There is a certain terrible irony in Paul Kagame serving as the keynote speaker for the Third International Conference on Genocide at California State University Sacramento (CSUS). As an accused war criminal and perpetrator of crimes against humanity, an authoritarian who allows no dissent inside of his own country, and possibly even a genocidaire himself for actions against Hutus in the neighboring Congo, Kagame could be the subject of this conference, but not the keynote!
Since taking over Rwanda following the 1990-94 Civil War that ended in the horrible Rwandan genocide, Kagame has used violence and intimidation to support his rule. The UN’s Gersony Report substantiated significant evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes during that Civil War. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International regularly report on abuses committed by his government. And the UN has reported since 1998 that Rwanda is complicit in the conflict in the Congo, supporting rebel groups and purposefully prolonging the conflict in order to benefit from the Congo’s mineral wealth. Most recently, the 2010 UN Mapping Report stated in no uncertain terms that killings of Hutus by Rwandan forces in the Congo amounted to even more war crimes and crimes against humanity on a massive scale. This report also suggested that there was sufficient evidence to warrant legal investigations into whether Rwandan forces committed genocide against Hutus in the Congo.
And the man who CSUS has invited to be their anti-genocide keynote speaker is at the middle of all of these atrocities.
Almost as badly, Kagame blatantly uses genocide guilt as a tool of control against his own people, and as a public relations campaign in the West. No one can criticize him for his abuses, since the international community just watched as Rwanda disintegrated into genocide in 1994. And genocide “negationism,” “revisionism” and “denial” are now illegal in Rwanda. This is NOT comparable to making Naziism illegal in Germany. Rather this is the legal tool that Kagame uses against ANYONE who criticizes him.
Thus even the subtitle of the CSUS conference, “Negationism, Revisionism, Survivors’ Testimonies, Eyewitness Accounts, Justice and Memory,” is a testament to Paul Kagame’s autocratic rule. For an American university to use terms associated with repression and lack of freedom in Rwanda speaks very poorly about the level of knowledge that went into preparing the conference.
PLEASE JOIN US in making this issue visible to the pubic, and in urging CSUS and the other sponsors to remove Paul Kagame from this conference!
