Regional
Open letter to New Zealand Institute of International Affairs
New
Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA)
I am
writing to you after learning that your prestigious Institute invited British
journalist and author Michela Wrong to talk about a controversial topic titled
“Rwandan Genocide: Lessons learned”; a lecture scheduled on Thursday, May 9,
2024; and “Rwanda: African Policeman or Regional Troublemaker” scheduled on
Monday, May 6, 2024.
I am a
concerned survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
I wish
to bring to your attention that although Wrong poses as a journalist with vast
experience in Africa, and an author, the reality is that when it comes to
Rwanda, her work is politically motivated and misleading.
She
only qualifies as a political propagandist against the current Rwandan
President Paul Kagame, and the ruling party RPF-Inkotanyi.
Wrong
has, for many years, been working to tarnish the image of Rwanda and the
country’s leadership.
What
Wrong writes about Rwanda, like in her book “Do Not Disturb”, and other
articles in the Global North media, is fully biased against Rwandan
leadership.
Wrong
is a genocide denier working closely with terror groups like the Rwanda
National Congress (RNC).
According to Genocide scholars, for every genocide that has taken place in the world, there are people and organizations that have come up to defend the perpetrators by denying their responsibility in genocide, and instead blaming the victims.
Wrong
is one zealous genocide denier obsessed by accusing President Kagame and the
RPF of every immoral thing she can think of or imagine.
Wrong
is aiding the last stage of genocide, which is denial.
By
blaming the RPF that stopped the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the
intention is to turn genocide villains into heroes and Rwandan heroes into
villains.
She is
in the league of friends of evil against Rwanda, and has traded her journalism
ethics for lies and fictitious narratives that serve the interests of criminals
who committed genocide in Rwanda, genocide deniers, Rwandan dissidents in
exile, and others who propagate the double genocide theory.
Wrong
belongs to naysayers who never see anything good happening in Rwanda or done by
President Kagame. She invests time and money to find ways of twisting the truth
and the good things happening to be seen in bad light.
When
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Rwanda, in May 2021, Wrong knew the
visit warmed up bilateral relations between Kigali and Paris. To throw dirt on the image of President
Kagame before the international community, Wrong came up with an Op-Ed in The
Guardian, to coincide with the visit. The title of her article was; “The world
is slowly waking to Paul Kagame’s brutal actions in Rwanda.”
When
Karegeya died in South Africa and when Rwandan singer Kizito Mihigo committed
suicide in a prison cell in Kigali, she was quick to blame Kagame and the
Rwandan government without a grain of evidence.
The
planned topics of discussion at your prestigious Institute are other examples
where she wants to create a bad image of Rwanda.
Wrong
wants to undermine the visible successes that Rwanda has registered in bringing
peace in different African countries such as; Mozambique, Sudan, the Central
African Republic, and others. Rwanda collaborates with the African Union, the
UN and the international community to carry out such missions.
Rwanda’s
military support stems from a bitter history as well as the principle of the
Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which is an international norm that seeks to
ensure that the international community never again fails to halt the mass
atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity.
To
castigate Rwanda as a regional trouble maker only exposes Wrong’s bias and
hatred towards the leadership of Rwanda.
The
problems in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), started way
back in the 1960s when Kagame was a toddler.
The
Berlin Conference (1884-1885) that partitioned Africa, sowed the seeds of the
conflict that is prevailing there.
Blaming Kagame for the troubles in the region only exposes Wrong’s lies
and sinister motives.
In her
work, Wrong strives to bias the international community about Rwanda, with the
aim of seeing the country being isolated.
To the
contrary, Rwanda is praised by the international community for putting
financial aid to good use and pledges to give more. Wrong’s mind is corrupt and
she no longer qualifies to carry the title of a journalist since journalistic
ethics call for truth, accuracy, fairness and impartiality, which are visibly
absent in her narratives about Rwanda.
Dear
NZIIA Board Members,
Wrong
is coming to your Institution at a time in Rwanda when we shall be
commemorating 100 days of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi where more than
one million innocent victims were brutally murdered.
For
NZIIA to give a platform to a genocide denier and a propagator of double
genocide theory like Wrong during our commemoration of the Genocide, it implies
that your Institution is joining hands with genocide deniers and anti-Rwanda
propagandists.
I
believe that you, as the Board Members, know well that genocide is a crime
against humanity and giving a platform to a genocide denier tantamounts to
being accomplices in aiding the last stage of genocide, denial.
I want
to bring to your attention that, in February 2021, Wrong attended a virtual
event to commemorate the former head of Rwanda’s intelligence services Patrick
Karegeya, who was among the founding members of the terrorist group, RNC, who
was later murdered in a hotel room in South Africa.
Fact
is that Wrong was an intimate friend of Karegeya, a fact that she does not even
hide in her book, “Do not Disturb” when she describes Karegeya as having
“smooth honey skin.”
Even
the title of her book is derived from the message that was hanging on
Karegeya’s hotel room door. With no evidence or any court ruling, Wrong trades
her journalistic ethics to political interests and blames the government of
Rwanda for the murder of Karegeya.
Wrong
was praised by members of RNC for being their strong supporter “to keep their
story alive”.
Wrong
acts as a hired anti- Rwanda advocate and is making money through selling her
book which is full of lies against Rwanda and President Kagame. She recycles fictitious narratives and
‘testimonies’ gathered from Rwandan dissidents and genocide suspects.
Her
autobiography was edited by another notorious genocide denier - Rene Mugenzi who was convicted in the UK in
October 2020 and sentenced to 27 months in jail for stealing more than £220,000
from Norwich Roman Catholic Cathedral where he volunteered as its treasurer.
Mugenzi is also a known compulsive gambler.
Dear
NZIIA Board Members,
In
order to protect your own reputation and that of NZIIA, I wish to request you
to cancel the planned event with Wrong and stop all other collaborations with
her.
Her
genocide denial actions are cynical and hurting us as survivors of the 1994
Genocide against the Tutsi. She is dancing on the graves of over one million
Rwandans who were brutally murdered. She is a liar who has turned it into a
profession to tarnish the image of President Kagame and Rwanda as a country.
I
thank you for your attention and understanding,
Michael
Nkurunziza
A
survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
CC:
Hon.
Christopher Mark Luxon
Prime
Minister of New Zealand
Hon. MPs New Zealand Parliament