Rwanda: Nicolas Sarkozy Due To Visit The Tutsi Genocide Memorial

Father and daughter, both genocide survivors, at the Gisozi Genocide Memorial (source Kagatama). 

What would Bibi have said? What would grandma Bibi have said had she known that 16 years after her murder, the head of the armed forces, Nicolas Sarkozy, would travel from France to pay his respects at her grave at the Gisozi memorial in Kigali, considering that Grandma Bibi was so afraid of the French soldiers who patrolled her area… Iby’isi ni gatebe gatoki;[1] indeed. As for my mother, who is buried next to grandma, I know that she would not have been impressed by all this. She would have said: “It is just showmanship, lip service, nothing more. Do not listen to him”. What about my brother and his wife, who are buried a few metres away? What would they have said? My sister-in-law would no doubt have said something like, ‘I worked for you, for your so-called Franco-Rwandan cooperation, but you ran away and left us to die – taking with you your friends the killers, including the Secretary General of the Interahamwe! Your flowers mean nothing to us’. As for my little sister, also buried in Gisozi, I imagine that she would have cried out with the same sad, disillusioned look on her face, that the day in 1993 when the French soldiers demanded her papers in order to check her ethnicity, ‘I died at age 20, because I was Tutsi. A French President can go ahead and put as many of flowers as he wants on my grave. It’s too little too late!’

We do realize that it is for us, the living, that Nicolas Sarkozy is travelling to Rwanda on 25 February for a lightning 3-hour visit. Our dead couldn’t care less.

It must be said, however, that for the survivors of genocide, this sends a strong message. I can never forget how utterly dismayed I felt when, while he was visiting Kigali on 13 August 2001, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hubert Védrine, refused to pay his respects at a genocide memorial site because he did not want to be drawn into the ‘exploitation of the tragedy by the regime in place.’

Needless to say, this event must reflect the truth. Bernard Kouchner has acknowledged that France ‘made a political blunder’ in Rwanda; that is a powerful statement. I am curious to see how the French President will explain France’s policy of lending unwavering, long-term support to a regime which was founded on ethnic division. A regime whose army and militia - trained and armed by France - carried out the genocide in which over a million lives were lost.

The sky is blue. The moment is sombre. Today is Thursday, 25 February 2010. The two Presidents, of France and Rwanda, stand side by side; there is silence in the audience. They are in sombre mood.

What is going on in their minds?

He was told to remove his shoes, shoelaces and watch. Along with his friends, he was led to a cell; he had no idea what was happening; he did not speak French, and, what’s more, no one explained to him what was happening. This was back in January 1992. Having been invited to Paris for peace negotiations, the young military leader of the RPF rebel movement was detained after being arrested in his hotel room by armed police. He was released nine hours later without an apology. This was the first and last time that Paul Kagame travelled to France, a country which prides itself in promoting and upholding human rights.

The French President surely remembers the comments he made on the 8 o’clock news on France 2 television on 20 July 1994, at a time when he was only a government spokesman, ‘Launching a humanitarian operation.is much to France’s credit. [...] Can you imagine what would have happened had the security zone not been in place, had the French soldiers engaged in Operation Turquoise not done what they did with such tremendous courage’? Thanks to Operation Turquoise, the masterminds and perpetrators of the genocide escaped justice in their country and formed the FDLR, a terrorist militia group whose leader still lives in Paris.

Ignace, an elderly man, is attending the event as a member of the Association of Genocide Survivors. He lost his wife and two children in the genocide. He is at a loss as to what to make of all this. ‘France is, and will always be, a sanctuary for perpetrators of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.’ Wasn’t this statement made by two French ministers? Today, the President of France will no doubt have some kind words to say at the place where thousands of victims of genocide are buried. Yet France, along with Congo, is the number one sanctuary for those who committed the genocide of the Tutsi. Sixteen years on, France is still the Promised Land for the likes of Callixte Mbarushimana! They are provided with residency papers, employment and health care and are allowed to operate with total impunity. They have realised that the French judicial system will do nothing more than pay lip service. So what’s the point of all this?

