Paul Kagame the savior of Rwanda? Not only would the Tutsi president have whipped up the 1994 Tutsi genocide, his troops would also have deliberately eradicated hundreds of thousands of Hutus. That is what journalist Judi Rever says in the controversial The Truth about Rwanda.
The Canadian journalist Judi Rever arouses controversy by bringing a different view of the Rwandan genocide. According to her, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of current Tutsi president Paul Kagame committed a “second genocide” on part of the Hutu population – before, during and after the undisputed genocide of the Tutsi. Her decision, under the authority of hundreds of witnesses and UN documents, caused a great deal of commotion.
We meet Judi Rever at a discreet location in our country. She consciously avoids public places without guidance. “Did you know that during a previous visit to Belgium because of my investigation into Rwandan war crimes, I had to be protected by your police? Death threats against me and my family were voiced in 2013 and ’14. I was also chased in Montreal during that period. It has been quieter since my book was published, because my findings are now public. The Rwandan regime is now using lobbyists to launch a smear campaign against my book. ”
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The RPF, the former Tutsi rebel movement and current party of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, had invaded Rwanda in 1990 from their exile in Uganda. In the following years they advanced to the capital Kigali where Kagame negotiated in 1994, under the watchful eye of Belgian UN blue helmets, a possible sharing of power with Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana
When the President’s plane was shot down over Kigali on April 6 of that year, government army and militia Hutu extremists embarked on a planned genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. But according to her findings, this genocide – also undisputed by Rever – is only the first part of an even more bloody episode.
As a journalist in what was then East Zaire, then for Radio France Internationale and later for Agence France Presse and the newspaper The Globe and Mail , Rever became intrigued shortly after the genocide by the stories of Hutu refugees who testified about mass killings by the RPF – at a time when the international community was already embracing Kagame as a liberator.
She also asked herself critical questions about the thousands of corpses in the Kagera River that floated to Lake Victoria in Uganda in May and June 1994, all of whom assumed they were all Tutsi victims, while the broad strip of Kibungo prefecture along the north side flowing river was firmly in the hands of the RPF at the end of April. Now a quarter of a century later, after conversations with dozens of witnesses and after inspecting UN reports, Rever takes the controversial statement in her book The Truth about Rwanda that the Rwandan president and his troops committed a “second genocide”.
You were called as an expert witness by the lawyer of a supposed Hutu genocidair, Fabien Neretse, whose trial began in Brussels last week. The Assize Court refused you because your testimony would not be relevant here. Would you have come if you had been accepted?
Judi Rever: “Yes, I was willing to testify. I am actually appalled that the president of the court refuses my testimony. I think that this decision can have serious legal consequences, not only for this case but also for the independence of legal proceedings in Belgium. I wanted to provide the court with important contextual evidence about RPF death squads that extensively infiltrated Rwanda’s northwestern region of Ruhengeri and the Nyamirambo district in Kigali, where Fabien Neretse is believed to have committed his crimes.
“The evidence that RPF murdered civilians in these areas during the genocide – as well as in northern Rwanda in 1992-93, prior to the genocide – can be found in confidential ICTR documents in my possession ( International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in short the Rwandan Tribunal) , from 1994 to 2015, ed. ), and is supported by my own interviews with former RPF soldiers and officers.
“After more than 20 years of investigating RPF crimes and interviewing former members of the military intelligence service and regular battalions of the RPF, I believe the Paul Kagame regime is trying to cover up its own murderous history by, among others, more, to produce charges against highly educated, successful and high profile Hutus.
“If justice is to be given in this case, the Belgian court must also hear evidence of RPF murders in the areas where, according to the prosecutor, Neretse committed his crimes.”
Is that “the truth about Rwanda, and the regime of Paul Kagame,” as the Dutch title of your book reads? Surely the truth always kills first in every war?
“That’s true, but that’s why I want to tell a more complete truth than the one we know about Rwanda. The English title, In Praise of Blood , also ironically refers to the amazing support that the RPF received from President Kagame after he came to power, despite the violence his rebels have committed since 1990. It also refers to international support for Kagame, whose administration the US called “a model for Africa.”
“The official storyline that academics, media and public opinion now use about Rwanda has been forged in a climate of violence. Even today, the Rwandan regime still uses violence to intimidate, blackmail, lock up or even kill people because they shed light on the dark side of the known genocide story. The West supported this process. Documents and evidence have been concealed from public opinion. “
You bring many testimonies of war crimes by the RPF, such as a mass murder of thousands of Hutu civilians in the football stadium of Byumba. What happened there?
“The official story is that the atrocities by the RPF were revenge exercises there and elsewhere for the genocide by rebels who lost their self-control. The massacre at the Byumba stadium, on the other hand, proves that the RPF also committed planned mass murders.
