Rwandan President Paul Kagame wants a safer Rwanda … safer for whom?
by Godwin Agaba and Ann Garrison
Introduction by San Francisco journalist Ann Garrison
Godwin Agaba, Rwandan correspondent for the African Great Lakes regional outlet 256.com, is now in hiding, though still reporting. On March 9, I spoke to him for KPFA Radio regarding grenade attacks in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, in the run up to this year’s presidential election, scheduled for Aug. 9:
This week Godwin Agaba confirmed what I had concluded: that Rwanda’s presidential election is effectively closed; all the viable opposition has been excluded.
Many now fear that Bernard Ntaganda, the presidential candidate of the Parti Social-Imberakuri, may soon be in prison for “divisionism,” meaning political opposition to the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front Party, and “genocide ideology,” a speech crime unique to Rwanda, which I described here in the Bay View, in “Rwanda’s packed prisons and genocide ideology law.” Mr. Ntaganda himself says that he is in imminent danger of arrest and under constant surveillance, even in his own office, though he has managed to remain his party’s leader, despite RPF harassment and infiltration.
Rwandan security is also investigating Victoire Ingabiré Umuhoza, presidential candidate of the FDU Inkingi Party, for the genocide ideology speech crime, and the government has announced that she will not be allowed to run for office until she is cleared – meaning that she will not be allowed to run.
And the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda continues to be halted at military bureaucratic roadblocks and checkpoints, enduring meeting after meeting about whether they might have another meeting about the possibility of having yet another meeting to determine whether or not their party might finally be able to meet so as to register and field a presidential candidate.
On April 14, the government shut down the independent African language (Kinyarwanda) tabloid press for the next six months. Since 70 percent of the population speak only Kinyarwanda, not English or French, and only 3 percent have internet access, this means that most will have no information except that in state run newspapers from now until well after the Aug. 9 polls.
European Union election monitors are scheduled to travel to Rwanda but there is nothing left to observe except the effective coronation of incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The election monitors should stay home in protest rather than validate this charade, unless by some miracle “donor nations,” most of all the U.S. and U.K., choose to heed the Feingold Statement on the Fragility of Democracy in Africa and make civil and political rights, and a real election, a condition of their ongoing support for Rwanda.
Rwandans’ thwarted effort to contest the presidential election is also of great importance to the people of neighboring D.R. Congo, where at least 6 million Congolese people have died in the Rwandan and Ugandan invasions and occupations of Congo since Kagame seized control of Rwanda during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. The silence of the U.S. press about the loss of African life and U.S. Pentagon responsibility is deafening.
Editorial by Rwandan journalist Godwin Agaba
Presidential elections will go ahead as planned in August and when the dust has settled in September, those still living will witness a sympathetic, loving and caring president, a head of state ready to forgive and forget as he embarks on another seven year term as head of state. How cool is that!
Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi will be hauled to court to answer the genocide charges that continue to linger around his back before being thrown into jail. Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga will be sent to Rwanda’s Pentagon and given a few challenging but less empowering tasks and Gen. Kabarebe will most likely retire. Rwandans will have a newly elected leader and The New Times will struggle not to lead with the PK [Paul Kagame] rigs to set a new world record!
The High Council of the Press will come up with yet another silly document which Patrice Mulama, posing in front of cameras, will read confirming that Umuseso and Umuvugizi newspapers have been reinstated. It will be business as usual and the international community will continue to pour money into Rwanda with the aim of ending poverty and fostering economic development.
Right path? Don’t ask me for I really don’t know. What is clear though is that Paul Kagame, having commanded the forces that he says ended the genocide and helped restore order in chaotic Rwanda, has embarked on a self-destructing campaign. He will stop at nothing to make himself clear and louder to all that Rwanda belongs to him and only he knows what is good for the country. He does not even appear bothered by the idea of ruling the country as if it is some family ranch, because according to what he knows, he is popular, charismatic and knows his country’s history better than anyone else. And who are we to challenge him? What exactly do we know? To him we are rejects who should either shut up or put up with whatever nonsense is being paraded as long as we rise up at the end of the day to toss to the monsieur – only this time, in English!
Make no mistake: The president is in charge. When coup rumors went around a month ago, he was very stern as he was precise in his assurances to his audience that Rwanda will never have a coup. “A coup in Rwanda, never … not here,” he said. If that was a statement that lacked the marrow, he made certain a few days ago with impromptu changes in the army. Gen. Gatsinzi, the hitherto docile defense minister, was dropped for a close friend (former friend some will argue), Gen. James Kabarebe.
I’m not very knowledgeable about the finer intricacies of army changes but speculation has never been my specialty either. It is very plausible though that it is much easier to look after and maintain an eye on a chief of defense forces than it is on someone who is head of land forces. For the sake of the issue at hand, I will take what the official version is and leave the rest to you, my readers. Fortunately, there is no official version of the changes, just a routine reshuffle.
Political temperatures in Kigali continue to rise. Kagame continues to impress. He seems very popular with the wanainchi [the people, citizens or masses] or at least it looks that way whenever he pays them visits. Opposition politics in Rwanda remains a far cry. Those who have dared to challenge the establishment now find themselves in limbo fearing not only for their lives but, at the moment, for their political parties as well.
Victoire Ingabire has been summoned to the Criminal Investigations Department more times than she has been allowed to go to church unattended. She is religious, but the government would rather she was not. Religious people get to meet others when they go to church. And when you don’t want someone to mix with others for fear that they will talk about their political agenda, you so wish they were pagans.
Those who have dared to challenge the establishment now find themselves in limbo fearing not only for their lives but, at the moment, for their political parties as well.
Frank Habineza, another of the political hopefuls, a former Rwandese Patriotic Front member who broke ranks to form the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda – a party whose registration seems to bother Kagame more than the poverty in the country – is not having it smooth either. He has on several occasions been in the news complaining about scary emails and intimidating phone calls from state agents who continue to threaten him unless he gets out of politics.
Bernard Ntaganda, who until a week ago was party chairman for Rwanda’s only vocal political party, PS-Imberakuri, was successfully ousted by a party wrangle within his own party that many believe was orchestrated by the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front.
With these under control, in dissaray, under investigation or currently being accused of one or several offences, Kagame will definitely emerge as the one and only presidential candidate come August. He will achieve what he has set out to achieve – ruling Rwanda – forever. And as long as the elections are held at the hindsight of local and international observers, we will have no legal reason to believe that his victory was manipulated.
The media, which in such an environment would have provided credible evidence as to the real situation on the ground, has been manipulated. Those like Umuseso, who have not been so keen at accepting government tokens, have now been suspended. The six months suspension effectively rules out Umuseso in the media life of Rwandans until, well, after the elections. If that is not calculated, then I stand to be corrected as to whether Kagame is not preparing himself to be the father figure and self-appointed Lord of Rwanda he wishes and claims to be.
Godwin Agaba was a Rwandan correspondent for Great Lakes regional outlet 256.com; he is now in hiding but still publishing without his byline.
On April 7, 2010, in his address at the Kigali Memorial Center, Rwandan President Paul Kagame blamed “you,” a conveniently flexible and expandable category, and all those calling for political space and press freedom for the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, in which a million Rwandans died. This is the English language section of his English and Kinyarwanda address particularly concerned with press freedom. For the entire English language section of the address, click here. One week after this address, on April 14, 2010, Kagame’s “High Media Council” shut down the independent African language newspapers that most Rwandans depend on.
Edwin,i hope they stamp your passport with the visa of your dream,because thats what you are working for.Ann Garrison will stop at northing but destroy Rwanda.Good Luck but what i can tell you is that you will never win because that man (Kagame ) is right.
Edwin and Ann, thank you so much for the perfect analysis of what is going on today in Rwanda. I think it is such a waste of time that Kagame called for an election, then appointed a 7 member of his party’s Executive Committee as the Chief Electoral Officer, then prevented all the real opposition candidates from registering, then shut down all the opposition media, and soon is going to put all the opposition politicians in jail. Anyone who cannot see how Kagame is the African Stalin really needs to open their eyes.
Godwin, good job on your great analysis of the situation! Very well put.
Godwin. His name is Godwin. This seems to be a common name in Rwanda.
His not a common name Ann
He has never been.Well,common is relative…maybe common for some other reasons you dont know Ann.Just get him the visa.He has done a good job,he deserves one!!
It appears that Mr Godwin Agaba has a fan base representing the dictatorship RPF government of Rwanda. The likes of June Sina and Edmond seem to be stalking him wherever he writes something. Mr Agaba’s article raises several issues that shock the conscience. Instead of these “fans” discussing the issues to say if there is anything he said that was not right, they start making character assassination remarks about some imaginary “visa.”
This is a very common tactic by the RPF government of Rwanda. If they cannot physically catch you, they start a campaign of character assassination. If they can physically catch you, they maim you, imprison you, or kill you. We the Rwandans have had enough of this murderous regime.
James,you dont know Godwin,we know him,perhaps you dont live in Rwanda,so leave these things,you have no clue.
Edmund, saying you know him and I do not know him does not address the core issue. Please talk about the content of the article. Do you mind talking about the issues raised in the article and stop making personal attacks against him and against me? Thank you!
I’m glad to welcome Aimable to the Bay View website. For those who don’t know Aimable, his blog are: Rwanda Human Rights and Democracy, http://www.rwandahumanrights.org/, and Rwanda Hall of Shame, http://goo.gl/lDT2.
I think comments on the content of Ann and Godwin in their article would be preferable to anything else as James suggests. This would be the only way they could amend their writing if there were any wrong facts in it.
Personally I would even request from them an apology to the readers for having misled their readers intentionally, if this was the case.
I suppose they have produced such an interesting article because the Rwandan situation has currently become so overwhelmingly newsworthy that not getting some piece of writing out would look so unprofessional.
Therefore, they shouldn’t be blamed for being so visual and descriptive in what they know about Rwanda and its leadership, particularly during these months leading to the presidential elections of August this year.
Thank you Ann for giving us the blog of Aimable Mugara.He is a very smart and honest man who stands for the truth and the respect of human rights .
Ambrose and Aimable are two of the most dedicated members of a Facebook group I belong to. See also Ambrose’s blog, The Rising Continent, http://therisingcontinent.wordpress.com/.
Goodwin,
Greetings! thanks for this wonderful article which is describing exactly what is happening in the country of thousand hills.I have forwarded the piece to PK himslf so he should knows that the world is watching him.
All the best
sharangabo Rufagari
Montreal
All this written here is stupid. We are not interested in people and ideas leading us in what we experienced during the 1994 Tutsi genocide.
John continues the current RPF Rwandan government supporters’ culture of throwing around insults instead of addressing specific lines in the article. The current RPF Rwandan government supporters simply throw around the word genocide in any context without elaborating. I guess according to John, the only way to stop the genocide from happening again is by having a dictatorship forever. I respectfully disagree. I think the only way to prevent the genocide from ever happening again is by making sure that every Rwandan citizen is guaranteed the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That is a much better way than the current violent dictatorship.
@ ma rival Edmund Kagire The New Times political reporter ma good friend who many people call arrogant.I dont know whether he He realizes it.
Being arrogant does not mean being rude and forgetting one’s basic etiquette around others.
and there is a thin line between being confident and being arrogant.
ujya kuba burungi Kagire coz u still have that defence budget with ur spin doctor out of 50 millions he gets monthly for torturing p’ple u always get 25000 per month u know dat lucky u
interesting article in today’s East African newspaper on the issue:
A bucket of cold water for Kigali’s overheated press:
Here is a sample of typical headlines in Rwandan newspapers: “Ruling party leading the country into darkness”; “The five mental illnesses of Kagame”; “Kagame and Hitler are one and the same”; “Army officers ready to slaughter thousands…”
And that is just on the days when the news is slow for the likes of Umuseso, Umuco, Umuvugizi, Umurabyo and other “U” newspapers that are published mainly in the vernacular Kinyarwanda.
When it really gets hot — like when the government of Burundi arrested a Rwandan fugitive, Deo Mushayidi, and handed him to Rwandan police — you can be sure our “U” sheets will outdo any fringe publication in the quality of alarming headlines generated.
“Rwanda police enter Burundi to kidnap Mushayidi,” says a headline in one of the papers followed by this kicker: “Burundi sovereign space violated by Rwanda.”
And when General Kayumba Nyamwasa, former army chief of staff and former ambassador to India, decided to flee the country rather than submit to questioning in a police investigation of grenade attacks in Kigali, the “U” pubications were almost anonymous in concluding that Kayumba left because “Kagame had ordered the man shot”!
Other media organizations, of course, report differently.
Burundi police arrested the fugitive Mushayidi because he was using a forged Burundian passport. When they questioned him, it turned out he was a wanted man in Rwanda. So the Burundian authorities in co-operation with Rwanda Police drove Mushayidi to the border and handed him over. No Burundian talked of kidnapping or “violation of sovereign space.”
No one knows how Umuvugizi decided that President Kagame would order a general shot like a rabid dog. Or how Umuseso arrived at the conclusion that a country lauded internationally for making an astonishing recovery from the terrible events of the genocide, is actually “being led into the darkness.”
But our “U” papers are not content to peddle only the alarmist or sensational. Incitement is generally part of the mix. Here is the closing paragraph of a typical feature piece in one of the papers: “Without a doubt, Rwandans need to rise up; they need to take up arms and fight this bad regime!”
No, I am not talking about an article in a Rwandan newspaper in 1994, the period that marked the rock bottom for the country’s media. I am talking about issue no. 374 of August 2009 of Umuseso, a Kigali-based newspaper.
People still agonise about the role our media played in inciting the population during the genocide. Apparently we have not made much progress in the quality of our media since 1994.
Of course, publications like our “U” papers can be found anywhere. The difference with Rwanda is that elsewhere such newspapers are on the fringe. Here they are the mainstream. Elsewhere, people’s primary sources of news and opinion are not newspapers with deranged front-page allegations that the head of state has a lot in common with Adolf Hitler.
Rwanda, due to various historical circumstances too many to go into here, has never developed into a big media market. So the sensationalists and charlatans made inroads and captured significant readerships — especially in the Kinyarwanda language.
Every time anyone raises an objection, they cry “persecution” or “media repression,” and raise Reporters Without Borders and other international pressure groups who put pressure on Kigali and talk about the need to respect media freedoms. So Kigali shuts up.
But last week saw the straw that broke the camel’s back — two papers alleged that the army chief of staff and several other officers were in jail. But that very day, the alleged jailbirds were on TV, one of them, James Kabarebe, being made minister of defence and the other, James Kayonga, being promoted to army chief of staff.
The Media High Council slapped a six-month suspension on Umuseso and Umuvugizi for publishing fabrications and violating media ethics.
“Anyone who has been following events in Rwanda over the last few weeks will agree with me that it is now clear what President Paul Kagame really wants. A safer Rwanda! A Rwanda where there is no political upheaval, no sentimental politicians, no dissent and, above all, no critical newspapers to report the prevailing “peace and tranquility.”
Presidential elections will go ahead as planned in August and when the dust has settled in September, those still living will witness a sympathetic, loving and caring president, a head of state ready to forgive and forget as he embarks on another seven year term as head of state. How cool is that!
So, Ann Garisson, why would you wish political upheavals, dissent, sentimaental politicians for Rwandans? This is clear indication of ill will indeed. This is what happenes when foreign politics converge with local politics, as kagame said, the result is disaster. ill willed Rwandans are in bed with Ann Garisson and this is what they wish to see Rwanda become -a country where ‘political temperatures are high, where there is upheaval, where there is political dissent, never mind that there may be no reason for this at all. The fact that these Ann Garisson and company hate Kagame’s guts is to them enough reason to wish that Rwanda turn against each other. We are not stupid. Just look at the list on Ann Garisson’s team: Giodwin Agaba- a retarded self-styled journalist who, while struggling to be a journalist in Kigali, used the profession to extort money from people and ended up becoming a regular customer to the police and detention facilities. Then there is Rufagari Sharangabo, a mentally deranged old man who doesnt even know which side he is arguing for or against. The there is Ann Garisson – When you are not straight, then you are not even competent to represent people, because you are not in your original state as GOD created you. Then there are people like akanga, aimable and others. In essence, these are birds of a feather …a group of dreamers dreaming together. Just look at Godwin’s response to Kagire -that he gets 25000! among other silly and childish comments. If this is the kind of journalist that Garisson finds fit for Rwanda, it is only clear what her intentions for Rwanda are. But then, she has small brains just like her lieutenats hence a no threat. Rwanda will never degenerate to chaos as you wish, i can assure you. Not with Kagame at the helm
Agaba
I wont get into an argument with you.I know you,you are a disgruntled person,i will never engage with you in anyway.What i earn is not an issue(25,000??Double check this figure please,am better than that atleast).
Your attacks will not deter me from the country of my blood(i hope you get what am saying here).You know that you cant beat me on anything apart from attacking my person.Gigi gave a little bibliography of who Agaba is and i will not go there.
We were friends,yes,but i cant support your cheap propaganda here.Let me remind me you that you know less of me,so dont pretend to know me more than you do.
We dont really fall in the same lines and you know that at least.Just work for that visa,get it and leave.You will die in detention in which ever country you go to.You are lucky you found Ann who knows nothing abt you and she will at one time regret having associated with you.
Your dubious ways will catch up with you and the world will know the whole truth.I have rested my case.
Ann Garisson,you deal with a psycho and you are equally one.You will do no harm to Rwanda you Sadists.
He is a good writer, according to this anti-Kagame deductions he’s made.
One thing though, this gentleman, says that Kagame’s RPF claims to have brought the genocide to a halt.
the word “claims” articulates that this young man believes that the genocide against the Tutsi wasn’t actually stopped by the RPF. If he is polite enough to reply, I would like to know his opinion on who stopped the genocide…since its now more of an opinion than a fact.
Secondly, Anne Garrison, how much do you know about Rwanda? Sarah Palin referred to Africa as a country..funny how people make fun of themselves in the open.
Anne Garrison, as an American, or European, wherever you might be, don’t let the hullabaloo of Hotel Rwanda distort your search for truth, don’t let your intelligence be disrupted by people who live simply because they were on the “safer” side.
the Facts speak for themselves, Rwanda is not ready for any politician who still harbors genocide thoughts. Whether you call that a limit to freedom of expression, we call it security to our people.
If you have come to Rwanda before, you must have seen how much we have moved on. Reconciliation is not an easy process, but Rwanda has been so far successful. Cut the leadership some slack, ask Ingabire to revise her ideology, ask the young man who wrote this whether it is asylum he is seeking or popularity?
During the recent tragedy in Kampala over the flaming of the ancestral site, both the government and the opposition came out to condemn whoever did it.
In Rwanda, we have a problem…Ingabire rarely acknoledges the fact that the Hutus wnated to to extreminate the Tutsis..As the main opposition, she has traded along the lines of implying that a double genocide happeend in Rwanda- double genocide meaning tha, even the Tutsis, taught their kids, wives, friends and neigbors that the Hutus must be exterminated. A theory completely outrageous.
Freedom of speech as we had it in Rwanda prior to the genocide brought people together for just one purpose, kill all Tutsis! If Ingabire or this young man dont notice how inflaming this is, and just waste time feeding western “experts” ideas that will help them make blockbusters, then your objective completely fails me.
I’m a person of justice, freedom and love. As long as those prevail in a society, the rest are but secondary.
Do your work well Miss Garrison, be objective. Seek the truth and you will find it.
Otherwise, this young man’s style of writing is impressive, not for true news stories and features but something like Dan Brown’s style- fiction.
Mugisha,
Thank you for your relatively substantive response! Now, I have two questions for you.
1. Were there any Hutus who were killed by RPF forces between 1990 and 1996? If yes, how many were killed? Because as far as I know there more than 1 million Hutus killed by RPF forces before the genocide, during the genocide and after the genocide. So, since you say that you are a person if “justice, freedom, and love”, can you please explain why you support making it a crime to mourn for the over a million Hutus who died and only Tutsi are allowed to mourn in Rwanda today?
2. Who killed President Habyarimana? The terrorist that killed Hutu President Habyarimana of Rwanda, Hutu President Ntaryamira of Burundi, Hutu Chief of Army Nsabimana of Rwanda and many Hutu ministers who were on that same place, that terrorist is the one that sparked the genocide. A court in Spain and another court in France have determined that that terrorist was Tutsi General Paul Kagame. So, since you say that you are a person if “justice, freedom, and love”, can you please explain why 16 years later the RPF continues to prevent the UN from doing an investigation to find out who this terrorist was? The only good reason is because that terrorist was General Paul Kagame as the court in Spain and the court in France have determined.
