Someone’s tweet last week and responses to it caught my attention. It was both a lament and plea. Lament that deniers of the genocide against the Tutsi are at it 365 days a year while those who fight the denial are active only seven days or 100 days at most. Plea to the latter to raise their efforts, and become more consistent and persistent in their fight and silence deniers. They had a point. It’s been 27 years since the genocide against the Tutsi was committed. For all that long it has been denied by some– from the time it was being committed to the present – and will no doubt continue to be denied for generations to come. Efforts at denial take many forms and fall into several categories. Some of them may not appear like denial, but they are or they enable it. They are those who refuse to call the genocide by its name, among them some of the most powerful countries in the world who had the ability to prevent it but did not. They did so at the time it was happening and still do so today. Admitting that what was happening in Rwanda in 1994 was genocide would have obliged them to act to stop it. But they were not willing to do that. And so it was expedient not to call it what it was. Accepting it today would be self-indictment for failure to act then. And so refusal to give it its proper name sort of numbs them to their moral failings, dulls their sense of guilt, and helps to escape responsibility. The perpetrators of the genocide have a vested interest in its denial, much easier to understand. They want to escape accountability and responsibility for their actions. But have not given up its ideology. Denial allows them time, space and opportunity to continue the crime. Then there is a motley collection of backers and apologists of the genocide. Most could have had a restraining influence on the killers but chose to back them instead. Some, like President Francois Mitterrand of France at the time did so for misplaced geopolitical reasons or personal interests. Others in his entourage may have had narrow business interests they sought to protect. Among academics, media and non-governmental organisations, narrow or misguided ideological causes, unprincipled personal considerations, usually spite, pique or vindictiveness are the driving motive. In addition, these also peddle the double genocide theory. They put forward another sinister suggestion that the RPF instigated the genocide in order to get to power. Denial also takes the form of refusal to give the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) credit for stopping the genocide. If there was no genocide, then there was nothing to stop. By extension it is denial of the RPF’s subsequent achievements such as unity and reconciliation, rebuilding the country and progress in all spheres – social and economic, political and diplomatic. The reasons keep shifting and changing like a mutating virus, sometimes the variants becoming more virulent than the original strain. Denial of the genocide against the Tutsi persists. It is not for lack of facts. They are in abundance, although some remain hidden and most get drowned by the din of deniers. There are eye-witness accounts by reporters, aid workers, diplomats and United Nations peace-keepers. There is the determination and ruling by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and United Nations General Assembly resolutions. The existing facts have now been boosted by two very important reports focussing particularly on the role of France in the genocide. One is the report of what is now known as the Duclert Commission that was set up by French President Emmanuel Macron two years ago. It presented its findings at the end of March. The report uncovered more information about the role of the French government under President Mitterrand. It made some vague admission of “French political, institutional, intellectual, moral and cognitive failure” and talked of “overwhelming responsibility” but baulked at the idea of saying the government or state was complicit in the genocide. It is up to readers of the report to decipher what that means exactly. There is a lot of information to help one along. The second is a report commissioned by the government of Rwanda in 2017 and conducted by an American law firm, together with local law firms that was released on April 19. Dubbed the Muse Report, it reveals a lot about the responsibility of the French government. The report lays blame squarely at the feet of President Mitterrand and his government and subsequent governments that have continuously obstructed justice, concealed documents, and perpetuated false narratives about the genocide. These are some of the factors that have fuelled denial. Its findings and conclusions are a mine of very useful information. The truth cannot be hidden any more. And so back to the young person with the lament and plea tweet. Here are the facts, the weapons in the fight against genocide denial. Use them all year round, not on special occasions only. Put out the facts to counter the lies with the conviction derived from truth, and consistency and persistence that outstrip that of the deniers. The views expressed in this article are of the writer.
