 Maen nhw gweld, wrth ei ddwylliant, o joye cyhoeddwch a'r ddweud i ddwyvedig y cyllideg. Nicky Fylltafolys y dwyledig ar declario 1-6380, yn ei Aelodau Ian Gray. Felly maen nhw'n dŵr unig sayu gan Tewtsy yn Rhondda. Aelodau Ian Gray angen i ddwyledig ddwyledig y ddweud, ac mae ddweud i ddweud i ddwyledig i ddwyledig, ac mae'n ddysgu ddwyledig i ddwyledig i ddwyledig. I call Ian Gray to open the debate for around seven minutes, please, Mr Gray. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As we meet, Rwanda is observing 100 days of national mourning, which began on 7 April. That was the 25th anniversary of the day in 1994, when the genocide against the Tootsies began in Rwanda. In the following 100 days, around 1 million people were slaughtered, around 70 per cent of the Tootsie population. Appalling atrocities were committed by the armed forces, by the Hutu into Rahamwe militias but also by civilians against other civilians, colleagues against colleagues and neighbours against neighbours. Most of that, barely believable intensity of murder was perpetrated with nothing more than machetes. Presiding Officer, the world knew that this was happening. At the time that I worked for Oxfam, I remember being told of the now famous letter sent by a group of Adventist church pastors who had taken refuge with thousands of their congregations in their church, a letter to the president of the Adventist church. It began, we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. It pleaded for his help, but the church president, pastor Taqiruti Manna, was a Hutu, so the next day they were killed with their families and he was later convicted of helping to organise the massacre. With Oxfam, I campaigned and lobbied to get the international community to intervene, but they refused. The UN had a peacekeeping force in place in Rwanda. Their commander, General Delaire, had told his superiors in the infamous genocide facts that may be that genocide against the Tutsis was being planned. He was told only to protect foreign nationals, not to intervene in the murder of the Tutsi people and the UN force was then largely withdrawn. It is said that they burned their blue berets in shame as they left. When the killing ended, fearing retribution, the Hutu population of Rwanda fled the country, a million people a day crossing the border at one point. In late August of that year, I spent some time with Oxfam's emergency team in Eastern Zaire and then a few days in Rwanda itself. In truth, Presiding Officer, I cannot find the words to explain what it is like to see a country empty of its people, one part dead and the rest having fled. However, I can say this. What remained was something of the evil done there only days before, a darkness that gripped you at every turn. Rwanda emerged from the genocide devastated. Life expectancy had fallen to 29 years. There were 95,000 orphans. In the ensuing years, great progress has been made, and although 38 per cent of that country's people still live in poverty, life expectancy is now 67, and economic growth averages 7.5 per cent, one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. Scottish charities such as Comfort Rwanda and Tier Fund Scotland have played a part in that. At my constituency, East Lothian has a special place in its heart for Rwanda, too, because during the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the Rwandan team was hosted by East Lothian. Those links have continued through sport and local schools. For example, Trinent Colts Football Club, who has sent delegations to Rwanda to do coaching and community building work in that country. I think that we can hardly imagine how difficult it is to heal the wounds of such a thing as this. It is true that some of the leaders of the genocide have been tried, convicted and imprisoned, but the guilt was widespread. The Tootsie people of Rwanda still have to undertake acts of forgiveness and reconciliation that we can hardly understand every single day in life. All we can do is try to learn the lessons. What are they? Firstly, not all military interventions are bad. To this day, I burn with shame that my country failed to act to save those lives, because I know that they could have, and I know that I failed to win the argument that they should. Secondly, we must always remember genocide and the Holocaust, but we should be careful when we say never again. We let this happen in Rwanda. We let it happen a year later in Srebrenica and Bosnia, so instead of patting ourselves in the back at our empathy for the genocides of the past, we should ask ourselves on which genocides today are we turning those backs? Finally, genocide ends with machetes and murder, but that is not how it begins. It begins with the words of hate. The other ring of the Tootsie people by Hutu extremists had gone on for a long time before 1994. A radio station—radio-meal Caleen—was specifically created to foster hatred of the Tootsie people who it referred to as cockroaches and was used ultimately to unleash and encourage the slaughter. This is the lesson that we must learn. We cannot. We must not. We will not tolerate the language of hatred, of othering, of dehumanisation anywhere, ever. Perhaps then we will earn the right to say never again. Our message to the people of Rwanda should be this. We let you down in 1994, but you have our solidarity, our prayers and our love now in your 100 days of mourning, and we will try to do better in future. We move on to the open debate. Can I have speeches around four minutes, please? Kenneth Gibson, followed by Jeremy Balfour. Thank you, Presiding Officer. 