I was wondering what kind of person could be Edmund,now I know that he is a political reporter of the famous “The New Times”journal of Kigali which is a high speaker of the RPF propaganda.
Gigi,
You mention my name in your response but you do not elaborate. What do you have against me? What insult will you throw my way as you have clearly insulted everyone else? Will you say that I am so stupid because I think that my country Rwanda should abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Will you insult me because I think that abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the only way to guarantee lasting peace in Rwanda?
Mugisha: You have not made any compelling argument that Victoire Ingabiré Umuhoza or Godwin Agaba “harbor genocide thoughts,” and the argument that any opponents to the Kagame regime harbor genocidal thoughts is tedious and cynical.
Nor have you made any compelling arguments equating me and Sarah Palin, who, in 2008, said she believed Africa to be a country.
All the opposition have told me that their real concerns, and the real issues, in Rwanda now, are the poverty and hunger of the majority of Rwandans and the extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of government elites. And UN facts back this argument.
I got your answers.
First of all, there were Hutus that definitely died. It would be silly to imagine that whichever Tutsi was attacked didnt try to self defend themselves.
See, go to a dictionary and look up the word “genocide” If i can explain it to you, a genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. on the record, it was the Hutus who planned that kind of thing- to completely annihilate the Tutsi off the face of the earth. They said it through their radios,they debated on its methods in bars and parliament, they made the “ten commandments”, they sang about it in their songs..openly…because as you imply, they had more “freedom of speech” than we do now.
The Hutus who were killed are in three categories.
1. The Tutsis killed some Hutus in self defense.
2. The Hutus killed some because they were anti-genocide (witnessed in some common song played then called “ndanga abahutu” sang by some popular musician then saying he hates the Hutus who don’t want to join the struggle to exterminate the Tutsis)
3. While the RPF was taking over power, they had to fight with the Rwandan Hutu army then, which was carrying out genocide too… and also when they found a village under attack by the Hutu propagandists, they would defend the people.
That doesn’t constitute a genocide. The reason we remember the genocide is because it was masterminded to exterminate the Tutsis, not Hutus.
Your other question about who killed Habyarimana. My answer is, I would have done it myself! Let me take to it that you also want to find out who killed Hitler or his top NAZI officials, as if it was a bad thing to get rid of search murderous politicians.
Habyarimana, the presindet of Rwanda watched, led, aided and contributed heavily towards the development of the genocide ideology.
For you to claim that the genocide happened because Habyarimana’s plane was gunned, sounds like you are trying to justify the ideology. Under no circumstances can a genocide be justified!
Lastly, the governement hasnt prevented the UN from carrying out any investigations in Rwanda. the UN is an independent body (only fears the U.S). If that was the case, the UN would have talked about this and the press would have much ridiculed the governement of rwanda for restricting investigations. But as far as we know, you are the only one with such news.
You terming Kagame a terrorist is more of a personal feud you might be harboring with the leader.
Let me give you a scenario
One group massacres another. Someone comes in and saves the day. Who is the terrorist? the Savior or the head chopper? You decide.
Mugisha:
In your 3 categories of Hutus who died, you forgot a very important category:
4. Innocent Hutus who were under RPF-controlled territory and were butchered in cold hands by RPF soldiers. These Hutus, Ingabire never said that it was genocide. All she said was that it was war crimes and crimes against humanity and they too need to be mourned, especially considered that there is over a million of them.
In case you did not know these crimes, you can find some of them detailed at the link below:
http://www.saverwanda.org/index.php?id=74&tx_ttnewstt_news=807&cHash=612e545123
Again I repeat, these are war crimes and crimes against humanity. For example my cousin who was 1 year old who got killed by close range by RPF soldiers before those RPF soldiers murdered the entire family. That cousin today in Rwanda I cannot mourn her because she was Hutu and not Tutsi. This is an injustice that needs to stop. Let us mourn all the dead. Not just the Tutsi dead. Let us punish all the war criminals, not just the Hutu war criminals.
As for Habyarimana’s death, I did not try to justify that the genocide was right. All I was saying was anyone who knew anything about the Rwandan situation knew that killing Habyarimana, and then killing Ntaryamira (the second Hutu president Burundin within 6 months), and then killing the Hutu Chief of Army and then killing all the ministers that were on that plane, it would surely have resulted in thousands of people dying in revenge killings. You say that you would have killed him yourself even if you knew that it would have resulted in thousands of people dying in revenge killings. I personally think you are very irresponsible for having such an attitude.
As for the Rwandan government blocking the UN investigation, they have begged the US to do it for them. One day when all the documents are declassified, you will see for yourself. You just have to compare how in Lebanon when their Prime Minister was assassinated, their government went to the UN Security Council to ask for a UN investigation. Within 2 months, the investigation started. This is in start comparison to the RPF behavior.
As for Kagame being a terrorist, if he really is the one that ordered the shooting down of that plane, then for sure that is a terrorist act based on international law. And if he is responsible for the shooting down of that plane, then he is responsible for whatever happened afterwards in response to that action.
So, the correct scenario is this. Person A comes to a volatile place. They do an action that causes a group in that volatile place to react by burning down the place. Then person A comes and douses the fire after nearly the entire place is gone. Person A in my opinion is not a savior, they are an instigator who should be punished for their irresponsible behavior. If Person A had behaved more responsibly, that place would never have burned down.
Ann, tell me how many political opponents you know about in Rwanda and have been persecuted by the government for saying that they want to run for presidency without first being controversial on the issue of genocide against the Tutsis.
Ask yourself one question, why is it that the so-called political opponents are always reluctant when it comes to acknowledging the fact that the genocide was a wrong ideology?
I was mesmerized to read your name as the writer of that damning “essay” against the government, because am sure, besides listening to that young man, you didn’t carry out any interview on the other side, or do research so as not to be biased. All you want is a nice article, good to read. (i found it readable, quite interesting, flowing and with good language- you should have attained your desire by now)
Personally, i write. I detaste oppressive regimes, but i don’t rely on unsupported infor..neither do i ran to support oppressive ideologies. Our people have suffered enough to take more risks that will divide our people. For you to be so against the Rwandan government shows that you’re as one sided as an unprofessional reporter!
I am for justice, Tutsi and Hutu reconciliation. What are you for?
Lastly, the whole world knows how Rwanda has fought corruption (zero tolerance) In the whole of East Africa and Africa as a whole, Rwanda is known for its productive fight against corruption and its practical implementation of projects. Ask USAID or IREX to send you some facts.
Just like in the rest of Africa, we have poor people in Rwanda, but we are on a road to development, and the government carries out public sessions where leaders have to prove where and how they used the funds. Only in Rwanda will you find this in East Africa. Give the man some credit.
Also give the man (Kagame) some credit for all the crimes his soldiers committed:
http://www.saverwanda.org/index.php?id=74&tx_ttnewstt_news=807&cHash=612e545123
Aiamable, let’s not do this! Unless you’re archaic of the fact that the genocide was planned even before the shooting of the plane, then my assumption of you is that you’re denying a very common fact.
The genocide was being taught even before the plane shooting, the genocide was just waiting to happen. Even the national IDs had been designed to show who a Hutu is and who a Tutsi is, so that when the “action” begins, Tutsis are easily identifiable. Lots of Tutsis who had means had already fled to neighboring countries.
The real extreme massacres started in April, however, Tutsis were already being killed in many provinces of Rwanda.
See, there is one complex bit that happened during the genocide. Citizen Hutu was killing citizen Tutsi. Citizen Hutu doesn’t have a particular uniform or code of attack…it is just “wake up in the morning and go to work” If you were in the RPF, tell me how you would have distinguished in a short time, the innocent Hutu from the killer. On record, 13000 Hutus killed 10 Tutsis each for 100 days. That is not mentioning the leaders of the ideology and spies who led Tutsis to massacre grounds.
Lastly, there is no one denying Hutus to remember their lost. You must remember them. However, when Rwanda is commemorating the Genocide… it is the genocide against the Tutsis.
Mugisha,
To say that the genocide was being planned does not excuse the fact that it would not have happened on April 6, 1994 if Habyarimana had not been killed. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, the terrorist who killed him bares a huge responsibility.
As for me being able to remember the innocent Hutus who died before 1994, during and after, can you please tell me what national day is there in Rwanda today to remember the 1 million plus Hutus who died?
Can you tell me what memorial building is there in Rwanda today to remember the 1 million plus Hutus who died?
Just because one group died as part of a genocide and the second group died as part of war crimes and crimes against humanity does not mean one group should be officially remembered and the other group forgotten as if the second group never died. That is a gross injustice plaguing the nation.
Aimable, remind me, Which day do the Germans remember the millions of Germans that died during the holocaust? and where is their memorial centre?
Also remind me if there is any search for the the Jews that killed top German officials.
lool!! that the Tutsi genocide would not have happened on April 6th. You tell me aimable, which day was it slated for?
Jeremie
You say you know who I am,well yo dont.But i know who you are, a Genocide denier,you shd feel ashamed.I am proud to be serving in Rwanda of today–not yesterday,where your thoughts still belong.
The Genocide is documented,RPF and Kagame’s role in stopping the Genocide is documented,these are facts you cant rewrite Boss,you will die an unhappy man for not succeeding in feeding the world on lies.
Only people like Ann who can take in any crap can buy your lies but it wont change anything—why not face reality and life will become easier??
There are thousands of people who saw their relatives slaughtered like chicken and guess what?They have forgiven and life goes on.I dont know where you live but the type of Rwanda we are living in today has passed that type of thinking.
Unless ofcourse if you have some unanswered cases waiting for you here,i would advise you to get on the next plane and come and experience Rwanda today.Izuba rirava,imvura iragwa,iterambere riraremye..hehe namacakubiri?
We dont need whiners…and pessimists most of all!!
Mugisha, you are making a huge mistake of comparing the Holocaust to the Rwandan genocide. Below are some differences for you:
1. The Jews did not have a rebel army that attacked the Germans first.
The Tutsis had a rebel army that attacked the Hutus first in 1990 and went on to kill thousands of Hutus before the 1994 genocide.
2. The Jews do not have a long list of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Germans.
The Tutsis have a long list of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Hutus.
http://www.saverwanda.org/index.php?id=74&tx_ttnewstt_news=807&cHash=612e545123
3. The Jews did not enslave the Germans for hundreds of years before independence.
The Tutsi aristocracy enslaved the Hutu peasants for nearly 500 years before independence.
4. The Jews did not kill innocent German women and children. They only attacked the Nazis.
The Tutsis butchered innocent Hutu women and children both before, during and after the genocide.
So, please I know you like to consider yourselves the African Jews, but you are very far from that.
Before i forget, the fact that people like you aimable want to hip lots of criminality on the sole savior Rwanda had in those days when the whole world was a spectator, makes me wonder…
It makes me put your motive on a weighing machine. First of all, you are unlikely to be living in Rwanda unlike many free Hutus peacefully coexisting alongside the Tutsis…meaning you’re in exile for something you’re being wanted or in your terms “persecuted” for.
Let me tell you one thing, the genocide won’t happen again! I don’t know how that makes you feel!
Aimable
Stamping on us ‘the 1 million Hutus or so who died’ hasn’t really worked,someone gave you a meaning of Genocide if i recall very well. What we know in Rwanda that happened is a Genocide!!Period.
I advise you to write a book,maybe in future it could be a reference of how some people, after the genocide in Rwanda, embarked on a campaign to cover up what really happened.
By the way for your information,those who plan the genocide also plan ways of covering it up, and I am sure you got some good lessons in the latter. By claiming a million Hutus or so died and were killed by RPF,a force which stopped the genocide,is nothing but one of those attempts to cover up the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
It is ridiculous to mention the Spanish or French Judges in this case.They are nothing but malicious fellows, who after failing in their attempts to blackmail the current leadership have resorted to funding FDLR.
Their efforts will still yield to nothing ‘ngo ntibirengagize ko abarubohoye bakiruyoboye’
Mugisha, so do you mean to say that the reason why so many of you Tutsis were in exile between 1959 and 1994 is because of crimes you had committed? You know, this is the issue with the Tutsis in power today. You only look at things from your point of view. You cannot sympathize with the suffering of other people who are not Tutsis.
When Rwanda starts guaranteeing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for all citizens, I will be there really quickly.
Anyway, i get your point. Its the other way round. I am now convinced. According to your reasons, the genocide was justified..and the Tutsi had to be exterminated.
Infact, if you took part, you should feel proud of yourself for massacring the oppressive Tutsis.
Edmund, the “1 million plus” dead Hutus have been documented. Some of them are here http://www.saverwanda.org/index.php?id=74&tx_ttnewstt_news=807&cHash=612e545123
And some of them are in other human rights reports. Like I said, the issue with the Tutsis in power today is that you only look at things from your point of view. You cannot sympathize with the suffering of other people who are not Tutsis.
Godwin Agaba the famous “Historical”
and Annie Garrison the famous ‘Radical’…
for Godwin I understand he is truly behaving like stray dog in the desert (hungry for a visa and wandering around to victimize another person Sky Hotel saga u know that godwin, a story that is never told) my brother, you don’t know the west you are fighting for…and I surely know that what you write is not what you believe (are you sure you are the one who wrote that article…because I know your English and your writing style)…you have been driven by your in-born starvation for money…and the devil in you has taken you to this level.
By the way you worked as a reporter for The New Times, (remember I shared the same computer and all story ideas with you) and now you are here trashing it, what were you doing at newtimes?
I want you to sit back and wonder why this garrison woman has this deep interest in Rwanda…she is among the westerners who have decided to put Africa in a trash bin so that they earn a living…
Think straight Godwin, you are going to get this visa or you got it already, go there in some city, you will be treated like a slave, a beggar, an outcast and everything bad in the name of being a refugee?!!!
You are misled by these western games of murdering Africa and you are giving them a hand in killing your own people with such misleading information.
I will be closely watching your tomorrow.
Annie Garrison, I believe there is something to report about in the US, than in Rwanda, what is your interest in Rwanda? Particularly how has Kagame wronged you in person?
You over abused the media ethics…
Mugisha, I did not say it is the other way round. All I said, which is the truth is that some extremists Hutus committed the genocide against innocent Tutsi unarmed civilians. Some extremist Tutsis committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against innocent Hutu unarmed civilians. Let us denounce all these criminals. That is the only way to have a lasting peace. By everyone denouncing all the criminals on all sides. To deny that there are criminals on the Tutsi side is no way to build a lasting peace.
Aimable, sure you dont believe what you say. Am sure you’re laughing under yo punch at the Tutsis who died.
First of all, the history of my country doesn’t permit me to exchange my opinion when i realise am talking to revisionists. I doubt if you’re hands are clean! You speak exactly what the wanted genocedaires are claiming.
Anyway, i made my points in the earlier posts…ususally when i do that, i avoid running in circles. The readers will read for themselves and judge.
But i hope justices catches up with any person who still thinks that a genocide is justifiable.
Aimable
I understand all you want is sympathy…sympathy you get.I don’t know how sympathetic you want us to be.Well, maybe each anniversary of the genocide,survivors should write a note of thanks to the families of those who killed their relatives.
Maybe we can say ‘Oh thanks,you killed my family and that was a great job,they deserved to die because they were born Tutsis’…does that make you happy Aimable??
I dont get any point out of your arguments. If the killing of a million or so Hutus is documented, why didnt it make headlines like the genocide of the Tutsi did?
If there are Human Rights Report stating the killing of Hutus(if they are not by gencoidaires themselves),why haven’t they surfaced to alter what we already know—the genocide against the Tutsi?
Should we say Rwanda has connived with the rest of the world to cover up the genocide of the Hutus?That would be quite sad.
You know you are a liar,you know you are guilty.People who dealt with what you are suffering from today 16 years ago have moved on to a new chapter of life.
Those who accepted that the genocide really took place have moved beyond this kind of thinking. The RPF has put you to shame,they have achieved things you would not think of—Deal with it.
By the way,you engaging us in this kind of debate,you are taking us backwards. We would ignore you but we have no choice but to respond to your ignorant views.
In you read up in the responses, you can clearly tell the views of todays Rwandans living in Rwanda from those of exiled Rwandans claiming to love their country more by siding by the likes of Garisson.
Come Live Rwanda,Come Experience Rwanda.It is a whole new feeling today!!
Mugisha and Edmund,
Unlike you, I will not put words into your mouth. Like I said, the truth is that some extremist Hutus committed the genocide against innocent Tutsi unarmed civilians. Some extremist Tutsis committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against innocent Hutu unarmed civilians. Let us denounce all these criminals. That is the only way to have a lasting peace. By everyone denouncing all the criminals on all sides. To deny that there are criminals on the Tutsi side is no way to build a lasting peace.
Edmund, as for the human rights reports, for example, here is one from Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/17/rwanda-tribunal-s-work-incomplete
And here is another research about this:
http://www.crimesofwar.org/onnews/news-rwanda3.html
It is only a matter of time. Saddam Hussein was left alone for sometime too, until it became too inconvenient for the US to support him anymore.
Like I said, the only way to build a lasting peace is by abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Aimable
and why do you think Human Right Watch is right in their reporting….i think you should buy Mugisha and Edmund’s views since they are the people on the ground and know everything. unfortunately you also watch rwanda from your PC so dont think you know anything about this country…
Looking at the number of comments to Godwin Agaba article so far, I can only say the writing and the writer are interesting enough to raise so much heated discussions. But I noticed that they all diverted from the content of the article, which is the current political situation in Rwanda, few months before another election in an African context.
1) Opposition parties with what they are experiencing presently
2) Freedom of speech with the situation of newspapers
3) Military reshuffle and what it supposes
And eventually, an analysis at what might happen after the elections.
I find everything else which is being discussed falls out of context.
Aimable, please enlighten us. paste the ten hutu commandments here so everyone can see
Aimable,Alison De Forges and the like
I am sure you are abt to say that Kagame shot down the plane in which de Forges(since she authored the report you are referring me to) in which she died.
You are sour-graping. My question is,why are this reports not making an impact?and all you are telling me is how it is a matter of time and Saddam sijui what…Why don’t you really push these reports forward??
Its just that the whole world knows nothing but the truth.Tutsis are not asking for sympathy mind you…these things happened.You posts are beginning to annoy. Come to Rwanda and negate the genocide here,stopping trading lies to the world!!
Ambrose, you are totally right. It seems that a lot of the current government supporters have diverted from the content of the article, as you say “which is the current political situation in Rwanda, few months before another election in an African context.
1) Opposition parties with what they are experiencing presently
2) Freedom of speech with the situation of newspapers
3) Military reshuffle and what it supposes”
aimable
off the record, i think you’re actually very very STUPID!
Mugisha, I am not surprised by your insults. Now, can we go back to the content of the article, as Ambrose said “which is the current political situation in Rwanda, few months before another election in an African context.
1) Opposition parties with what they are experiencing presently
2) Freedom of speech with the situation of newspapers
3) Military reshuffle and what it supposes”?
Ambrose (Disogarnising Africa)
It is not abt how interesting the article is but rather how appalling it is. Apart from the article(and the authors) being outrageous, most of the people who seem to comment are either genocide deniers or a bunch of disgruntled criminals hiding somewhere outside Rwanda.
True Rwandans therefore cannot sit back and let a bunch irresponsible individuals like Godwin,Ann, Aimable, Jeremie and the like tear our history to pieces as we watch. That is the only reason we are compelled to react here—not because it is interesting but because it exposes how some people can be ill informed and misled by others!!
Edmund again comes back with insults, accusing anyone who does not agree with him as “not true Rwandans” and “irresponsible.” Ambrose is right that the focus should be on the content of the article, “which is the current political situation in Rwanda, few months before another election in an African context.
1) Opposition parties with what they are experiencing presently
2) Freedom of speech with the situation of newspapers
3) Military reshuffle and what it supposes”?
Aimable, i am still waiting for answers….why do you think Human Right Watch is right in their reporting….i think you should buy Mugisha and Edmund’s views since they are the people on the ground and know everything. unfortunately you also watch rwanda from your PC so dont think you know anything about this country…
oh and the ten commandments of the Hutus…
Aimable, am neither surprised that i called you that.
Usually i know when to stop debating..or arguing…and this is it. You want to go round in circles over the same arguments that have been dealt with entirely
One, I have explained how it was the genocide against the Tutsi, not against the Hutus.
