Quotes on Rwanda

Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.

I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists and therefore I know there is a God.

Genocide, after all, is an exercise in community building.

To some extent, Rwanda became a victim of the Somalia experience.

Rwanda has emerged from the devastation of genocide and become more secure and prosperous than anyone had a right to expect.

In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.

You’re talking about Rwanda or Bangladesh, or Cambodia, or the Philippines. They’ve got democracy, according to Freedom House. But have you got a civilised life to lead? People want economic development first and foremost. The leaders may talk something else. You take a poll of any people. What is it they want? The right to write an editorial as you like? They want homes, medicine, jobs, schools.

The genocide (in Rwanda) was a collective act. What made it possible, what made that final political crime possible, was the absence, the erasure, of seeing the other. Of knowing, of feeling, of being with the other. And when that's removed, then politics_x000D_ can become genocidal.

Rwanda is not over needing aid, but we can survive with less aid than before.