Why Rwanda should not change position on BBC

Editor, Reference is made to Lonzen Rugira’s article, “Why we must sidestep the fog to grasp the gravity of BBC’s infractions” (The New Times, March 9). In truth the core of the BBC’s crime under Rwandan law is its denial of the Genocide against the Tutsi. This is a very serious felony under our law, punishable for individual transgressors with serious prison time. There have been some foreign voices—many of them British—urging our Government to be more forgiving of their transgressing national public broadcaster, that Kigali should not only take legal action against the BBC, but also reverse itself and restore the corporation’s access to our national frequencies for its broadcasting. Clearly these people consider their institution to be above the fundamental interests of not only the Rwandan people but also of our laws. If we ever needed any confirmation of the racist arrogance and the contempt in which such people hold us and the laws we have put in place to safeguard ourselves against the recurrence of genocide in our country, this is it. It is important for those who must take decisions related to the recommendations of the Ngoga Commission to send out an unambiguous message: Rwandan lives matter more than any foreign interest, and Rwandan laws enacted to protect Rwanda against the likelihood of another genocide are applicable to all who operate within our jurisdiction, no matter how important and powerful they believe themselves to be or think they should be dispensed from the application of those laws. The BBC was given an opportunity to cooperate with the Ngoga Commission and explain why they have transformed themselves into an important platform for deniers, revisionists and those who trivialise the Genocide against Rwanda’s Tutsi; a trauma a large proportion of our population continue to grapple with. Arrogantly, the BBC snubbed that opportunity. It would be a serious error were Government to fail to implement the recommendations of the Ngoga Commission in their entirety. We learn from the regional press that one ambassador has apparently undertaken a demarche to persuade Government not only to desist from applying the Commission’s recommendations, but in fact to lift the ban against the BBC Gahuza. One can only be incredulous at such unalloyed arrogance. Should we assume that the ambassador believes Rwanda should ignore its laws because, presumably, the BBC should be above Rwandan laws on Rwandan territory? Mwene Kalinda ***************** Trivialising and denying the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is an attempt to resume from where they perpetrators left off. Having been in service (in the ranks of Rwanda Patriotic Front) during the Genocide, I can assure anyone that: (a) no winner emerges in genocide except arms dealers; (b) genocide is like a burning forest and is very difficult and costly to extinguish, both in lives and resources; (c) RPA managed to stop phase 7 (actual killing) of the genocide only – it was not trained/equipped to stop phase 8 (denial). It is academic to say that the genocide was stopped while the BBC and its clients continue with phase 8. It is the Judiciary and the government who are supposed to stop phase 8 else we risk going back to where we started from. No (true) Rwandan would wish to repeat what we went through. The perpetrators and their partners are the only ones who insist that there’s no problem with FDLR being in the Congo, yet they forget how these killers are killing, raping and looting across the border. Rwasubutare

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Why Rwanda should not change position on BBC