Genocide survivors petition French publishing house over toxic book

Genocide survivors in France have launched an online petition calling on a publishing house there not to go ahead and publish a book denying the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in Rwanda. The French version of the book, “In Praise of Blood” authored by the Canadian Judi Rever is due to be published by the French publishing house Max Milo by the end of August 2020 under the title: “Rwanda, l’éloge du sang”. Ibuka-France, a body that brings together genocide survivors, is urging the Max Milo publishing house not to be a platform for denial of the Genocide against the Tutsi. While, 26 years later, we continue to find mass graves where our families were buried, some people continue to publish negationist texts and adding further suffering to the tragedy of survivors. Please join us to say that enough is enough, Etienne Nsanzimana, the president of Ibuka-France told The New Times. In their online petition, Ibuka-France noted that for a number of years, Rever has settled into the cluster of distorters of the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi. While presenting herself as a journalist risking her life in order to bring a supposedly hidden truth to the world, it is noted, she disseminates her misleading theories in various high profile media. According to the petition, whenever the author agrees to admit that the Tutsi were massacred in Rwanda in 1994, it is, in reality, to affirm that they were massacred by other Tutsi. This consistently affirmed rejection of the evidence accumulated since 1994 by both international bodies - whose conclusions she carelessly sweeps away- and by robust research in social sciences- whose approaches she carelessly overlooks- is an obvious denial of the Genocide against the Tutsi. The book is, they note, nothing other than a process aimed at exonerating the actual perpetrators of genocide by transferring the responsibility of its planning, initiation and perpetration to those who put an end to it. It is also best described as a work aimed at creating confusion in the understanding of the genocide crime, and a “work” founded in conspiracy-based conceptual development. Ibuka-France reiterated that negationism is not an opinion but a criminal offense which is punishable by law and which is unacceptable on the moral side because it insults the memory of the victims and offends the survivors, thus harming their dignity. They also note that much as Judi Rever is solely responsible for her delusions, by making her voice resound and by legitimizing it publicly, Max Milo is making itself an accomplice of a sordid undertaking whose consequences are not limited to the abstract confrontation between censors and defenders of freedom of opinion. Staunch genocide ideologue Genocide researcher Tom Ndahiro said: For me, Judi Rever is not a simple genocide denier, but a staunch genocide against Tutsi ideologues like Leon Mugesera and Ferdinand Nahimana. Publishing her book is as good as translating (and publishing) Kangura. In October last year, scholars, scientists, researchers, journalists and historians from all over the world expressed shock after some Belgian universities gave a platform to Rever, a denier of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

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Genocide survivors petition French publishing house over toxic book