Openings for the Deconstruction of the Official Narrative of the Rwanda Genocide

Openings for the Deconstruction of the Official Narrative of the Rwanda Genocide
by Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication at Western New England College, Springfield, Massachusetts

Lecture on Remembering Rwanda: Genocide and Its Aftermath, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, April 14, 2008.

Good evening. I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to speak on the Rwanda genocide. Whenever I speak on this topic I do get nightmares. In my dreams, I am caught up between the former Rwandan Government Forces and the army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Sometimes in my dreams I am about to be shot and I get out of my bed and run to the living room, then I wake up and find that I am in the US not in Rwanda.

I have titled my presentation “Openings for the Deconstruction of the Official Narrative of the Rwanda Genocide.” The Rwanda genocide has a narrative according to which the Hutu extremists shot down the airplane carrying the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda, Cyprien Ntaryamira and Juvenal Habyarimana, as it approached the international airport of Kigali, the capital. These Hutus extremists, so the story goes, immediately started the execution of a genocide they had planned long before the shooting down of the airplane. How long? According to the RPF and its President General Paul Kagame, the planning goes as far back as 1959, year Hutu elite overthrew the Tutsi monarchy. Hutu extremists killed Tutsis and Hutu moderates over three months. This official narrative is spread by the current Rwandan regime through its official and non official media and its genocide industry. I suggest that you watch the movie Hotel Rwanda and read The New Times and Rwandan News Agency, two private news organizations owned by President Kagame to learn more about this narrative.

Whenever this narrative is questioned, RPF supporters immediately start shouting revisionism and negationism and if you are a Hutu they will point the state finger and accuse you of genocide. Such individuals did not hesitate to label the hero of Hotel Rwanda Paul Rusesabagina revisionist and negationist as soon as he deviated from the official narrative. They have tried to silence him through letter writing, demonstrations and books sponsored by the Rwandan government.

As academics we strive to critically question the information we receive. Labels I just mentioned impair our abilities to conduct critical inquiries into such an important topic as genocide. To allow you to deconstruct the official narrative I would like to focus on the following issues:
One: the hegemonic plan of redrawing the political map of Africa;
Two: the use of the dichotomous terminology separating Hutu extremists and Hutu moderates;
Three: the crimes committed by the RPF;
and
Four: the negative influence of the United States in East and Central Africa.

Raising these issues does not excuse any criminals who perpetrated grave human rights violations before and after April 6, 1994. I believe all individuals who perpetrated crimes in Rwanda in 1994 should be held accountable. However, these issues should serve as leads into the deconstruction of the propaganda built around the Rwanda genocide.

After taking power, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s ambition was and remains the creation of a federation in East and Central Africa. Many of his speeches plead for this federation. For example on April 4, 1997 while addressing the general assembly of the East Africa Law Society he stated that his mission was to create a federation comprising Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Soudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire.

According to Ugandan political scientist Kasaija Philip Apuuli, Museveni stated again his mission in his paper presented at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) National Conference in July 1998. Kasaija says some observers regard Museveni as the “new Bismarck” of the Great Lakes Region.

To accomplish his mission he invaded Rwanda using a proxy, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and waged two wars in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The RPF comprised a political and military organization of the descendants of Tutsi exiles who fled Rwanda in 1959. This organization was also an offshoot of the Ugandan army.

There were two obstacles to the implementation of Museveni’s hegemonic plan as indicated by confidential documents recently unearthed by Partenariat Intwari, a political organization of Rwandan exiles: the first obstacle was president Habyarimana of Rwanda and the second obstacle was the Hutus of Rwanda and the Great Lakes in general. One document says;

«President Y.K. Museveni accepts all reports and plans. Before War starts J. Habyarimana should be killed as this will act as an immediate sparking force to the political disorder. More alternatives provided to accomplish assassination mission”

The same document adds;

«First Battalion of Lubiri Army Barracks under Capt. Kiyinyi will have to lead the assault on Rwandese territory with special artillery and gunships. No opposite tribe (Hutus) should be left on ground as this should be highly maintained. Hutus are regional enemies as expressed by liberation leader Y.K. Museveni under special agreements refer to Rwagitura meet enhanced by Major Paul Kagame, strictly special techniques to be embarked on in order not to attract international attention»

After the victory of the RPF, this hegemonic policy continued in 1997 with the invasion of Zaire/Congo by Rwanda and Uganda. In November 1997, Howard W. French wrote for The New York Times that at the beginning of the war Rwandan president Pasteur Bizimungu asked for Berlin II to reflect on the disorders created by Berlin I. Remember Berlin I set the guidelines for the partition of Africa by European colonial powers.

