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Pres ident Thabo Mbeki, accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, has arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, for the 10th commemorative anniversary of the 1994 genocide.

Foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the South African delegation would participate in the commemoration service, to highlight the unfortunate experiences of inhumanity that the people of Rwanda and South Africa went through at the hands of unjust and repressive regimes.

He said Pretoria had cemented its relationship with Kigali in 2000 when President Mbeki paid a state visit to that country.

Then, President Mbeki said South Africa felt that the pain the Rwandans suffered had been their pain as well.

"We hope that out of the tragedy of this nation, will emerge an outcome that will be a lesson to the rest of humanity about how to use a catastrophe such as this one to bring about reconciliation, unity, stability and development," he said.

Mamoepa added that government hoped that the international community would draw a lesson on the need to respond timeously and expeditiously to challenges facing humanity including tragedies as the one faced by the people of Rwanda.

Over 800 000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were massacred over a period of 100 days in a spate of violence a decade ago.

The genocide was sparked by the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.

Tutsis were blamed for the tragedy and within hours, aided by radio propaganda, Hutus called for the 'ethnic cleansing of Tutsis'.

The international community, particularly the UN, was blamed for not acting decisively to combat the genocide in its early stages.

Head of the UN Security Council at the time and current Secretary-General Kofi Annan early this week accepted institutional responsibility for the genocide, saying he realised that he could and should have done more to avert the tragedy. -BuaNews

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