Instrumentalizing genocide: The RPF's campaign against genocide ideology

I was at a June 2008 conference in Kigali when Rwanda's minister of justice publicly accused Alison Des Forges of becoming "a spokesperson for genocide ideology." She took that in stride. After all, Des Forges was in good company: The government had already accused CARE International, Trócaire, Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the Voice of America (VOA) of propagating genocide ideology. Subsequently, the government prevented her from entering the country- without giving any reason. She took that in stride as well. Perhaps Des Forges saw her exclusion as conclusive proof that Rwanda's new law on genocide ideology was, as she had written, an "abusive restriction on free speech" intended to punish any criticism of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) (HRW 2008b, 42). Des Forges never disputed Rwanda's need for laws to prevent hate speech and incitement to genocide. She knew only too well what a real genocide ideology had wrought in 1994. In her tireless efforts to document the genocide and bring génocidaires to justice, she repeatedly emphasized the key role that ideology and "hate media" had played in inciting Rwanda's genocide (Des Forges 2007; Des Forges 1999, 65-95). Yet she was also able to see, more clearly than most, how the RPF was instrumentalizing the genocide-through gacaca and its genocide ideology campaigns-to maintain its hold on power. She worried that in the long run, this could trivialize the genocide and fuel further negationism. This chapter begins by examining the tensions between the government's discourse on reconciliation and its fight against negationism. It then shows how the government's campaign against genocide ideology has taken shape. Next, the chapter looks briefly at the accusations against Des Forges, the BBC, and political opponents. The chapter concludes that the government's misuse of the genocide ideology law to repress political dissent and civil society voices does not augur well for Rwanda's future.