Kwibuka29: Rwandans need more than solidarity messages
Tuesday, April 11, 2023

During this period when Rwandans remember, for the 29th time, the Genocide against the Tutsi which took place in 1994, we continue to receive rather touching messages of solidarity from different countries.

Since we started commemoration activities in the country and beyond, different countries, through senior officials have been emphatic in sharing messages of support to Rwandans especially genocide survivors including those in Europe.

It is however disheartening to know that some of those countries have over the years become not only a safe haven for perpetrators of the Genocide against the Tutsi, but also continue to give platform to those openly denying it.

In some of these countries, mainly in Europe, the perpetrators who have evaded justice for nearly 30 years now, continue to mobilise funding for their futile but evil plan to carry on the genocidal campaign that was cut short in July 1994 after they were defeated by RPF Inkotanyi.

Publishing houses are unashamedly publishing biographies and other literature by these Genocide masterminds, including those that have been convicted by the now closed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

In the same books, they openly deny the Genocide and go on to mislead the world to an extent of projecting the victims of their heinous crimes as the villains and without any consequence whatsoever.

So, to these countries sharing messages of hope with Rwandans, all we ask is expand that solidarity by refusing to be a den of these mass murderers, some of whom you already have their well detailed indictments.

Investigate them and where you find the evidence adduced is insufficient, reach out to the Rwanda judiciary for more, or better still, send your judicial officers to conduct their own investigations.

From there, you can either decide to extradite them to Rwanda – which has always been the preferred option for survivors to be able to see justice being served – or at least try them in your own courts.

For those using your countries to promote their genocidal agenda, put a stop to this for all this is within your means.