06 March 2000
PRESS STATEMENT
On
March 1, 2000 the National Post, a Canadian newspaper published a screaming front page
story titled "Explosive leak on Rwanda genocide".
THE SOURCE
The author of the story, one Steven Edwards
alleges that his newspaper is in possession of a United Nations Report which allegedly
implicates the Government of Rwanda in the downing of the late President Habyarimana's
plane in April 1994.
What has intrigued many observers, is the fact
that a major North-American newspaper publication should not only dedicate its front-page
to a story related to a country which has never featured anywhere in its publications
before, but that this very newspaper has published two stories within a spell of a couple
of weeks seeking to portray what it alleges as the role of the present Rwandan Government
and some of its leaders in the 1994 genocide. This is highly unusual and what it points to
is a well orchestrated smear
campaign designed to, not only justify the 1994 genocide, but to intimidate the Rwandan
people into silence particularly in the wake of the Carlson report which clearly spells
out the role of the United Nations in the Rwandan genocide. The campaign is also
aimed at frustrating the efforts of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
in Arusha, on the part of those who are threatened by the apparent efforts of Ms Carla Del
Ponte, in tracking down the perpetrators of the genocide.
What boggles the mind is the fact that even
better Western media outlets with better connections to sources within the United Nations
have not been able to access the alleged sources within the United Nations. None of
them claims to have obtained a copy of the purported report. All media networks have
cited the National Post as the source. Once again this is highly unusual for the
North-American media industry known for its rigor to rely on a Toronto newspaper which has
hardly been in existence for two years. It should be pointed out that in a
subsequent conversation between the Rwandan Ambassador to the United Nations, H.E. Joseph
Mutaboba and the United Nations Secretary General's Spokesman, H.E. Fred Eckhard, the
United Nations Spokesman categorically denied the existence of such a report and would not
be authorized to comment on it.
THE ALLEGED REPORT:
Given the sustained smear campaign the National
Post has launched against the Government of Rwanda in recent days, its readers would have
expected it to print the entire report, as Mr. Steven Edwards' claims that the report
"suggests a critical moment in the Rwandan genocide has been misunderstood". The
National Post should do the world a favor especially its newfound allies among the Rwandan
genocidaires now calling Canada home, and print the story in its entirety. This is a
challenge. Mr. Edwards claims that the purported report is based on testimony given
by three "Tutsi informants" to the United Nations investigators, back in 1997.
What is clear is that those who made up the story figured out that by claiming the
existence of alleged "Tutsi Informants", it would render the story credible.
It is important to point out that this sort of
smear campaign against the Government of Rwanda and its leaders is nothing new.
Since 1994, the perpetrators of Rwanda genocide and their sympathizers in the
international community have leveled similar allegations. Indeed there have been
occasions when the Rwandan genocide criminals have been able to voice such allegations
using a section of the international media. On this occasion, the Rwandan genocide
criminals have found their mouthpiece in the
National Post, through Mr. Steven Edwards, a journalist with well known links to Le
Congrès Rwandais du Canada, an Interahamwe outfit, based in Quebec, which regards
genocide in Rwanda as unfinished business.
Steven Edwards' goes on to claim that the
alleged investigation was in line with the then U.N Secretary General Boutros-Boutros
Ghali's instructions "to collect all available information with all means at his
disposal---- and to report to the council as soon as possible". It should be
clearly understood that "all available information" was collected by the French
troops who, immediately after the shooting down of the plane, sealed off the Airport and
later went on to publicly claim to be in possession of
vital information related to the shooting down of Habyarimana's plane including claims
that they had recovered the plane's black box. None of these claims have ever been
substantiated. Indeed the plane's manufacturers outrightly denounced the French
claims, pointing out that the plane was not equipped with a black box. Nonetheless,
the French cordoned off the Airport at Kanombe, carried out investigations and up to this
day they are the only party who can tell the world what exactly happened, if they can
dare!
The National Post shamelessly peddles the
French line that the missiles used to attack the aircraft had been confiscated by the
American military during the Persian Gulf War. In a veiled attempt to implicate the
Americans, Mr. Edwards claims the United States as opposed to France and Belgium has not
carried out a "comprehensive inquiry in the mass death". The National Post and
Mr. Edwards in particular should be reminded that the U.S did not have troops in Rwanda
before or during the genocide. France and
Belgium did and that is why they had to investigate themselves, though the inquiries
-particularly in the case of France- turned out to be a whitewash, a feel-good exercise.
May be the National post should be asking why
Canada has not carried out any inquiries into the genocide given the fact that Canadian
troops were stationed in Rwanda before and during the genocide. Indeed the overall
United Nations force Commander was a Canadian, General Romeo Dallaire. Canada has now
become a haven for the planners and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide including those
presently in league with Edwards and the National Post of Canada. Surely, Mr.
Edwards, this merits an investigation on the part of Canada!
It is indeed astonishing that the National
Post, a Canadian newspaper, has not made any effort to investigate and expose the presence
of known genocide criminals in Canada, but is instead engaging in heartless revisionism
designed to protect the criminals who committed genocide against the Rwandan people.
As a typical Western journalist intoxicated
with the Great Lakes genocide ideology, Mr. Steven Edwards tells his readers that
"today only Hutus have been indicted". Here the author seeks to
insinuate that they have been indicted because of their ethnicity. The Rwandan
criminals currently in Arusha are there not because of any ethnic affiliation but because
of the crimes they committed against humanity.
OBJECTIVES
The National Post article is a classical
revisionist piece of work designed to justify the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. For
instance if the purported informants were interviewed in 1997, why did it take the
National Post three years to obtain and write about the alleged report? In its
glaring attempt to justify the genocide against the Rwandan people, the article screams
that " a critical moment in the Rwanda genocide has been misunderstood".
Here, the National Post seeks to portray the Rwandan mass killing as a spontaneous
reaction to the death of Habyarimana and therefore not a planned genocide.
The story is calculated to intimidate the
Government of Rwanda, in the wake of the Carlson report, which is a clear indictment of
the United Nations'role in the Rwandan genocide. The report does not only implicate
certain powerful members of the Security Council, it also calls upon the United Nations to
work towards the reconstruction of Rwanda.
The National Post story is equally designed to
frustrate the trials of the genocide suspects not only in Rwanda but also at the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha as those in the international
community who have been implicated in the Rwandan genocide feel threatened by the apparent
efforts of Carla Del Ponte, the International Criminal Prosecutor, in her effort to arrest
and prosecute the genocide criminals.
It is now a familiar pattern that every time a
report implicating the United Nations into the Rwandan genocide, every time there is a
sign of possible success with regard to apprehending and prosecuting the Rwandan genocide
criminals, revisionists and apologists shift into high gear as demonstrated by
Steven Edwards and the National Post's fabricated story motivated by the desire to negate
the genocide against the Rwandan people. Who would be surprised if Edwards were looking
for a job at the United Nations and offered one soon or later?
Mr. Steven Edwards and his cohorts in Le
Congrès Rwandais du Canada should be seen for what they are -modern day revisionists, who
should be denounced in unequivocal terms.
Joseph Bideri
Directeur, Office Rwandais d'Information (ORINFOR)
