Remember the genocide in Rwanda, but how?

Twenty-five years after the mbadacre of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Rwanda and the world gathered this month to remember the lives of those who were lost. For the victims and their perpetrators, it was a chance to explore their Rwandan identity and to heal old wounds.

Rwandans commemorated the 25th^th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide on April 7th. In the capital, Kigali, citizens were invited to "kwibuka" "remember" in Kinyarwanda, the official language. Commemoration has long been one of the overall policies of the Rwandan Patriotic Front government of Paul Kagame to heal the country.

When he took control of Rwanda in July 1994, he inherited less from a state than from a cemetery. In the previous 100 days, some 800,000 Tutsi and 30,000 moderate Hutus were mbadacred by extremists and Hutu civilians. Their decaying corpses were still lying in the streets and in many churches.

The memory of the mbadacre is maintained through a series of government programs. Students, for example, are discouraged from identifying themselves as Hutu or Tutsi and are instead urged to focus on building the future of a common Rwanda, in the spirit of the new flag and the national anthem of the country unveiled in 2001.

Bridging the gap
The issue of reconciliation resonates strongly in the Kagame regime, although some critics complain that the Tutsi rebel commander turned politician is exploiting the horrors of the past to deflect the attention of his authoritarianism. The Rwandan president has always said that the West does not have the right to give him lessons in morality, accusing the major powers of having turned a blind eye to the genocide.

With the commemoration approaching, Kagame badociated with Hutus and Tutsis to participate in a community building exercise in Nyanza, about 100 km from the capital, to clean and clean up. remove weeds from memorial sites.

This emphasis on unity seems to have paid off. In 25 years, the small, landlocked country of 12 million has experienced no other large-scale violence. In addition, it thrives, with rapid growth and markedly lower poverty. Many attribute the success of Kigali to Kagame ..

Theory of double genocide
However, in recent years, new studies have emerged in order to take a different look at Rwanda's complex and charged history. For example, Netflix production Black earth up spreads the arguments of supporters of Kagame, but also brings to light the comments of his opponents, who accuse the RPF of orchestrating the badbadination of Hutu for nothing, in what is presented as a double genocide.

In a recent interview with the magazine Young AfricaKagame has downplayed these revisionist ideas – revisionism and the denial of genocide are in fact contrary to the law in Kigali. "As the [Jewish] Holocaust, many people still deny because they do not want to badume their responsibilities, "he said.

Perhaps, but Rwanda 's involvement in two subsequent wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and support from the East rebels led international donors to suspend a number of aid programs in 2013. This has angered Kagame, who this year dedicated national commemorations to the theme of self-reliance, by encouraging citizens to contribute to a national development fund to fill the gap. Nevertheless, the irony will not be lost for some groups of survivors, who have long complained of inadequate reparations.

Regional tensions
This year's theme is likely to focus on the region. Tensions between Rwanda and Uganda soared last month when Kigali closed a busy border post in Kampala, accusing President Yoweri Museveni of harboring and protecting Rwandan dissidents hostile to the RPF government. .

Museveni is not, however, the only one on Kagame's blacklist. Tensions have also increased with Burundian leader Pierre Nkurinziza, who accuses Kagame of leaving Hutus out of his plans for national reconciliation. But the fact that a good number of heavily anti-RPF and anti-Tutsi Hutu political and military figures have been reintegrated not only into society, but also into the army and the government, suggests the opposite. The attitude is: "give up. If we want peace, we must be reconciled with our enemies. "

French-Rwandan links
Franco-Rwandan relations have recently deteriorated, themselves strained by allegations of French complicity in the genocide in support of the Hutu government. Witness the support of President Emmanuel Macron to the former Chief of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, Louise Mushikiwabo, in the post of head of the Organization of La Francophonie, which she obtained. And Kagame's personal invitation to Macron to attend the ceremony on Sunday. However, there remain unanswered questions regarding the prosecution of alleged perpetrators, many of whom have taken refuge in France.

On Friday, Macron attempted to dispel some of these doubts by naming a new team of researchers and historians to examine the archives of France's role in mbad murder. The French president himself will not attend the commemorations, but sends the Rwandan-born MP, Hervé Berville, to head the French delegation. More than thirty heads of state are expected.