The Australian Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing a symbolic ceremony for history that will honour and thank the Australian military who came to Rwanda as part of the peacekeeping effort and to rescue Rwanda as the country was passing through the dark pages of its history in 1994.
The commemorative ceremony will take place on 22 February 2020 at the Australian War Memorial in Anzac Parade, Canberra. The ceremony will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the arrival of Australian troops in Rwanda to rescue Rwanda under Operation TAMAR. This operation is part of the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda from 1993 to 1996 (UNAMIR). Operation TAMAR provided in particular medical services and was related to the Australian military personnel who arrived in Rwanda from January 1994 to March 1996.
In the announcement issued by the Australian Department of Veterans Affairs, the Australian government honours the peacekeeping mission carried out by the Australians in Rwanda, indeed these soldiers are recognized for their dedication, professionalism and humanistic values. They have been decorated for their service.
The journalist from Ijisho ry’Abaryankuna (The eye of RANP-Abaryankuna) in Australia is closely following up the programme. He undoubtedly believes, as noted in the report of Operation TAMAR, that the Australian military witnessed mass crimes committed by RPA soldiers on 22 April 1995 in the KIBEHO refugee camp. The number of innocent people massacred on that day is estimated at about 8,000 people; even some people claim that in Kibeho about 40,000 people were massacred.
The testimony of these soldiers is solid; it is the detailed evidence of the barbaric methods used to massacre children and the elderly without mercy.
This testimony is fundamental but should not make us forget that it is up to us Rwandans to tell our own History. The Rwandan saying is “ijoro ribara uwariraye” – ( hardship can only be told by the one who has gone through it).
When the Interahamwe were slaughtering Rwandan children, the Inkotanyi added their share by using different methods to massacre children, women, men all over the country. Kibeho has the particularity of having left images that could never be erased in the dark and sad pages of Rwanda’s history.
As one artist says, “the genocide made me an orphan, but that cannot make me forget the other people who were victims of other crimes that were not called genocide”.
ABARYANKUNA are determined to address the root causes of resentment and hatred in Rwandan society in order to implement the new Gacanzigo (uproot resentment) revolution, a revolution necessary to build the unity of Rwandans whose obstacle is the lie of the ruling RPF group.
ABARYANKUNA TV will release this month the various programs planned to honor the Australian soldiers who witnessed and brought the survivors of the RPF massacre in Kibeho under the eyes of the United Nations. We will begin this month until April with programmes analysing the history of Rwanda, denouncing the lies without limiting ourselves.
The Australian Government’s video online
Original article en Kinyarwanda
Kayinamura Lambert
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Hi I was at the Kibeho Refugee camp during the massacre. I still find the cover up by the United Nations and the Rwandan Government at the time of the number of killed during the massacre unbelievable. The decoration awarded to us in my opinion is worthless considering the devastation the Rwandan people suffered and the horrors I witnessed that day. I wish all Rwandan people peace and happiness for the future, but also ask that they all respectfully recognise their past honestly.