Léon Mugesera

Léon Mugesera (born 1952) is a convicted genocidaire from Rwanda who took residence in Quebec, Canada. He was deported from Canada for an inflammatory anti-Tutsi speech which his critics allege was a precursor to the 1994 Rwandan genocide and in 2016 sentenced to life in prison

An ethnic Hutu, Mugesera has been a member of the dominant Hutu MRND party, which had close ties to the military. He was MRND Vice-Chairman for Gisenyi prefecture.

In a speech given on November 22, 1992 in Rwanda, Mugesera allegedly told 1000 party members that "we the people are obliged to take responsibility ourselves and wipe out this scum" and that they should kill Tutsis and "dump their bodies into the rivers of Rwanda." This statement does not exist in the official translation of the speech, as presented in a legal document before the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada on August 8, 2003.

Do not be afraid, know that anyone whose neck you do not cut is the one who will cut your neck.

Following this speech, the Rwandan Minister of Justice, Stanislas Mbonampeka, issued an arrest warrant against him for inciting hatred. He fled with his family first to the Rwandan army and then to Quebec City in Quebec, Canada. Shortly afterwards, Mbonampeka resigned as Minister of Justice in protest.

In Canada, Mugesera and his family arrived as refugees, but were quickly granted permanent resident status. Mugesera secured a job teaching at Université Laval.

Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, claims that Mugesera's 1992 speech gave necessary momentum to the anti-Tutsi hysteria that led to the genocide, saying that "[Mugesera] was one of the first to go in a major public speech and say, 'Look, our mistake in the past with the Tutsi minority has been allowing them to survive, has been allowing them to live. We must get rid of them.'" This statement does not exist in the official translation of the speech, as presented in a legal document before the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada on August 8, 2003.

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