President of UN Tribunal: Denial of Genocide against Tutsi a danger to peace, security

Judge Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), or the Mechanism

Judge Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), or the Mechanism, on April 7, bashed deniers of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, saying they will stop at nothing in attempts to erase or revise the past.

Agius, 75, who was speaking live from his home in The Hague, Netherlands, during a ceremony to commemorate the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi noted that denialism does  not  only  inflict additional pain and  suffering on the victims of the genocide.

"It  delays  reconciliation  and  is  an overall  danger to peace  and security," the Maltese judge who was last year appointed to a second term of office as President of the Mechanism, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022, added.

At the onset of his statement, Agius noted that as Rwandans and their friends come together to reflect on one of the most gruesome atrocities committed in modern history, it is difficult for the human brain to fathom the volume and scale of Rwanda’s loss whereby every single man, woman, and child who fell at the hands of génocidaires represented an entire world.

In just 100 days, from April 7 to July 18, 1994, more than one million innocent civilians were slaughtered by Interahamwe militia supported by the then government.

All the atrocities happened as the International Community watched but failed to prevent and stop the genocide despite its prediction by numerous international human rights defenders and media. It was the Rwandan Patriotic Army that stopped genocide and liberated the country from the genocidal forces in July 1994.

The Genocide was the culmination of years of exclusion and denial of human rights that paved way to the attempt to completely eliminate the Tutsi 27 years ago.

Since Rwanda’s independence in 1962, successive regimes maintained a policy targeting the Tutsi - massacres of 1962, 63, 64, 67, 73, 90, 91, and 1992 - as a group to be exterminated.

Noting that people all over the world are commemorating with Rwanda, Agius assured participants at the virtual event that the Rwandan people are ever more present "in my heart and in my mind."

While this remembrance plays an essential role in ensuring that momentum is not lost in bringing to account the remaining perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, he said, it also aids in countering those who add insult to injury, who commit an additional heinous crime against the victims of these atrocities – those engaged in genocide denial. 

"Genocide denialism is not a new phenomenon. Sadly, history has taught us that as surely as night follows day, denialism follows the depraved act of genocide," he said.

They will stop at nothing

Agius' comments come at a time when genocide deniers and their supporters have upped tempo, with the likes of Canadian journalist Judi Rever, British journalist Michella Wrong and many others in foreign capitals peddling genocide denial and revisionism.

Big Western media houses including the BBC, The Guardian, and Washington Post, also continue to ignore the fact that the true account of the Genocide was not invented but is based on an easily accesible mass of documents and testimonies.

These publications have been turned into mouth pieces for genocide suspects, deniers, revisionists and Rwandan terror suspects. Agius said genocide denial manifests itself in a number of different ways, the twisting of reality, the glorification of convicted criminals, the justification of the unjustifiable, and revisionism. It is also not simply the denial of facts, but a distortion of the truth, he said.

In the digital society we live in, with access to countless unverifiable sources of information, he warned, the concept of “alternative facts” has become all too pervasive, and denialism thrives.

"Although the world’s interconnectivity via social media brings us closer together, it also serves as a platform to enable this despicable practice. Through social media, génocidaires and their supporters have access to an unlimited audience to promote their outrageous narrative," Agius said. Genocide deniers, he added, will stop at nothing in their attempts to erase or revise the past.

"If we are not vigilant, the tiniest of untruths that is allowed to go unchallenged will multiply and spread, and become even more difficult to rectify in the future. Therefore, all right-thinking people must counter the misguided arguments  of  the  genocide  deniers  with  equal,  if  not  greater  intensity  to  ensure  that  the  truth prevails  and  lessons  are  learned."

"Only  facts  can  fight  lies,  and  we  must  stand  united  to  ensure  that the facts are  being  heard."

When it comes to genocide  denial, therefore, Agius observed, the  inaction of the international  community, but also of every individual, when  confronted  with such denial would be tantamount  to complicity in creating an alternate reality. It would further abet the dehumanisation of the survivors and strip them of both recognition and justice, he said.

Direct threat to international justice, rule of law

Agius said that denialism  does not only inflict additional  pain and suffering  on  the victims of the  genocide. It also "delays reconciliation and is an overall danger to peace and security," he said.

"Moreover,  genocide  denial  is  a  direct  threat  to  international  justice  and  the  rule  of  law. The  ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) was  established  not  only  to  bring  justice  to  the  victims,  but  also  to  contribute  to  the  process  of national  reconciliation  and  to  the  restoration  and  maintenance  of  peace."

Historians  may  deliberate  over  the  inaction  of  the  international  community  during Rwanda’s dark  days, he said, and scholars  may also engage in  extended discourse on the time it takes for  international criminal justice to be administered. 

But, Agius said, thanks to the compelling evidence  provided by witnesses to the ICTR and the clear judgements that resulted from their testimony, what  will  never be  up for debate is  the  fact  that  genocide, crimes  against  humanity, and war crimes  were perpetrated in Rwanda in 1994. 

"Lies  written  in  ink or  on  social  media will  not  erase  facts  written  in  blood. Indeed, the ICTR judgements are filled with facts written in blood."

Agius concluded by reiterating that  having established this as an objective fact, it is  important to confront the denialists and call evil by  its name. 

"We must do this, not simply to set the record straight and to  deliver justice to the victims, but  because it is  the right thing to do. Because it is the least we can do to ensure that the uncountable souls who perished did not die in vain. Of this there can be  no denial."

Agius has served as Mechanism President since January 2019, having been a Judge of the Mechanism since it commenced operating in 2012.

He was also a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for 16 years from 2001, serving as its Vice-President from November 2011 to November 2015, as well as its final President from November 2015 until December 2017.

In addition, he served as a Judge of the ICTR from 2009 until its closure in 2015.

The Mechanism was established by UN Security Council Resolution 1966 (2010) to complete the remaining work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia after the completion of their respective mandates.