The 1996-97 invasion of Zaire toppled Mobutu Sese Seko, a US ally put into power by the CIA then dropped after the Cold War. Uganda and Rwanda replaced Mobutu with Laurent Desire Kabila. The latter refused to serve as the puppet of Uganda and Rwanda, the allies of the United States. The two countries then invaded the DRC a second time in 1998.

The official narrative of the Rwanda genocide never discusses Museveni’s and RPF’s plan to assert their hegemony in East and Central Africa and the resistance to this hegemony by the people who live there. Among the people who have resisted to this hegemony are the Hutus of Burundi, Rwanda and the Eastern DRC.

In many writings inspired by the official narrative of the Rwanda genocide, the Hutus are grouped into two camps: the Hutu “extremists” and the Hutu “moderates”. The label “Hutu extremists” generally refers to ex-FAR or Rwandan Government Forces, Interahamwe or Hutu militia and the members of political parties of the MRND (the National Revolutionary Movement for Development and Democracy) and its allies while the label “Hutu moderates” includes the individuals who belonged to the political factions allied with the RPF. These individuals (Hutu extremists and Hutu moderates) are Hutu elite who do not represent even 10 percent of the Hutus. Were there Hutus who do not fit either category? Should Tutsis who were members of the MRND and Interahamwe be classified as Hutu extremists? How should we label the Hutus and other Rwandans who reject the supremacy of a group of Tutsis who conquered Rwanda with Museveni’s sponsorship?

During the invasion of Rwanda the RPF practiced a scorched earth policy. It looted houses, took away windows, the iron-sheets of the roofs of houses, toilets seats, windows, doors and sold the materials in Uganda to fund the war. In the process it displaced people, killed those who did not manage to flee as the RPF advanced, and shelled the camps of the internally displaced people (IDPS). That military strategy did not single out the Tutsis and the Twas for their protection. The RPF killed everyone in its path.

I come from Rushaki in the former province of Byumba, a village that is at the Rwandan Ugandan border. The RPF conquered large portions of that province years before April 6, 1994. In addition from June to August 1993 I was a member of the joint commission that resettled the internally displaced people in the demilitarized zone of Byumba. This commission included the representatives of the RPF. The three months spent in this zone allowed me see the devastations caused by the war in general and the RPF in particular.

At the end of 1990 the RPF started shelling our village and my parents and other villagers fled to live in the camps of IDPS. Then the camps moved as the RPF conquered territories until my parents joined me in Kigali then fled to Zaire. Were my parents or other villagers Hutu extremists or Hutu moderates? Were terrified elderly, children, and women carrying babies on their backs Hutu extremists or Hutu moderates? Did they have registration cards of political parties or did they wish that the war would end so they could move on with their lives? The official narrative ignores the people who do not fit into either category. The use of the dichotomy Hutu extremists and Hutu moderates is a fallacy used to oversimplify the complexities underlying the events that occurred from October 1, 1990 date at which the RPF and Uganda launched their military invasion of Rwanda.

Rarely does the official narrative of the Rwanda genocide mention the crimes committed by the RPF throughout its wars in Rwanda and the DRC. Whenever it does it is as if the crimes were justified because of the legitimate right to return to their homeland or because of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis by the Hutus.

Before April 6, 1994 the RPF kidnapped people, shelled the camps of the IDPS massacred people in the city of Ruhengeri, in Mutura, Kirambo, Kinihira and Ngarama to just mention a few. It assassinated famous political leaders.

After April 6, 1994 the RPF massacred innocent civilians it had called to attend public meetings or to receive food and burned their bodies to suppress evidence. Nick Gordon of the Sunday Time and Stephen Smith of Liberation documented this practice of public diplomacy. Embedded journalists who rushed to Rwanda to cover the genocide and were escorted by RPF handlers never saw anything and presented the RPF as a liberator.