2. I have shown the world that RPF is a hero and cannot be compared to the Hutu interahamwe, just like you can’t compare the resilient Jews to the murderous Hutus.
3. You also helped explain that the genocide would have happened, even if it hadn’t happened in April.
4. You are aware of the hutu ten commandments…that the habyarimana government advertised using tax payers’ money.
5. etc… i seek no more arguments in the same line now
6. Rwanda is safe without ideologies that are being promoted by you.
Edwin, I know that Human Rights Watch is right because I have relatives, babies and children who were killed by RPF soldiers in cold blood. So, I know.
Mugisha,
1. I agree that there was a genocide against the Tutsis and not against the Hutus. I never denied that. All I said is that there were also war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the RPF Tutsi soldiers against Hutu civilians.
2. RPF may be a hero in your eyes. They are not heroes in the eyes of the many people whose babies, and children were butchered by RPF soldiers. Not every RPF soldier is a hero and not every Hutu is a murderer.
3. I did not say that the genocide would have happened even if it had not happened in April. I said it would not have happened if Habyarimana had not been killed. Whether it would have happened later anyways, only God knows. All I know is that whoever killed Habyarimana bares a huge responsibility in whatever followed.
4. The Hutu commandments did exist for the extremist Hutus. I am sure there are Tutsi commandments for extremist Tutsis too. Extremists on both sides are terrible for the nation.
5. Rwanda will never be safe as long as it does not abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Now, can we go back to the content of the article as Ambrose said, “which is the current political situation in Rwanda, few months before another election in an African context.
1) Opposition parties with what they are experiencing presently
2) Freedom of speech with the situation of newspapers
3) Military reshuffle and what it supposes”?
Edmund: Human Rights’ Watch’s Carla Tertsakian is “on the ground” there; I called to talk to her, but she was scared to talk, said her phone was tapped and she feels in some peril.
Also, NY Times correspondent and Pulitzer winner Nicholas Kristof is “on the ground,” based in Kigali, but in 3/4 of a year now, he has not even once bothered to contact or interview any of the opposition candidates. Not Bernard Ntaganda, not Frank Habineza, and not Victoire Ingabiré Umuhoza. He hasn’t covered this so-called election at all.
Kristof’s last report, on the anniversary of the genocide, was that Rwanda has made a lot of progress and now it needs “the big hotels,” and, all these poor Black people have to stop having so many babies.
I have to call or SKYPE the opposition candidates from across two continents and an ocean to get any coverage of this election in the U.S., besides Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International releases, on their own websites, or the stations that carry the BBC over here, late at night. (Though of course there’s also our openly CIA outlet, Voice of America, with a reporter on the ground, who is infinitely better than Kristof or any of our other de facto CIA mouthpieces, though VOA is not widely read here.)
256News.com and the RNA are far better than the NY Times’s on the ground Nicholas Kristof, who might as well be from outer space; he’s been known, recently, to call for an earthquake in Congo, to turn the world’s attention that way, as though six million war dead, since 1996, isn’t enough.
Today 256News.com published a Commonwealth press release with the headline, “Commonwealth boss heads to Rwanda over elections,” http://goo.gl/GS1d. I’ll be interested to see how they report this.
What people like Edmund think they are ?The stubborness and blindness of their minds make them think they are supermen who know everything and who never make mistakes in life.They dream being in a myterious paradise which is Rwanda where everything is right,no tribalism,no oppression,no injustice,no imperfections from the leaders for they are omnipotent and omniscient,…When they are hurt by the truth the only argument they have is attacking people by insults.Shame on you !!
To Ann
I just wanted to inform you that like i said earlier, we all know Godwin as a very dubious character and to confirm that, even the part of this article everyone is thanking him for is not his.
Having known him for quite sometime and his command of English and writing skills, i highly doubted whether he is the one who wrote that piece.
He is the bombshell. He didn’t. It was authored by Elly Akanga, another Ugandan-Rwandan Journalist currently living in the UK.
Follow this link to your disappointment. We all knew he wouldn’t write that!!
http://ellyakanga.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/from-gatsinzi-to-kabarebe-and-now-umuseso-what-exactly-is-paul-kagame%E2%80%99s-ultimate-motive/#comments
You are yet to meet the real Godwin!!
Plagiarism is a criminal offence,no Visa for you already Godwin!!
I have written to both Godwin and Eleneus Akanga, a UK blogger, who does indeed claim credit for this editorial. However, since this is an otherwise unedited blog, we may not be able to determine authorship, unless Godwin acknowledges Eleneus Akanga, and Eleneus Akanga says that he (or she?) is unconcerned about the byline and glad instead that report and analysis has found a wider audience in the Bay View. I’m trying to find out who Eleneus Akanga is because I believe this may be an assumed name.
This may have been an error on my part, or that of several people, because Godwin posted this editorial to a Facebook discussion without accrediting it to anyone, so all those of us within that discussion immediately assumed that Godwin had written it and responded to its force and credibility.
The dispute over the byline does not discount the credibility of the writing itself.
Meanwhile Godwin has started writing for 256News.com under his own byline again, and his filed what seems to be the first report on the arrest of several Rwandan military officers, http://goo.gl/AyuS This echoes what Godwin said, in the KPFA interview in March–that the competition within Rwanda’s military bureaucratic elite is the real source of instability in Rwanda now.
Ann
When we tell you we know things better than you do,you shd understand.Eleneus Akanga is not an assumed name.He is also a former Journalist of The New Times.
He is another disgruntled Journalist who left Rwanda after successfully maneuvering his way out with the same claims Godwin is using—but somehow he managed.
Doy you now believe that you be driven into committing mistakes in your work?
Godwin has resumed his writing(he claims to have broken that story after getting it from The New Times and then fabricating a few lies to show that it is his own work)—why resume?Because he noticed no one cared and no one was looking for him as he claims.
No one is above the law.Rwanda puts that in practice,even errant Generals know.
Ann
When we tell you we know things better than you do,you shd understand.Eleneus Akanga is not an assumed name.He is also a former Journalist of The New Times.
He is another disgruntled Journalist who left Rwanda after successfully maneuvering his way out with the same claims Godwin is using—but somehow he managed.
Doy you now believe that you be driven into committing mistakes in your work?
Godwin has resumed his writing(he claims to have broken that story after getting it from The New Times and then fabricating a few lies to show that it is his own work)—why resume?Because he noticed no one cared and no one was looking for him as he claims.
No one is above the law.Rwanda puts that in practice,even Generals know that.
Dear Annie Garrison,
allow me to shade more light on your recent intervention. I have closely worked with both journalists and Eleneus Akanga and Godwin Agaba. To be precise, they were my personal friends socially.
Over the years, I have read Mr. Akanga’s editorials as well as Mr Agaba’s and if you remember well my first post here, I questioned if Mr Agaba is the one who wrote this piece.
You claim Eleneus Akanga may be an assumed name, no you are wrong, Akanga truly exists. Akanga was once a political reporter for the new times. He holds double nationality of Uganda and Rwanda.
He got his first Degree from Makerere University in Uganda…you can cross check around that line.
Akanga is commonly known for being a good English writer unlike Godwin that is why you should not have any reason to doubt the authorship of the article. It is an original piece of Akanga which GODWIN should not claim at any point.
I don’t understand why you should question if Akanga is, or, unconcerned about the byline. The mere fact that Godwin never attributed it to Akanga should make you suspicious of the dangerous person you are dealing with (Agaba Godwin)
AND, I highly defer with you…The dispute over the byline totally discount the credibility article.
I contacted Eleneus Akanga on his blog and he contacted me on Facebook. Eleneus and I are now Facebook friends, as Godwin and I are.
I did not say I doubted Eleneus Akanga’s existence. I said that one never knows who is really writing a blog the author has somehow made him or herself manifest beyond the blog.
And, Eleneus has said that he is not concerned about the byline, but Bay View Editor Mary Ratcliff has become Eleneus’s friend as well, so I think I’m going to let her decide how to handle this.
I never hesitate to acknowledge an error when I have made one.
And again, I have to point out that Godwin’s remarks, on KPFA, were prescient, given the further conflict within the Rwandan military, which he filed a report on today for 256News.com.
I find people should here look at the article which we would now say belongs to Akanga and Akaba in the positive sense.
Like any good story, we can easily relate to it. Things the content of the article described so skillfully are being confirmed by what we are observing happening in Rwanda right now, for example the two high rank military personalities who have been dismissed from their functions this week.
At this moment we know who wrote the article and their position. If someone among those who contest its authenticity could come up with another story on the same topic, with same closeness to the facts as we can understand them and appreciate their likeness with what we know, then let us be the judges of your story.
But please don’t deprive us of an eye opener on facts we can see sometimes happening but for which we cannot comprehend their full meaning, because we may not be close enough to understand their whole message.
Edmund and Edwin: You haven’t responded to my point that NY TImes correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, despite sitting right there in Kigali, with all the resources a journalist could ask for, has not interviewed any of Kagame’s political opposition or written a single piece about this election year which will determine who leads Rwanda for the next 7 years.
Let me help Aimable publish the Hutu ten commandments. The RPF are heroes who stopped this madness.
The Hutu Ten Commandments
1. Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, works for the interest of her Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall consider a traitor any Hutu who
* marries a Tutsi woman
* befriends a Tutsi woman
* employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine.
2. Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest?
3. Hutu women, be vigilant and try to bring your husbands, brothers and sons back to reason.
4. Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor:
* makes a partnership with Tutsi in business
* invests his money or the government’s money in a Tutsi enterprise
* lends or borrows money from a Tutsi
* gives favours to Tutsi in business (obtaining import licenses, bank loans, construction sites, public markets, etc.).
5. All strategic positions, political, administrative, economic, military and security should be entrusted only to Hutu.
6. The education sector (school pupils, students, teachers) must be majority Hutu.
7. The Rwandan Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. The experience of the October 1990 war has taught us a lesson. No member of the military shall marry a Tutsi.
8. The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi.
9. The Hutu, wherever they are, must have unity and solidarity and be concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers.
* The Hutu inside and outside Rwanda must constantly look for friends and allies for the Hutu cause, starting with their Hutu brothers.
* They must constantly counteract Tutsi propaganda.
* The Hutu must be firm and vigilant against their common Tutsi enemy.
10. The Social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961, and the Hutu Ideology, must be taught to every Hutu at every level. Every Hutu must spread this ideology widely. Any Hutu who persecutes his brother Hutu for having read, spread, and taught this ideology is a traitor
There is a tendency for many Rwandans living outside Rwanda to insult the RPF and the whole country’s structure.
Interestingly enough, these same Rwandans left the country between 1994-96…exactly after the genocide. Quite fishy i find it.
Aimable, when did you leave Rwanda?? Why did you leave Rwanda?
Prince, thanks for posting the 10 Hutu Commandments. Obviously, those commandments are for extremist Hutus. I heard that there are 19 Tutsi Commandments, which are from extremist Tutsis. I will find them and post them here for you later on.
Mugisha, when I left Rwanda or why I left Rwanda is none of your concern. You should read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In there, you will find many articles regarding my basic human rights that cover many scenarios for why I would leave Rwanda. Enough of you RPF agents, every time anyone says anything you do not like, you cry “you are a genocidaire, you are a genocidaire.” If you think I committed genocide like you are insinuating, then go and provide the evidence to a real court (not the current’s Rwanda’s Kangaroo courts). In the meantime, let us focus on the big issues, not personal attacks.
Prince, below is a link for you. It is the testimony of a Tutsi nurse who was ordered by RPF authorities to kill Hutu babies in order to reduce the number of Hutus. Nurse Claire Uwamutara testifies that “Back from prison, they nominated me to work at KICUKIRO Health Centre. At the new place of my work, I was also given directives: To reduce the number of Hutu babies by death and to give mother complications by inserting metal or other dangerous thing like scissors inside before closing her stomach. The order was that in 100 maternity cases, 30 mothers and 20 babies have to die.
I failed again to obey it because all those babies and mothers have not committed any crime against me. One woman was very active in obeying the order. ASTERIA is committed to kill every Hutu”
The full testimony of Nurse Uwamutara can be found at:
http://www.saverwanda.org/uploads/media/uwamutara__s_testimony_01.PDF
Food for thought. Rwanda is safe. The dangerous women has been arrested. Long life our president. This is the true Rwandan Democracy and we expect to be recognized by the west. By arresting Ingabire, we also evidence our sense of human rights and democracy. While our president Kagame is compellingly innocent, with white hands, an Angel of God, we must recognize that it is in his remit to make all rwandans-Ingabire included- accountable and answerable to laws.
The link below will tell you more
http://editions-sources-du-nil.over-blog.com/
Check also this link
http://www.fdu-rwanda.org/fr/rwanda/detail/article/mrs-victoire-ingabire-umuhoza-icon-of-the-struggle-for-freedom-democracy-and-justice-in-rwanda-ar/index.html
We are fed up these people in mean hooligans and waste who betray their mother Country. Ingabire is like Kayumba whose character and leadership history in the Rwandan military together with the criminal activities that he was being questioned about when he escaped explains why he is shamelessly where he is today. Indeed which other General would stand the humiliation of reporting to foreign intelligence services and the humiliation of reporting to international organisations such the UNHCR?
For more info check this link of our ministry of Defense
http://www.mod.gov.rw/?KAYUMBA-NYAMWASA-a-victim-of-his
Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that:
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
In case you forgot, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed on December 10, 1948. The Declaration was a direct response to the Holocaust and other crimes committed during World War II. Abiding by these universal human rights is the only way to prevent a recurrence of the Rwandan genocide. These are not rights that are being imposed on Rwandans. These are rights that every Rwandan is born with, because all Rwandans are human beings.
Mrs Ingabire is the Rwandan Mandela. The RPF Apartheid regime can oppress her all they want. But in the end, like all previous Apartheid regimes, the RPF will fall too.
Aimable, Mandela? lool..you sure are funny. And the way you seek attention is quite, impressive i admit. It’s as though, your job is right here right now!
Kagame may not be a Mandela, but he is a true patriot. He is not an Amin or the horrific Habyarimana. He is a leader respected by Obama, European and African leaders..only disrespected by Rwandans in exile(genocidaires)…and Ingabire.
When i ask for the year you left Rwanda, your majesty runs to the claims that am a spy. Well, there shouldn’t be anything to hide. Personally i spent most of my years in Kampala when my parents fled in 93, just came to Kigali recently..clean hands! I found the country clean, better than the way it was then. so, why don’t you want to come back to your country? The war ended long time ago.
according to your assumptions, Habyarimana is the hero…You defend him to the death, and Kagame is the villain. What kind of twisted imagination is that?
When Prince shows you the ten Hutu commandments, like any other normal person with feelings, you don’t get surprised at the hate therein, you just jump straight on to some other laws…the 19 tutsi commandments!! lool.(am sure you made those yourself) So that what? So that its fair? Both teams wanted to exterminate each other..so the genocide was fair? How sick can you get?
Dude, i don’t mean to disrespect you, but I have this lingering feeling that you at least promoted the genocide ideology, if you didn’t participate directly. Guess what? I can’t prove that! You alone knows the truth, and God, and Satan. If you laid your hand on any one of those children, may God have pity on your sorry soul!!
Anyway, what you should know is, am really looking towards the day that all Rwandans will be one, slowly we are pushing towards that place. The UN calls Rwanda an example to the rest of Africa because of its rate of development.
Disgruntled people like you, who are bent on discrediting the good, hailing the evil and keeping curiously anonymous about their identity are not welcome to our new Rwanda. We love it..i so love Rwanda. One thing am sure of, there are lots of genocide suspects out there…and they are all anonymous currently and are envious of the development we are having.
Read the Rwandan constitution now and compare it to the past and tell me you’re not glad. All people are equal now in Rwanda. It is a crime to kill now…can you imagine? Strange, isn’t it?
As personal attacks continue here, a big event is going on in Rwanda today.
Mrs Victoire Ingabire is a 41 year old mother of three. She had a very good job in the Netherlands where she had been studying during the 1994 genocide. In 2009, she resigned her job to go back to Rwanda and participate in the presidential elections this August 2010. She was back in Rwanda on Jan 17, 2010 after 16 years in exile. She was recognized by most as the main leader of the Rwandan non-violent political opposition.
Today is a very sad day for Rwanda because the current Rwandan government is sending a message that if you participate peacefully in the country’s political process, there is a price to pay. If the government thinks that the people may vote for you, you will be jailed. This disrespect for human rights and democracy is exactly what caused the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Today is a very sad day indeed for peace and democracy-loving people all over the world.
So, in other words, the genocide is going to happen again? Try! We are ready this time, and the world is watching, unlike then.
You will be arrested the first time you try to paste those commandments on any tv or radio!
The Rwandan government continues to trample on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Mrs Victoire Ingabire is a 41 year old mother of three. She had a very good job in the Netherlands where she had been studying during the 1994 genocide. In 2009, she resigned her job to go back to Rwanda and participate in the presidential elections this August 2010. She was back in Rwanda on Jan 17, 2010 after 16 years in exile. She was recognized by most as the main leader of the Rwandan non-violent political opposition.
Today is a very sad day for Rwanda because the current Rwandan government is sending a message that if you participate peacefully in the country’s political process, there is a price to pay. If the government thinks that the people may vote for you, you will be jailed. This disrespect for human rights and democracy is exactly what caused the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Today is a very sad day indeed for peace and democracy-loving people all over the world.
A very sad day indeed, Aimable. Some character was just gloating, in the comments on my Youtube video, that Mrs. Ingabiré has been arrested.
Notice that all these people screaming genocide! and genocide denier! never have a word to say about six million people dead in D.R. Congo?
Has anybody recently read the content of the article of which these comments are about? What are the facts in the author’s writing? I find we should get to those facts, otherwise we will be like spinning around indefinitely.
The Demons are leading our country now. This is not a country where to live but a hell !!!Nothing good can come from criminals !!!
I am a Ugandan who has been following the sad events in Rwanda and Africa in general for long.
My suggestion for Rwanda is that all Rwandese hutus, tutsis and twa should forget the past and avoid the genocide blame game.
All Rwandese should work on legislating Bills of Rights that protects the interests and human rights of all (hutus, tutsis and twa) for generations to come.
The issue of who started, committed and was a victim or perpetrator of the genocide is important for historical purposes but should be made irrelevant since the fact is Rwandese irrespective of whether tutsi or hutu were killed. It is as sad as that.
The major issue at hand is that genocide and the genocide mentality should never be allowed in Rwanda or elsewhere in the world just as crime and corruption should never be accepted as a norm of life.
To me genocide and its mentality are alien to Africans and was just introduced as a new form of evil politics just as homosexuality is alien to Africans.
In Europe when even cats or dogs are killed by man or go missing it makes international news headlines.
More to that hutu , tutsi or twa are all human beings. How come no one mentions about twa killed in the genocide?
Is that not a sign of human selfishness and hypocrisy? Also let me ask a simple question: what color is the blood of a hutu, tuti and twa?
Another that should be remembered is that most of the local killings in Africa are planned , executed by foreign powers who don’t mind about African lives so long as they achieve their political and economic interests.
Hutu, tutsi or twa you are all Rwandese period. No Rwandese ethnic groups should pride itself when one group exterminates the other.
The Chinese have more ethnic groups than Rwandese but opted to build the Great China wall (6000km) in 44 BC to protect themselves against foreign intruders wishing to create wars and genocide in China.
Rwandese should work with President Paul Kagame to get the Rwanda you all want.These leaders may neither be the best nor the worst but they are allowed by God to govern.
I believe Rwandese tutsi, hutu and twa can coexist and share power for the benefit of Rwanda. The only problem is that you can only have one president at a time.
To me the main problem with Rwanda as is the case in all parts of Africa is underdevelopment, poverty, disease, mental backwardness , foreign interference and desire to live in the past age.
Europe, Americas and Asia are striving to develop to greater heights inspite of their diverse ethnic mix.
AIDS/ HIV and malaria are a more serious threat to Rwanda and Africa in general. These are diseases that don’t know whether one is tutsi, hutu or twa. Correct me if am wrong.
The effects of mental backwardness, poverty, disease, local & foreign exploitation, interference and corruption in African society have greater and more long term effects on society.
Rwanda is a great country you will overcome the genocide aftermath but you still have to overcome AIDS / HIV and malaria that killing more people in Southern Africa than those killed by genocide in Rwanda or elsewhere in Africa.
