Thirty years ago, on 7 April 1994 the day after two missiles brought down Juvenal Habyarimana's aircraft, killing him, Cyprien Ntaryamira the president of Burundi who had cadged a lift off his Rwandan counterpart, and ten other individuals including the French crew, Habyarimana's residence in Kanombe became central command for full-blown genocide.
I bet very few people know that, especially the many that have imbibed the propaganda that "genocide just combusted, triggered by the death of Habyarimana".
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Prior to that moment, every part in the plot to exterminate the Tutsi already was in place.
The lists of Tutsi families, their houses, their places of work had long been compiled by the MRND ruling party, right from cell level. The machetes, grenades, guns and clubs (nta mpongano y'umwanzi) had been purchased.
The Interahamwe militias had been trained and were marauding everywhere. The army (FAR) were awaiting their orders, ready to set upon innocent civilians. The RTLM hate radio journalists were exhorting every "good Hutu" to get "ready for work" - code for mass slaughter of their Tutsi neighbours.
Someone (or some people) only had to induce a major incident - the death of the president for instance, one that regime hardliners by then saw as expendable - to have their pretext and get full-blown genocide started.
I say "full-blown" because the regime already had been perpetrating low-intensity massacres and other atrocities targeting the Tutsi communities, beginning with the very first day the Rwanda Patriotic Front waged armed struggle against the government that denied Rwandan exiles or refugees their right to a country, and a nationality.
The individual that took charge of directing "the final solution" to "the Tutsi problem" was none other than Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, the deceased tyrant's wife. (Kambanda, Sindikubwabo and their so-called interim government were mere tools to see the genocidal project through).
Agathe Kanziga together with her clan of brothers, cousins, and close acquaintances, men like Protais Zigiranyirazo (the dreaded Monsieur Z), Celestin Rwagafirita, Laurent Serubuga, and Theoneste Bagosora aka Apocalypse - a group collectively known as Akazu - were the real power in the land. Akazu made the big decisions in Rwanda and Habyarimana only was president in name. More so during his last days.
I hereby present you a brief excerpt from British journalist Andrew Wallis's Stepp'd in Blood - a meticulously and thoroughly reported book that traces the beginnings of the Habyarimana regime, back to the years after he overthrew and killed Kayibanda, on through two decades of tyrannical rule, up to the moment (the day after his demise) when his wife took charge following his death.
Wallis takes us inside Habyarimana's home where family members had gathered in the lounge. "It had become a temporary morgue where body parts from the wreckage of the plane were slowly recovered and brought.
"Present were Habyarimana's two sisters, Godelieve and Teresphore; his brother Dr. Seraphin; as was Archbishop Vincent Nsengiyunva. There were the families of Tharcisse Renzaho, and army chief Deogratias Nsabimana. There were two of Habyarimana's children, Jean-Luc and Jeanne. Also present were Monsieur Z, the brother of Bagosora, Pasteur Musabe, and a few other powerful individuals.
"Agathe Habyarimana, hard eyed, told relatives who stood over the bodies not to cry, 'because that would assist the enemy'. Along with Zigiranyirazo, she was busy working the phones, making repeated calls to (former French president) Mitterrand, (former Zaire president) Mobutu, and the French ambassador in Kigali, at times asking to speak to them in private." (End of excerpt).
One Suzanne Seminega, described in the book as a lifelong friend of Mrs. Habyarimana, was shocked that instead of finding a woman in mourning she saw Agathe dictating a list of names on the telephone. Suzanne would later disclose that Agathe Habyarimana named political opponents among whom Prime Minister Agatha Uwiringiyimana who would be killed a few hours later.
Remember these facts every time some genocide apologist tries to peddle claims that the RPF was responsible for the genocide.
This is something that happens most at the start of commemoration week every year: the deniers, the negationists, the revisionists, those that seek to diminish genocide with whataboutism, or the just plain haters who seek nothing more than to rub salt into the wounds of the survivors, will go into overdrive with their poisonous lies.
These people include first and foremost actual genocidaires, participants in terrible crimes who then fled to various countries of exile when they were defeated.
The biggest of the big fish; people like Kabuga (the "chief financier of genocide" who after decades on the lam finally was apprehended, in a Paris suburb, in 2020) went completely into hiding.
But those one could call second-tier genocidaires; individuals whose relative anonymity afforded them leeway to move about unrecognized in Western cities or other places overseas, went about building alliances, recruiting the gullible and the easily deceived with stories demonizing Kagame and the RPF leadership as the actual authors of Rwanda's ills.
They became expert at turning victims into perpetrators, and in many cases even had truly influential allies, the most striking example being Jean-Louis Bruguière, a senior French magistrate that in 2006 actually attempted to indict President Kagame on charges that he had assassinated Habyarimana, thus "triggering genocide."
The man among other things had gone to the cell of Bagosora at the International Criminal Tribunal, to solicit his "testimony" - which was like someone entering the cell of Hermann Göring asking him for testimony exonerating Nazis (take a moment to Google, in case the name isn't familiar).
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That is how desperate these people became, trying to push their agenda.
The genocidaires in exile, or their family members, their offspring, and their allies remain unrelenting in pushing the long-debunked lie that "Kagame shot down the aircraft of Habyarimana to trigger the genocide."
Obviously Agathe Kanziga, who lives in France and who had extensive contacts with judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, among other influential French citizens, will never stop pushing the monstrous lie. It is the old, desperate ploy: accuse others of the crimes you yourself are guilty of, in the hope that will exonerate you.
Habyarimana's offspring will never stop pushing the lie. They are desperate to keep the justice, which they are scared is coming for their mother, at bay. One of Habyarimana's sons, Leon, on Friday released a "family" statement" that, you guessed it, accused President Kagame of shooting down his father's plane.
They will regurgitate this lie, no matter how much it has been debunked, by among others independent French investigating magistrates Marc Trévidic and Nathalie Poux, as well as ballistics experts from the UK that showed the missiles came from the nearby Kanombe Military camp, which was under the control of none other than Theoneste Bagosora, Colonel Apocalypse himself.
Decent people should never tire pushing back.
