I am at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
This is a brief stop—just enough time to pay tribute to the victims laid to rest here. I have walked through every part of this memorial many times before. Today, I am not taking the full tour. I came straight to the mass grave.
I know this place well—the final resting place of over 250,000 victims. The grave is now sealed, but my connection to it runs deeper than memory. I have been down there. Inside that grave. It is where I once laid members of my own family to rest.
Today, I stand here not only for them, but for all the victims—more than a million lives lost. I am here to honor them. To remember. To renew our vow: Never Again.
And let me be clear, for those who still fail to understand—Never Again is not a slogan. It is not a hashtag. It is not a phrase we casually repeat.
When we say Never Again, we mean it.
To those who continue to harbor and spread genocide ideology, to those who still dream of returning to finish what they started—hear this clearly:
We chose peace, and our commitment to it is unwavering. But history has already shown that when peace is threatened, we will defend it.
Never Again is a promise. And it is one we are prepared to uphold—by all means necessary.