EDITORIAL: Genocide deniers should not be given a platform

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) might be shutting down with the majority of those on trial having the book thrown at them for their role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. But Genocide apologists are not done yet. They are going to great heights to pick crumbs from the rulings in order water down the 20th century’s most vile crime. They argue that in all judgments, ICTR failed to prove that the Genocide was planned, that it was a spontaneous fit of madness by a population mourning the death of a “popular” president. But for those who were in Rwanda prior to the Genocide, they know better: Some survived the Bugesera and Kibirira mass killings in 1992, a trial run for the mass killings to come. In any case, the ICTR would have found it difficult to find irrefutable evidence because those who were suspected of being behind the planning were the same ones on trial. Did anyone surely expect them to incriminate themselves? But in all their endeavours, the genocidaires and their backers conveniently overlook the fact that Jean Kambanda, the interim Prime Minister of the government that oversaw the killings, spilled the beans. His confession that runs into hundreds of pages draws a vivid picture of the behind-the-scenes planning sessions, the drawing up of targets and the distribution of arms. Many who have been convicted in Rwanda did the same. So what matters is not what others think, but what Rwandans know and went through.

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EDITORIAL: Genocide deniers should not be given a platform