What Ifs of History
What if humans approached power with humility and dialogue?
I was there when hope was born that day. I witnessed the historic signing of the Arusha Peace Agreement between the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) on August 4, 1993.
There, I stood in a grey suit and badge, immediately behind Tanzania’s President Ali Hassan Mwinyi; Rwanda’s President Juvénal Habyarimana, on President Mwinyi’s right; and Col. Alexis Kanyarengwe, Chairman of the RPF, on his left.
President Mwinyi, President Habyarimana, and Col. Kanyarengwe are now deceased.
I was also there when that hope was violently extinguished by genocide and war in 1994.
Diplomacy and peace agreements may not always work.
History then leaves us with the speculative question: what if they had worked?
Better to invest in diplomacy that prevents or stops war and its catastrophic consequences.
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