“The Byumba massacre took place very shortly after the government plane with Hutu President Habyarimana and the Burundian President was shot down. The people present, displaced by the RPF invasion, were lured to the stadium with the promise that there would be food. When they arrived, they collided with members of the RPF military police who separated the strong men from the women and children at the command of their Supreme Command, and drove them into the dug-out. Then the fire was opened on everyone. Then panic broke out after which the RPF threw grenades into the mass. They were finished with traditional hoes from agriculture.
“I can describe all of this in detail because I spoke to two witnesses, two former RPF soldiers. These events were also documented by a special unit of the ICTR ( which was then located in Arusha, Tanzania, ed. ), Which also had to investigate RPF crimes. “
You state that Kagame would have personally ordered to kill a number of injured Hutus near the stadium …
“Former bodyguards from Kagame told me that the next day he inspected the site of the massacre and ordered them to ‘kill’ and ‘clean up’ wounded. Kagame was also in Byumba and surroundings in the two days before the massacre. “
This is a serious accusation against the current president. Was the Rwandan tribunal also aware of this?
“In the ICTR documents that I was able to view, it appears that his aide de camp , his aide, James Kabarebe had been at the Byumba stadium just before the murder. This links Kagame to this crime. It is important to emphasize that at that time Kagame was the commander of a rebel army that was very hierarchically organized. All important decisions fell under his authority.
“One of the stronger testimonials about Byumba, which I have, comes from an ICTR researcher who investigated this for the Rwandan tribunal. He told me that he had never been able to gather so much tangible evidence about perpetrators of a mass murder, including the names of those who afterwards had to burn the corpses. The Rwandan tribunal nevertheless refused to prosecute. “
You also state that there were mass graves in Byumba that date before the plane was shot down. “He (Kagame) had already purified Byumba before that.” Is there proof of that?
“Absolutely. In Rwanda, during the RPF invasion, more than three years before the Hutu genocide on Tutsis, all Hutu civilians were killed and buried in mass graves. A leading ICTR lawyer told me that too. Research by the University of Rwanda also shows that the RPF killed around 40,000 civilians in the Byumba and Ruhengeri prefectures until the beginning of 1993.
“According to crown witness and former RPF soldier Théogène Murwanashyaka ( a Tutsi whose family had been murdered by the Hutu militias during the genocide, ed. ) These were ethnic cleansing aimed at conquering fertile land for the Tutsi refugees in the wake of the RPF came from Uganda. “
According to your witnesses, the mass murders of Hutus increased after the outbreak of the recognized genocide at Tutsi in April 1994. Bodies were reportedly burned by the RPF in Akagera Park. Did the United Nations know this?
“The ICTR investigator told me that the UN summit was aware of reports of arrested Hutus who had been transported in trucks to Akagera Park, where they were killed. Former members of Kagames RPF who fled abroad confirmed this to me. There must also be satellite images from April 1994. For example, in Gabiro, on the edge of Akagera Park, there was an execution site in a barracks. There must be American satellite images of the mass graves. Satellites could see trucks, bulldozers, tumbled earth and fires that were lit to burn bodies with fuel. My request to request them through the American Public Administration Act was refused. They are classified, while the US did send satellite images of the genocide on the Tutsis to the ICTR and the RPF – only if it suited them, so. “
Why did the special ICTR team’s investigation of RPF war crimes never lead to prosecutions by the public prosecutors of the Tribunal?
“ICTR public prosecutor Carla Del Ponte announced at a certain moment ( after the conviction of many Hutu extremists, MR ) that there were also charges against the RPF. This alerted Kagame. Many witnesses from the special investigation team were suddenly threatened.
“Del Ponte was subsequently removed from her post at the end of 2003 under political pressure from the US, just as she had finished her resume with potential RPF defendants. Kagame himself was one of them. The ICTR research team was stopped after Del Ponte’s departure. The ICTR jurisdiction was transferred to Rwanda itself. In fact, they decided, “Let these killers investigate themselves.”
On the basis of the ICTR draft complaint, you also write that agents of Kagame’s military intelligence service DMI not only infiltrated the murdering Hutu militia Interahamwe, but even whipped them up.
“Yes, the UN researchers stated that the RPF sent so-called ‘technicians’, commands that had to infiltrate. I double-checked this with the former senior RPF soldiers with whom I had contact and they confirmed this time and again. These commands helped to set up checkpoints where Tutsis were also killed. They actually sacrificed their own population. The attacks on Tutsis enabled the RPF to justify its own war and subsequent coup. This was so sinister, misleading and horrible that it completely changed my understanding of the genocide. ”
How do we know if infiltrators actively co-organized the violence, or experienced it passively when it started – a meaningful difference?
