Dear Mr Bagnall, dear Mr Hall,
I am writing to share my support for the BBC documentary “Rwanda: The Untold Story,” presented and co-produced by Jane Corbin. In addition to my work as an assistant professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University (USA), I am also a practicing human rights lawyer, having worked in Rwanda as a United Nations human rights monitor (1997- 1998) and a faculty member at the Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda (1998-2001). I am the author of the book Whispering Truth to Power: Everyday Resistance to Reconciliation in Postgenocide Rwanda, as well as numerous academic articles and book chapters on Rwanda. I have also authored more than a dozen opinion-editorials on the country, with the most recent appearing in The New York Times, to ask the question “Why are Rwandans Disappearing?” (Available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/opinion/why-are-rwandans-disappearing.html?_r=0).
The backlash that the film has provoked from individuals and organisations loyal to or allied with the Kagame regime is both expected and predictable to scholars of Rwanda. Centralized, authoritarian governments such as that in Rwanda gain legitimacy from international audiences through a vocal and often aggressive group of loyalists who defend the government. The current vitriol around “The Untold Story” comes largely from those loyal to the current government, or those who believe its partial version of how the genocide happened, and the role of the RPF in starting the 1994 genocide. To be sure, parts of the documentary are troubling, notably the research of Davenport and Stam as their work is rooted in inaccurate figures about the number of Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. But it would be unwise to throw the baby out with the bathwater for the documentary is not revisionist, nor does it deny that Tutsi are victims of the 1994 genocide. The documentary also raises important questions about Rwanda’s history.
Since taking office in July 1994, the ruling RPF has put forth a particular set of root causes for the genocide (viz., deep-seated ethnic hatred of Hutu for Tutsi, set in place by Belgian colonizers). It has also painted itself as the heroes of the genocide, claiming that the RPF single-handedly stopped it and have successfully remade Rwanda into the economic development model that it is today. Such a narrow and simplistic rendering washes away the role of the RPF in creating the conditions for the 1994 genocide, including negotiating in bad faith during the Arusha peace negotiations. It further overlooks the scholarly consensus that current president Kagame gave the order to down the presidential plane—the event that launched the genocide. This official government version of who did what to whom in 1994 wipes clean the now widely documented human rights abuses its army committed against Rwandans of all ethnicities before, during and after the genocide. The calls of denialism that the BBC is now experiencing are rooted in this narrow, and official version of how the genocide happened, and the presumed role of the RPF in stopping it.
The RPF government maintains a tight rein on political expression and, in 2003, banned any public manifestation of “ethnic divisionism”(between Tutsi and Hutu), “promoting genocide ideology” (against Tutsi), or “preaching genocide negationism” (that is, questioning claims that only Tutsi died in 1994). These laws are vaguely worded and arbitrarily applied to anyone who makes public statements that the government perceives as critical. It is in this context that the government, and its loyalists/allies, have deemed “The Untold Story” as revisionist.
I hope the BBC will stand behind the work of Jane Corbin, and stand up for the principle of free speech that the documentary represents. Should you wish to research the claims, I’ve made in this letter, please ask. I will share peer-reviewed academic sources with you.
Yours truly,
Susan Thomson
Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346 USA
Office: +1-315-228-6068
Skype: susanmthom
Twitter: @susanmthomson