25 years on from the slaughter at Riptrawand Apart, it is right that we commemorate that genocide and reflect on its legacy for the Rwandan people and the international peacekeeping community. I congratulate Ian Gray for securing today's debate and providing us all with the opportunity to do so. On 7 April 1994, the majority of Hutu of Rwanda turned on the Tutsi minority in a wave of calculated violence. The spatula that defused the already tense relationship between Hutus and Tutsis was the death of Rwandan president Juvenal Habjarimana, a Hutu when his plane was shot down above Cagallia airport on the previous day. 100 days later, when the killing finally stopped, the death toll stood up to £1 million, comprised of both Tutsis and moderate Hutus, who had bravely opposed the bloodshed. While we still do not know who was definitively responsible for the attack, what is undeniable is that within ours a campaign of violence spread from the capital across Rwanda. Elite Government forces, supported by the Interahamwe, a Hutu militia, rounded up and executed Tutsi military and political leaders. Four blocks were hastily erected to catch Rwandans with personal documentation, identifying them as Tutsis, a distinction introduced in the 1930s by the Belgian colonial authorities to divide and rule. In rural areas where Hutus and Tutsis is sometimes married and had children, Government propaganda and radio broadcasts and newspaper articles urged Hutus to pick up any weapon that they could find, machetes, clubs, to kill and maim their neighbours. They were given incentives such as money or food or told they could claim the land of the Tutsis they murdered. Some even stooped to destroy churches where Tutsis had taken refuge. Sexual violence was also endemic, with a rape of up to half a million women accelerating the spread of AIDS and the stigmatisation of the offspring of these assaults as children of the killers. The scale of the slaughter was shocking, Africa's largest genocide in modern times. The horror did not end even after the Rwandan patriotic front captured Kigali as a torrent of killings washed into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo where Hutu militias continued to operate igniting years of strife in Africa's Great Lakes region. Shamefully, the Rwandan genocide was largely ignored by the international community despite the United Nations having two and a half thousand troops in Rwanda. Years later, Cofi Annan, head of peacekeeping operations and later UN Secretary General said, All of us must bitterly regret that we did not do more to prevent it. It is heartbreaking that the world's largest peacekeeping force failed to intervene just as it failed a year later in Srebrenica. Emanuel Macron of France last month ordered a two-year inquiry into his country's role into the Rwandan genocide, given its significant role in French-speaking Africa. Perhaps that signifies that the international community is ready to take responsibility for failing to protect Rwandans. That is vital to ensure lessons are lent to prevent future atrocities. Hearteningly, over the last 25 years, Rwanda has rebuilt its institutions and economy. To bring perpetrators of the genocide to justice, the UN conducted more than 70 tribunals, and Rwanda's courts tried up to 20,000 individuals. Two citizens who choose to survive and kill us now struggle to live side by side. I am pleased that Ian Gray's motion refers to Scotland's close relationship with Rwanda and our two countries' efforts to move forward together. Despite Rwanda's recovery, deprivation remains high and persistent with 38 per cent of people living in poverty and 16 per cent in extreme poverty. Rwanda is now in the Commonwealth of one of Scotland's African partner countries and the Scottish Government is funding the sustainable, economic and agricultural development programme to improve the lives of 30,000 people across 207 Rwandan villages. That programme aims to create alternative income generation and access savings and loans through self-help groups. Agriculture is Rwandan's economic mainstay, with 70 per cent of the population engaged in the sector, although farming methods are badly out of date and farmers are vulnerable to land degradation, soil erosion and climate shocks. The Scottish Government supports the use of environmentally friendly agricultural techniques to improve crop productivity and food security in Rwanda, training how to build energy-saving stoves and sources of renewable energy, particularly important in Rwanda, which is one of Africa's most densely populated countries, and very scarce land. While we reflect on the legacy of the brutal massacre of 20 years ago, Rwanda now looks forward, whether examining ways at preventing similar atrocities or working with international partners to support sustainable development and to lift people out of poverty, there is a role for Scotland in Rwanda's future. Jeremy Balfour, followed by Clare Baker. I congratulate Young Gray not only on his motion, but his opening speech this afternoon, which sets the tone and the historical perspective of what has happened. As I said previously, through Tiefund, last September, I had the privilege of visiting Rwanda and seeing some of the projects that are going on at the moment. Young Gray was absolutely correct. I was a young solicitor here in Edinburgh 25 years ago. Some of us were at school, at university, working, and it went on on our televisions and we simply ignored it. A million people within 100 days, and we in the West, United Nations, stood back and let it happen. One of the things that we can reflect on as a Parliament and as politicians is, as Young Gray has pointed out, when will this happen again, and if it happens again, what will we do? It is not enough for us to simply have debates and warm words. We do need to intervene appropriately. I want to concentrate my remarks on what has happened since. One of the things that struck me visiting Rwanda nearly 25 years on from a genocide was the reconciliation that has taken place within that country. I was bored over by the way that people have been able to live again in neighbourhoods, in