We regret that the continuing misrepresentations of Alex Obote-Odora’s latest disingenuous response to us compel us to respond to him one last time.[1]

Taking his major misrepresentations in the order that he himself presents them:

ONE: Obote-Odora continues to insist that we have engaged in a “legal analysis” of ICTR jurisprudence, and that in doing so, we have committed “errors of law.” In support of his misrepresentation, he quotes from our January 20 response to him, where we refer to Appendix I of our 2014 book, ‘Enduring Lies: The Rwandan Genocide in the Propaganda System, 20 Years Later’, and in our response we write that “we reviewed the judgments and/or judgments on appeal in not fewer than 24 major cases in which the defendants faced the ‘Conspiracy to Commit Genocide” charge.”[2]

But contrary to Obote-Odora, we only “reviewed” court judgments and summarized them to show that the claims of Kagame-Power apologists that the ICTR had found Hutu leaders guilty of a pre-April 6, 1994 “conspiracy to commit genocide” was false. Instead of dealing with this important repudiation of a core Kagame-Power claim, Obote-Odora offers a false and diversionary allegation about our engaging in “legal analysis” and committing “errors of law.”

TWO: Obote-Odora quotes from our January 20 response as follows: “… [But], since the accumulated credible evidence points at Paul Kagame’s RPF, the Prosecutor ‘made the correct decision to not proceed with investigations into the matter’, Obote-Odora concludes.” Incredibly, he then contends that “nowhere in my writing did I allege or conclude that ‘the accumulated credible evidence points at Paul Kagame’s RPF.”

But we are being ironical here, suggesting that, given the massive evidence of Kagame’s and the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s responsibility for the shoot-down of Habyarimana’s presidential jet, it follows that an apologist for Kagame Power such as Obote-Odora would naturally apologize for the Office of the Prosecutor’s refusal to proceed with an investigation into the matter. Contrary to Obote-Odora’s misinterpretation of the sentence, we are not attributing to him what we ourselves believe and wrote (“since the accumulated credible evidence points at Paul Kagame’s RPF”). We are attributing to him the position that RPF IMPUNITY MUST AT ALL COSTS BE PROTECTED.

THREE: Obote-Odora remains adamant that he “never, in any of my writings legitimized, or attempted to legitimize the assassination of the President of Rwanda,” and he adds that we have “falsely alleged” that he did.

But, in fact, in his original November 28 response to us, Obote-Odora, after listing the names and current military ranks of four of the passengers traveling aboard the Habyarimana jet when it was shot down on April 6, 1994, concluded that “In any military setting, the presence of top military planners and officers at one place would constitute a LEGITIMATE MILITARY TARGET within the meaning of the law of war.”[Empahsis added.] [3]

Is this not legitimizing the shoot-down? Is not Obote-Odora arguing that the assassination of the president of Rwanda was a LEGITIMATE ACT OF WAR?

FOUR: On the crucial matter of which agent was responsible for the April 6, 1994 shoot-down of the Habyarimana presidential jet, the “Hutu Power” or “Akazu” side, or the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Obote-Odora remains adamant that the “available evidence, obtained from public sources, does not meet the high threshold required for drafting an indictment for the purpose of criminal prosecution.” But as a former Chief of Appeals and Legal Advisory Division at the ICTR, Obote-Odora surely knows that sworn testimony as well as public assertions of fact exist from a whole series of former members of Kagame-Power circles concerning events from March through April 6, 1994, including the names of the RPF personnel participating with Kagame in the planning of the shoot-down, the RPF agents who surveyed the possible launching sites for best targeting the jet on its approach to Kigali International Airport, the names of the RPF agents literally involved in the shoot-down, and Kagame's actions at the RPF headquarters in Mulindi when the news of the shoot-down arrived.

More important, as a former Chief of Appeals and Legal Advisory Division at the ICTR, Obote-Odora surely knows the story of how former Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour terminated the inquiry of the late Michael Hourigan’s National Team in early 1997, after Hourigan reported directly to her in her office at The Hague that he had developed evidence of Kagame-RPF responsibility, and had secured RPF informants who were willing to testify to it.[4]

In the final analysis, none of this is a question of whether “Herman and Peterson have evidence,” but that copious evidence does exist wholly independent of us and has been in development for the better part of the past 20 years. A person must be truly dedicated to the art of deceit to keep following the course that Obote-Odora does.

* Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago. Together they are co-authors both of ‘The Politics of Genocide’ (Monthly Review Press, 2nd. Ed., 2011) and of the recently published ‘Enduring Lies: The Rwandan Genocide in the Propaganda System, 20 Years Later’ (The Real News Books, 2014).

END NOTES

[1] Alex Obote-Odora, “On the ICTR, ‘Enduring Lies’ authors keep denying own claims,” Pambazuka News (Issue 713), February 11, 2015. http://tinyurl.com/mxs943k >
[2] See Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, “Obote-Odora’s dishonest response to us on the ICTR and BBC,” Pambazuka News (Issue 710), January 20, 2015. http://tinyurl.com/m55h5ck >
[3] Alex Obote-Odora, “The Kagame-Power Lobby’s dishonest attack on BBC documentary on Rwanda: A rejoinder,” Pambazuka News (Issue 704), November 28, 2014, emphasis added. ">http://tinyurl.com/m6oq6lt>