Genocide: It’s time for France to come clean

Editor, RE: “Can UN confront France over Genocide against the Tutsi?” (The New Times, July 3). The new French Government would be doing itself a favor were it to drop Paris’ persistent and increasingly untenable denial of the reality that is so clear to the rest of the world of the complicity of officials in the highest echelons of the state in the Genocide against the Tutsi. Too much incontrovertible and mounting evidence of that complicity exists for France to continue to deny it without adding ridicule to its guilt for its active role before, during and after in the most heinous crime known to humanity. Officials in Paris can deny their Government’s role in that Genocide until they are blue in the face; they can try to shut down their accusers and undertake all sorts of underhand campaigns to try and shift blame for the Genocide on its victims and those who stopped it. They can attempt to deflect attention from the Genocide in which they were actively involved to a fictionalized account of who was responsible for bringing down President Juvenal Habyarimana’s aircraft, straining to perform the prestidigital trick of shifting attention from the Genocide to the aircraft crash and assert that it is that crash that caused the Genocide, but ‘les faits sont vraiment tetûs!’ No matter how much Paris does to try to change the subject, the more than a million destroyed lives will not be shut down; their voices from the other world will continue to haunt France unless that country comes to terms with its guilt, which the rest of the world is fully aware of. The inability to do so and to make honorable amends for its role in the deaths mean France’s ability to move on will continue to be all but impossible. No amount of effort Paris puts in silencing the ghosts of its crime as well as the living who continue to point fingers of accusation at France for its guilt will succeed; the crime is just too monstrous to be covered up. Better that Paris owns up, and disowns those who have dragged France’s name in so much blood. Mwene Kalinda

Opinions

Genocide: It’s time for France to come clean