The Politics of Genocide Project

Appeal for Your Support

20 December 2011
keith harmon snow

Hello:

Christmas is upon us, and for those of us who are fortunate, this is a time of giving and receiving, a time to be with family and friends, a time to give thanks that we and our loved ones are well and safe. For many people I have known, Christmas is just another season they must struggle to survive. For the people of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo, it will be another season of terror.

When I began writing about Africa, I never imagined that I would one day interview the sons of Juvenal Habyarimana, the assassinated former president of Rwanda, or that I would interview heroine Beatrice Umustesi, who survived the most horrible violence you cannot imagine.

I never imagined I would hear the stories I have heard, like the story of a genocide survivor named 'Victor' or the story of one of Kagame's former soldiers, who remains in hiding from the regime. It seems no one could live through these stories of survival, compassion, terror, hope, abandonment and courage - and yet they did. I want these stories to be heard by everyone.

I never imagined I would witness the suffering and injustice I have witnessed, and it is impossible for me to do anything else in this life until I help tell the story of the survivors and the story of the perpetrators and a portrait of how the world really works and what we can do to do to fix it.

Even God could not have convinced me, years ago, that I would one day testify before the same international court that issued the Interpol warrants served against Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. On 29 November 2011 I testified before the highest court in Spain in support of what is only the fourth anti-terrorism case in history based on the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. As we might expect, the Spanish court has come under attack by powerful interests and the application of Universal Jurisdiction is now threatened even there.

Journalist Gearoid O'Colmain published an article about my testimony and the Spanish case -- Investigating the Pentagon's African Holocaust -- which provoked Banro Corporation (a Canadian mining giant behind the plunder and depopulation in eastern Congo) to send their lawyers after one major Canadian publisher: the article was removed the day after publication. It's clear that my effort and accomplishments are substantial, and the work difficult.

Thus I'm writing to ask that you please support my work.

First, there is our documentary (film and book) on the Politics of Genocide in Central Africa.

Second, there is the story I am now about to write about a seven year-old child in Connecticut who is routinely suffering sexual violence (from his father) with the complicity of the state social services sector and the courts (who have persecuted his mother).

Third, I still have to write up this investigation about minerals coming out of Congo based on the explosive documents I have.

Fourth, there is the overall cost of operating (phone, Internet, electricity, food -- and the interminable demands of fundraising), writing and publishing.

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Prior to my testimony I worked full-time for several weeks preparing my affidavit -- STATEMENT ABOUT NATURAL RESOURCES PLUNDER AND EXTRACTION, WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND GENOCIDE IN RWANDA AND THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO/ZAIRE -- based on my work in Central Africa over the past decade. Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles indicted the top 40 Rwandan military officials in 2008, and he was riveted by my testimony in support of the trial of these officials (if extradited) and I will be recalled to testify about war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

In Barcelona on November 30 we interviewed Jordi Palou Loverdes, the attorney behind the Spanish indictments; Joan Casoliva, a dedicated human rights activist who worked in the Great Lakes, and Juan Carrero, the Nobel peace prize nominee from Mallorca whose fast of renunciation brought attention to the European Community at the time when some of the worst mass atrocities were being committed. These are the people behind the International Forum for Peace and Justice in the Great Lakes of Africa.

Interviewing Leon and Jean-Luc, the sons of Juvenal Habyariamana, in Paris December 3, 2011.

We then flew to Paris where we interviewed Leon and Jean-Luc Habyarimana, the sons of former Rwandan president, and the lawyer for Agathe Habyarimana, the former first lady, who is falsely accused of nefarious and ridiculous crimes -- including the assassination of her beloved husband.

We interviewed former European Union official Helmut Strizek, the author of the book Clinton am Kivu-See (Clinton on Lake Kivu), who came by train from Germany at his own expense, and a Rwandan genocide survivor who came from London at his own expense.

We interviewed French journalist Pierre Péan, author of the explosive new book CARNAGE  at his home an hour outside Paris, and Cameroonian journalist Charles Onana, author of the recent book Ces Tueurs Tutsi (Those Tutsi Killers).

Interviewing journalist Pierre Pean at his home in Bouffemont, France, December 4, 2011.

We interviewed Hubert Sauper, the maker of Darwin's Nightmare  and Kisangani Diary  -- the latter being an eyewitness account of the macabre suffering of hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees in Congo just before their execution. We also met with several former officials -- including the legendary Pierre Victor Mpoyo  -- from the Mobutu Sese Seko and Laurent Desire Kabila (I) eras in Congo.

Stateside again, we interviewed Noam Chomsky on December 16. Combined with recent interviews of Edward S. Herman and Norman Finkelstein, we now have poignant commentary by these academics known worldwide for their ideas on the politics of genocide and human rights.

People in Europe helped cover our hotel and ground transportation in Spain, a colleague provided us with lodging in Paris, and other contacts helped us out with other costs when they could. We had camera problems on our next to last day, and had to rent one, and the repairs plus rental accrued unexpected costs of $500. We have not recovered all of our basic costs and need help to do so and to move forward.

So, would you consider a Christmas gift to support my work, our historic film and book project, or the writing I must immediately do to on this gruesome pedophile case here at home?

Says one source for the child sex story: "I think it's important to understand that [the child] is not just suffering sexual violence from his father. His father is delivering him to a ring which is torturing him with electric shock and making him suffer other horrible cruelties." All the recent media hype about the pedophile scandal at a big college merely covers up the scale of the problem, which sometimes reaches into our personal networks (as this one does).

Please make a donation -- according to your means - to support this truly independent work. If you have recently done so, or are a regular supporter, consider this an update. Our web site is under development (and we are searching for a new title) but please click here Witchdoctors Movie for information on how to donate.

We appreciate all levels of support and feel very blessed that we are engaged in this meaningful work. Please be a part of this historic documentary project and help us make a difference for millions of people in Central Africa. I believe this work will have a major impact, and that impact will be felt all over the world.

Love,

keith

Two young Congolese women displaced by war in the Congo and forced into survival sex, interviewed in Mbandaka, DRC, in 2005. Photo copyright keith harmon snow 2005.