'International community failed us' — Rwandan president on Tutsi genocide

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has said the international community "failed" his country during the 1994 genocide, as he paid tribute to victims 30 years after Hutu extremists tore apart the nation.

"Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss. And the lessons we learned are engraved in blood," Kagame said on Sunday in Kigali during a solemn ceremony to commemorate a 100-day massacre that claimed the lives of 800,000 people, largely Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.

"It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice," he said, addressing an audience that included several African heads of state and former US president Bill Clinton, who had called the genocide the biggest failure of his administration.

In keeping with tradition, the ceremonies on April 7, the day Hutu militias unleashed the carnage in 1994, began with Kagame placing wreaths on mass graves and lighting a remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are believed to be buried.

The tiny nation has since found its footing under the rule of Kagame, who led the rebel militia which ended the genocide, but the scars of the violence remain, leaving a trail of destruction across Africa's Great Lakes region.

The international community's failure to intervene has been a cause of lingering shame, with French President Emmanuel Macron expected to release a message on Sunday saying France and its Western and African allies "could have stopped" the bloodshed but lacked the will to do so.

African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat said in Kigali that "no one, not even the African Union, can exonerate themselves from their inaction. Let us have the courage to recognise it, and take responsibility for it."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and Israel's President Isaac Herzog are among the visiting dignitaries.

Rwandans will also stage a march and hold a candlelit vigil in the capital for those killed in the slaughter.

National mourning

Sunday's events mark the start of a week of national mourning, with Rwanda effectively coming to a standstill and national flags flown at half-mast.

Music will not be allowed in public places or on the radio, while sports events and movies are banned from TV broadcasts unless connected to what has been dubbed "Kwibuka (Remembrance) 30".

The assassination of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana on the night of April 6, when his plane was shot down over Kigali, triggered the rampage by Hutu extremists and the "Interahamwe" militia.

Their victims were shot, beaten or hacked to death in killings fuelled by vicious anti-Tutsi propaganda broadcast on TV and radio. At least 250,000 women were raped, according to UN figures.

Each year new mass graves are uncovered around the country.

In 2002, Rwanda set up community tribunals where victims heard "confessions" from those who had persecuted them, although rights watchdogs said the system also resulted in miscarriages of justice.

Today, Rwandan ID cards do not mention whether a person is Hutu or Tutsi.

Secondary school students learn about the genocide as part of a tightly controlled curriculum.

The country is home to more than 200 memorials of the genocide, four of which were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list last year.