Rwandese Flowers_ 1 to 6

prosperous future were the Kigali message around 2004 in addition to the appeal of justice against
the perpetrators of the remembered massacre.
The main event of the week would take place at the Amahoro National Stadium.
Therefore, I took a taxi outside the hotel in the morning and rode along the way to the ceremony in
memory of the decade of the Rwandan Genocide. At first, the avenue took us to the Union Trade
Center, and next, we turned right through a long linked road without intersections or traffic jams.
The driver kept the vehicle at a low speed so that we could have a smooth ride while I was looking
out the window, wondering what those scenes seemed to be in a distant past. I had made a point of
leaving early so as not to lose time on the road to the Amahoro Stadium. We rode by the Parliament
of Rwanda on the same route until we arrived at the renowned restaurant Chez Lando that made me
think about the old days. Then, we turned left and approached the final phase of the trip.
Along the way, I read the event schedule, and I resolved I would leave the Amahoro
after the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame's pronouncement. According to the brochure in my
hands that the staff of the Mille Collines Hotel gave me, it would occur at half past twelve. We were
to hear a few words from heads of state and other authorities as well as testimonies of living victims.
Before the president's speech, an act of 10 minutes of silence in respect to the dead would happen,
and afterward, we would watch performances of music, poetry and hear other reports of casualties.
This would be the proper moment for me to leave the site. Elsewhere in the country, similar
ceremonies occurred for the same purpose.
Outside the stadium, I followed the commoners who were going to the bleachers, and
after that, I walked in and found accommodation among the 65 thousand spectators. A band
performed for the crowd and, at the scheduled occasion, President Kagame spoke movingly to his
compatriots, and in his words, he blamed France, pointing to the French troops as contributors to
the occurrence of the slaughter and even as participants in the fighting.
"They knowingly trained and paid government soldiers and militia who were going to commit genocide,
and they knew they would commit genocide..."
The tough words were sufficient for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of President
François Mitterrand, Renaud Muselier, to shorten his visit to the country. The Secretary-General of
the United Nations, Kofi Annan, urged us to share in a moment of silence at noon, to mark the
international day of reflection on the Rwandan Genocide. He called for the nations of the world to
adopt preventive and concrete measures so that such catastrophes did not happen for a second time.
The criticism addressed to some great nations that did not participate in the events sponsored by the
Rwandese Government was a recurring theme. Others, such as Belgium and the United States,
apologized for their passivity in the face of what had occurred in 1994.
While I was sitting in the stands of the Amahoro, enjoying an inner peace and a desired
anonymity, a soldier in charge of security, who had been casting glances at me since I got there, gave
me from afar a daring and intriguing gaze. Thus, I got a good look at my body up and down.
What is he looking at?
Putting on my sunglasses and feigning indifference, I expected him to stop his curiosity,
especially because a flirting was inopportune, since the sad ceremony was not conducive to giving
somebody the eye. Even so, soon after, he came to me, and I got ready to say no, politely, if he was
to ask me out with an inappropriate dalliance. He questioned me, instead:
"Excuse me, madam. You are Dr. Isabelle, aren't you?"
"Yes."