Following the arrest of notorious genocide fugitive Fulgence Kayishema, old Filip Reyntjens, the self-proclaimed “expert on Rwanda”, has once again shoved in his nose. He is up to his routine of self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner, calling for the heads of his imaginary “RPF- Inkotanyi suspects” to roll.
However one can’t help but wonder, where was this zeal for justice when he (Reyntjens) was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Kayishema, the very architects of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi?
Of course, we mustn’t let Reyntjens’ selective memory dupe anyone, about the fact that Reyntjens was in, very deep, with the regime that prepared, planned, and executed the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Reyntjens for one thing was the mastermind of Habyarimana’s constitution that established as law the segregation against Tutsis that rendered them second class citizens in their own country.
Put very simply: Filip Reyntjens is a very evil old man.
Notable genocide planners or implementers like Frodouard Karamira, and Hassan Ngeze of the infamous Kangura hate publication, were just a few of Reyntjens’ close confidants. This evil man was noted for his “tremendous network” of high dignitaries of the Hutu Power “Tropical Nazi” regime of Habyarimana, all of whom he worked hand in hand with.
Yet this (unindicted) criminal Reyntjens had the audacity to pipe up that “it is time to prosecute RPF-Inkotanyi”, the very people that stopped the Genocide and liberated Rwanda!
It is the height of white privilege for an old accomplice of crimes of genocide like Reyntjens to daily attack the very victims of genocide (of which he was an accomplice), trying to turn victims into perpetrators. We live in a truly strange world.
Reyntjens other smear (one that he shares with a lot of other negationists) is that the Rwandan Government “had the intention of committing a new genocide against Rwandan refugees in the DRC.” Pure fictions and lies amply contradicted by facts on the ground. The RPF administration not only invested significant resources in initiatives aimed at healing the wounds of the past by reconciling Rwandans (the wronged and the perpetrators, on a bedrock of homegrown justice solutions like Gacaca courts), it worked, and still works to ensure no Rwandan is discriminated against on the basis of ethnicity.
Old accomplice of terrible evil that Reyntjens is, he looks at what the RPF has done, and it gives him feelings of deep shame. He looks at himself in the mirror, and his conscience tells him he is looking at someone that worked hand in hand with terrible criminals (genocidaires).
He can’t face that. Therefore the only course left to him, in his miserable life, is to daily slander, tarnish, or insult the Rwandan leadership, if not for anything else but to make himself feel a bit