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Mrs Victoire Ingabire About False Allegations in the New Times

Here follows the letter addressed to The New Times in Kigali, about the diffamatory campaign orchestrated by its journalists after her visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre at Gisozi.
She writes:

Chief Executive Officer
Editor-in-Chief
The New Times Publications SARL
Immeuble Aigle Blanc
P. O. Box 4953
Kigali – Rwanda

Subject:
Right of rectification and reply to libels published in Sunday Times on 17th January 2010 and The New Times of 18th January 2010:

o The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010 – Editorial � �FDU�s Ingabire desecrates memory with Double Genocide theory�

o The Sunday Times of 17th January 2010- Front page: News – Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory

o The New Times of 18th January 2010 – Editorial � �Genocide deniers: the law should take its course�

o The New Times 18th January 2010 – Front page: news � �Govt won't stand violation of the laws-interior Minister�

o The New Times 18th January 2010 – Front page: news � �Political Parties, CNLG slam Ingabire 'divisionist' politics

Dear Sir,

As the chairperson of FDU Inkingi, I have been subject of a deliberate and continuous heinous and/defamatory campaign in your newspapers accusing FDU Inkingi� public intervention at the Gisozi memorial site of Genocide denier, double Genocide Theory, desecrating memorial, divisionist� politics, inflammatory statements, and many other shameless insults. The worst was to maliciously spread serious accusations related to the genocide, the most severe crime against humanity historically

I would strongly like to set the record straight regarding the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. My position is still and has always been that the genocide against Tutsi took place in Rwanda and all criminals should be brought to book.

I am disappointed by the hatred propaganda, violent, offensive and injurious language towards my person and the FDU Inkingi I represent. It is unfortunate that my words were intentionally twisted. Readers of your papers are purposely made to believe in the content of those offending articles based on untrue facts.

On 16th January 2010, after my visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center at Gisozi, I made the following announcement in Kinyarwanda, which was also recorded and is here translated in English, the language of your media:
�It is clear that achieving reconciliation has a long way to go; it is far away and this is understandable considered the number of people who were massacred in our country, because such tragedy is not something to move on from easily on the one hand. On the other, when you analyse the situation objectively, you don�t find any serious strategy intentionally developed and implemented to help Rwandans to achieve that reconciliation. For example, we are here honouring at this Memorial the Tutsi victims of the Genocide; there are also Hutu who were victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, not remembered or honoured here. Hutus are also suffering. They are wondering when their time will come to remember their people.
In order for us to get to that desirable reconciliation, we must be fair and compassionate towards every Rwandan�s suffering. It is imperative that for Tutsi survivors, Hutu who killed their relatives understand the crimes they committed and accept the legal consequences.
It is also crucial that those who may have killed Hutus understand that they must be equally punished by the laws.
It is finally very important for all of us Rwandans with our different ethnic backgrounds to understand that we need to come together in unity and with mutual respect in order to develop our country peacefully.
The reason we came back is therefore to find ways collectively of starting off on that roadmap towards unity, working jointly to remove injustices from our country, addressing as one issues of getting Rwandans to live freely in their country.
Thank you.�

Based on my declarations, all those false accusations and the subsequent hate propaganda are baseless and ill-intentioned. It would�ve been better that the reporters contacted me to get my side of the story prior to publishing those inflammatory allegations. I would like also to draw your attention to similar stories aired by other independent media in this respect.

It’s hard to believe that Rwandan journalists write on tragic issues with so much bias and lack of objectivity. One of the FDU INKINGI policy principles is not to entertain any discrimination or injustice among the Rwandan living and the dead.

I shall be most grateful if you could find some space in your next editorials of your newspapers' and on front pages for the relevant clarifications.

Sincerely yours,

Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire
FDU Inkingi Chairperson

CC: – The Minister of Internal Affairs,
- Press house

Document attached: Press release on Gisozi Visit.

via Rwanda FDU-UDF : False allegations in the New Times.

