He was a young child when the genocide against the Tutsi began in Rwanda in 1994 and narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions. His mother was murdered and he saw his grandmother killed in a grenade attack on a church where Tutsis were hiding.
He spent weeks fleeing Hutu attackers, but could not avoid being drawn into the war: at the age of nine, he was forced to fight with the army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Eventually, as a young adult, Gasore was able to leave Rwanda and settle in the United States, where he and his wife founded Rwanda Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing shelter, food, medical care and education to at-risk children in the country.
Mr. Gasore is just one example of thousands of people rebuilding their lives, more than three decades after the horrific events of 1994, during which more than a million people – mostly Tutsis, but also Hutu and others who opposed the genocide – were systematically murdered in less than three months.
Kwibuka Flame of Hope Tribute to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda installed at the UN headquarters.
Along with another survivor, Marcel Mutsindashyaka, who lost 25 members of his family, Gasore will share his story at a ceremony at United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, marking the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda.
Honor ‘stolen dignity’
Ahead of the International Day, which is commemorated on April 7, UN Secretary-General António Guterres mourned the deaths of the victims, including “whole families brutally erased,” and honored “their stolen dignity.”
In his message, Guterres paid tribute to survivors like Gasore, whose resilience, he said, “shows the strength of the human spirit.”
Recalling the international community’s failure to heed warnings and take immediate action to save lives, Guterres said we must learn from past failures and protect the living by “rejecting hatred, inflammatory rhetoric and incitement to violence.”
Wall with the names of victims of the Rwandan genocide at the Kigali Memorial Center
Remembrance and education
The April 7 event, along with other commemorations held in UN offices around the world, are coordinated by the Outreach Program on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the United Nations, established by the General Assembly in 2005 to “mobilize civil society for the education and remembrance of the victims of the Rwandan genocide in order to help prevent future acts of genocide.”