KIGALI, Rwanda

Rwanda began a weeklong commemoration Monday marking 31 years since the 1994 genocide against the ethnic Tutsi population.

President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame, joined by the dean of the diplomatic corps in the capital Kigali and representatives of genocide survivors, laid wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are buried.

They then lit the “Flame of Remembrance,” a symbol of national unity and resilience, which will burn for the next 100 days — the length of the genocide.

Kagame said the genocide would not happen again in Rwanda — not because perpetrators would not try, but because “Rwandans have chosen to stand together and so that it never happens again.”

In his speech, Kagame linked Rwanda’s past with its present challenges, saying they “are siblings” that must be addressed together. He was referring to diplomatic tensions with countries accusing Rwanda of involvement in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kagame criticized international pressure over the issue, saying: “Go to hell.”

“These people at the UN, in these Western capitals, saying this small country, this Rwanda, when you are ganging up together against Rwanda...I just imagine the world has gone amok. But in the midst of all that we have to live, and I will tell anybody to his face to go to hell. If anyone comes around and thinks they can, you know, they come and say 'hey we're going to sanction you.' What? Go to hell,” he said.

The European Union has sanctioned three senior Rwandan military officials and the head of Rwanda’s state mining agency over the M23 rebel group at the center of the Congo conflict.

Germany, the US and the UK also announced sanctions on Rwanda over its alleged involvement in eastern Congo.

Rwanda last month cut diplomatic ties with Belgium after Kagame accused Brussels of lobbying for international sanctions on Kigali.

About 1 million people — mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus — were killed in the genocide within 100 days.

The violence followed the April 6, 1994 downing of a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira. Both leaders were killed in the attack, which triggered the mass killings by Hutu extremists.