On 21st July 2015, ITV News, a programme on the British television network ITV aired a ‘news bulletin’ featuring one of the convicted masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Jean Kambanda. The distasteful, insensitive and immoral programme which undoubtedly ignores the weight of the crimes under which Kambanda was convicted, only serves to strengthen the belief that a growing number of predominantly western media houses are now determined to continue underplaying the true historical events of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, all in the name of balance reporting, headline grabbing, and the all-too-familiar rhetoric of freedom of speech.

How do I allude to such an observation? Simple, when you consider some of the claims Kambanda expressed during the news programme. At one point and from inside the walls of his prison in Mali, Kambanda told ITV’s John Ray that despite his conviction by a United Nations tribunal for crimes against humanity, he is in fact innocent. Additionally, Kambanda took advantage of prime time television airtime he was kindly granted by his hosts ITV to stir up the current peaceful social set up in Rwanda by insisting that Rwanda is "like a volcano that will one day explode again.”

Upon such a statement, and with details of Kambanda’s trial widely available, you will forgive me if you expected the reporter, John Ray, to challenge this statement. Instead, on the news channel’s website, the ITV reporter wrote:

"So when Kambanda tells us that in Rwanda dangerous divisions between Hutu and Tutsi remain and that the country is "like a volcano that will one day explode again’’ here at least he is not simply trying to re-write history, but to point out the real perils that persist.”

The real perils that persist, you say Mr Ray? Despite your full knowledge of the fact that if you wish to truly establish the real set up of the British society you do not go knocking on the doors of the so-called Islamic State, Al Qaeda and the sort, here is a brief reminder of who Jean Kambanda was and why he is where he is. On 4th September 1998, Jean Kambanda, who during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi occupied the position of Prime Minister of the caretaker government was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after being found guilty of all charges brought against him. According to tribunal archives, Kambanda was charged, pleaded guilty and was subsequently convicted of six charges; Genocide, conspiracy to commit Genocide, direct and public incitement to commit Genocide, complicity in Genocide, crimes against humanity, and murder and extermination.

In addition, during the trial, it was noted with clarity that during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Kambanda actively distributed weapons, incited others to commit killings, and grossly failed in his duty to ensure the security of the Rwandan population. Some of the witnesses have also articulated how the Genocide convict supported Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which lauded the massacres and extermination of Tutsis. Upon his conviction and subsequent appeal, on 19 October 2000, Kambanda’s conviction was reaffirmed when the Appeals Chamber rejected his appeal. He was sent to Mali in West Africa to serve a life sentence.

Mr Ray, on Tuesday night, you and your employers ITV, provided a platform to one of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, to underplay the true events of what actually happened. This platform which undoubtedly attracted millions of viewers nation wide negates the established facts of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

How appalling!

Again Mr. Ray, your pursuit to interview Kambanda may have been innocently driven by the need to make headlines or other motives only known to you, but Kambanda’s statements of denial, distortion, and misuse all undermine the understanding of our history. Denial and distortion of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi only serves to underplay the events of the massacres, undermine the legitimacy of the Rwandan government, plant seeds of doubt about the direction which Rwandans have chosen to take, and draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints that the Rwandan community has firmly condemned.

Within and outside Rwanda, we must always remind ourselves that the denial or distortion of our history is an assault on truth and understanding, and the comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand our society and our goals for the future. We should not stand by as the international media gracefully entertains some of the masterminds of the massacres both intentionally and unintentionally because this would not only threaten our understanding of how to safeguard such acts of cruelty from taking place again, it gives hope to those who carried out the atrocities that someone somewhere still lends them an ear.

Now, it is entirely for ITV and Mr Ray to ponder and reflect as to whether an international platform ought to be given to a heinous offender already convicted of masterminding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed up to a million lives, to justify his diabolical crimes by denying his role in the genocide. But while they ponder on this, let it be known that as survivors continue to heal and the victims continue to be remembered, in the words of President Kagame, Rwanda has changed, and in it has changed for good.

junior.mutabazi@yahoo.co.uk