Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory

KIGALI - After 16 years of self exile in Europe, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the president of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), arrived in the country yesterday to register her party ahead of this year’s Presidential elections, according to her declarations. Ingabire arrived aboard a Kenya Airways flight at around 15:00 from Amsterdam via Nairobi where she spent a night. She was accompanied by three other persons. The heads of two controversial political parties; Bernard Ntaganda of PS Imberakuri and Frank Habineza of the yet-be-registered Green Party of Rwanda, were on hand to receive her. Speaking to the press shortly before heading straight to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Site at Gisozi, Ingabire said that she is here to relieve Rwandans ‘from fear, poverty and inefficient Gacaca’. She claimed that “Rwandans live in fear” and that “there is need for all Rwandans to work together in their different parties and religious affiliations to fight the fear”. In words that clearly suggested the “Double Genocide” theory, Ingabire who has expressed her intentions to contest for the Presidency, said that ‘the reconciliation road has a long way to go unless those who killed Hutus during the Genocide are brought to book. “If you look at this memorial centre, it only shows one side of the Genocide committed against the Tutsi. There is another side of the Genocide committed against the Hutu because they are also hurting and asking themselves when their grievances will be settled.” Despite stating that she was paying tribute to the over 250,000 people buried at Gisozi, her visit to the memorial site was seen by many as a mockery to those who died in the Genocide, an observation supported by her past utterances which reveal a deep sense of revisionism. “These ‘double Genocide’ claims are the same that revisionists in Europe use to deny that Genocide was committed against the Tutsi. To utter those words, standing on the victims’ graves, is the worst insult against Genocide survivors,” Simon-Pierre Rwakana, who had come to visit the memorial site said. Ends