Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
At a Roundtable with Rwandan Women
Kampala, Uganda
March 28, 1997
Let me just say a few things because I know you've had a long journey
here and I am sorry that I was not able on this trip to come to Rwanda. I
am encouraged by what I hear both from you and more generally about the
efforts of reconciliation and reconstruction that are currently under way
in Rwanda. I am particularly encouraged to hear about the role that women
are playing in those efforts. The genocide and other horrible
experiences that are depicted in this book of photographs that you have
presented to me, as well as the personal experiences you have related, are
a very important challenge not only to the people of Rwanda but indeed to
the entire world. I am aware of the concerns that many of you have about
the International Criminal Tribunal which I visited in Arusha. I visited
it for two reasons: I wanted to make it clear that the United States is
very supportive of the efforts to bring to justice those who were the
architects of genocide and other crimes, and also to signal that the
United States is aware that the Tribunal has had administrative problems
and has been rightly criticized as being ineffective. However, as I stated
in a radio address which I taped for the people of Rwanda, the United
States and other countries are committed to the essential task of the
Tribunal. I had a long meeting with Justice Arbour, who has been
appointed to work on behalf of the Tribunal. I am hoping that the critical
work of the Tribunal will now go forward more effectively and that you
will be able to see the differences. As I told members of the Tribunal who
were focusing particularly on the crimes against women and children, and
in particular crimes of sexual violence, this is one of the most critical
tasks to investigate and prosecute. Those who were responsible for the
genocide must be brought to justice. One of the results of war and
genocide and ethnic cleansing around the world is that women and children
often suffer the most. When I went to Bosnia last year, I met with a group
of women, most of whom had survived the war in Bosnia and had been
subjected both personally and through their families to ethnic cleansing.
Their stories are, as you would imagine, tragic like your stories in terms
of the horrors that were visited upon them. Women and children endured
disproportionate suffering. The United States is committed to
assisting Rwanda with its reconciliation and reconstruction. You may know
that in November of 1996, the United States announced a new USAID program
with funding of about 153 million dollars. The vast majority of that
assistance will be spent inside Rwanda on reconciliation issues,
re-integration, and humanitarian aid to returnees. This program targets
aid to women via the Women in Transition Program. As I look at the
list of participants here and at the kind of work in which you are
personally engaged, such as the World Women's Network for Development, the
women's bank, assistance for widows, promotion of solidarity, promotion of
building, it is the work that is the most critical for the psychological
and physical reconstruction of your people and your country. USAID is
attempting to focus as much as possible on female heads of households and
to assist you with the overwhelming task of caring for the many children
orphaned as a result of this genocide. Despite the legacy of genocide
which you will live with in Rwanda, I think now that most Rwandans have
returned home, the world is hopeful that your government will continue its
efforts to rebuild. Although I speak only for my own country, I think the
world will be actively involved in assisting you in making sure that these
fundamental building blocks for your society can be put into place.
Those of us who have only watched from afar, as you endured and survived
the genocide, cannot really find the words to describe any of your
experiences or your feelings. We can say that we will do what we are able
to do to assist you and to support efforts both in Rwanda and
internationally to bring to justice those who should be brought to
justice. We meet today on Good Friday. For those of us who are
Christians, that is a very significant day in our religious year. We know
very well that from the beginning of time there have been periods of
horror and tragedy but that the human spirit has survived. And that is
what you are showing the world again. Even though it is Good Friday, for
Christians the darkest day of the year, Christians and all human beings
don't live for Good Friday; we live for Easter Sunday. We live for hope
and reconciliation; we live for forgiveness and reconstruction; we live
for new life and promise. I'm hoping that the women of Rwanda will know
that women, as you saw at the Pan African meeting and as you have heard
from many others throughout the world, will be standing ready to assist
you. I want to thank you for coming to see me, because I could not
come to see you. Thank you also for sharing with me these visual reminders
that are in the beginning an album of horrors and at the end an album of
hopes. This is what I will take away from our meeting: that both are in
one book and that you will, through your efforts and your example and your
testimony, make sure we do not forget the horrors but that we do not dwell
on them either. We will continue to build toward hope, hope for a new
Rwanda that can be an example to
all of us. Thank you.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's
Trip to Africa | 
