The Alliance des Burundais du Canada (ABC) has been invited by the “Collectif des Survivants et Victimes du génocide Hutu de 1972” to a “public conference on the true perpetrators of the genocide in Burundi”. From the outset, ABC considers that speaking out about the various massacres and assassinations perpetrated in Burundi is a laudable and necessary initiative.
However, if ABC decides to intervene at this time, even though it is fully aware of the need for any approved organization to express itself freely on any subject, it is because it refuses to be associated in any way with any adventure whose ultimate aim seems to be to distort the truth about the events that have punctuated Burundi’s history.
We believe that the organizations authorized to do so, both nationally (Burundi) and internationally, are better qualified and equipped to carry out any work of investigation and authentication of the facts; organizations whose neutrality and emotional distance from the events that have plunged Burundi into mourning is proven. However, the Collectif seems to be ignoring the facts, ethics, the pain of others and, above all, the desirability of legal action, which is quite simply irresponsible. What’s more, taking the place of justice and attributing crimes to individuals without, a priori, any real judicial investigation worthy of the name, is quite simply defamatory and criminal.
The aim of the conference seems to be to make Burundians bear a responsibility as heavy as the genocide, in defiance of the code of ethics that applies in such cases. Aware of the irrational and iniquitous nature of such an activity, the ABC cannot participate or associate itself with such an adventure. What’s more, it is common knowledge that any entity believing itself to be in possession of any kind of power (real or illusory) generally does everything in its power to instrumentalize public opinion and even justice for its own benefit. It is at this precise moment that true justice must intervene to freely re-establish the truth of the facts and allow reconciliation to do its work.
ABC therefore urges the Collectif to campaign for a judicial inquiry into all the crimes committed in Burundi, as provided for in the Arusha Accords, rather than undermining the honour and reputation of Burundians by spreading such serious accusations against them, thereby handing them and their families over to the mob. The Collectif is certainly free to demand justice, but it has no right whatsoever to take its place.
Ottawa, October 18, 2018
L’Alliance des Burundais du Canada, l’ABC