Open letter to BBC World Service Group

Dear Mr. Jamie Angus,

I am writing to you in your capacity as the Director of the BBC World Service Group, which is responsible for the Kinyarwanda programs, BBC - Gahuza Miryango. When BBC started broadcasting in Kinyarwanda after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, many of us in Rwanda welcomed the initiative, with the hope that it would help to heal the wounds. We hoped it would help Rwandans in the reconciliation and reconstruction efforts. But before long, we realized that the Kinyarwanda broadcast especially Imvo n'Imvano had a totally opposite editorial line and intent. Rwandans renamed BBC Kinyarwanda as Gatanyamiryango because of its divisive agenda.    

Let me first bring to your attention the just concluded case involving Paul Rusesabagina and 20 other people who were tried and sentenced for their role in terror activities that killed nine people, left many other injured and traumatic, and lots of property vandalised.

In court proceedings, one of your employees who is a Rwandan, Ally Yusuf Mugenzi, a long-time host of the Imvo N’Imvano program,  was mentioned by prosecution among journalists who conspired to frame a false narrative aimed at  shifting responsibility for the killings of civilians in the Nyabimata attacks from the terrorists to the government. This was done under a coded plan dubbed, “false flag operations.” Mugenzi was on a chat group with Rusesabagina’s family where all the fictitious framing was planned.  Does this represent the high quality, impartial and editorial independent international news that BBC world service claims to stand for? 

It is very dangerous to see that an international media house meant to be a role model of responsible journalism and ethical standards is at the helm of sowing seeds of divisionism among Rwandans, aimed at returning our country to the dark past. This kind of editorial line aids the last stage of genocide; denial and shifting the blame to those who stopped the genocide. It is aimed at re-writing Rwandan history.

Some questions come to mind when the BBC decides to employ people like Mugenzi, an outright sympathizer of the genocide perpetrators. If the BBC does not give space to neo-Nazis, then why does it uphold different standards when it comes to Rwanda?

Is it because the more than a million Rwandan lives that perished during the genocide against the Tutsi do not matter, or simply because they have a black skin? My request to you is that BBC should let our dead rest in peace rather than mocking and dancing on their graves.  

In the case of Rusesabagina, your media house gives the Rusesabaginas free access to distort facts. In one recent tweet of BBC news, Gahuza Miryango reported that, “Rusesabagina: Iminsi 15 ishize atarabona inyandiko yo gukatirwa,” (Rusesabagina has spent 15 days without receiving documents for his sentencing). This is a lie because after sentencing, the documents are available online in the judiciary system, which can be accessed by his lawyers.   

Secondly, I hope you recall the BBC documentary film broadcast in 2014, under the title; “Rwanda: The untold story.”

British researcher and publisher Andrew Wallis, noted that, “the film's cursory "explanation" for what happened was based on the claim by a single RPF defector, now in France, that he heard Kagame order the destruction of the plane. The programme also cited the report by French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, published in 2006. This report has long since been derided for relying on half a dozen Rwandan defectors, many of whom swiftly went public to say that their statements had been corrupted to meet Bruguière's requirements, and that they had been promised French visas should they comply with his wishes.”

Your media house has assumed the role of prosecutor and judge on all matters to do with Rwanda. It is apparent to everyone that BBC coverage on Rwanda is not journalism at practice but political propaganda at play.

It is absurd to see that instead of serving its noble cause as a credible international media house, BBC is used as a political tool against the unity of Rwandans as well as undermining the legitimate government in place.

Dear Mr. Jamie Angus,

You are in a position of leadership that requires you to take the right decisions in regard to the BBC editorial line on Rwanda. If you ignore to do so, you will be counted on the wrong side of history. BBC programs serve to torment millions of Rwandan people whose hearts are still bleeding.

 Rwandans do not need sympathy. But they will be well if you took action and BBC gives them peace. Using their own language – Kinyarwanda - on BBC airwaves to destroy their country that is still in stitches after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi is being insensitive to their suffering.

Sincerely,

Esteri Kanakuze

Nyabimata village.

CC:

UK Prime Minister

Rwandan High Commissioner in London

Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation