Virunga Post e-Paper -- Issue 018

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Your source for credible news Issue no 018

November, 2020

Rwandan terrorist platform sends a laughable letter of “congratulations” to Biden

NEWS

A French Government commission exposed for including a genocide revisionist Page 2

NEWS

Controversy in France marks the Duclert Commission; “whitewashing is its true objective” Page 4

OP - ED

A Rwandan terrorist platform made up of RNC, FDU-Inkingi, Amahoro PC, and PS Imberakuri – the so-called P4 – has sent social media in peals of laughter with “a congratulatory message” to the US President Elect Joe Biden. Initially known as the “P5 Group” made up of five terrorist organizations, it has disintegrated to 3 or 4 members and their public relations stunt is a Page 3 desperate attention-seeking act, commentators say.

Ugandan propaganda jumps on an assassination in Congo to fictitiously link it to Rwanda Page 5

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NEWS

Issue no 018 November 2020

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A French Government commission exposed for including a genocide revisionist By Joan Karera Julie d’Andurain, an individual billed as “a historian” that has been made member of Paris’s ‘Duclert Commission’ has been exposed by a French newspaper, Le Canard, for her revisionist views about the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. The Duclert commission is a team composed of fifteen historians, academics, lawyers and researchers, that was created in April last year and tasked by President Macron to consult all France’s archives relating to the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, and analyzing the role of France in Rwanda before and during the genocide. Le Canard, however, has reported about d’Andurain following her writings praising France’s intervention in Rwanda during the genocide period in the so-called Operation Turquoise with the claim it is what stopped the genocide. Factual history, however, is clear: French President (at the time) Francois Mitterrand sent Operation Turquoise to assist the genocidal government, and the ex-FAR as well as Interahamwe militias that were getting heavily routed by the RPA.

real acts and mission of the operation when he published his book ‘Rwanda la fin du silence’. Ancel, alongside other well-known social media users, have already raised their voices

and started to question the credibility of what will be included in the Duclert Commission’s report. “I have just read the publication of the historian Julie D’Andurain on Operation Turquoise. It is a tissue of lies which takes up

Julie D’Andurai claims that “Operation Turquoise had a humanitarian purpose.” She further claims that, “several tens of thousands of Tutsis as well as Hutus had their lives saved thanks to the French presence.”

revisionist theses!” Ancel said. “How can she even sit on the Duclert Commission on Rwanda? What to expect from her participation? Have the conclusions of this commission already been written?” he asked on his Twitter account. “The two main sources cited by d’Andurain are negationist author Pierre Péan, and the former secretary general of the French presidency Hubert Védrine. This in itself is a huge problem, Ancel says. “The presence of a person that cites such sources on the Commission potentially discredits the upcoming report and raises fears of yet another rewriting of history in an attempt to exonerate France,” remarks the well-known investigative journalist Theo Englebert. In other words, Paris is attempting to whitewash and exonerate itself, many agree. It is expected that the work of the Duclert Commission will lead to a report that will be made public in late March or early April 2021.

It is therefore “astonishing”, in the view of France-based survivors, that Paris has included in its commission someone that claims Turquoise “saved Rwandans” while claiming it was the Rwandese Patriotic Front responsible for the Genocide! Diaspora circles know d’Andurain as a genocide revisionist with an agenda against the RPF administration. In her publications, d’Andurain claims that “Operation Turquoise had a humanitarian purpose.” She further claims that, “several tens of thousands of Tutsis as well as Hutus had their lives saved thanks to the French presence.” Yet, this is a narrative that has been debunked by individuals like Guillaume Ancel, a retired French soldier who was part of the Operation Turquoise and later broke the silence about the

Julie d’Andurain, a genocide revisionist that’s been controversially appointed to a French Government Commission.

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NEWS

Issue no 018 November 2020

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Rwandan terrorist platform sends a laughable letter of “congratulations” to Biden

Some of the P5 militias who are undergoing trial on terrorism-related crimes in Rwanda. The terror group laughably congratulated the US President-elect, Joe Biden.

