You’ve heard them more times than is good for your sanity. Especially in these times of recalling the pain of 25 years ago. For deniers, belittlers, genocide ideologues, their criminal hangers-on, the horde, it’s time to twist a knife in the wound. With their genocidal tongues, fingers, with all; on air, online, on any outlet. They holler that their hating hearts may infect others in an effort to revise the facts of the Genocide against the Tutsi. And, whether infected by genocide fugitives or in their similarly satanic spirit, for many are eager to vent their own racial hatred, some individuals and organisations holler even louder. Yes, deniers are busy, especially in Western countries. And shamelessly, a big number of their governments have given them free rein, adding to the sin of harbouring genocide fugitives. It’s an indictment on these governments. They are complicit in flouting the rules of justice. And so even on our continent, you can hear a Timothy B. Reid layabout mimicking the same deniers, wishing for “a reckoning for Kagame”, leader of the braves of this land. With dwindling UN handouts of yore, he’s no doubt pleading for attention to his ‘still-live’ existence. Anyway, what this whole collection of dirt-mouthing offenders don’t know, if not wilfully ignore, is that Rwanda has never given a freaking fig for their denials. From their long history, Rwandans have always been known to collectively rise to the occasion when it comes to taking the bull by the horns. If proof of the pudding be in the eating, that they alone stopped the genocide is instant proof. In addition to which, it’s known that before the shame of colonial domination, any neighbour in the region that dared attack this land and went back nursing a bloody nose, instead of being completely overrun, thanked its stars and looked elsewhere for misadventure. We can spell out the tags of these neighbours, but none need do that now. Those were ancient times of primitive delinquents. Admittedly, there are primitive delinquents among those neighbours even today – two, to be exact. And, to make matters worse, they are in positions of top leadership. Still, the two are like little “bothersome bees that buzz around one’s ear without daring to sting,” to quote one of the sages of this land. They can only cause momentary distraction from this land’s envisioned path to the pinnacle of development and total liberation. Otherwise, deep down, they know they are men of no consequence. To themselves, their people and to the region. So they misguide genocide-ideologue proxies into the conviction that with their help, they (proxies) can cause trouble to happen here, in this age of this society’s emancipation. Yet they know that the proxies who’ve tried have only found themselves falling on their own swords. The gallants of this land who vanquished the genocidal effects of the protracted divide-and-rule colonial campaign, you have to hand it to them. That a whole century did not break their spirit of resilience, unity and self-honour will live to grace the annals of history. Interestingly, that division campaign happened even as Rwanda was a UN protectorate. When in 1959 genocide ideologues (yes, as early as that) banished or killed their compatriots, assisted by a Western member of the UN, it was under the watch of the UN. In 1990 when sane Rwandans launched an effort to liberate this land, the counteroffensive was led by a UN Security Council member, under the gaze of the whole of the UN. That UN Security Council member was there as Opération Noroît from October 1990, to advise, guide and help the genocide crusaders. The member was there to assist Rwandan elimination-promoters in their Opération Insectide, which is telling when you know those who were referred to as “cockroaches”. From 8th April 1994, it was there as Opération Amaryllis, even as the genocide had just entered its climatic phase. As if to deliver a coup de grâce during this climatic phase, the UN Security Council unleashed the same member’s eruptional fury, in the names of Opération Turquoise, in June 1994. But the gallant liberators were ready for them. They bundled them off, tails between their legs, together with their génocidaires and ex-government army minions, much as the curs had obliterated more than a million of this land’s defenceless innocents. Yes, dear young Sherif Musa, these gallants have forgiven all these reprobates. Rwandan, true, but also those from the West, white. And beyond that, they’ve developed this society into a near-egalitarian one and placed it on a trajectory of fast-paced overall growth. But no Mandela-esque Nobel Prize or hero-worship, which the gallants don’t give a hoot for, anyway, because the genocide has been put solely on those black Rwandan génocidaires. The prize and ‘international community’ recognition are very much alive to the colour of who is forgiven. And true, dear Alan Simpson, “deniers abound” everywhere, but worry not your caring heart. Denier bees may buzz all they want; they are incapable of sting. So, this land is just fine. butapa@gmail.com The views expressed in this article are of the author.
