Armenians Protest Genocide Revisionism in Brussels

Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)

16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008

Kigali

The Armenian community in Belgium says it is outraged at the aggression of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda by a top government official who has not even been punished, RNA reports.

A Belgium daily Le Soir (Read: 'Haine raciste à la Région bruxelloise', Jan. 12-13, 2008), reported that the Director of External Trade in the Brussels Regional government had used hate language against Mr. André an employee of the same local office.


The unnamed Brussels official according to witnesses said: "Should it be the person with a taller size and light colour, I will kill him (.). If it is him.the Rwandan Genocide is not over yet!".

However, instead of expressing remorse and apologizing for the hate language, the official has refused and actually denied he did anything like that despite testimony affirming the action, the Committee of Armenians in Belgium said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Armenian community says the reaction of the regional government is also 'shocking' because instead of punishing the official, he was to be given a 3-month paid leave. The Armenians have described this as 'gratifying the guilty'.

Meanwhile, the affected employee of Rwandan origin Mr. André, who has worked with the Brussels government since 1996, has since refused to go back to work until the courts put an end to the situation.

According to different versions of history, millions of Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) at different times with the climax in 1909, but Turkey has been dismissive of any responsibility.

The Armenian Genocide as they themselves now refer to it is also covering the walls of the Kigali Memorial Center - that houses remains of thousands of victims of the Rwandan Genocide.

As indication that Turkey does not accept any responsibility for the Armenian massacres, it blocked a photo exhibition depicting the Rwandan Genocide at the UN Headquarters in New York last year.


The Armenians in Belgium are also bitter that the line-Secretary of State Ms. Brigitte Grouwels - who they have called 'negationist Secretary of State' - because as they say, she has simply 'closed her eyes'. They also blame her for not doing anything even when an Armenian businessman was abused on October 21 last year.

Ms. Grouwels has even sided with the (Genocide) negationists, notably by participating as a speaker at a scandalous conference held December 15 2006 at ULB (Belgian university), the Armenian community says.

This conference was organized by exiled Rwandans - most of whom are defiant critics of the establishment in Kigali. Such occasions are often used to distort facts about the Genocide the left over a million lives massacred.