How come no one is talking about the number of Hutus / tutis / twas being killed or still dying of poverty, ignorance, HIV/ AIDS, malaria and infant mortality?
Gentlemen and ladies let no ethnic group in Rwanda or Africa be jealous of the other. We in Africa are all backward compared to the rest of the world.
How many Hutu / Tutsi/ twa have been to space?
How many Hutu/ tusi / twa own companies listed in the worlds Forbes journal?
How many Hutu / Tutis / twa have invented anything significant to be recorded in world scientific journals?
Which ethnic Rwanda group has 100% literacy rates?
Which ethnic Rwanda group is free of HIV/AIDS, poverty, disease and ignorance?
How come the GDP of Rwanda (Hutu / Tusi/ twa combined) or sub- saharan Africa is no where near the annual income of mere Google or Face Book owned by six white boys.
How come Income per capita of Rwanda and Africa is less than the Income per capita of wokers of Microsoft or British Airways
How come the per capita subsidies given to European Union cows is higher than the per capita income in Rwanda or sub saharan Africa?
Rwandese you have learnt your sad lessons move on.
Anne Garrison, you should concentrate on the Iraq war, the health care bill and other related things.
As far as i remember, the best thing people like you do is fan the flames, cause conflict without reason..and when bullets start flying and machetes swing, choppers fly over the ocean and take you out of the mess back to your comfortable rooms where you can watch the events on a big screen as they unfold!
I know hundreds of Americans and Europeans trying to help Rwanda be better, and you’re not among them!
Annie,
Don’t worry about these RPF / New Times / DMI agents. They have oppressed their people in Rwanda and now they are trying to oppress you here in the US too. Their mothers never taught them how to deal well with any dissenting view.
But the worst thing is that they see your name and they rush to the Comments section without even looking at the content of the article. May be they have a hard time digesting a lot of content in one go. So, I will slowly reproduce the main content of the article sentence by sentence here for their benefit.
1. “Anyone who has been following events in Rwanda over the last few weeks will agree with me that it is now clear what President Paul Kagame really wants.”
Hey, go on, insult our mothers who were butchered by those pig heads!
Well, the fact is, its you guys finding it hard to digest the reality. The reality is- Rwanda is better! Hutu and Tutsi are leaving together. Your disgruntled friends, from whom you pick your only point of reference are simply sadists who still think that the country belongs to Hutus and they should get it back. In Rwanda, unfortunately for them, we are one people, devoid of differences… at least we try to be that way!
Call us agents or whatever, the facts speak for themselves and time will tell. Everybody who participated in the genocide will be caught by the long arm of the law..whether they are eighty or one hundred years old, they will face justice!
The future generation will study about the genocide, without calling themselves cockroaches or snakes..happily.
What President Kagame wants is this- a Rwanda united and peaceful, a Rwanda that is developing sustainably, reducing the poverty levels.
What the fools in exile want is to attain power, promote the stupid idea that the Tutsis committed massacres, bring the country back to a state of unrest. That won’t happen.
2. “A safer Rwanda! A Rwanda where there is no political upheaval, no opposition politics, no sentimental politicians, no old friends, no dissent and, above all, no critical newspapers to report the prevailing “peace and tranquility.” “
Let me tell you one thng you guys. There is a need for intellectual humility and integrity, which would lead to mutual respect. that’s said, my humble question to all of you is Do you think all criminals are criminals and must be treated so? Or do you think they are some criminals who are not? Do you think all human blood(s) are blood and red, or some human blood(s) are milk / water/ oil/ gold etc and blue/white/green etc? I suppose your answers are that all criminals are criminals and must be treated so; that none of human blood is milk, gold, water, oil and blue, white or green.
If up here we are on the same page, you will agree with that, as far as we use English, we will not find another English word to stand in the place of the word “DEMOCRACY”. The same applies for “JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS” etc
That said, in Rwanda between Ingabire and Kagame, who is escaping DEMOCRACY? JUSTICE? HUMAN RIGHTS ect? I am sure if you keep the intellectual integrity you have the right answer.
There is such thing which erodes the human intellectuals’ traits, and number one is contradiction and self-deception. Recently, Kagame won several awards in good governance, democracy and human rights and above all UNITY AND RECONCILIATION. Most of these awards have been presented to Kagame by the WEST, Clinton, Warren, USA, UK, the Netherlands ect. Even Universities, centres of critical thinking have also presented their PHD (honors) to Kagame for his work in Unity and Reconciliation. Is there anyone who can say that all these academicians and respectful politicians and member of the Clergy in the West are wrong? If no, are they right? Or they are right and wrong. Ok, there is reconciliation, because there is no mention of ethnic group in ID. But, is there anyone to help me understand why the previously known as Rwanda genocide in now genocide against Tutsi? Sorry I might be Stupid, this because there is UNITY and RECONCILIATION in Rwanda.
Ann I am a little black man with no wisdom, may I beg your inputs on that. You are overseas, and I am behind screen, maybe under the white sword.
Currently the Governor of Canada is in Rwanda. She shed tears while on the Gisozi genocide site. why? Apparently because she realized Canada did not help to stop genocide. Is Canada ready to stop genocide when it is triggered again in Rwanda or elsewhere? My humble answer is no. But Canada will keep apologizing while loughing at true victims.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
Gentlemen / Ladies
I get confused when i read or hear in the international media that in the Rwanda 1994 genocide 800,000 tutsi and “MODERATE” Hutus were killed.
Whom was / is the media refering to by the word “MODERATE” Hutu.
Was / is a “moderate hutu” a hutu who did / does not kill?
Now if the majority of “moderate hutu” were killed in the 1994 genocide could it be right to say the existing hutus are “non moderate hutu” = killers!!!
In the same context and for that same argument who were / are the “MODERATE” tutsi in Rwanda ??
Is the media inflaming the situation or just playing semantics? Can someone help me out?
Gentlmen / Ladies
In the 1994 genocide in Rwanda the International media reported that 800,000 tutsi and “MODERATE” hutus were exterminated by Hutu “Extremists”.
It is said the majority of “MODERATE” Hutu were exterminated and the “Extremist” Hutus were killed , fled the country or were arrested.
For the benefit of many, can someone explain who were / are the “MODERATE” Hutu in Rwanda?
Am i right to conclude, that any non-Moderate Hutu = Extremist hutu = killer / genocide.
In the same context and for the same argument, who were / are “MODERATE” TUTSI in Rwanda.
Moreso are there also Tutsi EXTREMISTS in Rwanda as well.
My concern is whether the international media is not playing ball with the Rwanda crisis.
Mugisha, I have tried to read all your exchanges with Aimable here and i think you tried to hammer some accurate facts into his extremist head but then as usual, for lack of substantial facts to back up his claims, he keeps taking you in circles, hoping you will get dizzy and drop, therefore sparing him the embarrassment so he can go peddle his extremist views to new grounds. Nonetheless, i like your explanations on the issue of ‘who killed who’ i cant put it better. you clearly elaborated the categories of the hutus who they say died during the war – sometimes i wonder, did they expect to kill and not die in the process? Rwanda was a battlefield, hutu civilians were busy killing hutus with a frenzy -killing 40k every minute. the RPA were busy trying to battle a cock-tail of the FAR, the french army in gunships, the congolese and others to try and check the killings in order to save as many people as possible. In a situation like this, if aimable has been in the army or interahamwe, knows that its a rain of bullets and fragments which can catch anyone. There is no way the RPF would have managed to install safeguards on their guns to stop stray bullets from hitting hutu ‘civilians’ (read interahamwe who were busy hacking away and raping tutsi innocents) This was the same case in kibeho and in congo. At kibeho, aimable knows very well that his kin did not value the lives of their mothers, sisters, children and decided to front them as shield from an RPA operation to take everyone back to their homes. And they kept shooting from the safety of their wives and mothers bitenges. so, you expected RPA to hold their fire when they were being shot at – you should also take into consideration that the situation was very tense, soem of the soldiers had found their families all massacred and lying in pools of blood. Please dont give that! war crimes my foot. Who told you to start massacring people? It is on record that the RPA excercise restraint during its operations and occupation in the north. I am surprised that you guys are bashing instead of thanking kagame because had he not been strict, no hutu would have survived RPA reprisals. This country would have been an abandoned land now, not a fast-growing, prosperous nation where hutus are still free to kill, to work and participate in politics.
These RPF agents think that somehow their war crimes and crimes against humanity will somehow disappear into thin air.
Ruhengeri city attack of January 23, 1991: The RPF staged a night attack on the city of Ruhengeri, resulting in heavy civilian casualties and heavy property damage. The RPF opened the gates of Ruhengeri prison, freeing many prisoners and enrolling them as fighters. The RPF also engaged in heavy looting activity in the city, and a reported 400 people were forced out of their homes to help carry the loot. These 400 civilians were all killed afterwards, along with another 100 civilians around the city as the RPF retreated back into the volcano forest. (Abdul J. Ruzibiza, Rwanda, L’Histoire Secrete, 2005, p. 132)
RPF Tutsi rebels crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The Butaro massacre of May 1992
At Rusasa in the commune of Butaro, in the province of Ruhengeri, the RPF attacked displaced people on a small island in the swamps of Rugezi, destroying their shelters and killing their goats and sheep. 150 people were reportedly killed in this attack. (Testimony provided by witnesses, still living)
This was 2 years before the genocide
RPF Tutsi rebels crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The notorious Ruhengeri and Byumba massacre of February 8, 1993: The RPF staged a major attack in several communes of the Provinces of Ruhengeri and Byumba, killing many people and inflicting heavy damage on state and privately-owned property. During this attack, the RPF killed a total of 24,400 people in Ruhengeri, and of15,800 in Byumba. (James K. Gasana, Rwanda: du parti-Etat a l’Etat garnison, 2002, p. 185)
This was 2 years before the genocide
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The gruesome Kibeho massacre of April 17-23, 1995: an estimated 4000 internally displaced people were reported killed on the orders of Major General Paul Kagame when army units collectively fired on the Kibeho camp that was estimated to shelter about 100,000 people, indiscriminately killing unarmed men, women, children, and many elderly. Paul Kagame, then vice president and minister of defense, reportedly had established his local operations headquarters in nearby Butare to closely supervise the siege and dismantling of the Kibeho camp. It took one full night of non-stop body disposal by truck towards the Nyungwe forest for mass incineration (many areas of the site were cordoned off for supposed “security and military reasons”) before the RPF allowed journalists, independent observers and UN monitors, to access the site. (Paul Jordan, Witness to Genocide – A Personal Account of the 1995 Kibeho Massacre, 1998; Abdul J. Ruzibiza, Rwanda, L’Histoire Secrete, 2005)
This was one year after the genocide.
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The deadliest year of 1996: the year of the infamous mass murder of refugees in Zaïre (currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and forced deportation of refugees: The RPA army carried out perhaps the most brutal and genocidal campaign in modern history by attacking the sprawling refugee camps in Goma and Bukavu in Zaïre, home to an estimated 1 to 2 million Rwandan refugees. There is little doubt that among these refugees were those who had participated in the mass killings inside Rwanda 2 years before. But the RPA army put the guilty and the innocent in the same bag, and indiscriminately fired on the camps and crowds of unarmed fleeing refugees, especially women, children and the elderly who were the weakest and unable to run fast, hunting down many of them like beasts deep into the tropical Zairian forest all the way to Tingi Tingi and Mbandaka. By all accounts, it is estimated this whole operation claimed the lives of 400,000 Rwandan refugees. While this operation was underway, the RPA army undertook one of the biggest deportation campaigns ever, by forcibly (i.e. against their will) airlifting an estimated 700,000 refugees back to their respective original communes in Rwanda. Then the RPF started a long-running criminal process of killing these returnees, as a result of which about 50% of the returnees are not living today. These horrific crimes, both in Zaïre and in Rwanda, were executed with orders received from their leaders. (Testimony provided by witnesses, still living; Marie Beatrice Umutesi, Fuir ou Mourir au Zaire: Le vécu d’une réfugiée Rwandaise, 2000)
This was 2 years after the genocide.
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The slaughter of the Nyarutovu wedding, January 18-19, 1997: In the night of January 18-19, 1997, the RPF attacked and killed each and every one of the guests, including the bride and groom and their parents, at a civil wedding in the home of Major Laurent Bizabarimana in Nyarutovu in the northern province of Ruhengeri. 50 peoplewere collectively slaughtered that night. Major Laurent Bizabarimana and his family had recently returned from Zaire during the massive forced deportation by the RPF, and became victims of a brutal RPF nationwide campaign inside Rwanda to eliminate “genocidaire elements” from among these returnees. (Testimony provided by witnesses, still living)
This was nearly 3 years after the genocide.
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The horrors of the Nyakinama Cave, October 23-28, 1997: RPA soldiers are reported to have pursued and killed8,000 unarmed civilians, especially women, children and the elderly who were too weak to run who had sought refuge in the cave of Nyakinama, in the commune of Kanama, to escape indiscriminate shootings and bombings by the RPA in the area. RPA soldiers reacted by lobbing grenades and other explosives into the cave, then went on to seal off the entrance of the cave with rocks and gravel so no one would be able to come out. ( Amnesty International, The dead can no longer be counted, report, December 1997)
This was more than 3 years after the genocide.
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The Hutu Christmas massacre of Kayonza, December 23-25, 1998: In the evening hours of December 23, 1998, a passenger on a mini-bus taxi from Kigali got off near Nyagatare, and suddenly fired a gun into the air before running off into the hills of near-by Ngarama. The next day, people woke up to road blocks at Kayonza and Musha, and to military security sweep operations in the surrounding communes of Ngarama, Muvumba, Murambi, Kayonza, and Bicumbi. All taxis to and from Kigali were stopped and carefully screened for Hutus, who were ordered out before the taxis were allowed to resume their journey. These Hutus were then all executed using guns or used up hoes, then loaded up onto trucks and shipped to humming incineration centers in the Mutara region, with the ashes later dispersed into the Akagara National Park. An estimated 5,000 innocent civilians, including the cousin of one witness, perished in this macabre 2-day operation. (Testimony provided by witnesses, still living)
This was more than 4 years after the genocide.
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
The brutal reprisal campaigns against Abacengezi (1997-2000) and the ethnic cleansing of the Mutara region (1995 and after): From 1997 to around 2000, the RPF faced an increased number of cross-border raids from Zaire into Rwanda carried out by remnants of the previous army who called themselves “Abacengezi” (or inroad specialists). Each time they attacked, the RPA army responded by unleashing a brutal reprisal campaign targeting the civilian population, especially in the northwestern provinces of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi, in order to break the will of the insurgents, many of whom originated from these provinces. More than 50,000 people were killed in many communes of these 2 provinces from 1997 to 2000. In the meantime, the RPF returned to the Mutara region in the northeast and started where it had left off in cleansing the area of all ethnic Hutus. The RPF decimated native Hutus, as well as other Hutus who had immigrated into this once under-populated area from other parts of the country in search of land and new jobs during the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s. The Mutara region is now the new all-Tutsi land of Rwanda, complete with farms and cattle ranches for the Tutsi herders. There have been reports that these ranching activities, in search of grazing pasture, have led to severe encroachments into the adjacent Akagera National Park, destroying the ecosystem of the area and the natural habitat of many wild animals. (Testimony provided by witnesses, still living)
This happened years after the genocide.
RPF Tutsi army crimes against unarmed civilians continued:
RPF death squads on the trail of opponents inside and outside Rwanda: On May 5, 1998, former Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga was assassinated in Nairobi, Kenya; on October 6, 1996, Colonel Theoneste Lizinde and businessman Augustin Bugirimfura were assassinated in Nairobi, Kenya; in the night of February 14-15, 1999, former CEO of Rwanda African Continental Bank (BACAR) Pasteur Musabe was assassinated in Yaounde, Cameroon. Inside Rwanda, former Council of State presidentVincent Nsanzabaganwa was assassinated on February 14, 1997; former presidential advisor Assiel Kabera was gunned down on March 5, 2000; on April 7, 2003, parliamentarian Leonard Hitimana was assassinated, and no inquiry has been conducted. Two weeks later on April 23, 2003, Colonel Augustin Cyiza was abducted and killed.Edouard Mutsinzi, former editor of “Le Messager” newspaper in Kigali, was abducted and beaten up, with his ribs broken, his eyes taken out, and his brain damaged so bad that he lives in a vegetative state in Belgium. All the victims were either critics of the government or potential compromising witnesses in possession of top state secrets. These crimes and many others were reported to have been committed by RPF death squad members assigned to do the dirty work against RPF opponents in different world capitals. They must be investigated, and their perpetrators brought to justice.
This happened years after the genocide.
In conclusion, RPF agents need to stop claiming that all Tutsis are angels and all Hutus are evil. There are Tutsi extremists and there are Hutu extremists. The Hutu extremists have committed the genocide and the Tutsi extremists have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The sooner this is acknowledged, the sooner our nation can find lasting peace.
Punishing the extremists on one side while praising the extremists on the other side will not lead to peace in the long-term.
Ann Garisson, please mind your own bees wax, will you!
Tutsis were massacred in a genocide, hutus were caught up in cross-fire. there has never been any collective intention by the RPA to kill hutus. if that had been so, Byumba would be a tobacco farm by now
Gigi, that is very loyal of you to stand up for your RPA. But you need to realize that there are some extremist Tutsis within the RPF/RPA. Those extremist Tutsis are responsible for the crimes I have detailed above. The sooner you denounce them and make them face justice like all mass murderers, the sooner there can be everlasting peace in Rwanda. For example, 30,200 Hutu civilians were killed by RPF forces on February 8, 1993 (more than a year before the genocide) in Ruhengeri and Byumba. Going around claiming that they were caught up in cross-fire (collateral damage) is not a good idea.
If you start a fight, we will give you a fight that you will never forget- Paul Kagame. And i know so many people are quite familiar with these words. When Kagame says this, you better take heed because he doesn not mince words – consult your records
The 30,200 Hutu civilians massacred by RPF forces on February 8, 1993 in Ruhengeri and Byumba did not start any fight. They were simple villagers, unarmed civilians trying to live their simple lives.
Rwandans have strong and burning policy issues to battle today – on economic growth, infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, industry, services, urban planning, corruption, housing, the quality and effectiveness of institutions of government – the list is endless. It seems that opposition politicians in Africa often lack the ability to offer a real alternative to incumbent regimes at the level of public policy. This possibly explains why they retreat to identity claims to secure political support.
Sadly for Ingabire, many countries in Africa can afford ethnic politics. Rwanda cannot. In ignoring the lessons of history, she is actually undermining the very process that allowed her to return home. Hopefully, the people of Rwanda will have the wisdom to look at the content of a candidate’s policy proposals not their ethnicity in making electoral choices.
Gigi, do you mean that we should totally forget the 30,200 unarmed Hutu civilians massacred by RPF forces on February 8, 1993 in Ruhengeri and Byumba? Do you mean that we should just forget them as if nothing happened because of “economic growth, infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, industry, services, urban planning, corruption, housing, the quality and effectiveness of institutions of government”?
I totally agree that the people of Rwanda should have the wisdom to look at the content of a candidate’s policy proposals. However, a solid foundation for the future of the nation requires denouncing all the extremists on all sides. Someone cannot massacre millions of innocent civilians and then start talking about economic development without even acknowledging that they did wrong by massacring these innocent civilians.
Economic growth in Rwanda is a lie. Wealth and political power are concentrated in the hands of an urban elite and the majority of Rwandans are very poor subsistence farmers and agricultural laborers. They most certainly aren’t benefiting from Rwanda’s theft of the mineral resources of the D.R.C., which, along with agricultural export crops, is what Rwanda’s “growth and development” is about. Plus the US is so determined to have the Rwandan Army at their disposal, the geostrategic resources of the DRC, and the listening tower picking up electronic transmissions from the whole Great Lakes region and sending them to the US Embassy in Kigali, that they’ve let Rwanda run up astronomical foreign debt.
Gigi you are out of mind. Try to make a conversion from your extremism and your bloody ideology,otherwise you won`t have peace of mind. If you are among those who killed innocent people it is not too late for you to come back to repentance and ask God for forgiveness and amend your life.
Remind me Ann, how many times have you been to Rwanda? Secondly, which facts/sources are you using to justify your remark that Economic growth in Rwanda is a lie? Do you know who carries out the survey? Did you ask them, or are you just trying to satisfy a sadist ego by speaking things that you alone knows?
