In Rwanda, Security Council mission visits genocide memorial

The United Nations Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa arrived in Rwanda today, where it visited a memorial to the victims of the 1994 genocide and met with high-level Government officials.

At the Gisovi Genocide Memorial, the 12 ambassadors comprising the Council delegation were welcomed by the mayor of Kigali, who recalled the circumstances of the tragic events. "Despite receiving warning signs from many United Nations agencies and from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)," the mayor said, "the international community turned a deaf ear and watched as a population was almost exterminated."

During a tour of the site, the ambassadors were told that close to 250,000 people had been taken from mass graves and reburied at the memorial. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, who leads the Council mission, laid a wreath on one of the graves on behalf of the whole delegation.

The mission later met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and other Government officials. Tomorrow, the group will travel to Kampala, Uganda, the last stop on its eight-country trip.