Rwandan genocide denial

Denial of Rwandan genocide

Rwandan genocide denial means saying that the 1994 Rwandan genocide did not happen.[1] Since the genocide ended, there have been people around the world, from across the political spectrum, who have denied that it happened.[1]

During the Rwandan genocide, around 800,000 Rwandans (mostly members of the Tutsis) were slaughtered within 100 days.[2][3] The murderers were extremist members of the Hutu ethnic group (abahutu). The Hutu perpetrators also killed other Hutus whose beliefs were less extreme than theirs.[2][3]

Timeline

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Two notable deniers were David Peterson and American economist Edward S. Herman (1925 – 2017).[1] In their 2010 and 2014 books, they accused the Western media of "selling" the Rwandan genocide as a genocide in order to promote the "economic and intellectual agendas of the U.S.".[1] However, Western media did not pay much attention to the Rwandan genocide.[4]

Edward S. Herman published several books arguing that the Rwandan genocide should not be called a genocide. He also questioned the confirmed death toll of the Cambodian genocide[5] and Bosnian genocide,[6][7] which drew criticism.[6][7]

In December 2024, French-Cameroonian writer Charles Onana was convicted of downplaying the Rwandan genocide.[8] He was ordered to pay 8,400, while his publisher had to pay €5,000, because French laws ban the denial of any genocide recognized by the French government.[8]

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
    • Monbiot, George (June 13, 2011). "Left and libertarian right cohabit in the weird world of the genocide belittlers". The Guardian. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
    • Caplan, Gerald (2017). "Manufacturing Controversy: Left-Wing Denial of the Rwandan Genocide". Controversies in the Field of Genocide Studies (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781351295000. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
    • Jones, Adam (2019). "Denying Rwanda: Why Do Leading Leftists Deny the Rwandan Genocide of 1994?". The Scourge of Genocide: Essays and Reflections. University of British Columbia – Okanagan: Routledge. pp. 346–359. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
    • Melvern, Linda (2020). Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi. ISBN 9781788733281. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
    • Hintjens, Helen M.; van Oijen, Jos (March 30, 2020). "Elementary Forms of Collective Denial: The 1994 Rwanda Genocide". Genocide Studies International. 13 (2). doi:10.3138/gsi.13.2.02. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  2. 2.0 2.1 *Melvern, Linda (2001). "Missing the story: The media and the Rwandan genocide". Contemporary Security Policy. 22 (3): 91–106. doi:10.1080/135232605123313911248. Retrieved December 17, 2024. Published online: 06 Sep 2010
  3. 3.0 3.1 *"Rwanda". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  4. Kuperman, Alan J (2000). "How the Media Missed Rwandan Genocide". International Press Institute (1). Retrieved December 18, 2024. Western media [...] failed to report that a nationwide killing campaign was under way in Rwanda until almost three weeks into the violence [. ...] some 250,000 Tutsi had already been massacred.
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  6. 7.0 7.1
  7. 8.0 8.1