The British academic and researcher, Dr. Hazel Cameron has said that BBC’s documentary, titled, “Rwanda’s Untold story” is a piece of work used to deny and trivialize the genocide against Tutsis based on information provided by some selected individuals who want “to satisfy their own greed for power”.
She added, “The main security threat to Rwanda today is the international media” and how it reports the country.
The remark was contained in her testimony she presented before an Inquiry Committee set up to investigate whether BBC’s Documentary broadcast on October 1, 2014 violated journalistic standards, Rwandan law, its own standards, among other crucial elements.
Dr. Cameron, who has researched and published widely about the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda told the five-members Committee that BBC’s documentary is “an exercise towards a contribution to misrepresentation of Rwandan politics and history.”
According to the British academic, the producer and presenter of the documentary whom she interacted with before the broadcast of the documentary, exhibited a high level of manipulation of the reality on the ground to suite the interests of genocide deniers and revisionists who are bent on what she described as ” denying and trivializing the genocide and destabilizing Rwanda’s journey towards peace building, unity and reconciliation.”
She also questioned the scientific rigour used by the scholars the BBC relied on to tell its story stressing that “it’s not academic” nor scientific, for example for Filip Reytens to claim that “I think by the end of 1993 the RPF had decided to take power by the bullet rather than the ballot”.
She also questioned the claim that there is a body of academic evidence that questions the official statistics of how many Tutsis were killed in 1994― except Professor Allan Stam and Christian Davenport nor the existence of a consensus in the international community of scholars that President Kagame is a dictatorship―except within the head of Prof Reyntjens.
Discussing the impact of the documentary on Rwanda’s image abroad, Dr. Cameron observed that since the airing of the controversial documentary on 1st Oct. 2014, some British nationals have started to question the truth about Rwanda’s journey towards reconciliation and economic development that has taken place since the end of the genocide.
She said her conclusion is based on dozens of messages she received from various British nationals after watching the documentary indicating their concern that, according to the documentary, the Rwandan government isn’t respecting human rights and that another genocide is likely.
Dr. Cameron cited a publication in one of the leading British Newspapers which reviewed the documentary a day after its broadcast, and concluded by asking if it was appropriate for the British Government to continue using the taxpayers’ money to support the Rwandan government.
She further revealed that the documentary is now being used by genocide deniers as evidence that Habyarimana’s plane was brought down by RPF in various international conferences which they say is the trigger for the genocide.
The British academic further scoffed at the interviewees, dubbed as experts and academics, questioning how Prof. Reyntjens who is well known to have worked closely with President Habyarimana’s genocidal regime and a man who hasn’t been to Rwanda in 20 years continue to be called a leading expert on Rwanda?
Dr. Cameron is an Associate of the Scottish Center for Crime and Justice Research, University of Stirling as well as the International State Crime Initiative. She is also lecturer within the School of International Relations at St. Andrews University and current Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Her main research interests include state crime, global elite bystanders, state and corporate complicity in political violence, torture, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Dr. Cameron’s testimony before the Inquiry Committee continues this Wednesday.
Leave a Reply