We have people who call themselves scholars, scientists, researchers, journalists and historians on Rwanda and are claiming to know more on Rwanda than Rwandans especially on issues that Rwandans either participated in or saw them happening on their horizon.
I’m saying this because of the recent condemnation by the above group of the BBC 2 Documentary that exposed the long old theory that Kagame and his supporters have all along been feeding the international community for their own interests to harvest from their lies and keep Kagame in power.
Whereas the documentary is clear from the start to the end where it shows how the interahamwe and their government (MRND) planned genocide, Kagame on the other hand was planning to take power by all means; this is the contentious issue both in law and in fact. Why these so called academics are distorting the facts of the BBC Documentary? There is no illusion on this; Kagame’s lobbying machinery against anything that might shake his power is at its peak mobilizing. They are in all the corridors of academics or governments, religious leaders or anything that Kagame could see that will change the page of the correct line of his old lies.
The above academics admit that they accept legitimate investigation to be done, but according to them these investigation should not distort the reality of genocide of 1994.
.”We accept and support that it is legitimate to investigate, with due diligence and respect for factual evidence, any crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and to reflect on the contemporary political situation in Rwanda. However, attempts to examine these issues should not distort the reality of the 1994 genocide. It is not legitimate to use current events to either negate or to diminish the genocide. Nor is it legitimate to promote genocide denial”.
Like their godfather president Kagame, they are in fact using the same language this Rwandan ruler has been using to exterminate his political opponents .He has made laws that will lock up or kill those perceived to oppose his brutal rule using his courts or prisons or just extrajudicial killing. Do these academics have the reality on the facts of Rwanda? Could they be clear on what part the Documentary denies, negates or promote genocide? Is genocide not a crime against humanity and a crime against humanity equivalent to genocide?
The above academics in fact are getting it wrong, because according to Prof. William Schabas a criminal law expert, international crimes, namely genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing have the same weight in law. Why should therefore questioning the massacres of Kibeho , Mukarange, Bwisige Karama and other places where RPF was in control be called distorting the reality of genocide?
Unfortunately, far from reality these academics are experts in history and political science, they don’t know that in criminal law, if there is new evidence about a crime, it could change the whole precedence of the law. Why shouldn’t they ask whether appeals could be made on new evidence? Indeed, for their information that’s why many countries have or are campaigning to abolish death penalty. Because if the new evidence is found they can either apply for a re trial of the case but it would be impossible in case the person is dead.
This looks like General Doctor (GP) trying to treat even the disease which needs a specialist. For example in US a woman who was sentenced for 17 years for murder, it was discovered that there was miscarriage of justice during her trial , the judge ordered her release , do these academics propose that this lady would have been left to rot in jail so that they don’t distort the earlier ruling of the court?
The judge said that in Mellen’s case the justice system failed and she had inadequate representation by her attorney at trial.
“I believe that not only is Ms Mellen not guilty, based on what I have read I believe she is innocent,” Arnold said. “For that reason I believe in this case the justice system failed.”
This is one example of million cases in US and other countries in Europe and UK, which have been overturned after the judicially gets new evidence. Yet this fair trial does not happen in Rwanda. Just recently in the case of Gen. Frank Rusagara the Military Court found the General was illegally detained but they did not release him.
Why in UK they are now prosecuting cases that were committed in 1970s? Do these academics appreciate the cases in the ICTR that where overturned moreover the Rwandan RPF government was accusing them of genocide? Gen. Kabiligi, and the former Minister of Commerce Mugenzi Justin, just a few cases in ICTR. These academics seem to misplace their arguments and indeed confine themselves in politics but frankly not in Law.
Furthermore, these academics base their arguments on three pillars in what they call “utmost concern” the first is a lie about the true nature of the Hutu Power militia. The second is an attempt to minimize the number of Tutsi murdered in the genocide, and the third is an effort to place the blame for shooting down President Habyarimana’s plane on April 6, 1994 on the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
It is unfortunate again that these academics distort the facts of the documentary of the BBC, no at any time did the BBC Documentary under estimated the Hutu Power Militia, in fact what the documentary is saying is that Kagame should have been aware or appreciate that these mad people were trained to kill and would have not have put more fuel on the burning flames.
Again, on whom shot the Habyarimana presidential jet, there are is no more confusion on this, because the people who were there and who have the evidence are coming out and saying here we have receipts that bought the missiles that hit the presidential jet. Why should these new evidences be called distorting the reality of 1994?
Why should these academics not appreciate that the 1991 census in Rwanda by World Bank put the number of Tutsis below One Million? Is it minimizing the number of Tutsis or rather RPF is increasing the number of the dead Tutsis for the reasons the academics don’t ask or deliberately ignore. Have these academics ever asked their doll Kagame the graves of the Hutus who were killed in genocide? Unless these issues are addressed by Rwandans but not those academics from US, UK, EUROPE and CANADA, we are just sweeping our houses and put the rubbish under the carpet.
They refer in their argument on international organizations reports like by Amnesty International, UNICEF, the UN Human Rights Commission, Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Africa Rights, a UN Security Council mandated Commission of Experts and evidence submitted to the ICTR and other European courts who have successfully put on trial several perpetrators. Assuming this is correct, but if the information that these organizations had before was inaccurate or incorrect and now new information is discovered, why should be it be regarded as distortion?
