Recent actions by Stephen Harper’s government in Canada make us wonder whether the current Canadian government believes that some genocides are more equal than others. Mr. Harper’s ministers make it seem as if they believe that some genocides are tolerable and we can turn a blind eye on them, while other genocides are horrible and we need to do whatever it takes to punish those accused of being involved in the “wrong” genocides. Even if that means collaborating in the process with those accused of being involved in committing other “justified” genocides.
Meet Dr. Leon Mugesera, recently deported from Canada to Rwanda, accused of having made a speech in 1992, two years before the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Within days of making that speech, an arrest warrant was issued by the Hutu government of the time, accusing him of fomenting civil unrest. Dr. Mugesera fled the country immediately and was not present two years later during the massacres. However, his speech was apparently broadcast by extremists during the 1994 genocide even though it was made two years earlier. So, he stands accused of having contributed to the hate environment that over time exploded into the 1994 genocide.
Meet General Paul Kagame, the current president of Rwanda. President Kagame is considered by some to have stopped the 1994 genocide. He is however considered by others to have started it himself by assassinating the previous Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana together with the Chief of Staff of the Hutu army as well as many Hutu cabinet members who died with him the same day on the same presidential plane that was downed. The UN court for Rwanda was prevented from investigating this incident, mainly due to pressure from the Rwandan government and its American and British government allies. General Kagame, whose forces invaded Rwanda from Uganda in 1990 and fought a brutal war for 4 years until 1994 before taking over are accused of massacring thousands of civilians during those 4 years as well as massacring more parallel to the 1994 genocide and even more during the months after the genocide. The UN court’s Chief Prosecutor Ms. Carla Del Ponte wrote in her memoir that she was fired from that job when she tried to investigate these crimes committed by General Kagame’s forces.
The most damning evidence on official record against General Kagame was published by the United Nations in October 2010 in their Report of the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003. That report said the following regarding the genocide that General Kagame’s forces are accused of having committed in Congo:
“The extensive use of edged weapons (primarily hammers) and the systematic massacres of survivors after the camps had been taken show that the numerous deaths cannot be attributed to the hazards of war or seen as equating to collateral damage. The majority of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick, who were often undernourished and posed no threat to the attacking forces. Numerous serious attacks on the physical or mental integrity of members of the group were also committed, with a very high number of Hutus shot, raped, burnt or beaten. The systematic, methodological and premeditated nature of the attacks listed against the Hutus is also marked: these attacks took place in each location where refugees had been screened by the AFDL/APR over a vast area of the country. The pursuit lasted for months, and on occasion, the humanitarian assistance intended for them was deliberately blocked, particularly in the Orientale province, thus depriving them of resources essential to their survival. Thus the systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of damning elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide.”
Stephen Harper’s government in Canada was well aware of the UN’s accusations against General Kagame. Yet, in January 2012 they deported Dr. Mugesera to Rwanda to be tried by the same General Kagame’s government accused by the UN above in a twisted case of accused murderer will be the judge of another accused murderer. At the end of the day, the question is: did the Canadian government just savagely lead Mr. Mugesera to the sacrificial altar in the belief that giving his blood to accused genocidaire General Paul Kagame will atone for Canada’s failure to protect innocent Rwandan civilians in 1994? If it continues to be a one-way street where Canada keeps sending people to be judged by the accused genocidaire government of Rwanda, then there will be no doubt that it is simply a savage ritual of atonement on Canada’s part. There is however still hope that the Canadian government may also start pushing for justice for the thousands and possibly millions of innocent children, women, elderly and the sick that the October 2010 United Nations Mapping Report on Congo says were mass-slaughtered by General Kagame’s forces in Congo between 1993 and 2003. If Canada’s government asks for justice for these victims too of this possible genocide in Congo, then the deportation of Mugesera will really have been only part of Canada’s long-standing commitment to a more humane world. What will it be, the savage Canada or the humane Canada? The Canada that believes that every single genocide is horrible and perpetrators need to be punished? Or the Canada that believes that some genocides are justified depending on who is the perpetrator and who is the victim? Time will tell.