Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
20 November 2007
Kigali — Genocide survivors organization IBUKA has demanded that a planned conference at the Louvain Catholic University in Belgium be halted because it negates the Tutsi mass slaughter in Rwanda, RNA has established.
The Belgian section of umbrella organization 'IBUKA - Mémoire et Justice' wants the University to stop the "hate meeting" due November 24 organised by controversial 'Hotel Rwanda' film hero Mr. Paul Rusesabagina.
IBUKA is particularly bitter with the invitation of French author Pierre Pean who it describes as a "caricatural example of this negationsism". Mr. Pean authored 'Noires fureurs, blancs menteurs' that critics allege distorts the catastrophic events in Rwanda.
The organization says it is concerned with an invitation to a personality such a Mr. Pean who is subject to judicial proceedings in France and Belgium.
"The Louvain-La-Neuve IBUKA section of victims and witnesses of the Tutsi Genocide already alerted you in their March 21, 2006 correspondence following the negationist speeches after the projection of Hotel Rwanda film on March 15, 2006", writes Dr Kalisa Placide to Professor Xavier Renders - Vice Rector of the University.
Apparently, the University later committed in an April 03, 2006 letter to reconsider invitations to such debates with 'vigilance'. But as it stands, the conference is on scheduled prompting a demonstration that IBUKA is organizing to coincide with the debate.
It is for these reasons that we ask with insistence the academic authorities not to authorize the holding of this hate meeting that will jeopardize your values defended by you institution, IBUKA said yesterday.
Belgium is no stranger to similar activities that critics say deny the Genocide paint a distorted picture of the mass killings that left over a million lives massacred over-night.
According to vague figures from the Rwanda prosecution department, Belgium is home to thousands of genocide fugitives walking free with very minimal effort to have them brought to book.
Can you imagine the department charged with handling Genocide case has only 3 people who are not even sufficiently facilitated to follow up the fugitives, a senior official told RNA in July last year.
The official said there was a general apathy in Europe to prosecute fugitives largely because Genocide crimes are never on the political agendas of governments. However, Belgium is one of the top bilateral partners to Rwanda with up to 40million euros injected annually.
Meanwhile, four fugitives are awaiting an ongoing extradition process that should see them moved to Rwanda courtesy of a special agreement between the two governments. There have also been cases of arrests in The Netherlands, Finland and Denmark.
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