Speaking out against human rights abuses is key to stopping a cycle of violence, said James Kimonyo, Rwandan ambassador to the United States.

The ambassador and 20 panelists spoke at a genocide conference, titled “Post-Genocide Rwanda: Achievements and Challenges,” in the University Union today.

The ambassador’s speech kicked off the two-day conference about Rwanda, a central African country where an estimated one million people were killed in a brutal ethnic cleansing in 1994.

Since the 1950s, violence has escalated between two supposed ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Prior to the massacre in 1994, the United Nations was warned that violence would likely escalate, and did nothing to stop it, Kimonyo said. The UN’s silence led the killers to believe they could get away with killing, he said.

“If you condemn anything that might generate another genocide, then you are ensuring peace and stability in the world,” Kimonyo said, placing responsibility for peacekeeping on the international community. “Short of that, you’d be encouraging similar atrocities tohappen, not only in Rwanda, but in other parts of the world.”

In today’s global community, everyone lives in a “virtual village,” said Dean of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies Otis Scott. That means the tragedy of genocide in Rwanda must be denounced even by people in Sacramento.

“None of us who live in this village can stand by when atrocities are committed,” he said.

Kimonyo said when Belgian colonists conducted censuses of Rwanda, they arbitrarily classified all people with long noses and more than 10 cows as “Tutsis,” and people with less than 10 cattle and short noses as “Hutus.” This racial identification was printed on identity cards and separated the native population.

“The politics of division became entrenched in our socio-political system,” Kimonyo said. “The moment we don’t have a society living in peace and harmony is the moment all (peace) programs fail…”

The conference featured five keynote speakers on Friday and Saturday.

Kimonyo encouraged audience members to visit Rwanda.

“Rwandans have been able to sit together at the table of brotherhood,” he said. “…comesee the wonderful transformation.”

Lacey Waymire can be reached at [email protected].

To read about the second day of the event, click here.