REMEMBER THEM
‘Emotional’ Charles & Camilla visit mass grave of 250,000 victims slaughtered in Rwandan genocide
PRINCE Charles and Camilla made an emotional visit to a mass grave and memorial for 250,000 victims slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide.
The Prince of Wales, 73, today landed with the Duchess of Cornwall, 74 - becoming the first members of the royal family to visit Rwanda.
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They started a three-day tour by laying a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial where 250,000 of the 800,000 killed in the 1994 genocide are laid to rest - including children.
Charles, 73, was visibly shaken as he saw testimonies of children who had ben burnt to death or killed with machetes.
The future king muttered “terrible, happens all too often”.
While Camilla, 74, by his side, said: "What humans can do to humans".
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In 1994, hundreds of thousands of members of the Tutsi community were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists.
The Nyamata Church Genocide Memorial, south of the Rwandan capital Kigali, contains the remains of more than 45,000 people killed in the church compound and the wider area between April 7 and May 14 in 1994.
In total 800,000 people, including three quarters of the country's minority Tutsi population, died during 100 days of slaughter in Rwanda that year.
The duchess was hugged by genocide survivor Uzamukunda Walida who was gang raped but now openly discusses her experience.
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And Charles looked haunted as she saw burial pits containing 10,000 dead Tutsis who had sought shelter at a church before being massacred by their Hutu killers at the Nyamata Church Genocide Memorial.
He paused by one of the coffins and was shown glass cases containing the skulls and bones of victims who had been burnt after being shot or hacked to death with machetes.
Charles said: "This must never happen again. We shall continue to remember."
But there was optimism as the prince met killers and victims who now live side by side at a reconciliation village just 19 miles south of the Rwandan capital Kigali.
After listening to the stories of one Hutu perpetrator and one Tutsi, whose entire family was killed, he said he was "full of admiration" that they had managed to overcome the past, adding: "It must have been so difficult to be able to forgive these quite awful horrors."
He hailed the reconciliation village as a “wonderful example to the rest of the world”.
A Clarence House spokesman said: "Both the Prince and The Duchess were struck how important it is never to forget the horrors of the past - but also were deeply moved as they listened to people who have found ways of living with and even forgiving the most appalling crimes."
Earlier, Charles and Camilla then met Rwanda President Paul Kagama and first lady Jeannette Kagame.
At Nyamata Genocide Church where Tutsis hid before they were massacred by Hutus they saw clothing, personal artefacts and remains of some of those killed.
More than 45,000 Tutsis are in mass graves by the church.
Charles and Camilla are on a three-day tour of Rwanda and will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Friday.
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Boris Johnson will come face-to-face Charles and they will speak over a cup of tea at the event in Kigali.
It will be the first time since Charles's alleged criticism of the government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda when he is Sid to have privately blasted it as "appalling".
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Camilla will also give a speech campaigning against domestic violence and the royal couple will also attend a fashion show.
Boris and Charles are set to meet tomorrow before Chogm is officially opened 24 hours later with all 54 leaders of the Commonwealth being treated to an address by Prince Charles.
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The mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Tutsi people lasted a period of around 100 days.
The atrocious killings occurred between April 7 and July 15, 1994, during the Rwandan Civil War and saw the minority ethnic groups of the Tutsi, some moderate Hutu and Twa groups slaughtered by armed militias and civilians.
The Rwandan Genocide
Twenty-eight years ago a terrible genocide took place in the heart of Africa — here is what happened back in 1994
The Rwandan genocide was one of the most shocking events to have happened to humanity in the post-Cold war world.
Thousands were hacked to pieces, many by their own neighbours, while rape squads were formed to deliberately spread HIV among women in a horrific civil war.
What happened in the Rwandan Genocide?
The 100 days of slaughter began on April 6, 1994.
Shrill broadcasts in the government media and the infamous Radio des Mille Collines incited the killings, portraying the majority Tutsis as dangerous, bent on dominating the Hutus.
As many as 10,000 people died daily.
UNICEF estimated more than 300,000 children were killed. Most were hacked or beaten to death.
70 per cent of the minority Tutsi was wiped out and over ten per cent of the total Rwanda population.
Why did it happen?
Tensions between the people was created then exacerbated by coloniser Belgium, which turned the traditional Hutu-Tutsi relationship into a class system.
During Belgian rule, Hutu chiefs had all been deposed by the Belgians, who placed the minority Tutsis in charge, ultimately leading to the exploitation of the majority Hutu.
When the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana and counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi - both Hutu - was shot down over the Rwandan capital Kigali, mass murder was unleashed.
The plane attack mobilised Hutu government soldiers and allied extremist militia, who orchestrated the genocide to exterminate the Tutsi minority.
The Interahamwe militia (meaning “those who work/ fight together" in Kinyarwanda), led by Robert Kajuga, were the main perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.
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