Mr. Speaker, last week I commemorated the 19th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, which targeted the Tutsi population, and the Rwandan diaspora.
This unspeakable horror in which one million Tutsis were murdered in a three-month genocidal onslaught, itself preceded by an orchestrated dehumanization and demonization of the minority Tutsi population.
What makes this Rwandan genocide so unspeakable is that it was preventable. No one can say that we did not know. It was the indifference and inaction of the bystander international community that made this genocide possible. While the United Nations and government leaders in the U.S. and Europe dithered and delayed, Rwandans died.
What makes this genocide so painful today is that it is being forgotten, or worse, being denied. Therefore, may this Rwandan genocide be an occasion not only to remember but to learn the lessons of the crime whose name, genocide, we should even shudder to mention.
Never again.
Never again.