Activists blast French state media for Genocide denial

A French rights group has strongly condemned what it says is an attempt by a public television channel, France 2, to deny the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), which has for years pressured the French government to extradite to Rwanda masterminds of the 1994 Genocide who reside in that country, were offended by a January 31 broadcast that referred to events of April 1994 as genocide against the Hutu by the Tutsi. “It is simply unbearable to hear such distortions of the truth. It is rewriting of history by ignorant journalists and or malicious intent,” CPCR president, Alain Gauthier told Sunday Times. During a breakfast show the host, William Leymergie, journalist Damien Thevenot, and guest Olivier Royan, the editorial director at French language weekly magazine, Paris Match, began by talking about a photo of people who had fled with the perpetrators of the genocide in 1994, returning to Rwanda. Thevenot poses his first question, pointing to the picture: “Another striking photo: The Hutu genocide by Tutsi. Why have you chosen this photo?” Without frowning, Royan said: “In 1994, you have this incredible event, in front of the international community, the Rwandan genocide during which Hutu will be entirely exterminated by Tutsi.” Gauthier who watched the entire programme says that the host and the journalists went on and on using the words “mistake”, “confusion” and “misunderstanding” regarding events of 1994. “But we are tired of hearing, at regular periods, this misinformation which, sooner or later will be ingrained in the minds of people who don’t know what happened in Rwanda in 1994, or don’t want to know,” Gauthier said. The CPCR wants such attempts at confusing the public “condemned and denounced.” “Here we are again after 20 years: it’s unbearable. We might have thought that the cover of Simbikangwa’s trial, by the media, and his 25 years’ imprisonment for Genocide could light up public opinion, and above all, those who produce it. Well: NO! It gives the opposite.” Out of CPCR’s resilient advocacy, a Genocide trial – the first in France – was initiated against Pascal Simbikangwa, early last year resulting in a 25-year sentence. Simbikangwa, a paraplegic, was accused by the French prosecution of having supplied arms to theInterahamwe militia and ordered the massacre of the Tutsi in the former Gisenyi prefecture, current Rubavu District. The CPCR had considered the trial and conviction of Simbikangwa as a symbol of the end of impunity, in France, and a great sign of hope for the other cases as fugitives living there may be charged for Genocide. Genocide researcher, Tom Ndahiro, however, sees a direct link between what transpired in the French television studio and what was going on at Interahamwe manned roadblocks in 1994 in Rwanda. Ndahiro said: “I am not looking at an individual in a studio but at an institutionalized framework of denial. There is a link between the crime of Genocide, its perpetrators and their supporters in 1994 who, 20 years later, continue to deny.” “To do it through a public broadcaster, he who pays the piper must ask some questions. He has responsibility in the program and, of course, we know the historical link to the Genocide machinery”. Ndahiro regards what transpired in the show as not just genocidal denial but a “pathological state of denial and, maybe, the highest level of insanity in re-writing history.” Such shows, he pointed out, can only be done by people with connections to genocide perpetrators, or people who are “total stupid nincompoops.” The CPCR, on the other hand, has filed 25 other genocide lawsuits but no action has been taken. Pointing to the ‘humiliating’ words used by the French journalists, Evode Kalima, a former lawmaker who survived the Genocide in Kigali, said that even though it is all suspect, “it is not surprising”. “Every time, a few weeks ahead of the annual Genocide commemoration activities [in April], the deniers and revisionists come out with intentions of backing those who prepared it, executed it and all of those who supported them. I think that those professional and experienced journalists who are well equipped used such words on purpose.”

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Activists blast French state media for Genocide denial