On September 15, Aljazeera published another opinion piece, “Rwanda’s consensual democracy needs a reset,” by Victoire Ingabire, alleging that Rwanda’s governance model is repressive and can no longer address Rwandans’ aspirations.

 

Self-proclaimed as a ‘Rwandan politician’, Ingabire continously criticizes Rwandan democracy, mainly through international media.

 

But who, really, is she? Does Ingabire qualify to be a politician who has Rwanda’s interests at heart? What’s her real agenda? These, and more, are questions Western media and others never bother to investigate, or intentionally evade.

 

Ingabire was convicted for divisionism, genocide denial, and collusion with FDLR – a terrorist group that committed genocide in Rwanda. Arrested in 2010, Ingabire was convicted for  inciting the masses to revolt against the government, forming armed groups to destabilise the country, and minimising the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. She was convicted on evidence given to Rwandan authorities by the Dutch government, showing how she fundraised for the FDLR, a terror group linked to the 1994 Genocide.

 

In 2018, Ingabire got a presidential pardon but she continues to abuse it.

 

It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Aljazeera gives Ingabire space to propagate her ideology and poor criticism over democracy in Rwanda as well as the governance as whole. But Aljazeera constantly ignores to bring to light the fact that Ingabire was the head of an organization of perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsi which later morphed into FDLR. Without shedding light on her sinister past, and present, Western media continues to allow her to talk about "democracy" as she pleases.

 

Good governance, democracy and human rights can only be rightly assessed by law abiding citizens not someone like Ingabire who has a long history of working with terror networks and promoting the double genocide theory.

 

A simple investigation, especially into her past, by Western media could have helped shed light on how dangerous she is.

 

Ingabire dedicated her life to promoting the double genocide theory and terrorism. She lived, for many years, in The Netherlands where she was naturalised as a citizen.

 

In 1995, Ingabire was among the founder members of the Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) – a party of the defeated Rwandan genocidal regime then in exile in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  The man who recruited her, Lt Col Juvenal Bahufite, an intelligence chief in the genocidal regime, saw an asset in her.  Ingabire was considered 'clean' since she could not be directly linked to the 1994 genocide – despite her parent’s direct participation in the massacres.

 

Her mother, Thérèse Dusabe, was a midwife at the Butamwa Health Center in Kigali during the genocide. Dusabe was nicknamed "the doctor of death" for her cruelty during the genocide. She killed Tutsi pregnant women and then killed babies too, by hitting them on the wall. Ingabire’s father, Pascal Gakumba, was a bourgmestre for Kibilira commune between 1994 and 1996. He was active in inciting people in his commune to carry out genocide.

 

In 1995, Ingabire became one of the founder members of RDR, alongside masterminds of the genocide against the Tutsi such as Col Théoneste Bagosora and Gen Augustin Bizimungu, the ex- FAR chief of staff. RDR’s manifesto was to integrate, reorganize, enlarge, rearm, indoctrinate, and train Hutu Power forces then camped in former Zaire, so that the genocidal Hutu Power movement can return to Rwanda, by force or by negotiation.

 

In 2000, Ingabire was elected leader of RDR. The party’s members – mostly genocide fugitives – considered her as ‘clean’ to genocide related crimes, and hoped to use her inside Rwanda so she could cause trouble from within.

 

Throughout her leadership, she tried hard to combine all genocidal movements into one coalition. This is what led to the formation of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), in 2006. Ingabire was its chairperson.

 

In 2010, Ingabire returned to Rwanda, after 16 years living abroad, to contest in the presidential election as FDU-Inkingi’s candidate.

 

Upon her arrival, she went straight to Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre where she insisted that it was disgraceful that only the Tutsi were commemorated while there were Hutu who fell victims of the Genocide and should also be commemorated. Ingabire’s genocide ideology, denial and advocacy of the double genocide theory, had finally come out.

 

The same year, Dutch police searched her home and found telephone records containing her past communication with genocidal militia commanders. They also found testimonies of people in The Netherlands who worked alongside Ingabire. Ingabire was later convicted for genocide related crimes and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

 

A year after her release, in 2018, Ingabire founded a new part, DALFA-Umurinzi, intent on confusing the public that she had changed her ways.

 

The question about Aljazeera’s journalism standards and ethics remains. How can it deliberately give platform to a criminal mind to spread dangerous lies as well as baptize her as an opposition leader yet she is a genocide ideologue?

 

Al Jazeera proclaims to be a bastion of fair and accurate journalism. But it contradicts itself by publishing Ingabire’s venom without checking facts.