International
It is high time Australia stands up to genocide perpetrators, deniers
Since
2019, the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, Australia, annually welcomes the
event of ‘Rwandan Genocide
Commemoration’, organized by the so-called Rwandan Association of Queensland
Inc (RAQ), a group openly propagating the double genocide theory, a form of
genocide denial.
This
year is no different.
The
Queensland Parliamentary hall is expected to hold this same event, on April 22,
which is in itself a form of denial and revisionism of the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi.
On
top of that, it is now custom that this group of individuals together with some Australian lawmakers, commemorate
what they call a “Rwandan genocide’, and have adamantly refused to use the
correct, and universally acknowledged, terminology, “the genocide against the
Tutsi”. Rwandans around the world, including members of Ibuka, the umbrella of
genocide survivors’ associations, have petitioned the Speaker of the Australian
Parliament, urging him not to give a platform to these Genocide deniers.
The
numerous requests got the answer that the Parliament House is accessible to
every Australian citizen if a Member of Parliament supports them.
It is absurd that, year after year, Australia
continues be a bystander to Genocide denial, and offers its parliament premises
as a platform for people who are clearly advancing the double genocide
ideology, and sowing division among Rwandans in Australia.
As
reported before, a closer look at the people behind organizing this annual event,
shows that they are; Genocide fugitives, and their offsprings, who are hiding
under RAQ. Theogene Ngabo, president of RAQ, is believed to be the MRCD-FLN
representative in Australia, running errands for a splinter group of the
DRC-based genocidal FDLR militia. He is alleged to have committed Genocide
atrocities in the former Muvumba Commune, in Byumba, now Gicumbi District.
The
FDLR was formed, in DRC, by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide
against the Tutsi. It has members abroad, including in Australia. Contrary to
uninformed analysts - and the militia’s backers in Kinshasa, the DRC capital, and elsewhere - who say that
FDLR was diminished, it is still a security and ideological threat, until it is
completely disarmed and demobilised.
In a
2019-night attack on northern Rwanda, FDLR killed 19 innocent Rwandan citizens.
Weeks
before Rwanda hosted the June 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or
CHOGM, the FDLR militia shelled into Rwanda, with weapon systems they could
only have acquired in very recent times. That, certainly, is not evidence of
FDLR being diminished.
Regrettably,
sympathizers of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in and
so-called experts from the Western are openly defending the genocidaires,
blessing their negationism, and, with no shame, distorting Rwanda's history and
daring to justify what is unjustifiable.
Rwanda
has chosen the path of truth, justice, and reconciliation, but this path does
not mean that perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, or the
deniers of the Genocide against the Tutsi, should go without answering for
their crimes. There should be no safe haven for genocidaires and deniers.
Genocidaires must answer for their crimes against humanity, their crimes
against the Tutsi.
Australia
should not allow them to escape justice and continue to haunt Rwandans now
living abroad in countries that gave them a new start.
Another
example is Amiel Nubaha, the former president of the association, is the son of
Frodouard Rukeshangabo, a former
education inspector in Rwanda nicknamed “trophy hunter” for his
enthusiasm in hunting down, directing the mass murders and torture of the Tutsi
during the Genocide, in Eastern Province. In absentia, his father was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Gacaca
courts. Nubaha and his father are active members of RAQ in Australia.
The
fact that the Australian government is letting Genocide fugitives roam free in
their country is a story for another day. But letting these genocide suspects,
deniers and anti-Rwanda subversive groups advance their lies in the Australian Parliament
for more than five years in a row, is unacceptable.
Australian
authorities and lawmakers are betraying Rwandans and the entire world, with the simple fact that they continue to
allow this to go on for so long. It is not only an insult to the victims of the
1994 genocide against the Tutsi – by denying their suffering. It is also a
message of encouragement to the criminals who perpetuate genocide denial, as
well as genocide ideology.
The
Australian government needs to recognise that the 1994 genocide against the
Tutsi is a fact of history and represents one of the most appalling crimes
against humanity committed in the course of history.
The
Australian government, and especially the legislature, aught to know that
denial is the final stage of Genocide.
Australian lawmakers and other politicians
need to know that genocide denial is as much an offence as the Genocide itself.
Deniers
of the Genocide against Tutsi are mainly outside of Rwanda in places where
denial is not a penal offence. Despite the Genocide against the Tutsi being
stopped in 1994, many fugitives from the former Rwandan genocidal government,
army, militias, and other groups fled to neighboring countries such as DRC,
Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania as well as far off in France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and beyond, where they continue, till this day, to spread Genocide
ideology, genocide denial and hatred against the Tutsi. Some found a safe haven
in parts of Australia.
The Australian
government needs to acknowledge the importance of empathy and accuracy in
countering genocide denial ideologies and hate speech that often arise in
discussions surrounding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Genocide denial
and related dangerous narratives are harmful. They lead to violence.
Australian
politicians and citizens should all stand up to it.
They
should not classify genocide denial as free speech, because it is not.
In
many Western countries, Holocaust denial is a crime.
The
1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda should have the same protections.
Genocide
denial is always connected to the perpetrators and ideologues of the Genocide.
All
of humanity, including Australians, should be on guard.