Let me give you two examples of media manipulation: in 1994 people took shelter at a mosque in Kabuga near Kigali. After the RPF took control of the location, it killed all the people who had taken shelter there, then called reporters to see what the interahamwe had done to Tutsis. In Nyarubuye, interahamwe killed Tutsis at a parish in a building where Tutsis had sought shelter. This building served as a classroom for religious education. When the RPF arrived with the interahamwe it had rounded up in commune Murambi, it took them to the local Catholic Church, executed them and left their bodies there. Then RPF soldiers killed civilians in and around Nyarubuye and brought the bodies to the church. After its victory and in order to show the world what had happened in Rwanda, the RPF dug up bodies and placed them on stilts outside of churches. But all the people killed by the RPF were blamed on Hutus.

After the conquest of Rwanda the new rulers used the genocide as a justification to violate human rights. Assassinations, disappearances, torture, prison, you name it became parts of the arsenal used to repress political opposition. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented these violations.

The criminal behaviors sketched above have been particularly encouraged by the diplomatic and military support the RPF has received from the United States since its creation. Let me recall two specific events to support my claim: the meeting of the Tutsi diaspora in 1988 and the assassination of the former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri.

In 1988 the elite of the Tutsi diaspora held a meeting in Washington, DC. Who was the organizer? The meeting was organized by Roger Winter, then director of the US Committee for Refugees. Two US diplomats from the State Department attended the meeting. How do I know? I attended the public session of this meeting. Roger Winter attended this meeting and was introduced and thanked for providing logistics. When my friend, Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu saw him in Kigali in July 1994 touching Kagame’s shoulders he asked with surprise an RPF militant:”Who is this guy who is always walking around with and touching Kagame on the shoulders?” An RPF militant replied to him, “He is Roger Winter, a great and loyal RPF friend.”

On February 14, 1994 former Lebanon Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was killed with 22 other people in a huge bomb explosion. The United States, France and Great Britain introduced a resolution at the UN Security Council to create a commission with mandate to investigate his assassination. Syria, an enemy of Israel and a country accused of supporting terrorism was then rumored to be behind the assassination. The commission headed by Canadian former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted its 10th report last month on the case and pointed to a pro-Syria network of killers.

Did the three countries adopt a similar attitude towards Rwanda?

On April 6, 1994 the plane carrying the president of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down with two missiles. The UN had a peacekeeping force and the Kigali international airport fell under its control. This terrorist act occurred during a ceasefire. One would think that the diligence of the three countries with regard to Lebanon would have applied to Rwanda where two African presidents were assassinated and over 800,000 people died. According to Rene Degnisegui, the special envoy for the Human Rights Commission the terrorist act against the presidential plane was the trigger of the events that followed. The International Panel of Eminent Personalities created in 1998 by the OAU also called for an investigation.

To this date the UN has not created a commission to conduct an investigation. Available evidence suggests that the United States and the United Kingdom have thwarted attempts to launch investigations into the assassination of the two African presidents and the crimes committed by the RPF. For instance while working as an investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Michael Andrew Hourigan initiated a preliminary investigation into the case and was forced by Louise Arbour, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Yougoslavia to resign. Unlike Arbour, Carla Del Ponte who succeeded her in that position conducted secret investigations into the violations of human rights committed by the RPF. She says in her book published this month:
"We knew that to open an investigation into the Rwandan Patriotic Front will irritate Kigali, because President Paul Kagame and other Tutsi leaders based a great part of their claim to legitimacy on the victory of the RPF against the genocidaires in 1994."
She adds:
"We knew that the intelligence service of Rwanda had received monitoring equipment from the United States which was used for phone calls, faxes and the internet. We suspected that the authorities had also infiltrated our computer network and placed agents among the Rwandan interpreters and other members of the team in Kigali.”
Once Del Ponte made it clear that there was no safe heaven for RPF suspects according to Florence Hartman her former spokesperson, US Ambassador for War Crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper tried to persuade her to stop investigations. Since she refused to back down, in August 2003 the United States and the United Kingdom introduced a resolution to the UN Security Council that would split the tribunal into two independent entities, Del Ponte would then be removed from the Rwandan cases. Resolution 1503 of the UN Security Council of August 28 did just that. In September 203 the UN Security Council replaced Del Ponte by Hassan Bubacar Jallow from Gambia as prosecutor. Hartman writes that shortly after the UN adopted the resolution and a new prosecutor was appointed, Ambassador Prosper flew to Kigali to reassure Kagame that Tutsi military suspects would not be prosecuted.

