Law on Genocide denial in pipeline

KIGALI - A new law that seeks to punish Genocide deniers is in the pipeline, a senior official of the National Commission for the fight against Genocide (CNLG) has said. According to Dr Diogene Bideri, a senior Research Consultant at CNLG, those bent on negating and denying the Genocide do so because there’s no right law to match their criminal acts. “Article 4 of the Penal Code is a small provision compared to the offence. We are preparing a stronger law to present to the Ministry of Culture, which will later go to Cabinet and then to Parliament,” Bideri said. Bideri said the new law should have jurisdiction over individuals outside the country who write and publish books that negate the Genocide, adding that their acts have direct impact on people living in the country. “My opinion is that this law can enable courts to follow up on who wrote and published those books. It doesn’t matter where they are based,” the CNLG official said. He said that there is need for support from all member states of the United Nations (UN), a decision he said can put an end to the deniers of the Genocide. “In France, the Penal Code is applicable to those who deny the Holocaust. Why don’t they include the Genocide against the Tutsis as well?” he said. Meanwhile, CNLG has organized an International conference on conservation of human remains scheduled to begin early next month. Bideri said that the nine-day meeting is expected to attract experts with latest scientific knowledge on conserving human remains from China’s Nanjing Massacre Museum and Mexico. Ends