Do these academics know that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international are the worst enemies of Kagame today because of continued questions on his criminal record and human rights violations? If they are not convinced they should ask the Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth or Carina Tertsakian. It’s unfortunate thatAlison Des Forges died, she would have told you that Kagame is now the only remaining criminal in office of the president in the world.
Why should these academics not ask the Rwandan President to go to The Hague to clear his name in the same way the Kenyan President did? Why should they appreciate the international organizations that praise Kagame and ignore those that criticize him?
Is this the new academic order of pros without contrasts? We have the UN Mapping report or the Report of Experts; both accuse the Rwandan ruler of mass violations of human rights in Congo. These Kagame admirers hardly mention about them? Do these academics know that the Burundian Prosecution under Valentin Bagora unkunda has confirmed that the dead bodies the world witnessed recently in Lake Rweru came from Rwanda?
He is now requesting the international community to help in invitation to establish the identity of these people. Yet the Rwandan government is determined to exhume these dead bodies and relocate them. In fact what these academics are doing is the reason the BBC Documentary discovered, the cover up of the crimes of Kagame, or those white washing a criminal of the 21 century.
We support the BBC and we call upon other independent institutions like CNN or Aljazeera to make further investigations, because even the supporters of Kagame have indicated on a number of occasions that Rwanda is a time Bomb.
Where are the people who have disappeared or reported missing?
“We have been closely observing the situation experienced by human rights activists, members of the opposition and also the Rwandan media for several years,” said Gesinde Ames from the Ecumenical Network for Central Africa, an association of German church organizations. “There are no longer any free media in Rwanda,” Ames said. “There is a state organ which is under strict control. And it is the same with opposition movements.” Any attempts to counter Kagame by establishing new political parties were quickly stifled, with “party leaders arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment,” Ames told DW
Do these academics know that there is no legal difference between genocide and crimes against humanity? All are international crimes and should call international attention and intervention. As much as we condemn in the strongest times possible those who use any interpretation to deny genocide, we don’t also support those who use genocide to commit other crimes against humanity; TWO WRONGS don’t MAKE A RIGHT? Kagame should be brought to justice and accountable for all the crimes he has committed.
Jacqueline Umurungi
The list of the academics who have sacrificed their professionalism for resoasns know to them and Kagame is here for everybody to see.
Professor Linda Melvern
Author, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide; Conspiracy to Murder
Senator Roméo Dallaire Force Commander, UNAMIR
Professor Gregory H. Stanton President, Genocide Watch
Mehdi Ba
Journalist and Author
Bishop Ken Barham
Dr. Margaret Brearley Independent Scholar
Dr. Gerald Caplan
Author, The Preventable Genocide
Professor Frank Chalk
Professor of History/Director, Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University, Co-author, ‘Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership to Prevent Mass Atrocities’ (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010)
Dr.Phil Clark
Reader in Comparative and International Politics, SOAS, University of London
Boubacar Boris Diop, Sénégal. Author, Murambi, the book of bones
Jean-Francois Dupaquier Author and Expert
Hélène Dumas,
Diplômée de l’IEP d’Aix-en-Provence (2003), Docteur en histoire de l’EHESS (2013)
Professor Margee Ensign
President, American University of Nigeria
Tim Gallimore
Independent genocide researcher
Peter Greaves
Former UNICEF staff member
Fred Grünfeld.
Emeritus professor in International Relations, Human Rights and the Causes of Gross Human Rights Violations, Universities of Maastricht and Utrecht, Netherlands. Author, The Failure to Prevent Genocide in Rwanda: The Role of Bystanders, 2007
Dr. Helen Hintjens
Assistant Professor in Development and Social Justice, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) The Hague
Dr. Georgina Holmes
Lecturer International Relations,
University of Portsmouth/Royal Holloway, University of London
Richard Johnson
Author, The Travesty of Human Rights Watch on Rwanda
Eric Joyce MP
Ambassador Karel Kovanda (ret).
Czech Representative on the UN Security Council, 1994-95
Françoise Lemagnen
Chief Executive, Survivors Fund (SURF)
Ambassador Stephen Lewis.
Former Canadian Ambassador to the UN.
W. Alan McClue
Visiting Fellow, Bournemouth University/Cranfield University
Roland Moerland
Ph.D. Researcher and Lecturer in Supranational and Organizational Criminology, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology Maastricht University, The Netherlands
George Monbiot Author and Journalist
Jacques Morel
Author, La France au coeur du génocide des Tutsi (2010)
Barbara Mulvaney
International Law Consultant; Former Senior Trial Attorney – Bagosora et al., United Nations International Tribunal for Rwanda
Dr. Jude Murison
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Peter Raymont
President, White Pine Pictures, Toronto, Canada
Professor Josias Semujanga
Professeur titulaire, Département des littératures de langue française, Université de Montréal, Quebec
Jonathan Salt
Managing Director of Ojemba Education
Keith Somerville
Senior Research fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London; Lecturer in Communications and Humanitarianism, Centre for Journalism, University of Kent
Patrick de Saint-Exupéry Author and journalist
Dr James M. Smith CBE CEO, Aegis Trust
Rafiki Ubaldo Journalist
Andrew Wallis
Author, Silent Accomplice: The untold Story of the Role of France in the Rwandan Genocide, I.B.Tauris, 2014
Lillian Wong, O.B.E.
British Chargé d’Affairs in Rwanda 1994-1995