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Rwanda on Wednesday sought to rally the world for a new struggle against genocide denial, following a report which found that genocide denial is on the rise in the recent past with its manifestations changing form.
The 2013/14 report compiled by Rwanda's National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) indicates that solid mechanisms to fight genocide ideology and denial which are in place are being undermined by "negative forces which contest the fact that Rwanda lost over a million people in 1994.'
Presenting the report to parliament on Wednesday, Christine Tuyisenge, CNLG's vice chairperson, called for global partnership in fighting the ideology. "Genocide denial has changed faces overtime due to various reasons. It still undermines unity and reconciliation efforts," she said.
The commission said more efforts should be put in engaging the international community towards fighting denial of the genocide.
About one million Rwandans were killed in the genocide in 100 days, including Tutsi and moderate Hutu.
But the report comes against a backdrop of a BBC documentary dubbed Rwanda's Untold Story, which downgraded the number of Tutsi victims killed in the genocide to as low as 200,000.
"We have the exact number of genocide victims. It is 1,071,000. This figure will be circulated so that we erase all doubts as well as silence genocide deniers, even though various deniers have different motives beyond just figures," Tuyisenge said.
Jean de Dieu Mucyo, CNLG's executive secretary, said genocide deniers were revisionists who would be degraded.
He cited three phases of genocide, including preparation, execution and denial.
"The government and its allies will fight genocide denial until the battle is won," he said.
Mucyo said genocide denial and ideology, criminal in Rwandan laws, could be inspired by local and international perpetrators who don't want to be implicated and brought to book.
He said CNLG had set up a commission to probe and counter- attack genocide deniers, and also follow up on all discussions and multimedia productions on the genocide in Rwanda.
MP Edouard Bamporiki advised CNLG to have an upper hand in every documentary reporting on the genocide while Senator Jean- Damascne Bizimana urged the commission to promote local researchers to come up with unquestionable genocide facts to ' counter denials inspired by international researchers who are green about Rwandan history.'
Tuyisenge, however, cited budgetary constraints among the challenges to research, documentation and archiving of genocide facts.
Jeanne d'Arc Gakuba, the deputy president of the Senate, called for unconventional approach to fight genocide ideology.
We should build a local network, she said, that will support the commission's efforts to fight genocide ideology. "There are many genocide survivors who have not been approached to tell their stories. We should encourage research and documentation efforts so that we have solid information." Enditem
