Honouring Gratien Kabiligi an insult to victims of 1994 genocide against the Tutsi

It would be unthinkable to erect a mausoleum or create a foundation for one of the Third Reich leaders considered as architects of the Holocaust such as Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goring, or Heinrich Himmler.

Sadly, for Rwanda and the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, in a shocking move, descendants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide living abroad defied all the norms of decency and set up a fund in honour of Gen. Gratien Kabiligi. The latter is one of the senior army officers in the genocidal government army which stands accused of spearheading the extermination of the Tutsi in 1994.

He is one of the masterminds of the genocide against the Tutsi. During the genocide, he was the head of operations of the genocidal army and was part of the hardcore group of officers, including Col Theoneste Bagosora, which orchestrated one of the worst genocides ever.

The foundation called Foundation Gratien Kabiligi-UMUHUZA set up by his family is a smokescreen aimed at turning a villain into a hero who allegedly helped to save lives, yet ample evidence exists proving that he was at the heart of the planning and execution of the extermination of the Tutsi. The purpose of this shameful act is to rub salt into the wounds of the genocide survivors at the eve of the 28th Commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi.

Ten days before the attack, on former president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane, the last Friday of March 1994, Col André Vincent invited Gen Deogratias Nsabimana, alias Castar, and Kabiligi who was head of military operations and training at the time, to his house.

At the meeting, they stated that the Arusha Accord was not to be accepted. The Arusha Accords were a set of accords signed in Arusha, Tanzania, on August 4, 1993, by the then government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, under mediation, to end a three-year war. If there were any attempt to impose the accords, the trio vowed, they would eliminate the RPF and the Tutsi. It would not take more than a fortnight to eliminate the Tutsi, they noted, seemingly very sure of themselves.

Col Vincent was the head of the Belgian military cooperation with Rwanda before the genocide. He held several parties with senior government millitary officials during the months leading to the genocide.

Though the now defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) acquitted Kabiligi of any genocide crimes, genocide survivors did not forget his involvement in the planning and implementation of the slaughter of more than one million Tutsi. Kabiligi held an important post in the Rwandan army during the genocide and was involved in the massacres against the Tutsi. Those who worked with him have told of how he was in charge of the para-commando units that started the killings in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.

After the defeat of the genocidal forces in July 1994, Kabiligi and other ex-FAR officers coerced more than two million Rwandans to flee the country and settle in refugee camps in the former Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo – where they used them in their ploy to reorganise and return to seize the power in Rwanda and carry on with their thwarted genocidal agenda. The refugee camps were like military garrisons which represented an existential threat against Rwanda.

Maybe forcing these poor people to flee the country and into the jungles of Zaire is what Kabiligi’s daughter, Olive Murenzi, refers to while explaining the logo of this foundation made of a shield and a bridge.

She’s quoted as saying that the aim of the fund is to preserve her father’s values of uniting Rwandans, and that the shield represents Kabiligi’s efforts to save Rwandans.

But Kabiligi’s despicable acts before and during the genocide attest to the contrary. There are no values of a genocide ringleader worth celebrating in that fashion.

The creation of Kabiligi’s foundation should be seen for what it is: an attempt by his family and genocide sympathisers to whitewash him of his heinous crimes.

People should not be fooled by such a deplorable scheme aimed at re-writing history by turning genocidaires like Kabiligi into saints