\n Rwanda on Sunday commemorates the 25th anniversary of the genocide in which at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked or shot to death in 100 days of slaughter.\n<\/p>\n
\n A quarter of a century on, the east African nation has recovered economically, but the trauma still casts a long, dark shadow.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Sunday, as is the tradition every April 7 -- the day the genocide began -- President Paul Kagame will light a remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are thought to be buried.\n<\/p>\n
\n It marks the beginning of a week of commemoration activities, and the start of 100 days of national mourning.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the afternoon, Kagame, who led the rebels who chased the genocidal killers out of Rwanda and has been in power ever since, will preside over a ceremony at the main football stadium in the capital.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Amahoro National Stadium -- named for \"peace\" in Rwanda's Kinyarwanda language -- was used by the UN during the genocide to protect thousands of Tutsis from being massacred on the streets outside.\n<\/p>\n
\n The genocidal Hutu forces, members of the old army and militia forces called the \"Interahamwe\", had been cheered on by blood-curdling anti-Tutsi propaganda that began on April 7, 1994, the day after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kagame, then 36, was a rebel general when he led the mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) into Kigali on July 4, ending the ethnic slaughter.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Extraordinary' change -\n<\/p>\n
\n Rwanda has changed nearly beyond recognition since then.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Kagame has kept an authoritarian hold as he steers the small, landlocked East African nation through economic recovery.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"In 25 years, the things that we've been able to accomplish are really extraordinary,\" said Bruce Muringira, a 24-year old working for an advertising agency, and who like nearly two-thirds of Rwanda's 12 million people, was born after the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I think we've evolved very much in such a short time.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Growth in 2018 was a heady 7.2 percent, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).\n<\/p>\n
\n The boom was boosted by help received from an international community pained by its failures to stop the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Friday, French President appointed an expert panel to investigate France's actions at the time -- a subject that has dogged Franco-Russian relations for a quarter of a century.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rwanda has accused France of being complicit in the genocide through its support for the Hutu-led government, and of helping perpetrators escape.\n<\/p>\n
\n Paris has consistently denied complicity in the bloodshed, though former president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010 acknowledged France had made \"serious errors of judgement\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Rwandans remain hopeful of a better future.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We still see today that it is not perfect,\" Muringira said. \"But we're putting in the effort to find a way to live harmoniously.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n For a people left divided by the bloodiest of legacies, reconciliation is key.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rwanda has banned any reference to ethnicity in public life, and has prioritised justice for the genocidal killers in a bid to rebuild relations.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the wounds have not healed.\n<\/p>\n
\n For survivors, forgiveness remains difficult when the bodies of their loved ones have not been found and many killers are still free.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Iron fist -\n<\/p>\n
\n Kagame's iron-fisted rule -- seen by some as essential to impose order from chaos -- gained many critics, with criticism from the West of attacks on freedom of expression and opposition muzzling.\n<\/p>\n
\n Critics of Kagame are often silenced, or driven into exile.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was re-elected for a new seven-year term in August 2017 with nearly 99 percent of the vote, and constitutional reforms adopted by referendum in 2015 could allow him to stay in power until 2034.\n<\/p>\n
\n But there are signs of a change in Kagame's approach.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now 61, the president appears to be loosening control somewhat, releasing a number of jailed opposition leaders.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Kagame sees it as prudent to shed off his old narrative of being autocratic and overly intolerant to opposition,\" said one Rwandan political commentator who asked not to be named.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Don't forget that as time goes by, he is becoming more cognizant of which legacy he wants to leave behind.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Last year, Frank Habineza's Green Democratic Party became the first opposition party to enter parliament, winning two seats in elections.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I think the ruling party is no longer overly intolerant to opposing views. Over a period of time they have started listening to our views. Our manifestos have been now considered in government projects, not as before when they were ignored,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Several African leaders are expected at Sunday's ceremony, while former colonial ruler Belgium is sending Prime Minister Charles Michel.\n<\/p>\n
\n Macron is not attending, with France represented by Herve Berville, a 29-year old Rwandan-born member of the parliament in Paris.\n<\/p>\n
\n Perhaps most conspicuous in his absence will be former ally Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, whose government Kigali accuses of sheltering Rwandan rebels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rwanda on Sunday commemorates the 25th anniversary of the genocide in which at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked or shot to death in 100 days of slaughter. A quarter of a century on, the east African nation has recovered economically, but the trauma still casts a long, dark shadow. On Sunday, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-40876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n