Kigali, 6 April 2014
President Kagame today received the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon who arrived in the country to join Rwandans during the 20th commemoration of the genocide.
Talking to the press after the meeting with President Kagame, the UN Secretary General said he was in the country to join Rwandans in general and families and relatives of genocide victims in commemorating the genocide:
“I am going to re-affirm the international community’s commitment to Never Again… and this should never happen again in human history. We learnt the hard lessons from the Rwanda genocide but another genocide happened one year later in Srebrenica in 1995 and there are still symptoms elsewhere. We have to stop this. Last Monday there was an important international conference on prevention of genocide where Rwanda was represented by the Foreign Minister where we affirmed the determined will of the international community there should not be genocide in the name of humanity. I highly commend the leadership of Paul Kagame who led this country and in just 20 years, made a shining example of social economic development, democracy, protecting and preserving human rights of all the people and I hope that this example will be emulated by many other countries. We have to learn the lessons, and translate them into action and that’s my commitment as the UN Secretary General.”
President Kagame said:
“It is of great significance to have the Secretary General, Ban Ki moon here on this occasion and it underscores the global partnership that we can forge to deal with tragedies like we witnessed here. The Secretary General has been here on several occasions but this is different because he is here to be with Rwandans, with a nation that has suffered in this way, to render his support and that of the institution he heads in the name of the global world we live in. I want to express the gratitude of the entire nation for this gesture.”