By Charles Ishimwe

The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum awarded Roméo Dallaire, a retired Lieutenant-General, Senator, and celebrated humanitarian the 2014 Reflections of Hope Award. In 1993, LGen Dallaire was appointed Force Commander for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR); where he witnessed the country’s descent into chaos and genocide. More than 800,000 Rwandans were killed in less than 100 days.

Romeo Dallaire wrote many books about Rwanda and the experiences that he witnessed during the 1994 Tutsi genocide. Shake Hands with Devil is one of the many books that he wrote. Roméo Dallaire was honored because of his role of trying to stop the 1994 Tutsi Genocide of Rwanda. For more information about the honoring event, you may visit http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/secondary.php?section=15&catid=191&id=1458

Fiston was one of two artists who were pleased to perform at the event. He was featured with the famous Rwandan artist, The Ben in a new song called “I Can See.”

“It was very a helpful and good experience to perform in such crowd of people. I have been dreaming to change the lives of the people since I was very young. I could believe that I got this chance to perform among the professional people with a beautiful song of comforting the survivors of 1994 Tutsi genocide,” said Fiston.

Fiston was born and raised in a Christian Family. He started singing and playing the piano at age of 12 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  His music carrier is often classified as R&B, jazz fusion and gospel music. His goal is to earn an associate degree in Communication and New Media at SMCC and transfer later to a 4yr college where he will study music and the arts.

“Despite of attending this event, I have learned a lot form this event, I have heard the strong message from Romeo Dallaire. This man tried everything to stop genocide, but he couldn’t manage it. This experience is similar to what I have experienced in DR Congo. We really need heroes like Romeo today to stop the violence’s around the world,” said Fiston is an emotional voice.

Fiston attended the event on the 31st of March 2014, one week before the 20th commemoration of 1994 Tutsi Genocide. On April 7th of each year, the country of Rwanda and friends of Rwanda take the time to commemorate the beloved ones that were killed for no reason in the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. As in other parts of world, the diaspora of the Rwandan Community in New England meet for commemoration services. This year’s service was held at the Portland High School Auditorium, on April 12th. Regardless of whether you were able to attend this year’s service, or not please do your part to say Never Again to this inhuman act.