On the eve of “Yom Hashoah,” the day to remember the Holocaust, genocide survivors from Rwanda and Darfur spoke at a side event to the Durban Review Conference, organized by UN Watch.
Rwandan genocide survivor and activist Esther Mujawayo said she felt uncomfortable speaking in a U.N. building, considering that the U.N. failed to halt the Rwandan genocide, choosing instead to abandon the country when the killing began. “This was a clear predictable and preventable genocide,” she said.
She complained that the Rwandan perpetrators continue to live in peace even in Europe, while survivors of the genocide struggle to obtain asylum.
Gibreil Hamid, President of the Darfur Peace and Development Center, said the ongoing genocide in Darfur is also preventable and stoppable. Discussing his experience, he said, “We were clearly discriminated against because we were black. The Arabs were not accepting us as Muslims.”
He described the killing and rape of women and children in Darfur in the perpetrators’ attempt to exterminate entire villages.
A “Yom Hashoah” ceremony to remember the Holocaust will be held this evening, beginning at 18:30, outside the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
