Gatebuke Claude
By Dr BIZIMANA Jean Damascène*
INTRODUCTION
As we continue to commemorate the Genocide against the Tutsi, the world continues to search for some of the key organizers and implementers of the Genocide against the Tutsi. This is why Kabuga Felicien who has been hiding for 26 years, was arrested on May 16, 2020 in Paris, France. However, groups of deniers of the Genocide against the Tutsi continue to spread lies through various channels including social media platforms.
One of the acts of the Genocide denial that took place on such platforms was the so-called “Ribara Uwariraye” on 03/05/2020, which was hosted by the Voice of America Radio (VOA), in which the organizers led by Gatebuke Claude said that they remember Rwandans killed between 1990 and 2000. Gatebuke did this through his African Great Lakes Action Networks (AGLAN) with a headquarter in the United States, Claire who works in Belgium through the Global Campaign for Rwandans Rights based in the UK, the Campaign Amahoro iwacu and the Kizito Mihigo Foundation for Peace which headquarter is not cited.
The organizers of the event said nothing new except a repetition of what most of the deniers of the Genocide against the Tutsi have already said that there has been double genocide. They say this with a purpose of denying and belittling the Genocide against the Tutsi, which was the only one that happened and was officially recognized by the international community.
1. Claude GATEBUKE LIES THAT HE IS A GENOCIDE SURVIVOR WITH THE INTENTION OF MISLEADING PEOPLE WITH HIS AGENDA
In an interview with Claude Gatebuke to VOA and through what he writes on social media he says that he had survived the Genocide against the Tutsi, but also argues that there was another genocide against the Hutu, which should also be remembered although not internationally recognised. He exposes such lies based on a false identity claiming to have survived the Genocide against the Tutsi.
He puts it as follows: “In Rwanda, survivors are discriminated, there are survivors of genocide against the Tutsi including me. We acknowledge the Genocide against the Tutsi, it is something that should be mentioned at all times, and another genocide against the Hutu which should be talked about, the massacre of the Hutu in Congo, the massacre of the Hutu before 94 in Byumba, the massacre in Kibeho. (…) it happened that Tutsi were killed for their ethnic group and Hutu were also killed for their ethnicity.
There were also casualties from the war. Those who say we demean the genocide are those who want to silence us. Rwanda is forcing people to reconcile but for us, those who want to reconcile do it voluntarily. The Government of Rwanda must establish a memorial for all Rwandans so that all Rwandans can feel involved, and if everyone remembers his or her own relative it will lead us to the real reconciliation.”
WHAT IS THE REALITY ABOUT Claude GATEBUKE?
Claude Gatebuke was not from the Tutsi ethnic group, so that his family would be victims of the genocide and he would be a survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Claude Gatebuke is the son of Justin Gatebuke from the former Cell of Mugara, Gishwati sector, Kayove commune in Gisenyi Prefecture. Justin Gatebuke was also born to Rwamwaga nicknamed Kinyuka and he had two wives, Nyambuga Agnes and Ntabugi who was the mother of Gatebuke Claude.
Justin Gatebuke, a father of Claude Gatebuke, was born in 1956, attended primary school in Kayove, at Vumbi, and continued in Rubengera and the National University of Rwanda. Gatebuke Justin has siblings including Enias Ukwitegetse who was a butcher in Nkora Market and Theophile Burindi who was the secretary of Kayove Commune for many years, and his sister Nyiramakuba. All of them were never Tutsi.
Justin Gatebuke studied at the National University of Rwanda with a registration number 81/145 at the University of Ruhengeri which was based in Butare which taught medical related courses (Ecole superieure des techniques medicales = ESTM). In an academic report for the 1982-1983 academic year completed on February 7, 1983 by Charles Ntakirutinka, the former Secretary General of the University listed students of ESTM and it appears that Gatebuke Justin was in his third year (Bac. III) and was born in 1956, in Kayove Commune in Gisenyi, and is a Hutu.
After graduation, Justin Gatebuke worked for ONAPO where he represented it in Gitarama and Byumba Prefectures, and later went to study in the United States. Everywhere he worked, he was not a Tutsi, hence his son should not pretend to be a Tutsi with the intentions of demeaning the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Based on this evidence, how does Claude Gatebuke assert that he is a survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi? It is a lie to support his plans to demean the Genocide against the Tutsi.
