The Capitals: 'Never again', global capitals light up to mark 30 years of 1994 Rwanda genocide

New Delhi

Ecuador's authorities arrested former Vice President Jorge Glas earlier this week on Friday (April 5), detaining him from the Mexican embassy in Quito following which Mexico City suspended bilateral ties with Ecuador. 

Demonstrators gather outside the Mexican embassy in Ecuador to ask for the freedom of former Vice President Jorge Glas, Quito, April 6, 2024 | Reuters

Glas, 54, has been convicted twice of corruption. He was seeking political asylum in Mexico and had been holed up in the Mexican embassy in Quito. Mexico granted Glas political asylum on Friday, hours before his arrest by the Ecuadorean authorities. 

Police forcefully entered Mexico’s embassy in Quito before making the arrest, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador posted on X.

The Ecuadorean president’s office said in a statement it had arrested Glas, who was vice president under the leftist government of Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017.

The arrest marks the pinnacle of a week of escalating tensions between Mexico and Ecuador, which on Thursday declared Mexico’s ambassador in Quito persona non grata, citing “unfortunate” comments from the leftist President Lopez Obrador.

Ecuador contends that Mexico’s asylum offer was illegal.

Ecuador’s presidency accused Mexico of "having abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that housed the former vice president, and granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework."

Meanwhile, support poued in from across Latin American capitals for Mexico, including Brazilian capital Brasilia, Colombian capital Bogota, Argentina's Buenos Aires and Uruguay's Montevideo. 

Brussels, Belgium

NATO marked 75th anniversary of its founding as foreign ministers met in Brussels earlier this week to mark the 76th year since the signing of the Alliance's founding document, the North Atlantic Treaty.

But amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, the spotlight remained on NATO's ties with Russia, whose ideological antagonism following the fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany after second world war is credited to have birthed the alliance in first place. 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state news agency RIA that NATO's ties with Moscow were "predictably and deliberately" deteriorating, and all channels of dialogue between Moscow and the alliance had been brought to a "critical zero" level by Washington and Brussels.

Also watch | NATO at 75: What's at stake? | WION Wideangle

"Is the military bloc ready for an open conflict with Russia? You need to ask the NATO members themselves. In any case, we have no such intentions regarding the member countries of the alliance," Grushko said.

President Vladimir Putin launched what he called his "special military operation" in Ukraine in 2022 with the stated aim of preventing NATO from expanding its footprint close to Russia. But the war has served to galvanise the alliance, which has expanded to 32 members by admitting Finland and Sweden.

NATO says it is helping Ukraine fight for its survival in the face of Russian aggression, and has provided Kyiv with advanced weapons, training and intelligence. 

Russia says that makes NATO de facto a party to the conflict.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Former US President and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump spoke recently with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman, New York Times reported. 

The reported talks assume significance since they come at a time when the Biden administration is engaged in negotiations with the Saudis over establishing lasting peace in West Asia and building on diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab states.

Trump could potentially either block any deal or greenlight such deal for congressional Republicans. As the former president continues to be a presidential frontrunner ahead of November elections, his talks with foreign leaders continue to stir the pot of geopolitics.

Kigali, Rwanda

World leaders gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, to remember the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi minority community. Over a dozen current and former Heads of State, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and former US president Bill Clinton, joined President Paul Kagame to lay wreaths and light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. 

They then participated in the national ceremony at BK Arena, marking the official start of Kwibuka30. Kwibuka means 'to remember' in Kinyarwanda (the national language of Rwanda).

Former US president Bill Clinton with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in Rwanda

On 7 April 1994, a genocide was unleashed against the Tutsi minority of Rwanda, leaving over a million dead in just 100 days, in full view of the world. A minimal United Nations peacekeeping force stood by and watched the genocide unfold, after a decision was made by the Security Council to withdraw most of the peacekeepers.

Four memorials to the genocide against the Tutsi recently inscribed as UNESCO world heritage sites will be illuminated each night for the week of commemoration. As a sign of international solidarity, iconic monuments in cities around the world will be lit in the colours of the Rwandan flag, as part of a joint Rwanda-UNESCO initiative.

New Delhi's Qutub Minar lit up in the colours of Rwandan flag to commemorate 1994 genocide

President Kagame, talking about Rwandaʼs experience said: "We have turned the corner in Rwanda, but the same ideology that justified the genocide against the Tutsi is still alive and well in our region. And we see the same indifference from the wider world as in 1994. It is as if those expensive lessons are always lost, and we stare blindly as the same type of situation builds up again and again."

But critics say that President Kagame's repressive tactics, previously seen as necessary — even by critics — to stabilise Rwanda after the genocide, increasingly appear to be a way for him to entrench his iron rule.

A survey published last year by Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian professor and outspoken Kagame critic, found that 82 per cent of 199 top government positions were held by ethnic Tutsi, the victims of 1994 genocide who form about 15 per cent of total population in Rwanda.

Kagame "must begin to share authority with Hutus to a much greater degree", American diplomats were quoted as saying in a WikiLeaks cable in 2008.