We must confront head on the Genocide deniers

Editor, As we begin the commemoration period, it is a reminder that genocide deniers, or those that trivialize the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, are still many out there. Take an example of Jane Corbin, and her ‘Untold Story’ that was aired on BBC last year, claiming that only 300,000 Tutsis were killed during the Genocide. I was born and raised in Butare in the current Southern Province). Before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi my family and relatives included more than 200 people. We were spread out in the former communes of Huye, Mbazi, Shyanda, Rushashya, Runyinya, Rusatira, Maraba, Ngoma, Nyamagabe (Gikongoro) and Sake (Kibungo). After 1994, only 10 of us had survived the Genocide. The abandoned places and physical disfigurements many of my relatives bear indicate the barbarism of the genocidaires. The former Butare Prefecture was the most populated in Rwanda with nearly 800,000 people; some communes had more than 50 per cent of Tutsi population and many families were wiped out completely. This is not an “untold story”—it is a reality. Certainly, if BBC’s Jane Corbin was interested in telling the true story, she should have visited Huye District and interviewed Genocide survivors and their neighbours. I believe that she would have been stunned by the saddening narratives of survivors and probably recognised the heroism of Rwanda Patriotic Army and its Commander in Chief, President Paul Kagame. Even few courageous Hutu who did not participate in the killings, without Rwanda Patriotic Army’ interventions, their days were numbered. Butare

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We must confront head on the Genocide deniers