I am pleased to carry this guest blog by Linda Melvern, who has written extensively about the 1994 Rwandan genocide and acted as a consultant to the prosecution team at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.*
It was billed as a world scoop: the Africacorrespondent for ITV, John Ray, had gained access to a top security prison in Mali which housed the men behind Africa's "final solution."
Until now these Rwandans had remained as silent as the memorials to their victims, we are told, and here was the first television interview with one of them, Jean Kambanda, the world's first head of government to plead guilty to the crime of genocide. It was broadcast on 21 July.
It is 17 years since Kambanda was last seen in public and he has put on weight since he was sentenced to a life term at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in September 1998.
The prisoner, a former economist and banker, wearing an immaculate dark suit and tie, sits with Ray in the prison library calmly claiming he is innocent of all charges and was tricked into making his 1997 confession. He insists his conscience is clear.
Kambanda was the prime minister of a government created with the purpose of controlling the administration of the genocide of the Tutsi; his government's national policy was the creation of a "pure Hutu state" with no Tutsi at all.
In his confession he revealed how the policy of genocide was the subject of cabinet meetings. "We discussed the evolution of the massacres in each prefecture," he said.
In three months of genocide, during which up to one million people were murdered, Kambanda ensured that local authorities had enough people to carry out the killing and made sure that those unwilling to take part were eliminated.
The interview with Kambanda caused great upset in Rwanda. The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) sent a note of protest to the ICTR. According to the CNLG, a 1999 agreement between Mali and the United Nations does not allow ICTR genocide convicts to have access to media to deny the crimes for which they were convicted and imprisoned.
These convicts are apparently forbidden from spreading their hateful Hutu power propaganda used in the preparation and execution of the genocide of the Tutsi, and they are banned from peddling political propaganda.
Kambanda's claim of innocence is no surprise. He is a past master at genocide denial. In April 1994, when the evidence of genocide was emerging from Rwanda in the form of bodies washed down the rivers, the Kambanda government organised a campaign of diplomatic news spin to try to persuade the world that the deaths were due to "fighting" in a renewed civil war.
The genocide of the Tutsi was the result of a chain of command and a prepared strategy. It was a conspiracy at national level, but without the complicity of the local and national civil and military authorities, the large-scale massacres would not have taken place.
As genocide progressed in 1994 Kambanda and his ministers were ensconced in a peaceful, modern schoolyard in a flower garden. Here were the middle-aged and well-dressed men and women of government going about their business.
After he fled with his criminal gang of ministers into exile Kambanda continued to promote a policy of genocide denial. Several of his colleagues have since written books to further promote their own falsification of history.
From their top security prison they have the luxury of a library, gym, a vegetable garden and a small church. It is from here that they peddle their "Hutu Power" ideology which underpinned their atrocious crimes.
For the survivors of genocide this causes the greatest distress. For them, the genocide is not a distant event from 20 years ago but a reality with which they live every day.
Genocide denial follows the crime as night follows day and its purpose is the destruction of truth and memory. We should question the wisdom of giving an unrepentant génocidaire any air-time and ask whether or not we should encourage attempts at the falsification of history.
©Linda Melvern
*Linda Melvern is a freelance journalist. Her book, A People Betrayed: the role of the west in Rwanda's genocide (Zed Books) is in its fifth impression and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive account of the genocide.
See also the views of Shyaka Kanuma, editor of the Rwanda Focus, Who enabled ITV to access Kambanda?
ITV News has issued a statement - also posted above John Ray's website report - in which it says that Ray's report "highlighted in some detail the scale of the atrocities that occurred in Rwanda in 1994" and said of Kambanda that he "presided over the Rwandan genocide." It continued:
"In the interview itself we strongly challenged the former prime minister's denials. He was asked directly why he did not stop the killing, and why he distributed weapons to the Hutu killers.
The report also placed the facts in context:
*A response was included from one of the best known experts on the genocide, and an interview with a children's nurse who blamed Kambanda personally for doing nothing to save Tutsi children sheltering in hospital.
*The 800,000 death toll was described as "monstrous crimes."
*In a studio interview, John Ray said many people – including the present Rwandan government – would dismiss everything Kambanda says as a "self-serving attempt to re-write history."
The report was an example of robust and balanced, independent journalism. The report raised awareness of one of the most chilling episodes of recent African history.
Any interview with a controversial figure will raise difficult ethical issues. Fundamentally, it is our duty to inform the public. This can include interviews with controversial individuals. This is a legitimate function of a news organisation."
Posted by: Nzinink <nzinink@yahoo.com>
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-Ce dont jai le plus peur, cest des gens qui croient que, du jour au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre.
- The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
- I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
- The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
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