Immaculée, a reporter for the newspaper La Nouvelle Relève, is covering the event. She remembers the remarks made on RFI radio on 1 September 2003 by the then French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin. Mr de Villepin spoke of ‘the terrible genocides in Rwanda’, deliberately using the plural. He thus ushered in a communication strategy consisting in maintaining the argument of ‘double genocide’, something that is unique to France among Western countries

Eustache was one of the founding members of the PSD party back in the nineties. A former university lecturer, now a senator, he has been invited to this ceremony, something he has anticipating for a long time. Chased and hounded during the genocide, he lost a number of friends and his brother to genocide. While he is not Tutsi, he had a reputation for being an outspoken opponent of the regime’s policy of ethnic discrimination. He shudders to remember the remarks made in Kigali on 28 February 1993 by the French Minister of Cooperation, Marcel Debarge, who urged the Hutu to form a common front against the RPF. What followed swiftly, in late 1993, was the creation of what became known as Hutu Power, an ethnically-based alliance between the majority of the opposition parties and the MRND and CDR.

Alivera, an economist, is a senior official in the Ministry of the Economy. She returned from Canada soon after the genocide to help her country after living in forced exile. She remembers what some have termed Rwanda Act II or The Day After. The country was devastated, the infrastructure was in a shambles and the banks were cleaned out; the intellectuals, doctors and civil servants had either been killed or had fled to Congo. She remembers that one country - a member of the United Nations Security Council and the European Union - did everything in its power to ensure that no funds reached Rwanda. The country in question was none other than France. It recently donated 326 million euros to Haiti.

Clad in a spotless uniform complete with medals and standing at attention, John remembers the day in June 1992 when two of his closest friends were blown to pieces right next to him; he escaped with a nasty injury to his left leg and a limp. This happened in Byumba. Facing him were Rwandan Armed Forces, with French soldiers …..setting up the artillery. John glances gravely at the French delegation, but he realises that his country needs peace.

Today is Thursday 25 February 2010. All is quiet. The people of Rwanda are anxiously waiting to hear what Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic of France, has to say…

---

[1] The wheel is turning.

•  «Un rapprochement sans « excuses», Le Monde, 12 August 2001
• «Kouchner: «Paris a commis une faute politique au Rwanda», Le Figaro, 26 January 2008
• «Rwanda : quand la France jetait Kagame en prison», Le Figaro, R. Girard, 22 September 1997
•  «Les tueurs sont parmis nous», Le Nouvel Observateur, 30 July 2009
• «Lettre ouverte à Dominique de Villepin», Association Survie, 12 September 2003
•  Interview Street Press de Patrick de St Exupéry about the France embargo against Rwanda
• «Rwanda : le jour d’après», M. Malagardis et PL Sanner, 1995
• «Un génocide populaire», JP. Kimonyo, éd. Karthala, 2008 
•  «L’attentat, le génocide, la France», Libération, C. Ayad, 19 novembre 2008
•  «La guerre secrète de la France au Rwanda», Libération, J.D Merchet and S.Smith, 13 January 1998
•  «France-Rwanda, un génocide sans importance», Le Figaro, P.de Saint Exupéry, 12 January 1998
•  «France-Rwanda,  le syndrome de Fachoda», Le Figaro, P. de Saint Exupéry, 13 January 1998
•  «France-Rwanda, des secrets d’Etat», Le Figaro, P. de Saint Exupéry, 14 January 1998
•  «France- Rwanda, le temps de l’hypocrisie», Le Figaro, P. de Saint Exupéry, 15 January 1998

Le 7 avril 1994 au Rwanda, nous étions un million

Le 7 avril, je me souviens.

Oubliés parmi les morts, terrés dans une improbable cache, sauvés par un bon samaritain, épargnés par un tueur fatigué de tuer, rescapés par chance ou une arme à la main, nous sommes restés. Pareils à des grains de blé dans un champ moissonné, à des miettes après un repas. Nous sommes là. Nous sommes des arbres sans branches. Nous sommes quelque part, entre les morts et les vivants. Sans famille. De temps en temps, un 7 avril, on vient nous chercher. On nous demande de raconter. Alors on raconte. Et puis, on nous oublie.

Le 7 avril au Rwanda, les survivants du génocide sont importants.

Le 7 avril au Rwanda, on évite de tuer les survivants du génocide qui témoignent dans les Gacaca.

Le 7 avril à l'ONU, on répète : « Plus jamais ça ! » 

Le 7 avril aux Etats-Unis, on a depuis longtemps oublié le terme juridiquement non contraignant : « actes de génocide ».