By Jean Gatera A Rwandan terrorist platform made up of RNC, FDU-Inkingi, Amahoro PC, and PS Imberakuri – the so-called P4 – has sent social media in peals of laughter with “a congratulatory message” to the US President Elect Joe Biden. Initially known as the “P5 Group” made up of five terrorist organizations, it has disintegrated to 3 or 4 members and their public relations stunt is a desperate attention-seeking act, commentators say. No US administration, whether

Democrat or Republican, has any tolerance for groups that launch attacks that kill innocent civilians, loot, rape and inflict other atrocities. “P4 would be regarded no differently than al Qaeda or al Shabaab by any US administration,” commented a security analyst. Signed by Jerome Nayigiziki of RNC, the “congratulatory message” has become a laughingstock. “These P5 terrorists would stay quiet and hidden from public view if they were wise. After their

responsibility for the grenade attacks in Rwanda, or other outrages like the Kinigi attack last year, these terrorists should be very worried about arrest by any US administration, or other foreign countries,” a Facebook account commented. The Kinigi attack by terrorists of the RUD-Urunana group killed 14 innocent civilians in Northern Province on 4October last year. “We were also funded by P5 coalition members based in Europe” confessed Theogene Habumukiza, one of the attackers captured by the Rwandan

Defense Forces (RDF) after it had put most of the terrorists out of action. According to a US justice department document, (citing U.N. DRC sanctions monitors), Nayigiziki’s group was mobilizing armed combatants in DRC’s South Kivu province in 2018. “Do these people actually think someone like Joe Biden, who was US vice president for eight years, won’t be able to know who they are?” asked a commentator on security issues.

Signed by Jerome Nayigiziki of RNC, the “congratulatory message” has become a laughingstock. Stay Connected


NEWS

Issue no 018 November 2020

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Controversy in France marks the Duclert Commission; “whitewashing is its true objective” cooperation mission at the Ministry of Cooperation.

By Jason Muhire Lately, there has been a heated debate in France around the presence of a historian, Julie D’Andurain, on the Duclert Commission, which was tasked by President Macron with examining French archives relating to the 1994 genocide against Tutsi and analyzing the nature of France’s interventions in Rwanda before, during and after the genocide. The debate focuses mainly around Julie D’Andurain’s past publications on the role of France in Rwanda which, according to French army veteran Guillaume Ancel, put into question her credibility as a researcher and a historian. Ancel, in a letter addressed to the president of the commission, notes that Julie D’Andurain published an article defending the 1994 French intervention named “Operation Turquoise” by parroting the least trustworthy source on the matter: that is the former secretary general of the French presidency Hubert Védrine. Indeed, the latter supervised the operation from Paris and, unsurprisingly, went to great lengths over the years to sanitize France’s support for the genocidal regime. In other words, Julie D’Andurain parroted a man who is, as Ancel emphasizes, suspected of complicity in the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. While doing so, D’Andurain promotes revisionist allegations and genocide denialism. She, for instance, describes the Genocide as “inter-ethnic massacres.” “The 2,500 or so, men of Operation Turquoise commanded by Jean-Claude Lafourcade were given humanitarian objectives even as massacres between Hutu and Tutsi shook international public opinion,” she writes. She further accuses the RPF, as does Hubert Vedrine, of downing the plane of the then president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana; the poisonous allegation that has thoroughly been debunked by, among many others, an inquiry

Michel Roussin and Jean-Pierre Huchon belong to the small group of politicians, diplomats and soldiers who decided French policy on Rwanda in 1994. The Overseas Academy of Sciences (formerly the Académie des Sciences Coloniales) recently sponsored a symposium in the Senate where several genocide deniers, Hutu-Power activists, former French soldiers involved in Rwanda were present, including Hubert Védrine”, journalist Theo Englebert reported. He was highlighting the suspicious links between D’Andurain and a small clique of former French officials whose actions supposedly are being investigated by the very commission that she is part of! It is an attempted whitewashing in the classic sense of it. Julie d’Andurain, a genocide revisionist