villages. From a president to politicians, to the media, to the church, to individuals, there has been an immense reconciliation. I will never forget a Monday in a village under the beating sun talking to a man, and it emerged that that man had murdered 30 or 40 people during the genocide. He went to prison, he had actually become a Christian, he had come to recognise himself. The only place he could go was back to his village, but he knew that most of the village would turn on him. On that village, he pointed to a lady and said, I killed that lady's husband and children, but when I came back to the village, she was the first one to come over and welcome me. That, I think, is reconciliation beyond my understanding and puts into perspective a lot of what we talk about here in this Parliament. I, too, welcome the intervention of the Scottish Government working in partnership with organisations such as Tear Fund. As we have heard in the statistic, there is a long way to go, but there is good progress. Things like water, things that we take for granted that the Scottish Government previously have funded. I think that the self-help groups that allow individuals within small communities to pool resources, to pool money, to be able to bring things back together is an amazing thing. Again, one of the projects that I remember visiting last year was a number of women who have pooled resources to start assault machines to make things, which they are now selling not only to the local village, the local community, but beyond. I think that Ian Gray is absolutely right. That part of the debate must be us, as a country, as a European community, as the West, is to say sorry to the people of the Wanda, for turning our backs when they needed us the most. We need to learn from that, we need to move on from that and I welcome the debate this afternoon. Claire Baker, followed by John Finnie. Presiding Officer, I thank Ian Gray for securing the debate and providing us with an opportunity to commemorate all those who suffered and died during their atrocities, which took place in Rwanda 25 years ago. I also welcome the insight that Ian has provided from his time in Rwanda and Zaire with Oxfam, seeing first-hand the aftermath of the horrific events. Marking the loss of approximately 1 million lives in 100 days 25 years ago, Rwanda is currently observing 100 days of mourning. Here in the Scottish Parliament, we should also reflect on the terrible events of 1994, remembering the lives loss and the damage that was done. Around 70 per cent of the Tutsi population was slaughtered in those 100 days, with appalling atrocities committed by militia, armed forces and as we have heard by civilians. A briefing from Amnesty International highlights concerns related to the current situation in Rwanda with the sad reality of a country that still faces political and human rights challenges. Very much evident in the reports that they have provided of severe restrictions on freedom of expression and reported persecution of political opponents. We should also recognise the significant progress that has been made from what was a very divisive and bloody situation to where Rwanda is today. Following the genocide, Rwanda was socially and economically devastated, with GDP growth at minus 50 per cent, life expectancy only 29 years and with 95,000 orphaned children. There is no denying that challenges remain, particularly with high levels of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. However, 25 years on, significant progress has been made with economic growth in the 10 years to 2017 at 7.5 per cent and life expectancy now at 67 years. It is also a country with 43 per cent of the population under the age of 15, which presents a country with many challenges but also with huge potential. I hope that Scotland continues to be a key partner to Rwanda and to provide support during its on-going process of recovery. I welcome the work of organisations such as Tier Fund and Delivering Scottish-funded programmes that have worked to heal communities and to provide access to loans and new skills to reduce poverty. I now would like to speak a little about Chantelle Marimi. Born in the then-called Zaire to Tutsi parents who had fled there from Rwanda as refugees, Chantelle spent her childhood in segregation and extreme poverty. She was 18 years old when the 1994 genocide took place and her family spent months in hiding, particularly when the killing spilled over to Zaire's refugee camps. When Chantelle and her family returned to Rwanda, the aftermath of the genocide was all around, with death and everyday occurrence. The psychological impact of the genocide affected the entire population. In time, Chantelle was able to secure a job working with the UN and later an opportunity to come to Fife on a temporary visa, emigrating to Scotland in 1999. Moving to Scotland allowed Chantelle to address the trauma that she had experienced and to write a book about her story, the process of which she goes to her education foundation in Rwanda. She is now employed by Fife Council and an active community member who, if I have had the privilege of hearing, speak about her experiences. Chantelle also set up a project that lets Scots visit Rwanda, build links with its people and hear their stories. The project works to raise awareness of Rwanda's history and to promote positive relationships between Scots and refugees. In recognition of her significant achievements, Chantelle won Women of the Year 2018 at the Scottish Women's Awards. Although Chantelle's story is an individual example of links between Scotland and Rwanda, it serves as a powerful reminder of the capacity for individuals, communities and societies to recover and build bright futures and how positivity and connectivity can be borne of even the worst atrocities. That has been a powerful debate and I very much