How did they US behave during the genocide?

The report by The International Panel of Eminent Personalities says; “Once the genocide began, the US repeatedly and deliberately undermined all attempts to strengthen the UN military in Rwanda.” At the beginning of the genocide the UN Security Council reduced the UN force. The US refused to call the killings occurring in Rwanda “genocide” because it did not want to send to Rwanda a military force. The United States and the RPF opposed any military intervention that would have put an end to the killings. Both wanted a winner. They knew very well that President Habyarimana was no longer an obstacle, the army was divided along political, ethnic and regional lines and the stocks of ammunition were running low. The report mentioned earlier says: “As horrors accelerated, the Council did authorize a stronger mission, UNAMIR II but once again the US did all in its power to undermine its effectiveness.”

After the victory of the RPF, the United States provided it with military training, the objective being to make Rwanda its zone of influence in East Africa. US military and diplomatic support to the RPF explains why the US did not condemn the invasion of Rwanda in October 1990, why the violations of human rights committed by the RPF are not investigated, why Rwanda and Uganda have invaded Zaire/Congo twice and looted its natural resources without any sanctions and why Rwanda is still looting Congo today.

US military and diplomatic support continues today. Before President Bush visited Rwanda in February this year, the US gave Rwanda 9 million dollars of military assistance. And when Bush was in Kigali he authorized another 12 million for military “aid”

Also before the visit a Spanish judge issued international arrest warrants against 40 Rwandan military for violations of human rights in Rwanda and the DRC. The judge did not issue a warrant against President Kagame because he is a head of state but Kagame was included in the list of those investigated. Those international warrants follow those issued in November 2005 by a French judge against 9 Rwandan army officers for shooting down the plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. Again Kagame was spared because he is a head of state.

Why does the President of the United States visit war suspects? Are US interests more important than human rights? Indeed they are. The Final Report of the Panel of Expert on the Illegal Exploitation of the Natural Resources and other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo submitted to the UN Security Council on October 15, 2002 by the UN Secretary General mentions the following American companies: American Mineral Fields based in Arkansas, Cabot Corporation, Eagle Wings Resources International, Flashes of Color, Kemet Electronics Corporation, Kinross Gold Corporation, OM Group Inc, Trinitech International Inc, and Vishay Sprague.

In Kigali President Bush inaugurated a huge embassy in a country that is as big as Maryland. He did not say a word on the human rights’ record of the Kagame regime. Yet from Kigali he called on Raul Castro, the new leader of Cuba to democratize.
Rwanda is serving in Soudan as part of a UN peacekeeping force and it has been training the new military of Somalia. US interventions may now be done through proxies without using the GIs.

My daughter was in first grade when we fled Rwanda in April 1994. Today, she is a junior in college. Last fall her instructor of international relations assigned a reading on Rwanda genocide. After completing the reading she called me and said: “Dad, I just read an essay on the Rwanda genocide. It looks like the Hutus are bad people and the Tutsis are good people.” I tried to explain to her that such an analysis is an oversimplification of what happened in Rwanda in 1994.

There is now a thriving Rwanda genocide industry that produces books, movies, news reports, speech tours and memorials and it is all based on the false official story. Use your critical thinking skills when reading news reports, books or visiting Rwandan memorials. Do the same when watching documentaries and movies discussing the Rwanda genocide. Try to find out the different techniques of deception. Ask yourself if the goal of that genocide industry is reconciliation or power consolidation by a group of Tutsi elite.

References
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DesForges, Allison. 1999. Leave None to Tell the Story. Human Rights Watch. New York. 1998.
Duke, Lynne. US Military Role in Rwanda Greater Than Disclosed in The Washington Post, Saturday, August, 1997
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French, Howard, W. The World; A Century Later, Letting Africans Draw Their Own Map
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CNN, UN says 'network' killed Hariri. March28, 2008.Hirondelle News Agency, Carla Del Ponte Tells of her Attemps to Investigate RPF in her New Book. April 2, 2008
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The Christian Science Monitor. Don’t Redraw Africa’s Borders. Wednesday, January 29, 1997
The Gerson Report on Rwanda. Outgoing Code Cable sent by Shahariyar Khan, UNAMIR Kigali October 14, 1994 to Annan, UNATIONS, New York