Facts are that, the UN calls all African countries to learn from the Rwanda mode of implementation of development programmes. There is no society in the world where everyone is rich, certainly not Rwanda, but people’s states in Rwanda are improving day by day… eat that.
Aimable…
Agreeing to the fact THAT the genocide against the Tutsis happened, indeed is a landmark that you finally arrived to
There is another theory by someone like you (forgot his name) claiming that the genocide against the Tutsis is a myth…that The RPF created the genocide “myth” to cover up for the crimes you just mentioned above. Now, forgive me but i dont know who to believe. This gentleman gives those same examples, clearly stated but unlike you, he says that the genocide is a myth. lol
You guys better coordinate your lies. Otherwise, you will sound funny. My advice to you is that you look up the best lie and communicate it to all of you and use it as one sole cause for your propaganda. That may work.
otherwise, Get some rest, you’ll still get paid.
No one’s getting paid here unless you are, Mugisha. And why don’t you produce some facts on the reality of Rwanda’s economic growth?
Mugisha,
I never ever denied that the genocide against the Tutsis happened. All I have ever said is that the crimes that you in RPF have committed will not be forgotten either. All mass murderers are mass murderers. Whether it is the genocide or whether it is the war crimes and crimes against humanity, I will talk about the all the crimes until the nation gets itself rid of all the mass murderers.
I know that some of you guys working at the New Times used to be in the RPF rebellion / army. So, I would not be surprised if some of you guys are responsible for killing the 30,200 unarmed Hutu civilians massacred by RPF forces on February 8, 1993 in Ruhengeri and Byumba. So, I can totally understand that you would go around claiming that RPF never killed any innocent civilians. But mark my words, the blood of the innocent civilians who were butchered by your soldiers will scream until you admit to your crimes.
Interesting Ann. you failed to come up with sources for your allegations. Which drives me to another question, what is your motive when you speak blatant lies that you can’t back up? All i needed was..”this and that authority says that Rwanda’s development is a myth.” But you didnt…so shut up!
Concerning what you just asked,Rwanda’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 50 percent in 1994 following a near total collapse of the economy due to the genocide.
From 1994 to 1997, Rwanda experienced rapid economic growth (70 percent) due to a return to stability and post-conflict resumption of economic activity.
The country’s achievement of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) completion point in 2005 has led to debt reduction, increasing development expenditure. (source, IRIN)
Real GDP growth rate established in 2008= 11.2% (UN)
annual economic Growth is at 6% (UN)
…..and we are still growing, not yet reached the target.
………………………………………………….
Aimable, read straight, not around the meaning! Neither did i say you denied that the genocide happened (even if subconsciously you do). I related your allegations to someone on another blogspot who said that the RPF created the “genocide myth” so that they can carry out “their atrocities” On the other hand, you say that the genocide indeed happened and the RPF too committed atrocities. Funny i find it. Who should I believe?
That is why i advised you all to cooperate and come up with one good lie that you can back up without necessarily contradicting each other.
Oh… and Anne Garrison wrote something with a stupid title “honoring the dead without honoring the lies” Anne, for God’s sake, do you honor lies? what kind of person are you telling people to “honor lies”
You think you speak the truth just because it comes out of your mouth, Mugisha, as Kagame does? You think you are making a strong, substantial argument by saying that mine, in “Rwanda Genocide, Honoring the Dead without Honoring the Lies,” http://goo.gl/nm7o, was “stupid”?
Your GDP figure says nothing about the distribution of wealth. Who cares if a handful of Rwandans got rich looting the mineral wealth of the D.R.C. for foreign corporations or selling off its rich agricultural land to foreign corporations growing coffee, tea, flowers, and biofuels crops?
The deification of GDP is cause of much of the world’s misery.
Here are a few stats and remarks from a Nations report:
“Rwanda has made substantial progress in stabilizing and rehabilitating its economy to pre-1994 levels, although poverty levels are higher now.”
“Despite Rwanda’s fertile ecosystem, food production often does not keep pace with population growth, requiring food imports.”
(Unchecked population growth is a consequence of poverty, and this statement is a little deceptive because it doesn’t address the use of most cropland, centralized in few hands, for export crops, rather than food.)
Population below the poverty line: 60%
Population under $1/day: 37.5%
Human Development Index: 160 out of 178
http://goo.gl/C8NB
“Gigi, on April 26th, 2010 at 6:46 am Said:
If you start a fight, we will give you a fight that you will never forget- Paul Kagame. And i know so many people are quite familiar with these words. When Kagame says this, you better take heed because he doesn not mince words – consult your records”
Gigi, if your words above mean that you and Kagame will kill me because I am speaking out against your crimes, think again! I am not scared of you little terrorists who cannot express your point intellectually and resort to violence by killing people who do not agree with your point of view. If you want to kill me, go ahead. I am not afraid to die telling the truth. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out against you terrorists.
This clip of Kagame, speaking on April 7th, and promising a fight, against anyone who dares to challenge him politically, at what was supposed to be a commemoration of 1 million Rwandans slain in 1994, speaks worlds to what an autocrat he is and how contemptuous he is of the Rwandan people. He refuses even to acknowledge Victoire Ingabiré Umuhoza’s humanity by saying her name. To him she is “some lady” and another excuse to play the genocide card, which he, of all people, has thrown down at every table he has come to since 1994:
Since the 10 “Hutu Commandments” have been mentioned in this thread, it is only fair to publish the 19 “Tutsi Commandments” here too. It should also be noted that the “Tutsi Commandments” were in circulation for nearly 30 years before the “Hutu Commandments.” Long before the Hutu extremists, there were Tutsi extremists. Long before the Interahamwe Hutu mass murderers, there were the RPF Tutsi mass murderers.
THE 19 TUTSI COMMANDMENTS:
1962: THE TUTSI PLAN FOR COLONISATION OF THE KIVU REGION AS WELL AS THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REGION
“During the skirmishes of 1959 – 1962 in Matanda Karuba-Kibari in the Northern Kivu region, a letter dated 5 August 1962 was discovered in Nyamitaba. This is the content of the letter:
Since we are a minority in Kivu and since during the elections of 1960 we succeeded in great fashion in keeping ourselves in power by taking advantage of the Bantu’s naivety, and since our smart move was not discovered until later by the Congolese, therefore every Tutsi from every region must be ready to carry out the plan below and ensure that it is widely publicized within Tutsi circles in the “Volcanoes District.”
1. You should know that the Hutus are similar to the Congolese, therefore our means of colonisation will be applied to both these groups and we will colonize them all.
2. All the means we used in Rwanda, use them to conquer and subjugate the Hutus of the Congo as well as all the other neighboring ethnic groups. Proceed gradually and methodically because one single misstep could risk provoking their call for the removal of Rwabugili, our national hero.
3. The primary assignment for every Tutsi intellectual is to carve a niche within the administration, which as you are aware, plays an important role in propagating political ideas among the ignorant masses.
4. Every intellectual Tutsi needs to make a friend in all the administrative departments in the Republic of Congo in order to familiarize themselves with the administrative machinery with a view to eventually take over the positions of responsibility in those departments.
5. Since we cannot replace the elected Hutus, let us befriend them. Let us give them some gifts, especially alcohol in order to draw them near. Let us offer them our girls and if necessary let us marry our girls to them. The Hutus will have a very hard time resisting our daughters’ heavenly beauty.
6. When we will have acquired all the important positions of power, we will be able to silence all the Hutu enemies and to enslave them.
7. With regards to the Hutu masses, use the blood pact with them. You all know very well that they do not really work. Have we not violated so many blood pacts without any serious consequences?
8. Take advantage of the naïve educated Hutus and use them as instruments to defend your cause and to campaign for you in elections. As soon as the campaign is over, put them off with empty promises to show them they are powerless.
9. Every Tutsi territory is required to use fear in order to affirm your authority over the naïve Hutu masses.
10. We will ridicule the Hutu civil servants under our control and call them ignorant and power hungry. In fact, there will be very few of them since Hutus do not care about the fate of their own people.
11. Whenever the ethnic awareness starts coming up, let us divide its promoters. “Divide and conquer.”
12. Let us conquer people from other tribes, especially the Hutu sell-outs so that they can campaign in our favour.
13. You should know that a Hutu was created to be a slave and that he will never aspire to a post of leadership[. By the time they realize this, it will be too late. Start by occupying regional positions in each region of the Volcanoes District. An administrator who will look out for our interests.
14. Try to make Hutu government officials to have an inferiority complex.
15. Those Hutus who care about the fate of their brothers need to be kept as far away from this District as possible. We need to make sure that they cannot have any influence on the masses.
16. We call upon all the Tutsi youth to join A.J.I.R because if we fail in spite of our finesse, we will resort to VIOLENCE. The youths will be required to support the Tutsi territorials and use terror. They will be protected by our security agents and acolytes.
17. Through these difficult moments, we will ask all the Tutsis to support the Jean Miruho government, in which we are represented by two ministers. Because the fall of his government is also our fall. Was Miruho not already under our influence?
18. Fight the Wanades and Bahundes, enemies of our protégé, by using of course, the naïve Hutus. Use all possible means to succeed.
19. Know that the Hutus are greedy. Offer them a lot of alcohol and money.
Translated from: http://www.congonline.com/Forum1/Forum05/Said07.htm
Ann, those aren’t my words, they are statistics. Official statistics. We are growing! We are moving forward pal, hate it or love it.
Yes, i called your article stupid! “Honoring lies” !!! Tell me, advice me…how can i “honor my lies”? Or better still, how do you “honor your lies”? If you can give a valid answer that doesn’t sound stupid, then you’re good to go!
Ann, the youtube link you just gave…where exactly does Kagame promise a fight against anyone who dares to challenge him politically? Assuming that you heard his Kinyarwanda yourself, and you didn’t get translations from Aimable and Godwin who could have told you also that Kagame said that the earth is flat and that Garrison is a genocide suspect.
The 19 Tutsi Commandments. lol. Am sure even Anne herself finds this amusing.
There are lots of theories out there. One that justifies the genocide…says that the Hutu were scared of the Tutsis and were defending themselves. Another that says that the Tutsis are the ones who committed the genocide and not the Hutu. Another that says that the Tutsis also committed atrocities. Another..just seen it now, that says even the Tutsis had commandments! lool. You guys should laugh at yourselves. You sound so comical. Unfortunately, no one is laughing..we know the harm you caused Rwanda with similar propaganda that you weren’t even afraid to take to the house of God.
All that Rwanda will do is try and move forward for the country’s development,leave the disgruntled exiled fugitives behind, live in harmony as one people, peaceful with the international community..keep looking for the genocide fugitives hiding in the West…South wherever!
the 19 commandments…am still laughing. :))
Ann, those aren’t my words, they are statistics. Official statistics. We are growing! We are moving forward pal, hate it or love it.
Yes, i called your article stupid! “Honoring lies” !!! Tell me, advice me…how can i “honor my lies”? Or better still, how do you “honor your lies”? If you can give a valid answer that doesn’t sound stupid, then you’re good to go!
Ann, the youtube link you just gave…where exactly does Kagame promise a fight against anyone who dares to challenge him politically? Assuming that you heard his Kinyarwanda yourself, and you didn’t get translations from Aimable and Godwin who could have told you also that Kagame said that the earth is flat and that Garrison is a genocide suspect.
The 19 Tutsi Commandments. lol. Am sure even Anne herself finds this amusing.
There are lots of theories out there. there is One that justifies the genocide…says that the Hutu were scared of the Tutsis and were defending themselves. Another that says that the Tutsis are the ones who committed the genocide and not the Hutu. Another that says that the Tutsis also committed atrocities. Another..just seen it now, that says even the Tutsis had commandments! lool. You guys should laugh at yourselves. You sound so comical. Unfortunately, no one is laughing..we know the harm you caused Rwanda with similar propaganda that you weren’t even afraid to take to the house of God.
All that Rwanda will do is try and move forward for the country’s development,leave the disgruntled exiled fugitives behind, live in harmony as one people, peaceful with the international community..keep looking for the genocide fugitives hiding in the West…South wherever!
the 19 commandments…am still laughing. :))
Mugisha, anyone else who takes the time to read this exchange, and/or wants to read my piece, “Rwanda Genocide: Honoring the Dead without Honoring the Lies,” http://goo.gl/nm7o, or anything else I’ve written here in the Bay View, http://goo.gl/bzlt, or Global Research, http://goo.gl/2Gr9, can come to their own conclusions. There are now 120 responses here and I’ve said all I have to say in this context.
Mugisha from New Times, I have heard a lot about you! I heard how you think yourself so superior to everyone else. I heard that you think you are so smart and everyone is so stupid, especially Hutus. I heard that you have a racial superiority complex and look down on people who are not Tutsis.
Well, I can tell you one thing. Just because your ancestors were aristocrats and my ancestors were slaves for your ancestors does not mean anything. If you want to prove your intelligence, I challenge you to a game of online chess on Yahoo. Let us see how intelligent you are!
lol. well well…angelina Jolie of Hollywood. I have heard a lot about you too. You’re not friends with Jennifer Aniston simply because of a man. Looks like we know each other quite well.
One thing: I don’t think that everyone else is stupid, neither do I think am more intelligent than others. All people are meant to be equal, regardless of race.
However, we can have that game of chess :) open up one and invite me
Ugandan police is reported to have arrested a Rwandan suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide.
Idelphonse Nizeyimana was arrested on Monday Oct. 5 but details of his arrest were first made public on Oct. 6.
The police spokeswoman Judith Nabakoba said Nizeyimana secretly entered Uganda through the Bunagana area of the Uganda-Congo border using forged travel documents.
He has now been flown to the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha for trial at UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
“The former intelligence chief, Nizeyimana is alleged to have participated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 which left about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead in 100 days,” the Daily Monitor reported on Wednesday Oct. 7
An arrest warrant for Nizeyimana was issued by the Arusha tribunal on Nov. 27, 2000.
He becomes the latest of several high profile Hutus arrested since 1994 in different parts of the world and who have been jailed or brought to trial.
The question of responsibility for the 1994 Rwandan genocide remains a sore spot on the world’s conscience and is an extremely sensitive topic in Rwanda 15 years later.
Whose side of the story are we to believe? Most world opinion blames the genocide squarely on the Hutu.
The Hutu have always denied orchestrating the genocide but their voice has been and remained drowned out by the powerful media in the English-speaking western world.
What really happened during what has been dubbed “100 days” of genocide? The Uganda Record will attempt a full explanation and analysis to this still-troubling episode in African history.
Since July 2006 when I met the Nyabingi, the Seer who seems to have done something to me and led me to see certain things and meet certain people by the strangest of coincidences and chance, I have come to the following conclusions:
a) The true story of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa is one of the most evil in modern times. Evil because of the brutality and horrific scale of the carnage and above all, evil because of the skill of the cover up and how millions upon millions of people around the world, from peasants to university professors and media commentators were deceived about it.
b) Formal education, even from the best of schools and universities, news gathering, even by the best of the world renowned radio and TV networks, magazines and newspapers, is not enough to understand the flow of current affairs. Eventually and inevitably, they let us down, as has happened with the world in failing to understand what took place in Central Africa.
c) There are things that cannot be understood by intellect and the force of logic and reason alone. There is a type of human behaviour that beggars description and to understand which, an understanding of the core, base, evil human nature is an only key and without which, the observer is left to clutch around for answers.
d) To unravel the deep and dark mysteries, especially of Africa, requires extremes of patience and the sort of mind that rules nothing out, one that is prepared to countenance anything as possible, from the most obvious to the most uncanny coincidence. One needs a certain understanding of the unseen spiritual world and it is therefore no wonder that the largely secular news media cannot fathom this dark history.
To understand the story of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, one can start from any of several directions, all of which will lead to one conclusion even before details and research are expounded on.
The first question, for example, is to ask: we are constantly told about 800,000 Tutsi and “moderate” Hutu killed in the genocide. What is never asked is, what does “moderate” mean when used of the Hutu?
Might there, likewise have been a massacre, a genocide of Hutus and “moderate” Tutsis? Is it to be assumed that Hutus are, somehow, by default, hardline and murderous and where there are exceptions, the term “moderate” must be used?
Secondly, if it is true that 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda were killed by the Hutu regime of the late President Juvenal Habyarimana, is it not striking that this murderous regime would have lived with well over one million Tutsi in its midst, had 21 years to plan a systematic genocide to wipe them out, but somehow chose only three months between April and July 1994 to carry out this gruesome massacre? If Habyarimana’s hatred of the Tutsi was so extreme, how come Rwanda had such a huge number of Tutsi living in Rwanda under Habyarimana for 21 years?
We are told that within a few days of the Oct. 1, 1990 invasion of Rwanda by the Uganda-based Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the founding commander Maj. Gen. Fred Rwigyema was dead, killed, we now know, by some of his fellow RPF commanders.
In all these 15 years of reporting on the Rwandan genocide, why have world renowned news groups like the BBC, New York Times, CNN, and all the other names that stand out in the world of western journalism, not once asked a simple question: if the RPF, after 30 years as refugees — just starting a high-risk guerrilla war whose outcome was by no means certain — back on home soil many for the first time since they were born — could be so divided and be so engrossed in intrigue that senior commanders could murder their own top commander and fellow Tutsi Rwigyema when their war was barely underway, what would such people do to the Hutu, the people they now viewed as their enemies, who had kept them as refugees in Uganda for 30 years, once the war got underway months and years later?
Thirdly, why do we never get to hear the Hutu side of the story? Why are they always cast as the “genocidaires” and the only time we hear from them is when they are in court in Arusha? Why is there no curiosity to find out from them what they have to say about the genocide? Why, in all the 15 years since the genocide, has not one single RPF official or RPA commander been taken to any international court over possible misconduct of any sort during the civil war?
Why does the world not seek to investigate the murder of Fred Rwigyema as one of the war crimes of that 1990-94 war? To repeat the earlier point, if top RPF commanders could murder their own experienced and, by all accounts, much-loved commander from his army days in Uganda, why is there no wondering about what these remaining RPF commanders would do to Hutu civilians they encountered in the Rwandan countryside weeks and months after Rwigyema’s murder?
Many such questions have never been seriously asked, as the western media has lazily kept up the narrative of Tutsi and “moderate” Hutu, figures of 800,000 that were once put at 1,000,000, and no serious thought given to what the sudden and early death of Rwigyema and the power struggle within the RPF at so early a point in their war might have foretold about the mentality and ruthlessness of these people who invaded Rwanda in 1990.
As the next story (See “Death of Maj. Gen. Fred Rwigyema”) demonstrates, long before the first clashes between the RPF and Habyarimana’s regime had taken place, long before the RPF had even set foot in Rwanda to start their guerrilla war, there was already deadly intrigue within the military ranks of the RPF Tutsi exile community in Uganda.
It was clan rivalry and would result in the murder of Rwigyema at the hands of Maj. Dr. Peter Bayingana (or Baingana) and Maj. Chris Bunyenyezi. The third man to die was Maj. Frank Munyaneza.
The question that this article wants to keep repeating is: if there was this level of bad blood and struggle for power within the RPF and it could result in the murder of their overall commander so soon into the war, what havoc would these ruthless men inflict on the Hutu civilians they encountered in villages as they made their way into Rwanda after Oct. 1990?
The answer to that question holds the key to unlocking the mystery of the 1994 genocide.
This takes us back to the earlier argument that just as we are told endlessly of Tutsi and “moderate” Hutu, there is another side to this, which is Hutu and “moderate” Tutsi.
President Habyarimana and his ministers kept insisting on this fact but their voices were drowned out by the international English-speaking media.
As informed sources will tell you, when the RPF invaded Rwanda, they met resistance from the Hutu as well as the Tutsi. Although there were tensions and rivalry between Hutu and Tuti during Habyarimana’s 21-year rule — just as there are between the Bairu and Bahima in Uganda — they were not of a kind to result into all-out blood battles.
This is why it is important to answer the question of even if we assume 800,000 Tutsi were killed by the Habyarimana regime in 1994, what were all those many Tutsi doing in Rwanda for those 21 years? Why had they not gone into exile?
If Habyarimana hated them that much, why did he have to leave it to the last minute to start massacring them? If the Interahamwe could liquidate that many people in three months of chaos after Habyarimana’s assassination, surely they could have achieved it much faster, much earlier.
The fact that there were French-speaking Tutsi in Rwanda who preferred to live under Habyarimana and who were hostile to the invading English-speaking Tutsi from Uganda is never discussed by the RPF or the world community.
