The Land Rover supported Rift Valley expedition team have all arrived safely inKigaliwhere they have been joined by a group of United Against Malaria volunteers. Headed up by Robbie Brozin, founder of Nando’s. The clean, safe, bustling capital city is a tribute to the post genocide efforts of Paul Kigama’s government and the people of Rwanda.
Land Rover Dispatch 85 – Lest we forget
Rwandan school children are encouraged to visit the Gisozi Genocide Memorial inKigali. ‘We must make sure that we never forget what terrible things happened – this way we can ensure that they will never happen again,’ says young Rwandan school boy Fabrice Ngabonziza.
We all find the visit to Gosozi to be a deeply emotional experience brought alive by genocide video clips showing the killings. The stories from the survivors are heartbreaking and I scribble these words from the memorial into my notebook:
‘Many families were totally wiped out, with no one to remember or document their deaths. The streets were littered with corpses. Dogs were eating the rotten flesh of their owners. The country smelt of the stench of death. The génocidaires had been more successful in their evil aims than anyone would have dared to believe. Rwanda was Dead!
It was no wonder that General Romeo Dallaire who led the UN observer mission in the infamously failed bid to stop genocide in 1994, later wept in rage, unable to forget that his repeated pleas to the Security Council inNew Yorkfor more troops to stop the massacres were ignored. Will keep you posted.