Le 7 avril en Afrique, on compatit pour les Rwandais, mais on se souvient surtout du beau parcours du Nigéria pendant la coupe du monde 1994. 

Le 7 avril en France, c’est la saison des négationnistes. Ils sont invités sur les plateaux télé face à ceux qui ne sont pas fatigués de répéter qu’il y a eu un génocide au Rwanda. Ces « spécialistes », ces « enquêteurs » qui ne connaissent de mon pays que ce qu’en dit Google,  expliquent le sourire en coin que « cela ne s’est pas vraiment passé comme cela ». Que ce sont les Tutsi qui ont organisé le génocide des Tutsi, que des Tutsi déguisés en miliciens Hutu, exterminaient les Tutsi. Les Tutsi ? Une race de menteurs congénitaux. Et ils sont pris au sérieux.

Le 7 avril en France, personne ne remarque que le pays de Badinter a sur son sol le plus grand nombre de Rwandais suspectés de génocide. La France qui est aussi un des rares pays européen qui n’en ont jugé aucun. Ceci explique cela.

Le 7 avril en France, les rares journalistes qui s'intéressent au génocide des Tutsi, enquêtent, rapportent, informent ; et puis un jour, ils se taisent. Ils se taisent, car, comme l’a écrit Christophe Ayad, l’Afrique [vous] indiffère. Au printemps 1994, il n'y a qu'Ayrton Senna qui soit mort. 

Le 7 avril des citoyens français se rappellent scandalisés que pour le Président Mitterrand un génocide en Afrique ce n’est pas trop important, que pour le Premier ministre De Villepin le génocide des Tutsi devient les génocides du Rwanda.

Le 7 avril 1994 au Rwanda, nous étions un million. Trois mois plus tard nous n’étions plus. Tous les Tutsi du Rwanda devaient être tués. Et ils l’ont été.

On 7 April 1994 in Rwanda, there was one million us

On 7 April, I remember.

Forgotten among the dead, holed up in an unlikely hiding place, rescued by a Good Samaritan, spared by a killer who has had enough of killing, surviving by chance or weapon in hand, we stayed. Like wheat grains in a harvested field, like crumbs after a meal. We are here. We are trees without branches. We are somewhere between the living and the dead. With no families. Every so often, on 7 April, we are sought out. We are asked to tell our story. So we tell our story. And then, we fall into oblivion

On 7 April in Rwanda, survivors of genocide become important.

On 7 April in Rwanda, a conscious effort is made not to kill survivors of the genocide who testify before the Gacaca jurisdictions.

On 7 April at the United Nations, they repeat the maxim:  Never again! 

On 7 April in the United States, the term legally convenient term  acts of genocide is long forgotten.

On 7 April in Africa, there is a feeling of compassion for the people of Rwanda, but more importantly, this date conjures memories of Nigeria’s performance at the 1994 World Cup.

On 7 April in France, it is the prime time for revisionists. They are invited to appear on television along with those who are now tired of repeating that a genocide did occur in Rwanda. These so-called experts and investigators, who learned everything they know about my country on Google, explain with a smile that, that is not how it happened. According to them, it was Tutsi who planned the genocide of the Tutsi, Tutsi disguised as Hutu militiamen exterminated the Tutsi. The Tutsi? They are just a bunch of born liars. And these people are taken seriously.

On 7 April in France, no one seems to notice that France, which is home to Robert Badinter, has the biggest number of genocide suspects on its soil. France also happens to be among the few countries in Europe that are yet to prosecute a single genocide suspect. That explains it all.

On 7 April in France, the few journalists who show any interest in the genocide of the Tutsi, make inquiries, write reports, inform ; and then one day, they stop. The reason they stop is because, as Christophe Ayad wrote, "Africa makes you  indifferent" (l'Afrique [vous] indiffère). In the spring of 1994, no one named Ayrton Senna died. 

On 7 April, the French people remember, not without embarrassment, that for President Mitterrand,  genocide in Africa is not that important, that for Prime Minister De Villepin the genocide of the Tutsi is a matter for Rwanda. 

On 7 April 1994 in Rwanda, there was one million us. Three months after that, no one was left. All the Tutsi in Rwanda had to be killed. And they were.