January 19, 2010   No Comments

The Sunday Times – Rwanda – Claims That FDU�s Ingabire Desecrates Memory With Double Genocide Theory

Less than 12 hours after Victoire Ingabire’s arrival in Kigali, a campaign of attacks, interpretations and intimidation tactics has already been launched by those who are not used at seeing the other side of the recent Rwandan tragic history. In its editorial yesterday, The Sunday Times has accused Mrs Victoire Ingabire, FDU Inkingi chairperson, of desecrating the memory of genocide victims.
The editorial reads:

FDU�s Ingabire desecrates memory with Double Genocide theory

Opposition politician, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, could not have started her homecoming on a more vicious note.

There are some who had thought that her arrival to compete for the highest office, in a country where women have assumed a leading role in governance, would be a welcome addition to national politics. Instead, she revealed a very disturbing side of her.

As soon as she left the airport, she made it straight to the Gisozi Genocide memorial site to pay homage to victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, or so it seemed.

It must have been a shock to her to come to Kigali, after an absence of close to two decades, to see the huge changes.

Any well-intentioned person would easily notice that this country has not been sleeping in the last 15 years. The post-Genocide Rwanda amazes everyone; the reconstruction efforts, and especially the reconciliatory approach by the government has been acclaimed the world over.

But this is not what Ingabire sees. She sees desolation where there is none and slams Gacaca as unjust as if the thousands who took part in the Genocide are angels.

To add insult to injury, she stuns the Rwandan people by echoing every revisionist and Genocide deniers� favourite line: espousing the Double Genocide Theory.

This is the first time, since 1994, that a Genocide denier has chosen to articulate this level of revisionism on the Rwandan soil.

She utters all this right where hundreds of thousands of innocent souls are laid to rest, victims of similar inflammatory statements. She could not have chosen a better moment and place to desecrate the memory of the victims.

Ends

Source: The Sunday Times – Rwandas First Daily :: Issue 14143 :: FDU�s Ingabire desecrates memory with Double Genocide theory.

January 18, 2010   No Comments

The Sunday Times Rwanda Claims: Ingabire Espouses Double Genocide Theory

Less than 12 hours after Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza arrived in Rwanda from her 16-years exile, Journalist Edmund Kagire of The New Times (Kigali-Rwanda) launches attacks against her by publishing an incendiary front page article titled:
“Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory”.
Here is what he writes:

KIGALI – After 16 years of self exile in Europe, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the president of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), arrived in the country yesterday to register her party ahead of this year�s Presidential elections, according to her declarations.

Ingabire arrived aboard a Kenya Airways flight at around 15:00 from Amsterdam via Nairobi where she spent a night. She was accompanied by three other persons.

The heads of two controversial political parties; Bernard Ntaganda of PS Imberakuri and Frank Habineza of the yet-be-registered Green Party of Rwanda, were on hand to receive her.

Speaking to the press shortly before heading straight to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Site at Gisozi, Ingabire said that she is here to relieve Rwandans �from fear, poverty and inefficient Gacaca�.

She claimed that �Rwandans live in fear� and that �there is need for all Rwandans to work together in their different parties and religious affiliations to fight the fear�.

In words that clearly suggested the �Double Genocide� theory, Ingabire who has expressed her intentions to contest for the Presidency, said that �the reconciliation road has a long way to go unless those who killed Hutus during the Genocide are brought to book.

�If you look at this memorial centre, it only shows one side of the Genocide committed against the Tutsi. There is another side of the Genocide committed against the Hutu because they are also hurting and asking themselves when their grievances will be settled.�

Despite stating that she was paying tribute to the over 250,000 people buried at Gisozi, her visit to the memorial site was seen by many as a mockery to those who died in the Genocide, an observation supported by her past utterances which reveal a deep sense of revisionism.

�These �double Genocide� claims are the same that revisionists in Europe use to deny that Genocide was committed against the Tutsi. To utter those words, standing on the victims� graves, is the worst insult against Genocide survivors,� Simon-Pierre Rwakana, who had come to visit the memorial site said.

Ends

Source: The Sunday Times – Rwandas First Daily :: Issue 14143 :: Ingabire espouses Double Genocide Theory.

January 18, 2010   No Comments