July 24, 2026

What Cannot Be Repaired

We must never forget our collective failure to protect at least 800,000 defenceless men, women and children who perished in Rwanda 10 years ago. Such crimes cannot be reversed. Such failures cannot be repaired. The dead cannot be brought back to life.

Kofi Annan spoke these words in 2004, on the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, a catastrophe he had watched unfold a decade earlier while heading UN peacekeeping operations, unable to secure the support needed to stop it. As Secretary-General, he stood before the world and said plainly what many leaders avoid saying: that some wounds cannot be healed, only acknowledged. His own regret over Rwanda stayed with him for the rest of his life, and he spoke of it openly rather than burying it. His honesty offers a different kind of comfort, not the promise that loss can be fixed, but permission to stop pretending it can.