Algeria calls for lessons from Rwanda's painful past when confronting Israel's crimes

Algeria has called for lessons learnt from Rwanda’s painful past to be upheld when confronting Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip. Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf made his comment during a ceremony in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Sunday to commemorate 30 years since the 1994 genocide that killed more than one million people in the central African republic.

Thirty-seven visiting leaders took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the genocide memorial in Kigali that contains the remains of some 250,000 people. Attaf participated on behalf of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, explained the Algerian foreign ministry. His presence was intended to renew Algeria’s permanent solidarity with the Republic of Rwanda, while emphasising the need to uphold the lessons learned from the painful experience that the country went through as states face up to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza Strip.

Starting on 7 April 1994, Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematically massacred for 100 days by Hutu extremists, led by the Rwandan army and a militia known as the Interahamwe.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame led the commemoration ceremony, reported Reuters.

“Genocide is populism in its pure form,” explained Kagame. “Because the causes are political the remedies must be as well. For that reason, our politics are not organised on the basis of ethnicity or religion and never will be again.”

Algerian-Rwandan relations have recently witnessed a remarkable rapprochement, marked by the exchange of high-level visits by senior officials of the two countries. In February, for example, Lieutenant General Saeed Chengriha, Chief of Staff of the Algerian Army, visited Rwanda and discussed bilateral military cooperation and ways to enhance it in a manner consistent with the ambitions of the leadership of the two countries.

READ: Palestinian right of return NGO warns UN of international ‘complicity’ in genocide in Gaza