thank Ian Gray for securing it. I, too, would like to thank Ian Gray for bringing this important subject and difficult subject to the chamber and for his very powerful speech and the insight and experience that he has shared with us, likewise, Mr Balfour. It was a Jewish lawyer and Polish refugee, Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word genocide in 1943, and that is a combination of the Greek and Latin. Given the Jewish, Polish and Greek Latin at the fusion of those two lines, it shows how interrelated we humans are as a species. Indeed, it was Mr Lemkin's growing awareness of the Armenian genocide. He talked about my worries about the murder of the innocent and became more powerful, more meaningful to me. I did not know all the answers, but I felt that a law against this type of racial or religious murder must be adopted by the world. Of course, it was adopted. It was adopted in 1948, the international definition of genocide within the 1948 convention. Essentially enshrining the message that we have heard in this debate already and no doubt will hear again the phrase never again in international law. 1994 should have been a great year for the African continent for those who value democracy, humanity and the right to self-determination in a new future. In May of that year, after three centuries of white role, Nelson Mandela became the South African's first black president and that he is an organisation that he said never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another. Sadly, it was around that time that Rwanda saw the worst of humanity at play. The name is, and I fear, forever will be associated with the terrible genocide. One of the many positive and powerful things that Mr Gray said was that it begins with the words of hate. Having my notes here, I have who to people, tootsie people, but actually it's people. That's what we should call them. It's these course that we should celebrate differences, but we are all very much one and the same. A million deaths in 100 days of bloodshed between April and July. As I think that Mr Malfour said, we knew. Of course, we know that wholesale slutter wasn't new to the world where that's from, the pogroms visited in Jewish communities, the Holocaust, the Holodomor in Ukraine, like the Irish famine, killing by starvation, Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, the treatment of indigenous peoples by colonists, including Scots. A shameful history mankind has, in many respects. I was drawn to an article in the independent written by Rachel Burns December last year about why the UN convention on genocide is still failing 70 years on. It picks up in some comments that have already been made. I quoted here first the very application of the term genocide is applied to slowly and cautiously when atrocities happen. I fear that that is because it is who rather than her, who rather than what, and there is no excuse given how small the world is. Second, she talks about the international community fails to act effectively against it. Thirdly, she talks about too few perpetrators are actually convicted. It's heartening to see when there are convictions. That is, of course, about the role of the international community. I think that I kept returning to this chamber when speaking particularly on matters perhaps connected with Palestine and elsewhere, the UN's role and the lack of respect there is for the UN. It's not a group of equals, there's a veto for the big boys, and might is not right in this and the developed world must have respect for international law. So the 100 days of national mourning have begun and one of the things that will have to dealt with is the legacy of the psychological impact for the communities of this. I believe that the human spirit is strong. I think that we must be positive, we must believe that things can get better. I would pose the question, what role is there for each of us to play as parliamentarians, as global citizens that shape the future of humanity? 1994 was the same year that the US opened Guantanamo, for instance, that the provision of IRA declared a ceasefire, some significant events. In the future of our fragile planet and the lovely country and people of Rwanda, our sisters' brothers must be at the forefront of our thoughts. We will not forget, but we must learn and look to the future. I would like to thank Ian Gray for securing today's very important debate. I also thank him for his clearly personal and passionate speech, which laid out the reality of the impact of the events of that 100 days. In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed April 7, the International Day of Reflection, in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and as I say, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about these atrocities 25 years on. We must never forget just how awful the events of that day, those days were, and the impact on the people of Rwanda. However, we should also remember the horrors of what happened in Rwanda and the knock-on effect that it had to other areas in that region. After Rwanda's genocidal Hutu regime was overthrown, more than 2 million Hutus are believed to have fled into what was the NZIA, the DR Congo, fearing reprisals against them by the new Tutsi-dominated Government. Among them were many of the militiamen responsible for the genocide. They quickly allied themselves with the Government and began to attack DR Congo's sizable population of ethnic Tutsis who had lived in the country for generations. It is widely believed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that the Rwanda genocide was the start of the region's more recent problems. In an article written five years ago by the journalist Mod Julian for the 20th anniversary commemorations and massacres of Hutus in neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Zaire, as it was known then, have