When the RPF invaded Rwanda, they released a statement announcing their presence and mission. Reported the Uganda government-owned newspaper, the New Vision:
“The force which invaded Rwanda on Monday [Oct. 1, 1990] calls itself the Rwandese Patriotic Front. According to members of the Front, its aim is to overthrow the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana…They say they are not planning an immediate overthrow but a prolonged struggle which would mobilise the people…The RPF has an 8-point programme calling for, among other things, national unity, democracy, a self-sustaining economy and an end to corruption…They said they had no plans as to who should be Rwanda’s president and that the ‘people will choose’. They said they were prepared for a protracted war: ‘We don’t mind about speed, we mind about getting to the people’” (New Vision, Oct. 4, 1990, p.1, 12).
That was their first formal statement. Even the pro-RPF New Vision admitted that “its aim is to overthrow the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana.” There was no mention or allegation that Habyarimana was massacring or planning to massacre the Tutsi.
The reasons the RPF gave in their eight-point programme were fairly plain and basic. You don’t start a civil war and risk your lives just to fight corruption and create a self-sustaining economy, if you are a serious guerrilla group. It is like starting a civil war in Uganda today to “fight the pot holes on Kampala’s roads.”
It was clear from this simple eight-point programme that the RPF was not a high-minded, visionary organisation. They were trying to compile what appeared to be serious reasons for starting the war and failed to find any.
Surely, had the RPF uncovered any plan, however vague, by Habyarimana to exterminate the Tutsi, it would have been the number one point among the eight. Yet here was the summary of the RPF’s philosophy and goals and there was no single point on averting a genocide or even anything remotely to do with human rights.
The RPF’s eight-point programme was an imitation of the NRM’s ten-point programme, including the NRM ten-point programme’s Secondary School-ish lack of depth and broad, historic weight.
In fact, the almost sub-standard quality and lack of real content in the RPF’s original eight-point programme is the single greatest argument that under Juvenal Habyarimana until 1990, life was okay for both Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda.
Where then does genocide and death at a grisly, monumental level start, since we now know that at the time the RPF invaded Rwanda, there was no plan by the Hutu to massacre the Tutsi?
In late April or early May 1994, the new Kampala radio station, 91.3 Capital FM invited the long-serving Rwandese ambassador to Uganda, Claver Kanyarusoke as a guest on their Sunday evening programme, Desert Island Discs, on which guests played their favourite music and recounted their life story.
Pike, co-Managing Director of Capital Radio, was also the Editor-in-Chief of the government-owned newspaper, the New Vision.
Kanyarusoke, a Hutu, arrived on a Thursday afternoon for the recording, dressed in a dark brown business suit.
At the time, the Rwanda genocide was underway and bodies were floating down the River Kagera from Rwanda into Lake Victoria in Uganda and during the interview, Pike asked Kanyarusoke to explain the massacre of innocent Tutsi civilians.
Calmly, Kanyarusoke reminded Pike that under the 1993 Arusha peace accords between the Habyarimana government and the RPF guerrillas, Rwanda had been divided into two geographical areas of control, one for the Tutsi and the other for the Hutu.
Since the world believed that the Tutsi-dominated RPF was a both a strong and disciplined force, fully in control of its area, Kanyarusoke asked, how were we to explain the fact that all the bodies floating down the river, without exception, were from the RPF-controlled region of Rwanda?
Pike missed the significance of Kanyarusoke’s observation and did not ask follow up questions. Last year, this writer asked a contact inside Capital FM to trace the Kanyarusoke recording and, not surprisingly, it had vanished from the archives.
What happened in April 1994 in Rwanda?
In early 1994, the Rwandan capital Kigali saw a sudden rise in violence and insecurity, with many people being killed. The RPF rebels blamed it on the government. Leaders of the opposition Social Democrat Party and Liberal Party, as well as 2,300 other people, were gunned down in the months before April 6, 1994.
The Ugandan newspsper, The Monitor (today called the Daily Monitor) published an interview on March 25, 1994, with Justin Bahunga, who was the Second Counsel at the Rwanda Embassy in Kampala:
Q: “The insecurity and violence that has engulfed the capital Kigali, is blamed on Habyarimana. What do you say?”
Bahunga: “Of course, if you have got two protagonists each one gives his own story. But you should ask: in whose interests would the government of Habyarimana cause insecurity in Kigali?…If you want to rule, you can’t rule by insecurity…So the only person who can cause insecurity is the one who wants to make a government fail.”
Less than two weeks later, President Habyarimana was dead in an assassination after a surface-to-air missile was fired on the presidential jet.
What followed is very important in understanding that tragic chapter in African history. Fighting broke out in Kigali and in many other parts of Rwanda.
Let us read the news reports of the time, starting with the French news agency AFP or Agence France-Presse, in a report from Kigali by Annie Thomas:
“Wednesday 13 April 1994, KIGALI – Tutsi rebels fought their way into the Rwandan capital yesterday, sending the government, foreigners and thousands of residents fleeing in fear of a new wave of tribal bloodletting.
Intense fighting rocked several parts of the city. The Hutu-dominated interim government fled its headquarters in the Hotel des Diplomates in the city centre ‘for a more secure place’, a Rwandan soldier in the hotel said. Unconfirmed reports said the week-old government had moved to the town of Gitarama, south-west of the city.
As the rebels closed, residents emerged from hiding and tried to escape an expected wave of revenge killings by the Tutsi forces. ‘It’s going to be carnage,’ predicted a Nairobi-based Rwandan diplomat.
The last foreign residents seeking to leave the city were escorted to the airport by French and Belgian paratroopers. France, Russia, Germany and the United States said they had evacuated virtually all their nationals from Kigali.
In Kampala, Christine Umutoni, spokeswoman for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), said its forces had entered Kigali and were about to join a battalion of 600 fellow rebels camped outside the city under a UN-sponsored peace plan approved by the government and the rebels in August. She said RPF forces were awaiting instructions to seize the capital, where she said ‘government forces had dispersed, many of them surrendering with their arms to the RPF’. The rebels’ entry into the city was later confirmed by the UN in New York.
The RPF has around 20,000 soldiers, against an estimated 30,000 government troops. RPF radio said advancing rebel forces had signed an agreement with UN officials yesterday guaranteeing the evacuation of foreign nationals.”
At this juncture, we pause to reflect.
Over the years, President Paul Kagame has railed against the UN and the world community for failing Rwanda in its time of great danger. “Where was the UN?” is a refrain we have heard countless times from Kagame in person and many of the top RPF leadership over the last 15 years.
We now see, in the report, that the RPF’s own radio station broadcast a news item saying they had “signed an agreement with UN officials yesterday guaranteeing the evacuation of foreign nationals.” The UN was cooperating with the RPF, not standing by indifferently as we have been told.
Secondly, the first paragraph of this AFP report states that “Tutsi rebels fought their way into the Rwandan capital yesterday, sending the government, foreigners and thousands of residents fleeing in fear of a new wave of tribal bloodletting.”
In other words, as the RPF advanced on Kigali, the former Habyarimana government fled. The second paragraph shows the government, still in disarray, fleeing to a “more secure place.”
Clearly the RPF was in a stronger position and was rapidly gaining the upper hand in the days following Habyarimana’s assassination.
Thirdly, the AFP report said “In Kampala, Christine Umutoni, spokeswoman for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), said its forces had entered Kigali and were about to join a battalion of 600 fellow rebels camped outside the city…”
The RPF was in Kigali, according to its spokeswoman, within a week of Habyarimana’s death. These news reports were written in the fast-moving atmosphere of the day, and so nobody can claim that because the AFP is a French state news agency, it was somehow doctoring its reports.
However, just in case some detractors might dismiss the AFP report, is there any other we can turn to for an alternative angle to this story? Indeed there is.
The Monitor, founded by Kevin Aliro, Wafula Oguttu, James Serugo, Teddy Seezi Cheeye, Richard Tebere, Davi Ouma Balikowa, and Charles Onyango-Obbo was a decidedly pro-RPF Kampala newspaper. There can be no question about it for those who know its history. Certainly there was a pro-RPF mood in Uganda in 1994, especially in central and western Uganda.
So we can now go to a lead story in The Monitor of April 12, 1994, just six days after the shooting down of the Habyarimana plane. The story was written by Monitor reporters Steven Shalita and Dismas Nkunda:
“As the looting, indiscriminate killing by the Presidential Guard, regular troops and rampaging Hutu vigilantes went from bad to worse, there were indications that Kigali is about to fall to the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA). Information reaching The Monitor from Kigali said an advance RPA force which had been infiltrated into the capital earlier were poised to take the Post Office and the Central Bank…The RPA, which said it was going into the city to restore order and rescue the battalion of its 600 soldiers who had gone into Kigali as part of the peace process, had ben giving out a call for all foreigners to leave within 12 hours if they could…Truckloads of reinforcements for RPA rebels could be seen moving to Kigali from their northern stronghold. By day break [April 11] RPA had easy prey of the Rwanda army. The RPA commander-in-chief Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame told Voice of America (VOA) that his troops had overrun government positions in Mutara, formerly a stronghold for the government forces…In another interview with the BBC Swahili, Maj. Gen. Kagame boasted ‘We are in Kigali and we have had very little resistance to get here.’ Hundreds of Rwanda government forces are said to be deserting to the RPA to secure positions in the subsequent government when the RPA topples the current interim government under the leadership of Theodore Sindikubwabo which was installed a few days ago. A member of the RPF Poliical Bureau (Maj.) Christine Umutoni yesterday told journalists at Speke Hotel [in Kampala] that the RPA will advance to ‘crush’ any forces which stand in defence of the ‘hoax government’ headed by Theodore Sindikubwabo, whether thos forces are local or foreign. ‘If any foreign force comes our way, while we are advancing, we shall regard them as the enemy,’ she said. ‘We are going to crush them.’ Though Umutoni could not commit herself to actual distances, she said the RPA forces are ‘very, very close.’ So far, RPA has faced minimal resistance and has reported 3 casualties and no deaths.
Reports from Kigali say that rampant massacres by Habyarimana loyalists have narrowed to specific targets, killing whole families of people opposed to their government. The targets include nearly every Tutsi and what has been described as ‘moderate Hutus.’ Umutoni however told journalists that Kigali remains a horror town and condemned the United Nations for their passive role. ‘The situation about massacres in Kigali now is very horrific,’ she said. ‘The UN has failed to control the situation.’ Maj. Umutoni boasted that the RPA had been capable of taking power as far back as February 8. ‘It was capable long ago…even February 8 when we were 30km from the town [Kigali]. Umutoni said the RPA was recruiting several more forces as it advanced to beef up its more than 20,000 strong man army. Commenting on the military strength of the RPA, she said their main source of armament is the Rwandese forces. ‘Habyarimana has always been our quarter master. Even now we are going to use those very weapons he bought.”
Once again, we stop and reflect on this story by the Monitor. It is even more revealing than the AFP story.
The reports by AFP and the Monitor showed 1) the RPF in a position of increasing strength, advancing on Kigali and at various stages of taking control or having already taken control. 2) Hutu government troops either fleeing or surrendering to the RPF and the government in disarray. The RPF is reported to be at 20,000-strong while the rapidly crumbling government army, the FAR, is at 30,000, so the two armies are at nearly the same strength. We see, in fact, Christine Umutoni, the RPF spokesperson, “boasting” that the RPF was in a position to capture Kigali as far back as February 1994.
Take a careful look at this Monitor news story: the overall RPF/RPA commander, Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame talks of the RPF overrunning government bases and positions and, according to the Monitor, boasting to the BBC World Service Kiswahili service that (in his own words) “We are in Kigali and we have had very little resistance to get here.”
And then, we have the strange turnabout from Umutoni. She was the first RPF official to accuse the UN of doing nothing, and yet all other reports, including one by the RPF’s own radio, were speaking of an agreement between the RPF and the UN to ease the humanitarian crisis.
Umutoni’s comments at Speke Hotel in Kampala were the first indications of the dishonesty of the RPF. This is why it is so important for research and investigation to become a part of our societies. So much history is distorted and allowed to remain so, because we are not bothered about re-reading and re-searching what we have been told.
Having now seen, both from the AFP and the pro-RPF Monitor, that the RPF was in a position of rising strength and the remnant of the Habyarimana army and government was in disarray and either fleeing or surrendering, we come to the all-important question: what then happened? Why did the genocide take place when, as we now see, the RPF was in control, or gaining control, of Kigali and other towns and was unchallenged by the fleeing FAR government army?
If, as we have seen too, the Hutu-dominated government was fleeing Kigali, the army also fleeing or surrendering, how then was this government, falling apart and fleeing, able to orchestrate a genocide that claimed more than 800,000 lives, with the 20,000-man RPF army in control or about to be, but not doing anything about it?
If Christine Umutoni told that Speke Hotel press conference that the RPF was strong enough to take power as far back as Feb. 8, 1994, what then prevented these former refugees in Uganda if, as they claim, they knew of a plan by Habyarimana to exterminate the Tutsi minority?
The answer begins to appear when we go to the next news excerpt from 1994.
Here once again is the The Monitor’s lead story in its April 15, 1994 edition, headlined: “RPA in trouble?”, written by Steven Shalita and Dismas Nkunda:
“What is happening? Eleven days have gone and Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) is still in a bloody battle with Rwandese government troops for Kigali. Parts of the Rwandese capital remain in the hands of The Presidential Guard, regular troops and paramilitary forces to former president Juvenal Habyarimana who was assassinated in a rocket attack on his plane April 6…Anxiety has gripped supporters of the RPA/F cause who view their ‘delay’ to capture Kigali as a sign of trouble.
On Wednesday afternoon an RPF official told a Monitor reporter at Mulindi, the RPF headquarters, that Kigali would fall in 12 hours, but it did not happen. The rebels have besieged Kigali for almost a week now but have failed to take full control. There is an estimated force of 18,000 RPA men laying siege to Kigali on three fronts. Latest reports say that some strategic hills around Kigali such as Nyamirambo, are in the hands of RPF.
According to a military analyst, the RPF is being cautious about destroying down-town Kigali. The Monitor was told that RPA was surrounding Kigali leaving only one outlet through Gitarama that could be used by fleeing soldiers. RPF spokesman Shaban Rutayisire told journalist [sic] at Mulindi that ‘It is a question of time and tactics so that we rout the murderous Rwanda army.’
The puzzlement that Kigali has not fallen is only deepened, because the entire interim cabinet fled Kigali on Tuesday. Interim President Theodore Sindikubwabo and 19 of his ministers fled to Gitarama, 50km, south west of Kigali. A Uganda military expert told The Monitor yesterday that with the murders of civilians estimated about 20,000 so far, most of them suspected to be pro-RPF and Tutsi, RPA has a political obligation to go in to stop the bloodletting…Another source watching developments said ‘The RPA was militarily ready to enter Kigali and there is no doubt they will win the fight within the week, but they were not politically ready.’
But, on the face of it, the death of Habyarimana and the blood that flowed the Kigali streets was an ‘opportune time’ for the RPF to enter Kigali.He said that while RPA had support, it was not clear whether they had the majority of the people on their side; and now that they were bogged down in Kigali, the Hutu hardliners have been given time to mobilise the people with fears of Tutsi massacring them.”
There we have it. The story of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in crystal clear light at last.
There is no question that the RPF held the upper hand militarily by the beginning of 1994. That much Christine Umutoni, a former student at Makerere University and the then RPF spokesperson, was able to tell a public press conference at Kampala’s Speke Hotel.
And in case we might want to dismiss her observation as that from a junior official, we have Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame’s own direct and unambiguous words to the BBC Kiswahili service that “‘We are in Kigali and we have had very little resistance to get here.”
Crucially, according to this Monitor news report, the RPF was so comfortably in control of Kigali a week after Habyarimana’s death that they even left the road to Gitarama open so that it “could be used by fleeing soldiers.”
Far from the FAR government army embarking on a mass murder of Tutsi, they were fleeing Kigali, as we have already seen and, in fact, even being helped by the RPF to escape.
The comments by the Ugandan military expert to the Monitor fill in all the remaining blanks.
Here is the critical passage in the story by the Monitor on April 15, 1994: “Another source watching developments said ‘The RPA was militarily ready to enter Kigali and there is no doubt they will win the fight within the week, but they were not politically ready.’ But, on the face of it, the death of Habyarimana and the blood that flowed the Kigali streets was an ‘opportune time’ for the RPF to enter Kigali.He said that while RPA had support, it was not clear whether they had the majority of the people on their side…”
It confirms that the RPF was militarily victorious but, being a minority ethnic group, moreover from a foreign, English-speaking country Uganda, they could have walked into Kigali, taken control, but how would they have governed politically?
They had to develop their political standing. How? By resorting to the sinister tactics their mentor President Yoweri Museveni had employed so successfully in Luwero in central Uganda — commit atrocities against the population and then blame them on your adversary and by that make the population believe it was your enemy who carried out the massacre, so that you gain the population’s support. Classic Museveni tactic.
A simple question can answer all this: if Museveni used these tactics, of causing havoc in Luwero, dressing his NRA men up in UNLA uniform, in order to convince the population that it was the UNLA killing them, and it worked, leading many Baganda to support the NRA, and we read that Paul Kagame was deeply influenced by the tactics and success of the NRA in Luwero, would the RPF, made up of commanders who had served under Museveni in Luwero, not resort to the tactics they had seen work so well in Luwero when it came to Rwanda?
Let’s get a panoramic view of events: the RPF advances on Kigali and is within distance of gaining power by early February. When Habyarimana is killed on April 6, the government and the Hutu-majority army start to fall apart as the RPF rapidly moves in.
The RPF moves in, takes control or near control, then…..silence. It does nothing. It allows the Hutu soldiers to flee by way of the Kigali-Gitarama road. It cooperates with the UN in evacuating all foreign nationals. They leave. The RPF is now in charge of Rwanda. But they sit….and do nothing.
For three months from April to July 1994, the RPF is in total charge of Rwanda, including the capital Kigali. A genocide starts to take place. Bodies are scatterd everywhere. Tens of thousands float down the Kagera River into Uganda. But this force of Tutsi exiles, most of them born in Uganda, away for 30 years, this force which says it knew of a plan by the Hutu government to massacre hundreds of thousands of Tutsi, is in full control of Kigali, as its own Paul Kagame and Christine Umutoni publicly boast, but it watches…and does nothing.
It is obvious, given all this evidence, given the fact that the RPF was part of the NRA that fought in the central Ugandan region of Luwero in the 1980s, that what was going on from April to July 1994 was a genocide, alright, but by the RPF AGAINST THE HUTU AND TUTSI IN A BID TO HAVE IT BLAMED ON THE HUTU!
Are we still in doubt at what happened?
The Hutus have pleaded innocence but world opinion refuses to believe them.
That is the reason, totally disillusioned with the world news media’s blindness to the facts, I decided to turn to the spirit world that no human being, no matter how careful or cunning, can hide the truth from. The ICC at The Hague, the ICTR in Arusha, the western media, these are sincere people in many ways, but they do not know what goes on in Africa.
They are easily deceived. To get to the bottom of the carnage in Rwanda from 1990 to 1994, one sometimes has to employ the services of the same dark powers that the RPF and the NRA used. This is a spiritual battle, not one at the political level.
This is the evil design by these ruthless leaders, Museveni and Kagame, who, cunning and in some way brilliant, were able to understand how gullible the White western mind is and to spin the story of the genocide and the genocide in Luwero in such a way that millions still believe it was the Hutu in Rwanda and the Acholi and Langi UNLA in Uganda who carried out these grizzly deeds.
“Hurt the crowd and blame it on your enemy.” Perfect summary of the philosophy of the NRA and the RPF.
It should be noted that before the shooting down of the Dassault Falcon 50 9XR-NN presidential jet carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi and nine other people on April 6, 1994, the RPF guerrillas had been shooting down of aircraft.
On October 3, 1990 in Matimba in Rwanda, a Rwandan spy plane was shot down by the RPF; on October 23, 1990, a Gazelle helicopter was shot down by the RPF over Nyakayaga; on September 10, 1991, a Fokker 27 plane belonging to the Zairean (now DR Congo) company SCIBE was shot down over the Rwanda-Uganda-Zaire border area by the RPF; and on February 1993, another Rwandan army helicopter over Cyeru in Rwanda was shot down by an RPF missile.
Already, even this is starting to change. In April 2004, a team of investigators from the University of Maryland in the United States published a report questioning the claim that most of the victims of the genocide were the Tutsi.
