{"id":38384,"date":"2018-10-22T15:35:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T15:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/former-pm-twagiramungu-genocide-denial-statements\/"},"modified":"2018-10-23T07:15:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T07:15:49","slug":"former-pm-twagiramungu-genocide-denial-statements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/former-pm-twagiramungu-genocide-denial-statements\/","title":{"rendered":"Former PM Twagiramungu\u2019 genocide denial statements to be pursued"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twagiramungu who served as Rwanda\u2019s Prime Minister from 1994 to 1995 and now lives in exile in Belgium, usually posts on social media about the \u2018double\u2019 genocide in Rwanda and that the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi was never deliberately prepared by perpetrators. <\/p>\n

Individuals and officials have been requesting to investigate and pursue Twagiramungu pay for his \u2018statements\u2019 that are considered to have the plot to deny and minimize the 1994 genocide where more than million people were killed.<\/p>\n

In a tweet, Tom Ndahiro who is a Genocide scholar appealed to Rwanda and Belgium\u2019s criminal investigation organs to open a case file against Twagiramungu whose \u2018senility has led to severe criminality\u2019.<\/p>\n

Tom Ndahiro was referring to a French tweet by Faustin Twagiramungu posted on October 20 this year that says that genocides in Africa have taken place in three countries colonized by Belgium in history.<\/p>\n

The tweet in case loosely translates as, \u201cGenocides in Africa have taken place in three countries colonized by Belgium: DRC: 10,000,000 Congolese nationals killed under King Leopold II (1887-1907) +6,000,000 by Paul Kagame, Rwanda: 1,000,000 killed by FPR and FAR in 1994 and Burundi, 3,000,000 Hutus killed in 1972 by the Tutsi Army\u201d. <\/p>\n

Referring to the tweet, the Genocide scholar, Tom Ndahiro tweeted, \u201cI suggest Rwanda’s RIB [Rwanda Investigation Bureau] and Belgium department of criminal investigations should open a case file against this old man whose senility has led him to severe criminality. His denialist discourse is disgusting. His hatred towards genocide survivors and their rescuers is visceral.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in charge of the East African Community, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe said, in another tweet, that \u201cIt’s very sad to see an old Rwandan politician in his 70s, who miraculously escaped the genocide machine in 1994, who was given an opportunity by the RPF Inkotanyi to serve as Prime Minister, becoming not only a genocide denier but a real lunatic, as time goes by.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with IGIHE, the Chief Prosecutor of Rwanda, Jean Bosco Mutangana said statements by Twagiramungu can lead to crimes of denial and denigration of the 1994 Tutsi genocide.<\/p>\n

Mutangana said, \u201cHe (Twagiramungu) states that the genocide was never prepared and Habyarimana\u2019s regime never planned for the genocide. This is far different from what was approved by the International Community showing that the genocide was a planned plot as the Interahamwe militias were trained and the genocide ideology was taught in schools so that Tutsis were killed for so many years till 1994.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mutangana further said Twagiramungu cannot hide behind what he calls freedom of speech and then say whatever he wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cRwanda\u2019s prosecution will never tolerate those statements. We are going to analyze them and what will be found as crimes to be prosecuted, a case will be opened against him. We will work with those countries he lives in as we usually collaborate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready to start an investigation on him, with the country he lives in. If he wants to become a genocide denier, he will be put on a list of criminals to be persecuted on genocide negation,\u201d Mutangana added.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s Chief Prosecutor further noted that is a responsibility for the Prosecution to pursue everybody in line of genocide denigrators and deniers \u201cthe same as others who intend to commit it like FDLR.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n

Supporting a double genocide theory for Rwanda and stating or explaining that genocide committed against the Tutsi was not planned is considered as an offense. Genocide denial contravenes the spirit of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.<\/p>\n

Genocide ideology law punishes the crimes that include denial of genocide, minimization of genocide, and justification of genocide, with a term of imprisonment of not less than two years but not exceeding four years, with a fine of not less than Rwf500,000 but not exceeding Rwf1,000,000 for each count. <\/p>\n

Born August 14 in 1945, Faustin Twagiramungu served as Rwanda\u2019s Prime Minister from July 19, 1994, to August 28, 1995, when he resigned and exiled to Belgium. <\/p>\n

In 2003, he came back to Rwanda and ran for the President\u2019s office as an independent candidate and lost the elections having got 3.62% of votes while President Paul Kagame emerged winner with 95.0%. <\/p>\n

\"Rwanda's<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda could open a case against and prosecute former Prime Minister, Faustin Twagiramungu due to his social media statements allegedly denying and minimizing the 1994 Tutsi genocide against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69],"byline":[180],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-samson-iradukunda"],"bylines":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":24}],"contributors":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":24}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38384"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38384"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}