French-Cameroonian writer Charles Onana is set to go on trial in Paris, accused of complicity in contesting the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed within 100 days.
The charges stem from a book Onana published five years ago, in which he described the notion that the Hutu government planned the genocide as “one of the biggest scams” of the 20th century.
While Onana’s lawyer, Emmanuel Pire, acknowledges the atrocities and the targeted killing of Tutsis, he asserts that the book is the result of a decade-long research effort by a political scientist to understand the events before, during, and after the genocide. Pire emphasized that Onana does not deny the genocide occurred but seeks to explore its political dynamics.
Onana, now 60, and his publisher, Damien Serieyx of Editions du Toucan, were sued four years ago by the NGO Survie and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for “publicly contesting a crime against humanity.” Monday’s trial is only the second of its kind in France regarding denial of the Rwandan genocide, with previous cases mainly addressing Holocaust denial.
Camille Lesaffre, campaign manager for Survie, highlighted the historic nature of the trial, noting the lack of specific case law regarding Rwanda. She stated that the case would rely heavily on precedents established in Holocaust denial trials.
The trial also revives discussions around France’s role in the Rwandan genocide. In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that France had failed to act on warnings of impending violence but maintained that his country had not been complicit in the mass killings.