“The study, which international prosecutors are using, concludes that many of those killed may not have been minority Tutsis, as commonly believed, but majority Hutus… Our research strongly suggests that many of the victims, possibly even a majority, were Hutus,” says the report published in the Feb. 6, 2007 edition of the university’s Outlook newspaper.
In Dec. 2005, a British-based team of investigators, the Sanders Research Associates, published a report that questioned the basis for apportioning blame for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. There had been claims, advanced by the RPF and their sympathisers, of documents to prove Juvenal Habyarimana and his government had systematically planned the genocide.
The Sanders report stated:
“There is a stunning lack of documentary evidence of a [Habyarimana] government plan to commit genocide. There are no orders, minutes of meetings, notes, cables, faxes, radio intercepts or any other type of documentation that such a plan ever existed. In fact, the documentary evidence establishes just the opposite.” (View from Rwanda: The Dallaire Genocide Fax: A Fabrication, Sanders Research Associated Ltd., December 1, 2005)
It also should be noted that there are two general views of the RPF government. The first is by the mainly English-speaking White western nations who — since they are Anglophile like the Ugandan-born RPF leaders of 1990 — not surprisingly view the RPF as liberating heroes who intervened just in time to stop a horrific genocide in 1994.
Then there is the French, German, Belgian, and to some degree Spanish view, that questions the shooting down of that plane, has issued arrest warrants for top RPF leaders, arrested some like the protocol official Rose Kanyange Kabuye.
Since the 1990s and the end of European Communism, the English-speaking nations have dominated the world’s media and diplomatic circuit and that is the reason and the reason alone, that the true perpetrators of the 1994 genocide remain untouched, as world opinion remains hostile to the French-speaking Hutu.
However, as we are starting to see, America and Britain are on the wane as world powers. Britain has now been overtaken by China in economic size. Their troops are bogged down in Afghanistan. The United States is a superpower that remains so only because its national economy is kept afloat by heavy borrowing from China. American troops are also beleagured in Afghanistan and Iraq.
When that future time comes when these two countries are no longer influential in media and diplomatic terms, the truth of the Rwandan genocide — which was simply Luwero Part II — will come out.
Who killed Rwanda’s President Habyarimana??
The incident on April 6, 1994 in which the Rwandan presidential jet was shot down as it approached landing at Kanombe International Airport in Kigali, remains one of the most sensitive and still-unresolved political events in Africa of the 20th century.
On board the Falcon 50 plane, registration number 9 XR-NN were: President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda; President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi; Deogratias Nsabimana, the Rwandan Army Chief of Staff; a one Elie Sagatwa; Thadee Bagaragaza; Juvenal Renzaho; Emmanuel Akingeneye; Bernard Ciza, Burundi’s Minister of Planning; Cyriaque Simbizi, Burundi’s Communication minister; French pilot Jacky Heraud; co-pilot Jean-Pierre Minaberry; and Jean-Marc Perrine, the plane’s mechanic.
Interest in France, Belgium, and Germany not gone away over the last 15 years and there is every guarantee that it will keep returning to haunt Rwanda for decades to come.
On Jan. 11, 2010, the Rwandan government published its report on what could have happened to that plane nearly 16 years ago. The RPF investigation was launched in 2007 and says up to 600 witnesses had been interviewed and thousands of documents reviewed.
The report pinned the blame squarely on what are usually termed hardline elements within the Hutu-dominated government of 1994.
The government at the time denied shooting down the plane and accused the then RPF guerrillas of shooting it down. The RPF won the civil war and are the Rwanda government of today.
The New Times newspaper of Kigali, the best-known Rwandan newspaper, reported on Jan. 12, 2010 that “Allegations from various circles had over the years accused senior members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF/A) now RDF, of shooting down the plane using missiles. However, the reports reveals that Habyarimana was killed by his own henchmen who were against the idea of sharing power with the RPF…”
Two weeks later, on Jan. 27, 2010, Jean-Luc Habyarimana, a son of the late President Juvenal Habyarimana, said in a statement from Paris on behalf of his family that “In the absence of a serious and credible elucidation of the 6 April 1994 attack, the Rwandan genocide will continue to be instrumentalised by those who want to prevent the truth from coming out.”
Various versions of the Habyarimana assassination
Theoneste Bagosora
The Jan. 2010 RPF government report says Col. Theoneste Bagosora, described as a Hutu Power leader, was the mastermind behind the missile attack.
He had been the Director of the Cabinet in the Rwandans Ministry of Defence at the time of the attack on the plane.
However, the BBC World Service’s Kinyarwanda radio programme, discussing the report on Jan. 11, 2010, questioned the claims that Bagosora was the mastermind behind the incident.
The programme, for example, asked that if Bagosora had indeed had that much power and access to men and missiles to carry out the attack and he was known to be a hardline Hutu bitter that Habyarimana was making too many concessions to the RPF rebels, why then after the plane was shot down had Bagosora made no attempt of any kind to seize state power after the plane was shot down?
Missiles from Uganda
There have also been various reports since 1994 that claim that the missiles that were fired on the plane were taken from stocks in the armoury of the Ugandan army, the NRA, which the NRA had received from the United States army after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Several other sources, one of them a former RPA officer, Lt. Abdul (Joshua) Ruzibiza, said they had been part of meetings in which the RPA’s overall commander Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame gave the order for the plane to be shot down.
In Uganda — where the RPF originated and from where the 1990 invasion of Rwanda was staged — the vast majority of the population believes that it was the RPF who shot down the plane.
RPF shoots down several aircraft before 1994
It should also be noted that the RPF guerrillas had shot down several aircraft before April 1994, and did not deny these incidents:
1) On October 3, 1990 in Matimba in Rwanda, a Rwandese spy plane was shot down by the RPF
2) On October 23, 1990, a Gazelle helicopter was shot down by the RPF over Nyakayaga inside Rwanda.
3) On September 10, 1991, a Fokker Friendship F-27 plane owned by the Zairean (now Democratic Republic of Congo) company SCIBE was shot down over the Rwanda-Uganda-Zaire border area by the RPF.
4) In Feb. 1993, another Rwandan military helicopter over Cyeru in Rwanda was shot down by an RPF missile.
So, once again the question remains: who killed Habyarimana and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi on April 6, 1994?
Background to the Uganda Record version
In Nov. 2006, the French anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, issued arrest warrants for several senior RPF government officials and military officers whom, he said, his investigations had found were responsible for the shooting down of the plane.
Rwanda angrily dismissed the report and within days had severed diplomatic relations with France.
At the Daily Monitor newspaper in Kampala in December, a reporter Angelo Izama was at work at his computer when the reception transferred a call to him. The call was from a stranger who said he had some information on the plane incident.
He wanted to speak to the Political Editor of the newspaper, Andrew Mwenda, who at the time was at Stanford University in the United States on study leave. The stranger then left his phone number with Izama and that is where it ended.
Later, as this writer discussed the news of the Rwandan arrest warrants with Izama, Izama said he had received a call from a man who claimed he had information to do with the incident.
I got the number from Izama and waited for a month before calling him up.
When I did, he explained that he had important information that would shed light on who shot down the plane.
We agreed to meet at a secret location, which we did in Jan. 2007. This man, a Ugandan who, with hundreds of others had gone to Rwanda in 1990 at the start of the RPF invasion, claimed that he was an eye witness to the actual shooting down of the plane.
He said he had been a member of the RPA’s Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and it was the DMI that carried out the attack.
His story was sensational and naturally raised the question of why his version of the events of April 1994 should be believed over the many other versions that had come out since 1994.
He claimed to have been the only survivor of the team that shot down the plane and was later arrested by the RPA’s DMI, he claims, as part of their effort to erase any evidence of their role in the missile attack.
However, he said, he escaped from detention one day after taking advantage of a careless soldier on guard and escaped to Uganda. He had lived for one year in hiding near Lake Wamala in Mityana district in central Uganda.
His extraordinary story seemed plausible when he mentioned the sequence of events that day, the people involved, the places he mentioned, and although he did not know that I was cross-checking everything he told me over a series of meetings, what he said seemed to match the reality of the time.
For the purpose of this story, he has been code-named “Water Melon”.
Ann,can we compare your current Rwandan GDPs to pre-1994?Only then we shall know who did a good JOB?
Mugisha, claudine and all you patriotic, or should i say true Rwandans – and foreigners. These Hutu power cheerleaders are just ready to fabricate anything and throw it at Rwanda with the hope that the country, its people and mostly its leadership will just disappear because all other means have miserably failed.they tried to exterminate Rwandans hoping to keep the country for themselves -and they were so convinced this was possible, but failed. they tried to regroup in Congo, and were convinced they would take back leadership before long because they had the backing of the French and Mobutu, and they also had this feeling that they lost because they were not well prepared (and a myriad of other excuses) and again, they failed miserably and were instead sent packing, and lost the human shields that they were using (may i ask aimable, if RPF was a killing machine as you like to sing, would those millions have made it back-for crissake, that there was the golden chance to exterminate them. Now their last card is ingabire, and they are now realising that this isnt working either. Now the only option left is to start a choir and start singing anti-Rwanda hymns. And they have gotten an able choir master in the names of – the one and only Ann Garisson! Sing on buddies, sing on until you die of sore throats and leave Rwanda to continue prospering in unity without your noise.
Oh, Before i go, kalyegira, we know your beef.
Gigi,
You and your RPF buddies use a very twisted argument. You claim that you only killed some (millions of) Hutu civilians, not all of them. Therefore, as far as you are concerned, that is proof that you had no intention to kill them because if you wanted to kill them, you would have killed them all.
The reason why I call that argument twisted is because the Hutu extremists can also claim that they had 35 years between 1959 to finish off all the Tutsis in Rwanda and the fact that they waited until April 1994 before killing so many of them is proof that they had no intention to kill them. See, this argument does not make sense at all.
Anyways, I have one simple question for you Gigi: do you believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every single one of the articles in that declaration?
Aimable, move on.
Mugisha,
Same question for you: do you believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every single one of the articles in that declaration?
@Claudine: I’ve already told you that I think GDP is a false and destructive measurement of human progress and well being. It’s not a measure of freedom, creativity, sustainability, or well-being. Indeed,quite the opposite, because the mindless deification of economic growth, meaning dollars changing hands, for whatever purpose, is destroying the planet. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska gave the GDP of both Alaska and the nation a boost because of all the expensive clean-up work required, in 1989, but it wasn’t an advance. I’m sure the same will be true for the disastrous oil spill continuing now in the Gulf of Mexico. Increases in military industrial production, and all the purchases that military industrial salaries buy, also adds to GDP.
In Rwanda, as GDP increased, the measure of inequality radically increased, after Kagame took power. Listen to Profesor Brian Endless on Chicago Public Radio: http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioID=41596
I know Endless, he manages Paul Rusesabagina’s page on facebook. To me, its all the same circles.
Concerning the GDP factor, GDP is just a flow of stocks and capital…If the economy is expanding, then real GDP is increasing.
True. it doesn’t measure all aspects of society. for instance, it measures income, but not equality, it measures growth, but not destruction, and it ignores values like social cohesion and the environment. (according to a statician François Lequiller)
At least it measures growth, not as you suppose that its a false model. it is not a false measure..it is an index on which other models can be added to measure the aspects that it can’t…and Rwanda has all of them. For example, the Rwanda National Environment Authority has its own tools it uses to measure the rate of environment degradation…we are not doing badly. More to that, the other alternative measures to GDP such as Net Domestic Product and National Income exist inside the national accounts of Rwanda.
GDP is still used, even by the developed countries.
Hi Anny,
You are right. GDP doesn’t make sense when it comes to governance, freedom of speach and democracy. In addition, this figure can be wittingly distorted,
Hey, you guys can decide to measure Rwanda’s development using any criteria you elect; it will all lead to one conclusion – Rwanda is developing at record speed. as for the people who are still living in poverty, iam really disappointed that this is being asked by Ann Garisson who knows that that even in her own country which is known to be one of the most developed – if not the most developped country in the world, there are people who have no place to live, no medical insurance and struggle to get a meal. What double standards! what hypocrisy! What do you expect of Rwanda after decades of being governed by retarded leaders, a genocide and war and only 16 years of reconstruction? Compare this to the US? Ha! Ann Garisson.
“do you believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every single one of the articles in that declaration?” Aimable, its not about believing or not believing in declarations. When it comes to rights, I have my own convictions which i respect. As for those abstract declarations, we all know that they are no more important than a family portrait hung in the living room. Did their existence stop goons from massacring more than a million innocent people in 1994. Tell me why i should consider them important now.
Gigi,
1. You clearly do not believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You seem to think that your “own convictions” about human rights are better.
2. You yourself say that the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are “no more important than a family portrait hung in the living room.”
3. You do not realize that the genocide happened precisely because these Universal Human Rights have never ever been followed in Rwanda.
4. You do not realize that Rwanda’s continuing failure to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will continue to create social tension, which in its extreme can lead to war.
5. You do not realize that as of today, Rwanda’s signature is on that declaration and therefore the Rwandan government has a moral obligation to abide by what it signed, or else remove its signature.
Therefore, Gigi, it looks like you just have too much to learn about human rights. And I will not waste my breath arguing with someone like you who does not believe in basic fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You can attack me all you want, but whenever I see your attacks I just need to remind the world that you are the same person who thinks the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is useless.
Gigi,
I agree with Angela’s point. Every single one of them. Angela, is it ok if I use your exact words the next time I see Gigi’s comments? Thanks!
@ Ann,
We Rwandans do not have to the Chicago based Radios to be able to know our economic progress.We listin tour own radios at home and do we even need radios?,we see it, we live it,we experience it and we feel it.How much proof do we need.You dont need Ann or any i dont know American researcher to make one trip to make a 1 week to Rwanda, go back home,sit on his computer and then come up with figures.What we experience in our daily lives is more importnat.Trust me i was there,experienced both the pre-genocide regime and today’s regime, i know how much progress is been experienced by even most remote citizens and above all i can see how much economic opportunity is yet to come.So Ann save me from your Alaska stories,when we talk about Rwanda then atleast let us look around -atleast Uganda Congo, Burundi.
@ Angela and Aimable.
Your preachings of respecting human rights are good,but whay did you not preach them in the early 1990s? you answer will be that we didnt know then.
You are saying that genocide happened because the “Universal Human Rights have never been followed in Rwanda”Whose responsibility was that? Was it not the responsibility of the then government to ensure that its citizens learn the value of being a human being? Instead they taught sensitized to disregard of their fellow citizens -preaching and teaching them that a neighbor who is a Tutsi-or a HUTU who will not agree to their ideas is a snake.Is this not documented? can anyone refute this? Was not sung on the radios, written in papers( kangura)?
Aimable, today you continue to attack the current kigali regime teaching them lessons of human rights.Really? Cant you atleast make a comparison of the past and present?
Just because they dont allow the UMUSESO to be the present KANGURA? is that why you have rated them poorly in your scales.Just because they dont provide fertile grounds for leaders who use the hate language? Just because they have banned discrimination among citizens and left to identify them as all Rwandans?
If there was any poor performer as far as respecting Human rights then iwould rather you look into pre-genocide regimes.Iam sure you will have much to teach.Sorry my brother and sister, we are Rwandans( hutu Tutsi and Twa) are now happily married as all Rwandans and no one will take us back.
From experience, know that the best human rights teacher is ourselves.As the saying goes experience teaches even the dull and deaf.
June Sina,
My concern for human rights is not new. During the 1994 genocide, I spoke out and encouraged my husband to speak out to let the Interahamwes know that what they were doing was wrong. Because we spoke out, my husband got killed by the Interahamwes. The only reason they did not kill me too was because they knew my 14 year old sister and my 9 year old brother were killed at their house in cold blood, unarmed by the RPF forces on April 7, 1994 in Remera (Kigali). So, from my personal experience, I know that both the Interahamwes and the RPF forces have no respect whatsoever for human rights and I will speak out against both of them whenever I can.
Whether it is the RPF or the Interahamwes, whoever has power in Rwanda and continues to rule without abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I will speak out against them. Even if it is one out of 30 articles in that declaration that they are breaking, I will speak out against them. It is the only way I will be able to honor my husband who was killed by the Interahamwes and honor my 14 year old sister and my 9 year old brother who were killed by RPF forces in cold blood. In 1994 I had no computer and I did not know how to speak English, the language of freedom. Now, I am ready to let the world know whenever I see the fundamental human rights being infringed upon in my country.
Aimable, sure of course you can use my words verbatim in the earlier message. As long as the fundamental human rights continue to be trampled upon by the Rwandan government, let us continue to speak out against them.
@Claudine.Im sorry for your loss.Thats your version,we all have different versions of story which were caused by our experiences and thus have made to different interpretations of human rights laws.
I know that you had to tell a personal story so as to justify your version of human rights laws,but iam sorry i dont share that version.I would have told you a slightly similar story BUT people on this commentary have a tendency of attacking someone when thy tell a personal story and that hurts.
I dont know whay Musonera hasnt attacked you yet or is it because you mention the RPF in crime-thats what he likes to hear.
But just so you know my version of the story is clear justification of the RPF respect of human beings atleast and thats why iam doing everything in my means to keep the RPF in power because they value life,they treasure life-they are doing evry thing to make every Rwandan to have access to the basics of life .They are teaching the people love each orther again.This is something i never thought would turn into a reality but it is happenning.
@Ann,
Did you just ask me to listen to a Chicago link so as to be able to understand the economy of my country? You are a joke woman!!Anyway i waste my time with you because my collegues above have given you tips but all i can say is that you are out of tourch Mum.And thats why you should stay out of our business.Like i said you are doing it for business why we are emotionally involved.
Kagame has been sued in wrongful-death suit in Oklahoma City federal court:
http://newsok.com/article/3457912
Even the New York Times has finally seen the light:
Rwanda Pursues Dissenters and the Homeless
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/world/africa/01rwanda.html
@June Sina,
In 1994 I did not stand up because I was a little kid. Now, I am an adult who like Angela is also convinced that true peace can only be built by following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every single article. Therefore, I will also speak up against any Rwandan government whether it is Hutu, Tutsi, Twa, RPF, Interahamwe, Other, if they do not abide by each article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UN is a weak body. It makes laws that it can’t enforce uniformly. When an African country needs support, the UN hides. when the United States starts a war, the UN looks on like a shivering baby.
Just like the League of Nations, UN has reached that point where its role in enforcing world peace is zilch! To me the UN must be gotten rid of and in its place, another body.
So, you can take all the declarations and shove them up your mouth!
One thing: “belief” in the declaration of human rights isn’t some sort of religious order for which we have to consciously or unconsciously conform to.
Gigi didn’t first read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for her to know that she shouldn’t kill her neighbor. It’s in the conscience. So, aimable, don’t surround her statements with your own choice of understanding. With or without the declarations, humans are called to be peaceful by their conscience, even the uneducated who can’t read. These declarations existed in 1994 when you had the opportunity to use them for a better cause. my google shows me nothing about your peaceful activities in 1994. Perhaps you were a child then? No way! You watched on… or whatever.
The issue is, you want to say that the RPF committed crimes that are against the declarations.You will keep talking and talking but not unless you come up with believable evidence, you will get to nothing. As far as we know and the world knows, RPF saved our nation. That is it. No more circles.
Lastly, just some tips to Garrison. George W Bush is no longer president, therefore, he can be tried for violating Aimable’s religion (declaration of Human Rights). Right? Also, am sure you could push for an inquiry on the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombing that the UN neglects upto now…don’t you think so? Instead of speaking boldly on matters you are clearly naive about?
Oh Mugisha! Aren’t we feisty? I ask a simple question and your response is that I can take the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all other declarations and “shove them up” my mouth? This is so good! RPF supporters one by one are showing their true colors. It is not a long stretch to go from verbal violence to physical violence. If you cannot control your temper on a web site, who knows what you can do in person? So, the world should not be surprised as more and more evidence of RPF treating people inhumanely comes out. Because the RPF is full of self-righteous people like you. And when you give guns and power to the self-righteous type, anyone who disagrees with anything they think is in serious danger.
Like in the New York Times video below where even 14 year olds can be jailed on “the island of no return” without trial:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/04/30/world/1247467728715/rwanda-s-island-prison.html
@Mugisha: For documentation of RPF crimes, see The Rwanda Documents Project, http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library
As to my own government’s crimes, let me repeat, yet again, that the Pentagon’s manipulation of tension to project military force in Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa is the cause of my concern with this. The U.S. trained Paul Kagame here, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, a school that prepares future generals to plan invasions.
