10.08.07 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE/FILM - NO ONE CAN SUFFER AS MUCH AS THE VICTIMS OF THE GENOCIDE - KAGAME

Kigali 10 August 2007 (FH) - "No one can suffer as much as the victims of the genocide", stated Rwandan President Paul Kagame, quoted Friday by Radio Rwanda.

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Kagame made these remarks Thursday evening at the end of the projection of a film on the genocide, based on the story of the commander of the peacekeepers present in Rwanda between April and July 1994, Canadian General Roméo Dallaire.

"Even if many people show their sympathy towards the genocide of Tutsis of 1994, nobody suffered as much as the victims themselves", declared Paul Kagame, who was a guest of honor.

Roméo Dallaire was powerless to stop the murder of ten Belgian soldiers, members of his force, and the massacre of almost a million Tutsis and Hutu opponents.

Directed by Canadian film makers, this film is inspired, among others, by Dallaire's book that told of his Rwandan adventure: "Shake Hands with the Devil", published in 2003.

"Indifferent spectator during the Jewish genocide, the whole world declared: "Never again ". 50 years later, there was Tutsi genocide in Rwanda! In the same indifference! ", Laszlo Brana, the director of the film said; he was born to parents who were survivors of the Holocaust.

In an interview in 2003, Dallaire, traumatized by the horrors of the genocide, declared: "My heart sails in the middle of these hills and my spirit with those of these massacred people"

The film, which premiered in Rwanda, will be soon presented to the Canadian public in Toronto where Dallaire, today a senator, resides.

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