2004
Cairn
Yves Ternon, « Génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda : émergence d'un négationnisme », Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah, ID : 10670/1.c892l8
Ternon relates, how in a relatively short span of time, a narrative was elaborated denying the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. Denial of genocide is always part and parcel of it; since it tries to refute the death caused by perpetrators. Thus, denial of genocide perpetuates it and increases its consequences. So is the case for Rwanda, for the Holocaust and for the Armenian genocide perpetrated in 1915. Moreover, the will to destroy the historical record is also sustained by ignorance and by prejudice that is recycled, evermore willingly since the subject is Africa, and one believes one “knows it all” particularly concerning Africa, a continent that has fallen now-a-days in disrepute. This has given birth to the ethnic identity groups in Rwanda, (or in other terms, how social problems have been racialized by colonial powers); this is the origin of an imposture – the “double genocide” theory, that condemns victims and murderers alike. The name of such false generalized guilt, brings one to the concept of all-prevading innocence needed in order to bring about a necessary reconciliation.