2. NO GENOCIDE AGAINST THE HUTU IN HISTORY OF RWANDA
The crime of genocide is legally defined with clear terms. Any genocide is planned. It is characterized by the intent to kill all or part of the people based on their ethnicity, nationality, religion or skin colour. The RPF-INKOTANYI has never had a genocide plot.
Gatebuke and his colleagues have no right to fabricate the existence of the Genocide against the Hutu and to blame it on anyone they do not want because of their greed, hatred, divisionism and genocide ideology inherited from their parents that they do not want to separate from. If the genocide against the Hutu had taken place, where was it planned? When? And who stopped it? The RPF was fighting for the liberation of the country, confronting the Habyarimana government forces in an ordinary war, in a manner known and governed by the Geneva Conventions of 04/08/1949 and 07/06/1977 governing the course of the war.
The RPF has complied with all the provisions of the war provided for by the convention, including the responsibility to evacuate civilians from the fighting zone, to protect them, to treat the wounded, to give special attention to children and women and so on.
In addition, among the RPF soldiers, those who violated the orders of the military administration and committed crimes were severely punished. Including those tried by the Courts and were punished and those who were shot. Since the Liberation battle started, the RPF Armed Forces Command had shown to its soldiers that revenge actions were not part of the RPF plan.
Gatebuke and his networks falsely claim that Hutu were killed in Kibeho by the government. Promoters of this lie do not say clearly that Kibeho Camp was a home to Ex-FAR soldiers, Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi of MRND and CDR which they had turned into a killing & military zone to prepare the attacks on the forces of the Government which had just stopped the genocide.
3. THE TRUTH REVEALED BY THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS’ REPORT ON THE STRUCTURE OF INTERAHAMWE CAMP IN KIBEHO IN 1995
Liars such as Gatebuke Claude do not comment on the May 18, 1995 report of an international expert group. The report claims that the camp was a stronghold of ex-FAR, Interahamwe and IMPUZAMUGAMBI which was turned into a war zone where military training took place and from there, they shoot on government troops trying to reorganize themselves for the war to regain their power then they can conclude the genocide.
The team of experts who prepared the report consisted of 10 people from the following countries:
1. Mr Marc Foucault, prosecutor, France;
2. Mr Bernard Dussault, diplomat, Canada;
3. Mr Koen de Feyter, professor of international law, Belgium;
4. Mr Karl Flittner, diplomat, Germany;
5. Mr Ataul Karim, diplomat, United Nations Organizations;
6. Dr Ashraf Khan, Forensic pathologist, United Kingdom;
7. Mr Maurice Nyberg, lawyer, USA;
8. Colonel-major Abdelaziz Skik, military expert, Organization of African Unity;
9. Mr Ernst Wesselius, prosecutor, Netherlands;
10. Ms Christine Umutoni, lawyer, Rwanda.
With regards to the case of the Congo, we recall that the Forces of the Government of Rwandan Unity liberated more than two million civilians who had been taken hostage by the genocidal government and its forces in Congolese camps. Those citizens were brought home by the Rwandan government and its forces, many of whom were in critical condition and were given all the necessities to return them to their homes, protect their lives and ensure their safety. In the opinion of Gatebuke and his colleagues, does this assistance look like genocide?
4. “RIBARA UWARIRAYE” BY GATEBUKE Claude IS A NEW WEAPON FOR DENIERS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TUTSI
At the forefront of the activity are assembled in 5 non-governmental organizations, all of which operating abroad and most of its members have parents who were directly and indirectly involved in the Genocide against the Tutsi or spreading its ideology. Some of them have been convicted of the crime of genocide by Rwandan justice system or international justice. Others, such as Shingiro Mbonyumutwa, Ndagijimana Jean Marie Vianney and others are hiding abroad fleeing prosecution for the crime of genocide committed or theft of government property.
Let us recall that Ndagijimana JMV fled the country in late 1994 and he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the National Unity. He was sent on official mission to the United States of America with President Pasteur Bizimungu and run away with Government’s funds amounting to two hundred thousand US dollars meant for the Rwandan Embassy in New York. He is now known for teaching the lie of double genocide and training young people.
