President Paul Kagame has compared July 4(since 1994), as the beginning of a New Year, a new era where far-reaching events in life of Rwanda as a whole started happening.
July 4 marks the Liberation Day, when Rwanda was liberated from the regimes that had deepened the country into divisionism, which culminated into the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi where more than one million Tutsi were killed between April and early July.
This Genocide was stopped by the Rwanda Patriotic Front(RPF) Inkotanyi, after a battle that lasted for four years, against the regime of the then Juvénal Habyarimana.
The president, on July 3 Liberation Day – Kwibohora 29 party, said that all starts from July 4.
“For many, life started from here. Even those who did not manage to survive, remembering them in relation to liberation starts from here. Life of Rwandans starts from here,” the President said insisting that July 4 is Day One of the Rwanda’s life, the life for many.
The president compared two events, including the Liberation Day and the independence day which is celebrated on July 1 since 1962. He said the independence Rwanda got was trashed, and this time, Rwandans should choose whether to also trash and take for granted the liberation or to hold onto it.
The president said, on July 1, it was as if the country got independence, but the citizens later on handed back to the patron.
“We remained with the independence only by words. That’s the truth; we are not the only ones, but when you check, there were many like us,” Kagame said.
As for the liberation day, the President challenged his audience and asked: “Do you also want us to hand over the liberation achievements?”
He said that, it would be easy to surrender and take the liberation achievements for granted and live a miserable life.
“Living miserable life is not difficult, but living noble life is arduous; you work for it, sweat for it,” he said.
“Liberation Day is remembrance of our history that was written with our blood. Unless you decide so, the history we wrote like that cannot be deleted by the history that is written with ink,” he said.
“If you want to live bad life, allow the history written with the ink delete your history that was written with the blood of people,” Kagame warned the predominantly youth audience.
The president said, that those who shed blood, were as young as the young people among his audience.
“As for the youth today, you have a responsibility to safeguard that history even though it is with blood. You have to choose,” he said.
To show how the youth choose to live miserable life, the president quoted a report from Rwanda’s ministry of health in relation to alcohol consumption which is worrisome.
“The higher it becomes, the more it comes with diseases that are harmful to life. And, when will you do work if you are not healthy?”
The president was disappointed that the youth does not heed the warning to stop drinking, instead they reprimand anyone who warns them.
“That’s not development, the concept of development means not allowing the history written by blood to be deleted by drunkenness or ink,” the President said.
President Kagame said that he was talking about the contemporary history of Rwanda, but some people write evil about the country.
“When you see what some people write about Rwanda, you wonder if they are talking about the same country whose history we wrote with our blood,” he said.
“To those ones, we should prove them wrong.”’
He said that the youth should not portray the country wrongly which would give the detractors lee way to write wrong history against Rwanda.
“It’s our history, it’s our life and our country,” he said wishing the audience to enjoy the party to the fullest.
