Belgian senator joins in condemning BBC film

MUKAMASIMBA · 2014-12-01T14:44:19+00:00

A Belgian senator has added his voice in condemning a recent BBC documentary titled "Rwanda: The Untold Story". In a letter addressed to Jim Grey, head of TV current affairs at BBC, Senator Alain Destexhe, said it is "shameful that the BBC chose to broadcast such a biased documentary" Destexhe was Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and is well versed in Rwandan affairs. He also served as secretary into a special commission of inquiry of the Genocide set up by the Belgian Senate in 1997. He particularly took issue with the fact that the BBC extensively used two discredited Belgian nationals as the main source; university professor Filip Reyntjens and a former Belgian officer who was in Rwanda during the Genocide, Col. Luc Marchal. "In Belgium, Filip Reyntjens is well-known for his partiality, his analysis of Rwanda along ethnical lines, his "pro-Hutu stance" and for having always been from the onset against the RPF," wrote the senator. Destexhe also mentioned that Reyntjens was very close to the Habyarimana regime and drew up the 1978 constitution that entrenched ethnic discrimination. *** Dear Sir, I am writing to protest the partiality of the BBC's documentary, "Rwanda: The Untold Story", and I would like to do this from a Belgian perspective. During the documentary, appeared many times, a thread woven into the documentary. Jane Corbin seems to ignore the fact that Filip Reyntjens was very close to the Habyarimana regime, and that he wrote the draft of a new Rwandan Constitution in 1978, waiting until 1992 before taking some distance with the murderous Habyarimana regime and its gross human rights abuses. The 1978 Constitution put in place a single party system and gave a leading role to the MRND, the party of Habyarimana. Reyntjens was a teacher in a University where Tutsis were discriminated because of the existence of quotas. In Belgium, Filip Reyntjens is well-known for his partiality, his analysis of Rwanda along ethnical lines, his "pro-Hutu stance" and for having always been from the onset against the RPF including when, in May 1994, it appeared very clearly that the international community and the UN were not going to intervene to stop the genocide and that the RPF was the only armed group able to save the few Tutsi still alive. You should also know that in Belgium because of the colonial past and the very strong support for Habyarimana and his regime, there are many people in political circles who refuse to accept that their contacts and "friends" have ended up as murderers and genocidaires. Reyntjens belongs to those circles. Some of them were the initiators of the so called Hutu Social Revolution, which based politics along ethical lines and is considered by many leading academics as the roots of the genocide. In addition, no serious Belgian TV channels or newspaper will interview Filip Reyntjens as a credible source concerning Rwanda. So, it is curious that the BBC considers him as a reference in the documentary as « a world leading expert on Rwanda ». He may be an expert but a very politically oriented one. On the other hand, Luc Marchal, a former Belgian army Officer, second in command of the UN operation in Rwanda (UNAMIR), who also appears in the documentary, is considered today in Belgium as very close to the Hutu extremist circles who are denying the genocide. After the slaughter of the ten Belgian paratroopers on 7th April 1994, Luc Marchal was indicted by the Belgium Military Tribunal (Cour militaire). He was acquitted. In the 1997 report of the Belgian Senate (Committee of Inquiry on the Rwanda Genocide), there was much critiscism of how the UN military operation was handled and of the leadership of Luc Marchal, Deputy of the General Dallaire. Again, in the Belgian press, no serious journalist will consider Marchal, who changed his mind several times over the years, as a credible source of information. I would like also to mention that the documentary failed to even mention the conclusion of the French Judge Trévidic who took over from Judge Bruguière and who reached totally different conclusion about the shooting down of the President's plane on April 6, 1994. Finally, even if the shooting of the plane was the trigger, as claimed in the documentary, there were hundreds of thousands of Tutsi who were massacred by the Interim Government which succeeded the Habyarimana regime. It is a shameful that the BBC chose to broadcast such a biased documentary. Yours Sincerely, Alain Destexhe Senator, Belgium Fmr Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières (in 1994 during the genocide) Secretary of Special Committee of Inquiry on the Rwanda Genocide, Senate, Belgium (1997) Fmr Président, International Crisis Group alain@destexhe.be Palais de la Nation 1009 Bruxelles Belgium Source: https://disqus.com/home/forums/tntrwanda/

Thread starter MUKAMASIMBA
Start date Dec 1, 2014

MUKAMASIMBA

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Belgian senator joins in condemning BBC film

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