“Mapping Report is a hoax” – Senator Mupenzi

La Traversée is the book that has not been much known because of its period of publication which coincided with the publication of the Duclert and Muse reports that talk about the role of France in the history of Rwanda that led to the genocide against the Tutsi.  The book came in the period of stories about President Emmanuel Macron’s visit in Rwanda, [the visit] that restored the relations of both countries after many years of standoffs in their relations.

La Traversée is the book of French journalist Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, a seasoned journalist in making investigative stories. He has worked for renowned newspapers including Le Figaro that enabled him to come to Rwanda during the genocide against the Tutsi and witness himself the atrocity by which the genocide was carried out. Patrick de Saint-Exupéry is the one journalist who pushed President François Mitterrand who was leading France in 1994 to contradict himself and revealed his truth that the genocide against the Tutsi didn’t happen.

Mitterrand revealed that in November 1994, after four months of genocide against the Tutsi, in the 18^th Franco-African summit that took place in Biarritz, France. Patrick de Saint-Exupéry asked Mitterrand about the genocide that took place in Rwanda, and he answered: “What genocide are you talking about? You talk about the one the Hutu carried out against the Tutsi or the one the Tutsi carried out against the Hutu?”

The denial of Mitterrand has been like the fire in the bush, and has been a strong shield of Rwanda critics and those resentful people for their role in the genocide against the Tutsi. Mitterrand’s words are the ones that introduce the book of Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, where he [the writer] states that the lie of genocide against the Hutu took its origin in Mitterrand’s office.

Senator Mupenzi George is one among many people who read the book La Traversée in order to know the veracity of the lie that has been forged for more than 27 years, the lie that has been the origin of the 2010 unpublished United Nations report, dubbed ‘Mapping Report’. It’s a report that goes in the same direction as that of Mitterrand’s words that allege that RPF-Inkotanyi killed more than three million Hutu and Congolese in Congo and ask that such killings should be termed genocide.

In difficult journey, Patrick de Saint-Exupéry started it from Rwanda, went on in Congolese forests where Rwandan refugees, mainly genocidaires, passed when fleeing, to reach to Kisangani and Kinshasa, ended it without finding evidences of a genocide against the Hutu. The path of Rwandan refugees towards Congo [Kinshasa] is the same path the writer Patrick de Saint-Exupéry passed through by pursuing to know the truth about the claimed genocide against the Hutu. 

Senator Mupenzi in the television show termed ‘Impamba y’Ubumenyi’ that was aired on Rwanda Television on 16 November 21, said that the truth of the book La Traversée, is found in testimonies of Rwandans who were refugees in Congo. The same testimony is supported by that of Congolese who were there when the Rwandan refugees reached in that country until they left.

He said “Those I talked to are knowledgeable people, priests, researchers and all other opinion leaders. It’s trusted people, where a person tells you: “this time things were like this”. The place where people died, those who died because of hunger and thirst, they say all”.

In that book, the witnesses do not deny the fact that some refugees died in Congo but they confirm that there are some who died due to diseases and bad conditions in the Congolese jungles, some were also killed by militia Interahamwe and the ex-Armed Forces of Rwanda when there was some quarrels among them. Some even fell in the fights because there were together with armed soldiers, who might crash with other militaries and people could die.

Senator Mupenzi said that there are places where refugees reached and killed each other. He said: “the former refugees [in those forests] said that they reached to some point and saw another look of genocide. They looked each other divided by that time, some commenced to look at among themselves as people from the south, others looked at among them as liars, and some looked at among them people with sharp noses, the thin and other divisive traits.”

Senator Mupenzi confirms that La Traversée is a great gift to Rwandans

"The soldiers had grenades so that when they got to some places and found some people who wanted to return to Rwanda, they would throw them at them to intimidate them." While rumors were spread that some Hutu had been killed in the Congolese forests, Senator Mupenzi said it was inconsistent with the testimony of those interviewed by Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, who had been repatriated by RPF forces.

He recalled the testimony of Marie Rose who encountered the Inkotanyi forces in forests and they rescued her sick husband and they even asked her to call other refugees and be repatriated to Rwanda by plane. More than two million refugees were evacuated during that time. Senator Mupenzi said the truth of La Traversée's had touched his heart, and he was determined to make it known because the book was a great asset to Rwandans.

He said: “What attracted me is how a foreign has committed to disprove a lie, has accepted to come and walked, went on motorcycle, in forests and bitten by mosquitos, and hunger in the search of the veracity of what happened in that forest”.  “Imagine in order to clarify such issue, so that you know what happened at Goma, Walikale, Kisangani, for a non-Rwandan, you accept to follow that path so that you know the authenticity of what people have lied him, are great things.”  

Senator Mupenzi says that this book is a gift given to Rwanda considering the exorbitant sum of money that United Nations spent to compile a historically misleading Mapping Report.  He said: “Ask what amount of money the United Nations spent to compile Mapping Report, it could be two million US dollar. So the author gave us this book as a gift, let’s read it and make it popular. This is what you could call truth-telling. ”

According to Mupenzi, the incontrovertible evidences based on deep investigation and testimony of eye witnesses confirms that “Mapping report is a hoax” that was spread by Mitterrand’s fans including Hubert Védrine, the former Secretary General to Mitterrand, writers like Pierre Péan, an expert of a country that he never set his foot and others who based on political reasons and their hatred against Rwanda. La Traversée also recalls the tragic legacy of massacres carried out by Rwandan refugees wherever they lived in Congo

The book follows step-by-step where Rwandan refugees went through when fleeing in 1994, where they lived, the yet existent graves of those who died and the cause of their death, and so on.