Celebrities and Politicians turn out for Rwandan genocide survivors Mass candle lighting and practical help marks genocide, 15 years on

What do Kofi Annan, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen, David Cameron and Desmond Tutu have in common?

This week they are among the first public figures to light ‘Candles for Rwanda’ on camera – encouraging people everywhere to join a global initiative via the website, www.candles4rwanda.org, to commemorate the 15^th anniversary of the 1994 genocide and lift destitute survivors out of poverty.

“During a 100 days from 7 April 1994, a million children, women and men were slaughtered in Rwanda, simply because of who they were,” says Stephen Twigg, a Director of the Aegis Trust, which is helping to coordinate the initiative. “Today, despite the trauma of the past, Rwanda is rebuilding and full of hope for the future. However, it remains one of the poorest countries in the World, and thousands of those who survived – many of them widowed or orphaned by the genocide – remain destitute, unable to keep shelter over their heads or put food on the table. ‘Candles for Rwanda’ is intended to help change all of that.”

Lifting destitute survivors out of extreme poverty

For every donation you give – either through www.candles4rwanda.org, or by texting ‘CANDLES’ to 82010 to give £5.00 – a candle will be lit on your behalf and placed in remembrance at mass graves in the grounds of the Kigali Memorial Centre, where 250,000 victims of the genocide lie buried.

The first few pence pay for the candle. The rest of the donation goes directly to meet the needs of the most destitute among the survivors, lifting them out of extreme poverty and giving them a chance to start rebuilding their lives. The growing sea of candles at the Kigali Memorial Centre, and the very practical support that comes with it, will show survivors they are not forgotten; that people the World over do care about their suffering.

“I will never forget going to visit the genocide memorial centre in Kigali,” says David Cameron. “Someone once said that while one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is just a statistic. We must prove that wrong. We owe that to those who survived.”

“This candle, I want to light for you.”

The first candles lit in Rwanda as part of the initiative will be in the National Stadium, Kigali, during the official commemoration of the genocide on the night of 7^th April. As thousands of candles are lit across the pitch, a short film featuring high profile figures taking part in the initiative will be displayed on the stadium’s main screen.

In the face of genocide, words can seem futile. Some of the stars – Samuel L Jackson, Clive Owen and Adrien Brody among them – chose to light their candles in silence. Some reflected on what they themselves were doing in 1994 when the genocide happened, or talked about their own experience of Rwanda. Others simply offered a moving dedication of their candle-lighting to the victims and survivors.

“I want to light this candle for those people who were killed, and the parts of us that were killed, as people in humanity, to allow these things to happen,” said Forest Whitaker, who in 2007 won an Oscar for his screen portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. “I want to light this candle in hope, with the hope that things like this will never happen again. With the hope that those souls who have passed, and those souls who have been scarred, move upward towards the light. I want to light this candle for love, because it represents the spark that we have inside of all of us. This candle, I want to light for you... I want to light for us.”

The politicians and stars...

Those taking part in the launch of ‘Candles for Rwanda’ include Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Clive Owen, Forest Whitaker, Adrien Brody, John Hurt, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Natalie Portman, Zero 7, Reverend and the Makers, Mattafix, Mia Farrow, Sidney Poitier, Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Dancy, Sandra Bullock, Switch foot, Lucy Liu and Madeleine Albright. They also include survivors: Holocaust survivor Martin Stern, Cambodian survivor Samol Loeng and Darfuri survivor Ibrahim Issa Korkor.

Film clips featuring these people lighting their ‘candles for Rwanda’ will be available to view online at www.candles4rwanda.org. They will also be available to view on multiple social networking sites, including YouTube and FaceBook.

See Samuel L Jackson's message:

Other celebrities, politicians and public figures from around the world will be announcing their support for the initiative during the course of the 100-day commemoration period, building to concluding announcements on 16 July.

Partners involved in the ‘Candles for Rwanda’ initiative include Rwanda15 (the official Rwandan commemoration), the Imbuto Foundation, Kigali City Council, Ibuka, the Aegis Trust, Three Generations, Eye Spy Films, The Infantry, The Harry Potter Alliance, PR4 and Instigate Debate.

DARFURI SURVIVORS TO RALLY IN LONDON AS ICC DECIDES ON BASHIR ARREST WARRANT

Today the judges at the ICC will announce whether or not they are going to issue an arrest warrant for Omar Bashir, the President of Sudan, on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur.

If a warrant is issued, it will be the first time that such a step has been taken against a sitting head of state. As the ICC judges announce their decision in the Hague, Darfuri survivors will be gathered in capital cities across Europe to remember their murdered loved ones and destroyed communities – the victims of this crisis, whose slaughter demands justice.

London rally. In London, they will congregate for a commemoration outside the Sudanese Embassy from midday to 2.00pm, reading out the names of over a thousand victims and holding a minute’s silence at 1.00pm, the moment the ICC’s decision is announced.

“Khartoum will make a lot of noise that this is a politically motivated assault on the President, and through him, the Sudanese state and Sudanese people,” says Ishag Mekki, Humanitarian Officer for the Darfur Union – the umbrella group for Darfuri exiles living in the UK. “Amid that noise, just remember that on Bashir’s watch, millions of Sudanese men, women and children have been driven from their homes, killed or raped in Darfur. Not because they carry guns, but because of who they are. This is a matter of justice, not politics. And we, the survivors, know how desperately justice is needed.”

Darfur perpetrators implicate Bashir

Ahead of the ICC’s announcement, in a film released by the Aegis Trust (see earlier article) even the perpetrators themselves have begun to speak out against their masters in Khartoum; Janjaweed fighters describing how they call in Government airstrikes before attacking, and soldiers explaining how they were ordered by senior officers to rape girls as young as eleven or twelve.

“The rape and murder of the innocent is completely contrary to the tenets of Islam. It is contrary to basic principles of humanity. And it is a crime in International law. Would you accept it if your loved ones were the victims?”, asks Nejwa Gabir Ahmed, a survivor from Darfur living in the UK. She adds: “Unless the perpetrators are brought to justice, and unless justice is seen to be done, there will never be peace and reconciliation in Darfur. And we, the exiled, will never be able to return to our homeland with peace in our hearts.”

Call to UN Security Council: resist pressure from Khartoum over Article 16

It is widely expected that if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for Omar Bashir, politicians and diplomats in many quarters will increase the pressure for the UN Security Council to invoke Article 16 and suspend the process of international justice for Darfur.

“I ask the decision-makers at the UN Security Council; do not lightly trade away justice for the victims, or give it up in the face of blackmail from Khartoum,” says Darfuri survivor Khatir Mohammed, General Secretary of the Darfur Union. “A murder suspect is not let off the charges if he threatens to go out and kill more people. Nor should Omar Bashir, or any of those suspected of crimes against humanity in Darfur, be allowed to get off the hook by threatening peacekeepers, aid workers or our people in Sudan.”

A new report just released by Aegis, ‘The Enforcement of International Criminal Law’, addresses ways in which the international community could strengthen prospects for enforcement of any arrest warrant against Bashir.

Darfur Destroyed: Sudan's Perpetrators Break Silence

Darfur Destroyed: Sudan's perpetrators break silence from Aegis Trust on Vimeo.