People may have known Petit Seminaire de Butare for its outstanding performance in both Volleyball and Basketball in the past like today. But the school was also known as a hub of classical music composers including Kizito Mihigo. Kizito was the founder of Melomane Choir” which I was part of. We had good times whenever we performed and people used to appreciate our talented choir which depended 100% on Kizito, because all the songs we performed were composed by him. So, I know Kizito Mihigo very well. 25 years after RPA soldiers stopped the Genocide against the Tutsi; genocide denial is a real problem around the world and people behind it are genocide perpetrators who fled to different countries. They now use genocide denial as their main tool to escape justice, pretending to do politics. I am currently a student at the University of Haifa (Israel), where I’m doing a Masters in Genocide Studies and preserving the memory of the victims of the Genocide against Tutsi by fighting the genocide denial is one of my main priorities. I cant remain silent when Kizito’s death is now being manipulated as he was in life by genocide perpetrators and genocide denials. In a letter dated February 21, 2020, people claiming to be genocide survivors in the diaspora demanded a “joint international investigation into the death of the Tutsi genocide survivor, gospel singer and peace activist, Kizito Mihigo.” In this demand, they were in the company of genocide deniers and others who remain wanted for their role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Such a bizarre coalition could only mean that Kizito’s death was being exploited for political reasons and that these calls had nothing to do with any purported quest for justice. Most genocide survivors know that it is impunity towards criminals that made genocide possible. Between 1959 and 1994, repetitive anti-Tutsi pogroms had seen their killers rewarded with their victims confiscated property or promoted in the public service. Had there been no breakdown of real rule of law, genocide would have been unlikely. People who killed their Tutsi compatriots and were rewarded felt emboldened, which encouraged and ensured others would also participate in the succeeding pogrom in large numbers. Because of this history, genocide survivors tend to be the most sensitive to lawlessness because they know its consequent nightmares which are seared on our psyches. I have come across people who think that survivors are docile, speculating that it is due to decades under the Habyarimana tyranny and constant, oppressive harassment that we chose to our dominant law-abiding attitude. But this such obedience to the law didn’t stop us from being wiped out. Rather than docility, it is our fear of what can come out of lawlessness that makes us appear intensely law-abiding. I was immediately taken aback that some survivors had chosen to entirely ignore Kizito’s slide into association with terror groups and their criminality and the suggestion that being a survivor somehow placed him above the law, especially given the violence he was accused of wanting to bring to Rwandans and for which he had been pardoned. Most survivors I know have denounced Kizito’s criminality and have felt shame every time anyone has tried to elevate him to any other status and title he may once have carried above the fact that this was a convicted and pardoned criminal. As a survivor, Kizito was one of us; but he was alone in his criminality. Indeed, as we denounce the latter we rue the missed opportunities he had before him to turn his life around, to become a law-abiding citizen like the rest of us, to actually embrace what it means to be a survivor: the first in line to defend the law due to the suffering that we have first-hand experienced as a result of the breakdown of law engendered by Rwandas previous lawless regimes. I was also taken aback to see that those who had thrived as a result of the lawlessness we suffered had joined hands with those they oppressed in demanding “justice.” I immediately knew this was nothing more than political histrionics targeting the government of Rwanda. It was also an attack on survivors resilience; a mockery of people who have survived oppression. The fact that these genocidaires and their allies were helped in this endeavour by some people claiming to be survivors does not remove the crass indecency. Together they claim to be mourning Kizito’s death. This was the irony of Kizito’s life. He believed that by promoting the views of genocide deniers he was carrying out reconciliation. The genocide perpetrators had him believe that indeed that was the case and had him convinced of the heroism and courage of holding this view. In fact, they were exploiting his urge for attention, which he was unwilling to give up despite the concerns of survivors regarding this veering off towards being a fully-fledged ideologue and tool of genocidaires, the very people who had killed his father during the 1994 Genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi. Most of us, rescued only by RPA sacrifices to save as many as it could by defeating the genocidaires all across the country as rapidly as it could, tried to rescue one of our own; we warned Kizito that the unrepentant criminals he was so ready to associate with would drive him into criminality as well. One of us, Ambassador Wellars Gasamagera, wrote an article way back in May 2014 basically predicting suicide as an inevitable end to the life of a boy he had treated as his own son. Another, Yolanda Mukagasana, recently wrote about this very change in character that exposed Kizito to easy manipulation by genocidaires and their allies. These political maneuvers and petitions masquerading as a quest for justice is yet another proof that Kizito is now being manipulated in death as he was in life. Noel Kambanda is a genocide survivor who is pursuing Masters degree in Genocide Studies at the University of Haifa/Israel.