Apparently, there are very few survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi who support Gatebuke and his colleagues because of their cooperation with some of their family members who have committed various crimes in the country, are being prosecuted but escaped justice. When they arrive abroad, their motto is to slander Rwanda to the point where they join deniers of the Genocide against the Tutsi. This is a bad practice that young people should get rid of.
5. THE YOUTH THAT HAS ORGANISED RIBARA UWARIRAYE ARE USED BY ADULTS WHO DENY THE GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TUTSI
According to Pierre Vidal-Naquet, the author of the Genocide against the Jews, the deniers will live forever seeking all possible means to cause pain to genocide survivors. This is not the first time in the history of deniers of Genocide against the Tutsi that they use the expression “Remember All”. Such ideas are old fashioned and are held by Rwandans who worked with the First and Second Republics, such as Ndagijimana Jean Marie Vianney and Ruhigira Enock who grew up with PARMEHUTU ideology, or the youth in the Jambo asbl organization who articulate that they speak for a section of Hutu who are never remembered.
Since 1994, when the Genocide against the Tutsi was being committed and even after it was stopped by the RPF Inkotanyi forces, the perpetrators of the genocide and their friends have started collecting ideas to demean and deny it. These viewpoints are especially evident in the writings of Filip Reyntjens, Pierre Pean, Robin Philpot, Bernard Lugan, Serge Desouter, Madeleine Raffin, Luc De Temmermann, Peter Erlinder, Peter Verlinden, Judi Rever, Charles Onana, and others.
They are the ones who have become like the scribes of denial, they line up broad lines to be used to deny the Genocide against the Tutsi. The results of their “laboratories” are used by some of the youth organizations denying the Genocide against the Tutsi in their denial activities.
Because elders like Reyntjens who have initiated the viewpoints that demean and deny the Genocide against the Tutsi are no longer trusted as their true colours had been known, they have chosen to use the youth to mislead the international community. This is where Jambo ASBL in Belgium and other organizations like Gatebuke’s and his colleagues came from.
6. “RIBARA UWARIRAYE” IS A CLEAR PLOT FOR PLANNERS & IMPLEMENTERS OF THE GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TUTSI
Adolphe HITLER, the head of the NAZI government that exterminated the Jews, never admitted that the Jews were killed for their ethnic group. This is also what Colonel Bagosora said that there was no Genocide against the Tutsi. When Claude Gatebuke says that he and his associates remember the genocide against all people, it is a continuation of Bagosora’s plan and of other genocidaires. He disregards the fact that between 1990 and 2000, and even later, the killers who were in the government that perpetrated the Genocide against the Tutsi, their army, the youth of the Interahamwe continued their killing activities in Rwanda and abroad through FDLR, FDU-Inkingi, RUD-URUNANA and its branches. Those killers had taken hostage of unarmed civilians and taken them to the Congolese jungles as their protection in the killing acts. Obviously, the FDLR and everyone else among their supporters will never feel reasonable on the commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
7. COMMEMORATION OF THE GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TUTSI WILL BE FOREVER
The principle of Remembrance of the Genocide against the Tutsi is based on the Constitution of Rwanda voted in 2003 by citizens and amended at their request in 2015, with its preamble says: “Conscious of the genocide committed against the Tutsi that decimated more than a million sons and daughters of Rwanda, and conscious of the tragic history of our country.” Commemorating the Genocide against the Tutsi is an act of all Rwandans who have a clear understanding of where they come from and where they are going. All Rwandans remember the Genocide against the Tutsi, genocide survivors testify and those who tried to save them are given the opportunity to give constructive testimonies to Rwandans. The perpetrators of the genocide who have accepted their role, apologized, and forgiven is a sign that the unity of Rwandans is possible. That is the true nature of Rwanda.
CONCLUSION
The genocide against the Tutsi will be remembered for years AND YEARS. Gatebuke and others who have a negative attitude of denying the Genocide against the Tutsi will never stop it because it is the history of the country. The misconception that social media is the benchmark for having supporters is also another misconception. Gatebuke should come to his home country of Rwanda and join others, because what is being done on social media platforms which do not show the true image of Rwanda is a mistake.(End).
* Dr BIZIMANA Jean Damascène, Executive Secretary National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG)