Regional
“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 18th 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the lie that has been the origin of the 2010 unpublished United Nations report,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.