Boniface Rucagu, a member of the National Elders Forum, on July 3, said he was grateful toJean-Damascène Bizimana, the Minister for National Unity and Civic Engagement, for discoverng and publicising a 1993 open letter by the former contesting an article in the infamous Kangura publication he said falsely attributed comments to him.
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Set up by extremist politicians in 1990, Kangura was a Kinyarwanda and French-language magazine that served to stoke ethnic hatred and incite masses in the run-up to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It was largely sponsored by the then ruling MRND party and edited by Hassan Ngeze, one of its founders, whom Rucagu accused of creating the false write-up attributed to him.
MRND was Rwanda's ruling political party from 1975-1994, with then President Juvénal Habyarimana at its helm. Ngeze was arrested in Mombasa, Kenya, in 1997, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003, by the now defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, for his role in the Genocide.
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In 2007, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR reversed some of his convictions, and reduced his sentence from life to 35 years,
"I am grateful for Minister for National Unity and Civic Engagement, Jean-Damascène Bizimana, to have dedicated his time to conduct research on me so as to know the truth regarding rumours about me that have been spreading over the past 30 years. He has now unveiled the truth removing the distorted image of me," Rucagu said on his X platform.
According to Minister Bizimana, Rucagu wrote the letter on July 21, 1993.
The minister diclosed and publicy read out the content of the letter during a recent dialogue about unity in Northern Province.
"I see people attacking him (Rucagu) on social media platforms claiming that, because he was a member of parliament representing MRND at the time, he was among Interahamwe militia," the minister said, adding "They cite an article defaming Rucagu in Kangura. This letter, of which I have a copy, shows how Rucagu wrote to Kangura contesting the write-up they wrongly attributed to him. In the letter he stated that the statements attributed to him by the newspaper were not his words. It is evident in his latter that he strived for the unity of Rwandans," Bizimana said.
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Part of Rucagu's letter titled "Announcement to Kangura newspaper readers, as read out by Bizimana, reads: "To all Kangura newspaper readers, you read an article in Kangura No 46, in 1993. This write-up is full of insults, stupidity, and indiscipline. I declare that I contest this write-up. This article was prepared by an enemy who used my picture to falsely attribute it to me."
In the letter, Rucagu explained that those behind the article he said contained falsehoods also forged his signature.
"They can take a photo of a signature, display it under a write-up and falsely attribute it to someone," reads the letter in part.
Rucagu, in the letter, told readers that he had also dragged Kangura to court and awaited a hearing.
"Whoever came up with that write-up was aiming to kill my relationship with many people given that as a person who was raised with values imparted by my by parents, educated and grew up interacting with others, and became a leader voted by for citizens, I can't have insults like those.
"I end by swearing by Almighty God's name and my mother's name who breastfed me that the released write-up was not mine. Eventually, justice will reveal where that write-up came from. No one should be suspicious of me because I have never changed. I cannot change my behaviours I have lived with for the past 45 years. I have never discriminated against people in all communities," he said in the letter to Kangura.
The contested write-up contained hate statements aimed at the Tutsi and the then RPF/Army rebel forces.
Rucagu noted that he could not have discredited the RPF-Inkotanyi, yet they had done good things to him, including returning his car in a previous incident.
"I take this opportunity to thank them (Inkotanyi) as I also said in a letter to the people of Butaro, Cyeru, and Nyamugari communes on July 15, 1993. I thanked these people for having defended me during the meeting led by (then) RPF-Inkotanyi Chairman Col.Kanyarengwe. Inkotanyi let people judge me. That is when I also thanked Inkotanyi for having returned my car to me," he noted.
Rucagu, in his letter to Kangura, reminded the public that he was once in Nyiramacibiri newspaper in 1990, portrayed as someone who had a relationship with Tutsi.
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"Now the enemies have changed tack to claim that I hate Tutsi. They want to spoil my relationship with many," he added in the letter.
Rucagu concluded accusing Hassan Ngeze of creating the write-up defaming Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi as well as the RPF-Inkotanyi.
Bizimana said the letter showed that Rucagu was not involved in inciting masses against the Tutsi in the run-up to the Genocide against the Tutsi, contrary to enduring speculation linking him to the killings partly because he was a Member of Parliament and a member of the extremist MRND party in the days before the Genocide.
Bizimana would later hand Rucagu a copy of the said letter the latter penned to Kangura readers, with the two sharing a warm smile and a hug.
Later, Rucagu posted on his X handle expressing gratitude to Bizimana for conducting research into his past and coming out to reveal his findings, and for clearing his name.
In the aftermath of the Genocide against the Tutsi, Rucagu served in different leadership positions, notably as prefet of the former Ruhengeri prefecture at a time the region was under sustained attacks from the former Interahamwe militia and defeated ex-FAR elements, before he became the leader of the Itorero civic education programme.