conducted by France’s own team of investigators. The allegation is championed by genocidaires and their allies, including Vedrine. People like Vedrine are motivated by a need to evade accountability for his own decisions in support of the genocidal regime. To support her dubious conclusions, Julie D’Andurain paraphrases another renowned genocide denier Pierre Péan, someone that no serious scholar ever cites. One can only agree with Guillaume Ancel’s view that D’Andurain was not acting as a historian or a researcher, but rather appeared to be on a mission to whitewash Hubert Vedrine whom she describes “as a diplomat whose righteousness and probity are recognized by all”. Ancel points to Julie’s refusal to hear his own testimony on the Turquoise operation, of which he was part and which he has repeatedly condemned on different platforms, as yet more evidence that powerful circles in France attempted – and are still

attempting – to impose an official narrative that whitewashes them. “Such bias, a total absence of contradictory research, and sources other than those provided by her employer completely discredit D’Andurain as a researcher on the subject,” Ancel wrote. The existence of such powerful circles conspiring to rewrite history is fact. For instance, a month after Macron’s announcement of the composition of the Duclert Commission, Julie D’Andurain was elected member of the French Academy of Overseas Sciences where some of those who decided French policy on Rwanda in 1994 are still roaming. D’Andurain joined the 15 members of the Second section of the Academy of Overseas Sciences on the same day as Michel Roussin. The latter was minister of cooperation during the Genocide Against the Tutsi. More disturbing, the correspondent of the academy, Jean-Pierre Huchon, was then head of the military

Rwanda, and Rwandans have serious concerns. While the Rwandan government has signaled that it would give the benefit of the doubt to the Duclert Commission, other organizations such as Survie comprising of survivors of the Genocide have these issues in the past, especially when some researchers were excluded from consideration despite their unrivalled expertise, “but because of their critical views of France’s role in Rwanda at the time of the Genocide.” If the intent was to bring about credibility around the work of the commission and reassure those who perceived such views as expressing an “anti-France” bias, then why would an expert with an evident anti-RPF bias be included? Why isn’t she probed on her proximity with people who have deep vested interests in burying the truth that the commission she belongs to purportedly intends to uncover? Until such questions are answered, the “findings” of the Duclert Commission will be DOA.

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NEWS

Issue no 018 November 2020

35

Ugandan propaganda jumps on an assassination in Congo to fictitiously link it to Rwanda

Uganda propaganda organs on the payroll of CMI have yet again smeared Rwanda with a crime. Pictured is CMI boss Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho.

By Jean Gatera Commandonepost, a propaganda outlet on the payroll of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) continues its anti-Rwanda campaigns by falsely blaming a murder in Goma (DR Congo) on Rwanda. This follows an incident when individuals on a motorbike murdered one Ngezayo Simba last Tuesday morning in the DRC town of Goma. Congolese officials announced that one of the suspects called himself “Mutabazi”. This alone prompted CMI to launch a slanderous article. CMI, which is best known as the Uganda Government’s implementer of anti-Rwanda terrorism, rushed to blame Rwanda through Commandonepost.

da outlet provides no further evidence. Observers wonder why Commandonepost has given itself the role of disclosing who the suspect is, rather than the Congolese authorities that have arrested him. In video clips of Congolese security officials announcing the arrest, even the military official said that the suspect’s nationality was still unknown.

On the other hand the name Mutabazi is common in the region. In Uganda too, many people carry the name Mutabazi. For instance, one high-profile official in Kampala is Godfrey Mutabazi, the director of the Uganda Communications Commission. Another video makes key revelations about the identity of the suspect, and why CMI might be able to know who Mutabazi is, even as its propagandists do

their best to link him to Rwanda. In the viral clip on social media, three suspects undergo an interrogation by security officials. One of the suspects, named Abdul, says that Mutabazi is “a former soldier, a prisoner, and then a fugitive.” At the end of the day, observers comment, Ugandan propaganda should let Congolese authorities do their job and not try to muddy the waters with their concocted claims.

According to credible sources in Goma, property ownership conflicts are suspected to be the motive of the murder of Simba. To smear the hideous crime upon Rwanda, Commandonepost simply used the suspect’s name “Mutabazi” to claim he is “a Rwandan agent.” The propagan-

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