Opinion
BBC will side with terrorists if that’s what it takes to take a swipe at Rwanda
![image](webadmin/images/President Kagame in Mozambique.jpg-20210929102756000000.jpg)
Last
week, September 24, the BBC Kinyarwanda service Gahuza Miryango published a
bizarre story on the day that President Kagame flew to Cabo Delgado to meet
with his Mozambican counterpart, President Nyusi.
The story – ostensibly about a press conference by Rwandans
in Mozambique that coincided with President Kagame’s visit – aimed at diverting attention from
President’s Kagame’s visit to troops deployed there to fight terror insurgents.
For the BBC, the fact that people are now back in
their homes and safe from the insurgents is not worth coverage. The BBC isn’t
even concerned about giving the impression that it prefers to take the side of
terror insurgents rather than give credit to Rwanda. But it’s nothing new.
The title of an August 6 report “Mozambique insurgency: Rwanda leads the fightback” suggested already that the BBC would side
with terrorists as the media outlet couldn’t help but lead in the introduction
with sympathy to the insurgents. “A 1,000-strong Rwandan force has hit the
ground running since its deployment in Mozambique to fight poor insurgents who
have carried out devastating attacks in the far north of the country,” the BBC
wrote to the amazement of social media commentary regarding the intent of
describing terrorists as “poor insurgents,” asking themselves to who the BBC
should extend sympathy in its reporting. To terrorists? Or to their victims,
which the Rwandan and Mozambican forces had come to rescue?
The BBC was apparently regretting what was
happening to the terrorists, as if the latter had brought peace and prosperity
to the people of Cabo Delgado, which the RDF soldiers were on the verge of
destroying.
But the BBC has been consistent in its tasteless
coverage of Rwanda. In the last two decades, the BBC and the Rwandan government
have been at loggerheads over the coverage of Rwanda, with the former’s
Kinyarwanda service doing everything in its powers to undo the government’s
efforts to fight genocide ideology in the Rwandan society.
Time and
again, its Saturday programme Imvo n’Imvano would host genocide deniers, and
even suspects on the run from crimes of genocide, to spew hate under the guise
of partaking in “political debate.” This pro-genocide discourse would take a
turn for the worst every month of April during genocide commemoration.
After
numerous letters of complaint to the leadership of the BBC that fell on deaf
ears, the decision was taken to switch off the BBC Kinyarwanda service from
Rwandan airwaves following the recommendations
of a commission of inquiry in March 2015. Rwanda had
also complained about the close relationship of BBC employees with many of the
genocide ideologues who had been invited to speak on different programmes.
It was not surprising, therefore, that a BBC
employee featured in the court proceedings of the terror convict, Paul
Rusesabagina. Ally Yusuf Mugenzi, the long-time host of the Imvo n’Imvano,
program was among those who had helped frame the narrative that aimed to shift responsibility for the killings of
civilians in the Nyabimata
attacks from the terrorists to the government in what they planned to call
“false flag operations.” This was before Carine Kanimba appeared on Al Jazeera
airwaves in this choreographed performance (starts at 9’50) making similar allegations
and proving that she was part of the conspiracy to blame the Rwandan government
for her father’s crimes.
Even if one were to concede that the press
conference of Rwandans living in Mozambique was worthy of coverage and that it
was legitimate to overshadow President Kagame’s visit to the troops, the way
the BBC decided to cover it took away that possibility. For one, in the last
decade there have been quite a number of incidents of Rwandans getting murdered
in Mozambique. In October 2012, the body of Theogene Turatsinze, a businessman
who had been head of Rwanda Development Bank (BRD) was found tied up and
floating on the shores of the sea on the outskirts of Maputo.
In March
2016, there was an attempted assassination on the head of the association of
Rwandans in Mozambique, Louis Baziga. Three years later, in 2019, Baziga was
this time assassinated and among the three suspects who were arrested for the
murder was Revocat Karemangingo, who himself was murdered last month outside
Maputo.
But it
took the murder of a former soldier in the genocide regime for the BBC to take
these killings seriously to the extent of allowing an unnamed woman to casually
claim without evidence that the killings of Rwandan refugees in Mozambique were
conducted by Kigali and that the international community should intervene – all
“coinciding” with President Kagame’s visit.
Evidently,
both the timing of the press conference that BBC chose to promote and the
decision to convey outrageous, baseless claims remove any doubt as to whether
this was a legitimate journalistic endeavor.
The BBC
is busy expending its energy against Rwanda, even if this leads its services to
contradict themselves. In May 2019, the BBC carried a headline “FLN leader Paul
Rusesabagina says he was ‘not discouraged’ by Major Callixte Sankara’s arrest”,
and, a year earlier in May 2018, they had written another title, “MRCD rebel
group tells BBC it has been fighting Rwandan troops in Nyungwe for a month.”
Yet,
throughout Rusesabagina’s trial, they persisted with their “Hotel Hero”
narrative. At no time did they concern themselves with the victims of the
now-convicted terrorist. Moreover, on the day of the conviction, the only
person they could find to bring perspective to the case and its conclusion was
Carine Kanimba who then declared what would obviously be expected from a child
whose parent is in the kind of predicament Rusesabagina was in, “I know my father will be found guilty,” the BBC’s headline screamed, adding Carine’s plea that “the
international community must act if he’s found guilty of terrorism-related
offenses if they believe in human rights.”
This story, like the one about refugees in Mozambique, aimed to divert attention from the justice that the victims of Rusesabagina’s terrorism, devastated by the loss of their loved ones, were about to finally get after years of waiting. Similarly, the return of the people of Cabo Delgado to normal lives without the constant threat of insurgents was immaterial to the BBC as long as they got their target – President Kagame.
Source: www.newtimes.co.rw