KIGALI, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Rwandans, along with leaders and representatives of foreign countries and international bodies, gathered in the Kigali National Stadium on Wednesday to mourn the around one million victims during the 1994 genocide.

    Today 10 years ago, a frenzy of hatred and massacre plunged Rwanda, a small, hilly country in central Africa, into an unprecedented terror. Around one million people, men and women, old and young, were slaughtered in 100 days by machetes, hoes, andsticks, which should be used for working.

    The stands in the stadium were crowed with people who lost their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, neighbors, classmates or colleagues during the genocide against Tutsis, who account for 14 percent of the total population of Rwanda.

    Those who used savage means to kill them were Hutus, who had lived with them for hundreds of years.

    A military band began to play solemn music, provoking people's affection and creating an atmosphere of sadness in the stadium.

    Girls dressed in pink, traditional skirts sang songs to expressRwandans' missing of their deceased family members.

    When the silence of several minutes was observed, sobbing couldbe heard from various directions of the stadium with a capacity ofmore than 20,000 people. People could even hear their own breath and heartbeat.

    All of a sudden, screams erupted from somewhere, touching off consequent louder cries and screams on the stands. Those were people who were too emotional to control themselves.

    Red Cross workers rushed to different sites to help comfort them and escort many of them out. Some people refused to leave, just crying for their beloved killed during the genocide.

    Cameramen and photographers ran to those seats to take film or pictures. The stadium was immersed into deep sadness.

    The Wednesday commemoration ceremony was called National Reflection, aimed at helping Rwandans and the international community think over why such a tragedy could take place in modernsociety and what should be done to prevent these brutal killings from happening again in Rwanda and other parts of the world.

    For Rwanda and the world, April 7, 2004 is indeed a day that needs profound reflection.

    A pink banner, with words "Never Again" on it, was hung at the entrance of the newly inaugurated Kigali Memorial Center. That's the wish of all Rwandans and the world as a whole. Enditem