent
    international criminal court. Rwanda and the difficulties we have had
    with this special tribunal underscores the need for such a court. And
    the United States will work to see that it is created.
        I know that in the face of all you have endured, optimism cannot
    come easily to any of you. Yet I have just spoken, as I said, with
    several Rwandans who survived the atrocities, and just listening to them
    gave me reason for hope. You see countless stories of courage around you
    every day as you go about your business here. Men and women who survived
    and go on, children who recover the light in their eyes remind us that
    at the dawn of a new millennium there is only one crucial division among
    the peoples of the Earth. And believe me, after over 5 years of dealing
    with these problems, I know it is not the divisions between Hutu and
    Tutsi, or Serb or Croatian and Muslim and Bosnian, or Arab and Jew, or
    Catholic and Protestant in Ireland, or black and white. It is really the
    line between those who embrace the common humanity we all share and
    those who reject it.
        It is the line between those who find meaning in life through
    respect and cooperation and who, therefore, embrace someone to look down
    on, someone to trample, someone to punish and, therefore, embrace war.
    It is the line between those who look to the future and those who cling
    to the past. It is the line between those who give up their resentment
    and those who believe they will absolutely die if they have to release
    one bit grievance. It is the line between those who confront every day
    with a clenched fist and those who confront every day with an open hand.
    That is the only line that really counts when all is said and done.
        To those who believe that God made each of us in His own image, how
    could we choose the darker road? When you look at those children who
    greeted us as we got off that plane today, how could anyone say they did
    not want those children to have a chance to have their own children, to
    experience the joy of another morning sunrise, to learn the normal
    lessons of life, to give something back to their people? When you strip
    it all away, whether we're talking about Rwanda or some other distant
    troubled spot, the world is divided according to how people believe they
    draw meaning from life.
        And so I say to you, though the road is hard and uncertain and there
    are many difficulties

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    ahead, and like every other person who wishes to help, I doubtless will
    not be able to do everything I would like to do, there are things we can
    do. And if we set about the business of doing them together, you can
    overcome the awful burden that you have endured. You can put a smile on
    the face of every child in this country, and you can make people once
    again believe that they should live as people were living who were
    singing to us and dancing for us today.
        That's what we have to believe. That is what I came here to say. And
    that is what I wish for you.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. at Kigali Airport. In his
    remarks, he referred to President Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda and his
    wife, Sarafina, and Vice President Paul Kagame and his wife, Janet. A
    tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.