Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi

by Linda Melvern

Major Hock, a member of his staff, an analyst in charge of Central Africa, had evaluated Jean-Pierre and reported that he had a poor reputation and was a deserter. Hock told the Belgian commission that people regularly offered their services for financial advantage or hoped to obtain the status of applying for political asylum. In the commission report, the Belgian senators criticised Hock and the SGRS for not paying enough attention to Jean-Pierre and declining his requests for asylum. Some years later, Colonel Luc Marchal changed his mind. In April 2006, Marchal testified for the defence in the trial of General Gratien Kabiligi at the ICTR in Arusha. He visited the former head of the national gendarmerie, Major General Ndindiliyimana, who was on trial there, and Marchal became convinced this man was innocent. Marchal now believed the RPF allowed the genocide to happen because ‘it was convenient’. At the end of the year, Marchal gave a wide-ranging interview to the Flemish weekly news magazine Knack, in which he expressed his belief that Jean-Pierre was a double agent sent from the RPF to discredit President Juvénal Habyarimana. ‘We were manipulated,’ he said.