Michaelle Jean and Rwandan President Paul Kagame take questions in Kigali on April 21, 2010 after the Governor-General officially apologized for Canada's role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Governor-General Michaëlle Jean has acknowledged Canada's failure to respond to the Rwandan genocide as part of the international community.
During a state visit to the country Wednesday, she conveyed the guilt of the many nations accused of ignoring the 1994 crisis in a statement delivered during a meeting with President Paul Kagame, a leader of the Tutsi rebel uprising.
"The world's failure to respond adequately to the genocide is a failure in which Canada - as part of the international community - readily acknowledges its fair share of responsibility," she read from a prepared statement as she sat in the Rwandan cabinet chambers in the capital of Kigali.
"It is with a sense of utmost humility that I express the respects of Canada to all Rwandans who perished, suffered and who continue to suffer measurable loss in the Rwandan genocide."
Her statement was first reported as an apology, but the Prime Minister's Office swiftly clarified to say it was an acknowledgment.
The state visit, meant to strengthen Canada's ties with the Republic of Rwanda, began with a tour through the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, built over a mass grave where more than 250,000 bodies of people killed in the genocide are buried . Ms. Jean will continue her trip around the country Thursday, visiting Butare , Nyamagabe and Kibirizi before heading back to the capital of Kigali. She'll return to Canada Friday.
The journey is Ms. Jean's third visit to Africa, but the first time a top-level government official from Canada has visited the tiny East African country scarred by the genocide.
The Rwandan genocide lasted 100 days and claimed more than 800,000 lives, becoming one of the most brutal civil battles in modern history. The international community has been criticized for ignoring the bloody battle between the ethnic Hutus and Tutsis in the country.
Ottawa unanimously passed motions in 2004 and 2008 that regret the indifference and inaction of the international community.
Ms. Jean referred to those motions in her statement to the Rwanda cabinet.
With a report from The Canadian Press