largely been forgotten within her article, who is a human rights activist in Goma, said, people don't talk about it enough, but Rwandan genocide was like flicking over the first domino. I have never been to Rwanda, but I have been to countries such as South Sudan, North Uganda, Malawi, etc. I have seen the ripple effect from the genocide in Rwanda that has been felt right through the regions. I have also been to Sarajevo, Belgrade and Srebrenica, and as Ian Gray and others have said, it was only a year after the events in Rwanda that we had the awful events in Srebrenica. We have seen that flicking over of the first domino approximately at the same time, and it does not seem to matter what part of the world we are in, the same thing can happen. Ian Gray talked about language, and John Finnie talked about the language of hate. That is probably the most important lesson that we can take from this. If you start to other people, if you start to train people to behave in a certain way because the people that they are targeting are seen to be less than human, then that is the outcome. It is vitally important that, if we take any lesson from this, we have to be more respectful when we speak to people. We should not be talking about people as if they are a different species from us. One of the great things that Rwanda has done is to ban the naming of people as Tootsies and Hutu, and they are called Rwandans. They have been taught in school that the Rwandans have not to be labelled as Tootsies and Hutu, and I think that that is vitally important. We have seen it all through history. We saw it in the partition of India and Pakistan, we saw it in the Balkans, we saw it in Rwanda, and I think that it is really important that we take that lesson away from here today and treat people with the respect that they deserve. To be fair to Rwanda, and what they have done since then has been quite remarkable. As Jeremy Balfour was talking about, to go through the reconciliation that they have done after the events that they have had to go through is quite something and is a perfect example of humanity at its best. Hopefully, out of these horrible, horrible events, something good will come, and Rwanda will be able to get itself in a place where everybody can forgive, if not forget, what happened in those terrible days, and we can maybe learn a lesson from the horrible things that happened then as well. The last of the open debate contributions is from Alexander Stewart. Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister. I am pleased to be able to take part in today's debate, and I congratulate Ian Gray for bringing this to the chamber this afternoon. Rwanda, as we have heard, is a small country in the African continent surrounded by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi. Twenty-five years on, we must remember the genocide that took place. I pay tribute to the tone of the debate today from all speakers, but I think that Ian Gray himself set that tone and acknowledged that it was a very personal and a very passionate speech and one that I am sure we all learnt from. There is no doubt that the Hutu and the Tutsis found themselves in a difficult and dangerous and disgraceful situation in the 1990s, because that country had had a reasonably good support mechanism in the past, where people had lived together and supported one another, even though there were differences among those individuals and among those tribes that took part. It goes back to the United Nations, even in the 1960s, when it was ruled by Belgium, and during that time, the colonials sought more permaily of the minority than they did of the majority. That might have started the whole process in thinking of where we ended up when we got to 1994, after that presidential plane crash in Kigali. At that date, although there were no culprits at that time when that was started, it set the tone that then took place. Within hours of that, as we have heard, the presidential guard and members of the Rwandan forces and Hutu militants set up roadblocks and barricades and began slaughtering individuals from across the country. Although it started off in the capital, it spread. As we have already heard today, a million people in 100 days were slaughtered. That is inconsequential in some respects, but it makes a huge impact on us all. That number of people in that number of days could take place and could happen, even in 1994, which is not that far from our memories at all. Since those dark days, it is right that we remember the aftermath and the extreme national that took part in Rwanda, because, once again, it built on the difficulties that they faced. The scars run deep, but great links have now developed between Rwanda and Scotland, and we have heard of some of that today. I acknowledge the fact that many organisations and many partner organisations have been playing their part, and we have to also think about what we have been doing in other parts when we look at Malawi and other organisations and other structures that have taken place across a different continent. For myself, we can still focus on those 25-year-olds, so it is vitally important that Scotland now plays its part in ensuring that we are rebuilding and that we are doing all we can to refocus and rebuild on what is happening across Rwanda. Scotland already has grassroots connections throughout the Rwanda alliance, the honorary consul general and all the things that are taking place. I pay tribute, as I said earlier, to the charities that we have heard about to your fund today that put in a huge amount of effort to ensure that basics are given to the individuals who live and work in that environment. We must have continued to forge links with the country and ensure that, in the terms of the civil and political rights since the civil war, the story that is continued and that we can and we will. The