We never learn.

Having previously visited several Holocaust museums, the Killing Fields and concentration camps in Cambodia and memorials in Sarajevo, it was now time for the Rwanda version of genocide to come into focus.

800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutus over a 100 day period. Revenge for Tutsi dissidents gunning down the presidential plane killing all on board.

Rwanda had been peaceful before colonisation by first Germany and then Belgium post WWII.

It was the Belgian colonial rulers that sowed division.

They deemed the minority Tutsi population (15% of the country’s nationals) as the superior race over the majority Hutus (84%).

The Tutsis were favoured over their Hutu brethren, fueling resentment and division.

When independence was secured in 1962 a vacuum ensued after the monarchy was abolished and the country becoming a republic.

Hutus seized power and turned the tables on the Tutsis, exiling many they deemed a threat and making those that remained second class citizens to serve their Hutu masters.

Nearly 32 years after independence on 6th April 1994 saw the murder of the Hutu president, Habyarimana. 7th April saw the government decree – all Tutsis are the enemy and should be slaughtered by any means.

Friends, neighbours and even relatives were forced to kill Tutsis, with those that refused killed themselves.

There was systemic rape, torch, mutilation and death. The machette was the most common weapon.

Babes in arms, toddlers, children, women, men. Killing was indiscriminate and merciless.

Echoes of the Holocaust, Cambodia, Yugoslavia and far too many others, some happening right now of course.

So the cycle continues – stir up division & resentment, carry out heinous genocide/inhuman acts whilst the rest of the world turns a blind eye, followed by global condemnation & horror as the full truth is revealed, finally eventual reconciliation & peace but with the scars never truly healing.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

In Rwanda a nation has been reborn.

All nationals are now purely Rwandans.

Division has been banished, however new generations are taught about the past lest they remain ignorant, whilst victims have undergone therapy to help them forgive but never forget.

Isn’t it time we all learned?