“It is a good question to know what their exact role was in the violence. According to my findings, they at least fed the violence. This is something that requires more research. “
Many murderous Hutus were whipped up by the extremist Hutu propaganda channel Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines. Is this not at odds with your story that infiltrators whipped up the crowd?
“There was violent rhetoric on RTLM, but there were also more moderate voices. What I understood is that the very dangerous calls for violence broadcast on RTLM were directed against the RPF Summit, which they called Inkotanyi. Unfortunately, this call to fight the enemy was also understood as a signal to attack all Tutsis who supported the RPF. That is where their responsibility lies in inciting violence. You are right, but I am convinced that the RPF was also firing up, including through infiltration and targeted political killings of Hutu politicians. ”
Like the assassination of President Habyarimana? Western intelligence services regard the perpetrators as Hutu extremists who were against his planned division of power, but are you also referring to the RPF here?
“Serial numbers were found on the launching tubes near the site of the attack, which traced the missiles to a delivery from the former USSR, which supplied anti-aircraft missiles to Uganda in the late 1980s, which supported the RPF militarily. Evidence of the missing rockets in the Ugandan stock was shown to Belgian emeritus professor and Africa expert Filip Reyntjens, who forwarded his findings to a French investigating judge investigating the deaths of French pilots. I also know the other version that you quote. The fact is: here too, the investigation into the RPF was classified. “
In your book you finally draw the controversial decision that the RPF also committed a genocide. Why?
“Because there is overwhelming evidence about the systematic method of mass murder. The key point in the legal qualification of genocide is not just about numbers, but states that genocide “is intended to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic or religious group, or a group belonging to a certain race as such.” It is clear to me that the RPF consciously eradicated at least part of the Rwandan Hutu population. ”
The RPF estimates the number of Hutu fatalities ranging from 700,000 to one million casualties. How did you get this figure, the same as or higher than the recognized genocide by Hutu extremists?
“I know this seems surprisingly high, but it is important to emphasize that I am talking about a much longer period than just the three months after April 1994 in which the genocide ( by extremist Hutus on Tutsis and moderate Hutus, ed. ) Is concentrated . We are talking about the period since the 1990 RPF invasion, the clandestine massacres of Hutus during and after the genocide, about men who were returned to Rwanda after the dismantling of the Hutu refugee camps in what was then Eastern Zaire but then disappeared without a trace …
“Tens of thousands of Hutus have been killed in Eastern Congo, away from the cameras, during the campaign of the Rwandan government army there.”
Among academics, your decision that the RPF committed a genocide is controversial.
“There are supporters and opponents. Professor Reyntjens (University of Antwerp) supports my research. I am very happy about that. Others are against my work, such as his UA colleague Bert Ingelaere. He did good research into the gacaca (hill trial, by local tribunals) in Rwanda (after the genocide) but I didn’t get to hear everything because in the gacaca Hutus were not allowed to testify about violence by the RPF.
“He now says categorically that the RPF did not commit genocide and he disputes my methods. How can he say that if he did not investigate himself or speak to witnesses who fled Rwanda? I did that for years. “
An international petition was also organized by British journalist Linda Melvern against your recent lectures at four Belgian universities. It was argued that you would not be allowed to talk without a speaker giving a reply?
“I found that an amazing statement from academics who are interested in research and debate about Rwanda. I find it shocking how some academics want to silence me and intimidate me for what I investigated. The people who sent the letter state that I am a “negationist” based on Hutu sources. That is certainly untrue. I acknowledge the genocide on the Tutsis, while many of my refugee eyewitnesses are former soldiers of the RPF – including Tutsis. I am sure they are reliable. I don’t have a political agenda. My agenda is to inform so that the crimes of the RPF become universally recognized. Witnesses and investigators must be able to talk freely without being immediately intimidated or labeled as genocidaires, which is happening now. ”
Will Kagame and RPF leaders ever be prosecuted?
“I don’t have much hope as long as he is in power. The mandate of the International Criminal Court (ICC) did not start until 2002. Proposals to set up a separate tribunal for Eastern Congo were blocked by Western governments that benefited from mineral traffic from Eastern Congo, which ran through Rwanda … Well I suggest my hope in civil matters that can bring relatives of victims of Kagame, also in Belgium. ”
Read also: Does the book ‘The Truth About Rwanda’ tell the truth about genocide? Connoisseurs respond dividedly
Judi Rever, The Truth About Rwanda . The regime of Paul Kagame , Amsterdam University Press, 344 p., 24.99 euros. Translated by Ingrid Smeets.
Source: https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/paul-kagame-de-redder-van-rwanda-volgens-journaliste-judi-rever-pleegde-hij-een-tweede-genocide~b09c5c92/?fbclid=IwAR1V4TPitMZnDLZYiez_ZJxD68WuNJhyUGfqrHKnMTXm2SwkQo4vvDxe5Q0&utm_source=link&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=shared%20content&utm_content=free