Exposing Genocide deniers and their deceit

Linda Melvern; author and journalist, has extensively researched on the Genocide against the Tutsi

As we approach the 27th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwandans and friends of Rwanda abroad continue to fight Genocide deniers and their atrocious falsehoods.

It is in this spirit that on March 29, Ibuka Memory and Justice in Belgium, an umbrella organization of genocide survivors organized a virtual symposium where experts were invited to expose individuals and organisations behind genocide denial and revisionism.

British journalist and author Linda Melvern who has extensively researched on the Genocide against the Tutsi and written books - the most recent is "Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi (Version 2020)" - noted that despite the incontestable evidence of the 1994 Genocide, it is still subjected to an intense propaganda campaign aimed at distorting facts, and promoting disinformation.

The people behind this genocide denial campaign have a lot in common, she observed. They willingly distort the truth and promote disinformation. Proponents of genocide revisionism are determined to minimize and obscure the Genocide against the Tutsi.

According to Melvern, the influence of Hutu Power - a racist and ethnosupremacist ideology propounded by Hutu extremists before and during the Genocide against the Tutsi - and its racist ideology persists today.

Many of the leaders of this ideology fled from Rwanda after masterminding the Genocide, thanks to the help of French troops in the zone of Opération Turquoise - a French-led military operation in Rwanda in 1994 under the mandate of the United Nations - and they now live comfortably in foreign capitals. It is these genocide ideologues in exile that finance and prop up terrorist groups such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The area of French influence, known as Zone Turquoise, within the then Cyangugu-Kibuye-Gikongoro triangle, was spread across a fifth of the country.

Witnesses including Guillaume Ancel, a former French military officer and author who has published books on foreign military operations in Rwanda questioning the actions of France in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide, say that Operation Turquoise - which he participated in - was not a humanitarian operation but a cover to try to put the Genocide masterminds back to power.

Melvern noted that the genocide deniers and their accomplices pretend that there are two versions of the story of the Genocide against the Tutsi. They propagate that the first one, which is commonly accepted, is the one made in Kigali by the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

The distorted version, promoted by Canadian journalist Judi Rever, claims that the RPF itself triggered the Genocide by assassinating President  Juvenal Habyarimana, thus violating the Arusha Accords to seize power well knowing that the Tutsi population would be in danger. Rever even alleges that the RPF was not ready to stop the Genocide because its goal was to win the war.

Rever even claims that RPF infiltrators killed the Tutsi at roadblocks. The motive, she shamelessly alleges, was to attract sympathy and get foreign support.

Regrettably, Rever’s book, "In Praise of Blood," is published by a big Canadian Publishing House, Penguin Random House, despite being all built on treacherous deceit.

Worse still, British journalist Michella Wrong has joined Rever in peddling genocide denial and revisionism. Wrong lobbied and attracted the interest of big newspapers in England such as The Guardian who are ready to help her distort the truth, peddle lies and deny the Genocide against the Tutsi.

“From my point of view, it is evident that different journalistic standards are applied when it is about Africa. Serious allegations contained in those books could not be levelled against any leader, any government in Europe based on rumors, uncorroborated evidence, hear-says, approximation and lies,” stressed Melvern.

Wrong plans to publish her venomous book, “Do Not Disturb” on April 13 during the initial Commemoration week. Rever and Wrong’s blatant lies are in line with the BBC's 2004 documentary “Rwanda: The Untold Story”, which stated that the RPF might have triggered the Genocide, and did nothing to stop it.

Shockingly, the documentary ignores the eventuality of a coup d’état by the Hutu Power extremists. It does not mention Théoneste Bagosora - a key architect of the 1994 Genocide.

Unfortunately, the BBC continues to ignore the fact that the true account of the Genocide was not invented but is based on a mass of documents and testimonies which are easily accessible. Excerpts of the BBC’s infamous documentary are still available on its website as a document challenging the official version. The documentary has emboldened genocide deniers.

Melvern recalled that the narrative pushed by the BBC is the same pushed in 1994 by Rwandan diplomats in the corridors of the UN. At the time, Jean Damascene Bizimana who was Rwanda’s Ambassador to the United Nations blamed the Genocide on the anger of the population caused by the alleged killing of Habyarimana by the RPF. Bizimana held a non permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council during the Genocide.

In France, Belgium, Canada, the US, Britain, and elsewhere, professors and journalists continue to defend genocidaires and allege that the victims of the tragedy were responsible for it. Melvern observed that, for nearly a decade, many UN member states pledged to fight genocide denial and revisionism but few have done what they agreed to do.

The good work of people like Melvern, dedicated to exposing genocide deniers and their supporters, must be appreciated.