Scottish Government should continue to take the opportunity with partnership in Rwanda, and the Government should continue to raise those issues loud and clear. Much has been achieved, but there is still much more to be done. As I said, we cannot and we should never forget that the genocide that took place, because that, as I said, and many people have said here today already that we turned our back on that. That was a major, major fault and a major, major flaw. Ben Macpherson, to respond to the debate for around seven minutes, please, minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. First of all, I would like to thank all members who have contributed to today, which has been a remarkably moving debate on the 25th anniversary commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In particular, I would like to thank Ian Gray for securing today's debate, but also for your incredibly moving and powerful opening speech. On 7 April, Rwanda began its period of 100 days of mourning to commemorate the 1994 genocide. Qabuka means remember in Kyrwanda and describes the annual commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It is time to remember those who died. Today, in Parliament and indeed more widely over the course of the last three weeks, across the world, people have come together to remember the genocide in 1994, in which, as others have said, one million Tutsi people died. On 13 April, I had the honour of joining the Rwandan High Commissioner to the UK and the Rwandan diaspora here in Scotland, the Rwandan-Scots community, at a service to commemorate the 25th anniversary. That gave me the opportunity to extend to Rwandans, those in Scotland as well as in Rwanda, and to the Rwandan Government, our deepest consideration at this time of commemoration. To reassure our Rwandan friends of our thoughts and prayers as we committed together to remember those who died. That commemoration service took place in Musselbra, hosted by East Lothian Council, reflecting the links that have developed between Rwanda and East Lothian, as well as other parts of Scotland in recent times. As Ian Gray mentioned, Rwanda was first connected with East Lothian for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 through the support of second team programme. That programme sought to use sport to foster and develop links and partnerships between commonwealth regions, with East Lothian going on to host representatives from the Rwandan Commonwealth Games team. That is a tribute to the people of East Lothian and to Rwanda. It is a tribute to the people of East Lothian and Rwanda that those links have continued and strengthened. It was fitting that the commemoration service took place in East Lothian just a few weeks ago. Since 1994, over the past 25 years, Scotland's links to Rwanda have strengthened and deepened, as other speakers have mentioned. There are now many sectors from education and health, to civil society and faith groups, to government and business that have connections to Rwanda and are creating more connections. That is reflected in the Scottish Government's international development programme. In 2008, the Scottish Government funded its first development project on Rwanda. In 2016, following a refresh of our international development strategy, Rwanda—we are very proud of that—became one of our four partner countries under the Scottish Government's international development programme. Our programme expanded, which projects now include a diversity of different partnerships from support for building the capacity of Rwandan coffee co-operatives, which we have just expanded, and also partnerships to support victims of sexual and gender-based violence and empower women to enjoy equal rights and have equal rights. Also, on gender equality, we have been supporting with Comet Relief projects in Rwanda under the levelling of the field, girls' leadership through sport programme, using football, basketball, cricket and other sports as a tool for development, a connector between people and nations. What all of those projects have in common is Rwandan's commitment to community, to developing Rwanda and to doing so with Rwandan solutions, underpinned by a clear belief in the future of the country that permeates right across Rwandan society. It is that belief in the modern nation of Rwanda, coming out of the awful genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, is also important to remember. The wealth of connections and relationships built up over the last 25 years between Scotland and Rwanda have been rewarding for all, and we have heard about some of those links and partnerships in other speeches today. However, there is more to do, and we in the Scottish Government are, as I said earlier, very proud to be in partnership with Rwanda in our international development programme. I know from conversations that I have had of the enthusiasm that there is not just in the international development sector but across other sectors to continue to build up our relationship with Rwanda. However, today we are, of course, at this 25th anniversary commemoration here to look back and remember. Like I did on 13 April, and I am sure that I speak for this whole Parliament, reflecting other speakers when I say this, the Scottish Government wants to extend the Rwanda into Asper again here in Scotland, and those back in Rwanda, and to the Rwandan Government, our deepest consideration at this time of commemoration. To do so, we are also looking forward with the people of Rwanda to a bright future, and the wish that Rwanda will continue to flourish in peace and hope in the decades ahead. We stand in solidarity with our Rwandan friends as they remember the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. We remember, we unite, and we support them as they renew. That concludes the debate, and this meeting is suspended until 2 o'clock.