I’m also concerned about the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington D.C., which author Wayne Madsen calls “the School of the Americas for Africa,” in his important work “The Recolonization of Africa by Uncle Sam,” http://afgen.com/africom2.html.
If you were taught well, you would know that i wrote a whole lot more than just that statement
however, if that’s how all along you’ve been making your deductions, then you can shove the declarations further.
Let me ask you a question. If according to you whoever is pro-RPF is in the RPF and is self righteous, does that mean that the opposite is also true? That whoever is anti- RPF is an interehamwe and or FDLR…therefore you’re Interahamwe? C’mon!
that was too Aimable
Mugisha, in your self-righteous mind, you think in a linear black or white way. You think there are either RPF or Interahamwes. You do not realize that there are those of us who are not on either side and who are caught in between the RPF terrorists and the Interahamwe terrorists.
Those of who just wish that both the Interahamwe extremists and the RPF extremists would just leave our country alone and let us live peacefully and let us abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every single article in the declaration. Those of us who know that Interahamwes are bad for Rwanda and that the RPF is also bad for Rwanda. Those of us who do not believe in using violence to resolve political issues. Those of us who believe that waging “wars of liberation” only breeds hatred, which leads to more hatred in the future.
Anyways, I know you are very convinced that people who read the article also go on to read your comments, but I think you are mistaken. People come to this page to read the main article. Only very few people will read the Comments section. An even fewer number of people will read through more than the 100 comments here. So, since I agree with the main contents of this article, I am happy that a majority of the people will simply read the article and will not waste their time reading your insult-filled and hate-filled rhetoric. As for whoever chooses to read the Comments section all the way, I have provided them enough information on the crimes committed by RPF terrorists, they judge for themselves. You have also been kind enough to insult me on several occasions, which would give them an idea of what kind of people support RPF.
Therefore, as far as this specific page is concerned, I have nothing else to add. You can insult me and provoke me all you want, but I am done and moving on elsewhere to continue talking about my belief that abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every single article is the only way to build sustainable peace in Rwanda.
@Aimable, and everyone else who’s been following along here: I’ve found the comments fascinating, as has Mary Ratcliff, Editor of the San Francisco Bay View, whom I’ve been discussing them with as we’ve gone along. Many have added meaning to the original post, but we do seem to have reached a point where nothing new is being said, much is being recycled, and no one’s changing sides. I don’t want to discourage anyone with anything new to share, but it may be best to move on instead of fighting to have the last word. If Mugisha wants to have it, he’s welcome to it, at least so far as I’m concerned. The last post isn’t going to win an argument just because it’s last.
Quite an interesting discussion indeed. I just want to get people’s opinions on this article, considering that Josh Kron is listed as a contributor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/world/africa/01rwanda.html?src=mv
I think this article, and video, http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/04/30/world/1247467728715/rwanda-s-island-prison.html, demonstrate the tide is finally turning against Kagame. The NY Times is, after a long silence, reporting what’s wrong in Rwanda, though without the help of their Kigali-based Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof. A long list of major outlets, including the BBC, http://goo.gl/N3dK, also reported yesterday’s wrongful death lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Oklahoma City on Thursday, 04.29/2010, charging Kagame and officers with the Habyarimana/Ntaryamira assassinations that triggered what we know as the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. Kagame left the Oklahoma Christian University commencement early, surrounded by bodyguards, and thus avoided process service, but, since intentionally avoiding process service is a crime, it’s not yet clear whether that will matter. Wrongful death is a civil suit, not a criminal suit, but very significant in the court of world opinion nonetheless.
@Ann, reporting doesnt mean anything.Ofcourse reporters like you are who want to report just to draw attention are everywhere.It doesnt matter how much reports you make ,what matters is the truth, what matters is how the Our government handles it.
Its not the first time this report has been made against Kagame, so its not news to him and i think previously it was handled deligently-Ask Sarkozy.
So Ann, Aimable and the whole crew ,dont go about blowing the trumpet thinking that we are intimadated-not at all.
Ann i think wherever, you have been concerned in African political journalism,you have never met a challenge like the one you met with the Kigali government? isnt it? You met Men and women who dont give a shit about your skin coluor or you Blue coloured passport.These men liberated their country while you were watching and they wont take more shit from pink/orange people.
You call that rudeness that bse he didnt mention Ingabire’s name.Well, thats because you people like to make us view or interprete situations in your western ways.How much do you of the Rwandan manners?well he doesnt recognise her ofcourse-and he wont until he she exononerated-no one ,no more relations to genocide and our president is determined to see us through that.Dosent matter whether you cry foul.
@ Ann,
You are like a host of this discussion or so some commentaries have made you look like one But im sorry you are taking sides.You mention Mugisha as one fighting to win the discussion, why him? why didnt you say any of the others,ofcourse you are biased or you are also the marketing manager of the FDLR mineral reserves in DRC.And that puts you on someone’s payroll eh? Atleast that doesnt make Mugisha and Edmund to be the only ones on someone’s payroll as you claim.As the saying goes “ibibi birarutanwa” i would rather be on the kigali payroll other tha be on FDRLs if it is a question of payrolls.But like i said before for us our peace and security and prosperity means life while for you it means a job,payroll,attention etc
Thank you Ann for this link about new york times magazine on Iwawa island in Rwanda and the wrongful death lawsuit filed against Kagame Paul in a federal court in Oklahoma City.I think the called Claudine MUKESHIMANA has seen this.
Ann,if you have time see also this interview of Rwanda foreign minister on Rwanda abuse of power by the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/world/africa/01 intervi ew.html/?pagewant ed=print
This article was published today May 1st,2010. Do your own analysis and you will find out how people are becoming more aware of rwandese situation.I keep saying that at the end of the day the truth will prevail.
@Amaible,
Just because Ann’s Articles write what you want to hear doent mean that it will be visted frequently.Has it occued to you that there are so many articles/movies,documentaries written about Rwanda that are contrary to what Ann writes.Dont be shallow minded ,look beyond your nose.
@Jeremie,
I ofcourse have seen and have seen more than that,but like i said it doesnt change our determination to make our country better than it was before 1994 or to move forward.
Like i said thats just minor-the truth stands,You pro past governments will have no say in the world.Kagame’s regime speaks for every Rwandan unlike the past regimes-anyway any Rwandan who abinds by the laws period.If you cant the boat is leaving you.
@Ann, about the newyork times articleWhats wrong with it? Everyone from the African continent unlike you Ann is familiar with street kids in every city,and what they are capable of.Rwanda unlike orther countries runs a project of teaching those children technical jobs that will make them able to go off the streets,is that a problem?
Rwanda is not USA ,its an African country which does things in the African Continent’s means,if they sleep in a shed ,thats because a shed is better than a street.Name any African country which takes an initiative like that to its people these days.
However much you write, its not news to us the Rwandans because we are from hell and we are heading to heaven.How is that?
@Annie,
The main article on this page, plus the 100+ comments back and forth generally prove that the RPF extremists, their time is up. They are just kicking and wiggling because they clearly will not go down quietly. But the world opinion is swiftly turning away from them. Everyone knows that they are nothing without the US and the UK who have provided them weapons and political cover since 1990 when they started terrorizing the Great Lakes region.
The New York Times video and the Oklahoma lawsuit you posted are newsworthy. But they are a drop in the bucket among the pieces that are currently being produced by media all over the world. Kagame and his cronies are finally being recognized for what they are: terrorists and mass murderers. It is only a matter of months before the media turnaround produces a shift in public opinion, after which it will become a political liability for any democratic country to continue supporting the RPF Apartheid in Rwanda.
I believe yesterday you had said that you had made your final comments on this page. But then you posted the two new links. Posting the two new links continues an endless cycle of polemics from the RPF agents on this page. So, if you truly believe that this page has had more than its share of comments, you need to post any new revelations on a different page.
To the Mugishas, the Gigis, and the Claudines, your Apartheid regime is going down. Very soon you will stop running the country like your personal fiefdom. Very soon you will not be able to oppress and terrorize people anymore.
Thank you Angela !! Ntabwo bajya bumva wagira ngo nta matwi n`umutima bagiraga.
@ Angela
We are both here, we shall see who will run.You wish but the time of running is since gone.Dont look at Kagame as just an individual.I would rather look at him as an institution and by that i mean a strong institution.We are not going anywhere,because we represent what is good for us including you.
Like i said earlier,you guys just get excited whenever you see a mere article speaking your langauge,you forget that there are a million others that speak contrary.And you also forget to look at how those articles are dealt with.
Someone is hungry and wants a compesation of £ 350 million and he rises an alarm ,then you make that abig story because of you own individuals.What impact did it have?
Ingabire is being questioned,and you run and shout.Whats wrong with that? Barack Obama also lost elections because of his relationship with Rev Wright.Did you blame the Americans for investigating their soon to be command in chief? Moreover this woman came in company with a criminal-Ntawangundi-truth
We want an inquiry on who killed Adolf Hitler!
Jeremie and Angela, you’re right. New page coming soon. But, before we wrap this one up, could you please translate this for me?
Ntabwo bajya bumva wagira ngo nta matwi n`umutima bagiraga.
That’ll be my second Kinyarwanda sentence. I think I can now pronounce “Ukuri guca mu ziko ntigushya,” truth goes through fire without burning.
Ann Garrison the lesbian who wants to lay Hutu women… you have crossed the line of Journalism u have then everything to a personal level…remember u a an individual dealing with a nation…. ese sha ubwo buraya bwawe urunva hari ikindi bwakugezaho usubye kwisenya
@Ann,
“Ntabwo bajya bumva wagira ngo nta matwi n`umutima bagiraga” means “They never listen, it is as if they have no ears and no heart.”
As for the diatribe from the coward who posted on May 2nd, 2010 at 9:58 am, the Kinyarwanda “ese sha ubwo buraya bwawe urunva hari ikindi bwakugezaho usubye kwisenya” means “Do you think that your sexual prostitution will benefit you in any way except lead to your self-destruction?”
As a Rwandan, I am really ashamed that someone who speaks my mothertongue can have such terrible manners. I really apologize on behalf of the well-behaved Rwandans. Please do not judge us based on this May 2nd, 2010 at 9:58 am character. There are so many more Rwandans; Tutsis, Hutus and Twas who can argue intellectually without resulting to such animalistic behavior.
This is more than animalistic behavior! This is really horrible! One can see clearly how extremism and ethnic hatred can lead far and make people loose their minds.
I`m gona try to find out who wrote that and where he is,and I will personnaly tell him that his criminality and evil words and thoughts make him like a dead person and that he needs conversion. Such people are always reponsible of tragedies in society.
there is a missing link between the facts on ground and the reports published whether in the media or by HRW.
you are all forgetting that Rwanda is just a young country raising from trashes and that definitely means everything cant be rosy.
for those who where here in Rwanda before during and after the Genocide you can clearly see a big difference and this gives hope that the future is brighter than we expect.
there is a lot to praise about the Kigali leadership or the Kagame regime that criticisms.
i don’t believe a white woman like Ann garrison can come from wherever to come and judge us.
she has no idea what politics is the third world in played, how people spend sleepless nights living in grass thatched huts.
Ann you can not measure Rwanda on the same yardstick with the U.S. you definitely need an inside story of Rwanda and probably dig deep in the origins of Rwanda. a detailed research would enlighten and unfold you from the darkness
Nothing Good Comes Out of Africa
BY MICHAEL FAIRBANKS
HUFFINGTON POST
I am a teacher, author and philanthropist, and I was a racist. Racism doesn’t have to mean you hate those who are different than yourself. It can mean the subtle, pernicious accumulation of unconscious prejudices against those who see the world differently.
I was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania and attended Catholic and public schools all the way through college. My first notion of the poor in other countries was when the nuns, dressed imposingly in black tunics covered with pulverized chalk, prevailed upon us to put our milk money into an empty can of Crisco marked in crayon, “For Pagan Babies.”
I joined the Peace Corps and went to Kenya when I was twenty-one years old. I lived in a mud hut, learned Swahili, built a village school and returned to the USA to do my graduate degree in African Politics at Columbia University. I remain in touch with my fellow teachers and students from the village to this day. Still.
The values and norms of the institutions in which we live and work wash over us. I went into the development industry with sound intentions, and worked extremely hard, but my results were meager. I worked in 35 nations at a very high level. I wrote books and lectured at the world’s greatest universities. After a while, my successful script became stale, and my resume grew like a tall tree with leafy branches, though its core was hollowing with age. I had fallen under the spell of the development industry. I was prey to donor fashions, the whims of the Ivy League, Capitol Hill and Brussels, and the cynical detachment of over-educated, under-appreciated international journalists and aid bureaucrats. I believed that nothing good comes out of Africa.
Dusty, Poor Nations
Then, ten years ago, I went to work in Rwanda. Leaders of the World Bank introduced me to Paul Kagame who had been president for a few weeks. I had no reason to believe he was anyone special. I committed to work hard, but if I am being truthful, I had no reason to believe my advice would amount to anything more than it did in Bolivia in the early nineties, Uganda or Tatarstan in the late nineties, or any number of dusty, poor nations in between.
My first meeting with Kagame was forty hours long, spread over five consecutive days. My experience was that no head of government ever worked that hard, ever focused like that. Over the next few years, I was privileged to learn from Rwandan leaders and observe first-hand how they grew their nation. Rwanda’s leaders, not just Kagame, but also its Prime Minister, cabinet and the remarkable women who serve in parliament, have given me hope and courage.
Rwanda is one of the few nations in the developing world that spends more on education than on the military. Though Kagame is from one ethnic group, his Prime Minister and 70 percent of his cabinet are from the other, and a world-leading 56 percent of parliament is now women. The country is secure and the World Bank’s Doing Business report recognized Rwanda as the greatest reforming nation in the world last year.
The economy has grown at an average of 8 percent since 2001. More important, wages in export sectors increased by up to 30 percent each of the last nine years.
Rwanda has a good neighbor policy. It played a key role in reducing recent tensions between Kenyans, vastly improved its relations with the Congo (the two presidents routinely share information), and was the first country to send peacekeepers to Darfur. Working side by side there, many of the Rwandan soldiers are children of both the perpetrators and victims of the genocide. The international press and sentimental filmmakers overlook these stories.
They prefer to speculate that Rwandan prosperity means they must be stealing minerals from Congo, that clean streets and rule of law mean suppression, that Kagame will not step down from power when his next term is up. They have seen the world like this for some time. I see it in their eyes, still.
A Tad Deeper, Please
In my view, one of those self-branded CNN shows focusing on what Bill Maher has called “Disaster Porn,” spent way too much time asking Paul Kagame about a minor opposition candidate in the upcoming elections. The journalist didn’t acknowledge that Victoire Ingabire had just taken a Rwandan passport, and arrived in January with close aide Joseph Ntawangundi. When allegations arose of his complicity in genocide, Ingabire persuaded diplomats, journalists, and NGOs that he was not only innocent, but that the charges against her aide were politically motivated. There was international silence in March, when Ntawangundi confessed to using a pseudonym to reenter the country, to killing 8 people in the genocide, and to previously being sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Now, due to international and regional cooperation, there is evidence of wire transfers showing that Ingabire sent thousands of dollars to Congo to pay for arms and ammunition. There are phone logs, emails and co-conspirator confessions concerning her contacts and coordination with FDLR leaders, and attempts to create a violent splinter faction. Ingabire was indicted on April 21st and released on bail the following day.
Rwanda’s genocide denial laws have been characterized as “unique, vague, and overbroad.” Rwanda has also been accused of using these laws to stifle free speech and government opposition.
But over a dozen European nations have specific laws criminalizing genocide denial and related speech. In fact, all EU Member States are now legally obligated to criminalize genocide denial when it is carried out to incite violence. The Rwandans have proposed an international conference where prosecutors compare genocide denial and hate speech laws and develop best practices for their use.
The Government of Rwanda has been accused of cracking down on so-called opposition newspapers. On April 13, 2010, the government issued six-month suspensions to two Kinyarwanda-language newspapers, Umuvugizi and Umuseso, for publishing language such as the following:
“He who refuses a peaceful political revolution makes a bloody revolution necessary… The queue of those who want change in the governance of this country, (and not a peaceful one since all avenues for peaceful revolution can no longer work) is growing by the day. This is leading Rwanda into total darkness. (Umuseso)
Their words became reality on February 19th and March 4th of this year when terrorists threw grenades into public establishments in Kigali and killed innocent civilians. Rwanda knows a lot about freedom of speech and the role of the press. After all, in 1994, it was the press that ignited the genocide.
I called the Communications Director for the President and formally requested the list of news outlets that work in the country that have not been banned. The office provided the list to me in a few hours, and I was told that no one else has ever made that request. It is a varied list of world-class organizations functioning well.
Time, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, AP, AFP, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, CBS, CNN, NBC, CBC, Guardian, Times of London, Independent, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Economist, Al Jazeera, NHK, East Africa TV, SABC, ETV, France 24, TV5, FR3, TF1, RFI, Canal+, Jeune Afrique, Der Spiegel, Arte TV, VPRO
Also, during the time of the genocide, there was one radio station, Radio Rwanda. Today Rwanda has thirteen independent radio stations.
There are other illustrations, some of which are funny: the Rwandan general who recently ran from the country and claimed he was a political refugee. A senior military official informed me that the general was actually sleeping with the wife of another general who was away on duty, and was about to be indicted under military law. The general ran away and convinced the international press that he was a heroic figure standing up to oppression and asked for asylum. I bet he needs it, too, from the irate husband.
Or the Human Rights Watch employee who claims that Rwanda is preventing her from working there: She was given a work permit within three days– until it was found out her papers were fraudulently signed by her organization to expedite the process. Still, her office remains open.
A fair-minded person might inquire: Why is all right for Germany to outlaw (Nazi) hate speech, but not so for the Rwandans? Why did journalists crusade for Victoire, but not subsequently report on her connections to aggressive splinter groups? Why hasn’t anyone contrasted the activities of the three-dozen press organizations that thrive in Rwanda versus the two that were banned for six months? And, if working papers were rescinded in the USA when an international organization tried to take short cuts, Why would that not make the international news?
I believed for too long that not a lot of good comes out of Africa. The Rwandans held up a mirror to my face. I could see that my way of doing things wasn’t helping, and I began to add value when I became willing to be guided by their vision.
I still tend to parentalize the poor, though I no longer believe the American conceptualizations of democracy and human rights are superior to all other peoples, or that the world should progress at the rate I determine. But one good thing about having been a racist, I can spot others a mile away.
Michael Fairbanks has been an advisor to a number of heads-of-government in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia, and author of Harvard’s landmark book on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty, “Plowing the Sea”, and more recently, “In The River They Swim.”
@ Edmund
Do you want me to trust this fan of Kagame and his system like you? Never ! Your propaganda wont work.The truth is known and it will prevail.
It is very clear that Mr. Michael Fairbanks is an Apologist for Rwandan Dictatorship and Totalitalism. He is just out of touch. We rwandans we know what happened and what is going on so far in our beautiful country which is now led by a junta of criminals and extremists.
Jeremie..it is clear that you don’t have any sense you are picking from Edmund’s post. It would have been quite mature for you to pick out some of the points that Fairbanks notes and argue against them. But as I expected, you shamed your status by posting a childish rant.
I actually wonder whether you know the meaning of the terms “apologist” and your badly spelt “totalitarian”.
I like the way Fairbanks examines Ingabire’s situation in Rwanda…and lots of other aspects.
@Mugisha
I don`t ask you to teach me . English is your second or third language. At least you received my message and if it hurts you something is wrong with you. Ibyo kwiyemera byo bishyire ku ruhande nta gaciro biguha.
Jeremie, those are not just english words..”Apologist” and “Totalitarian” are TERMS which when used, you must know their definition. For example, you must know what an apologist does or says before you judge someone as an apologist.
That is why it is advised to always think about what you’re going to say before you can say it. Use google.
Pheewwww, its been a while. Mugisha, edmund, mukashema and other modern Rwandans! i greet you. I like the way mugisha has engaged these extremists and their choir master to the extent that they are now contemplating closing this page and opening another one – go on, open another one and we will be the first to grace it with the truth about Rwanda so you dont distort it. By the way, Ann, the kinyarwanda proverb you cherish so much “ukuri guca muziko ntigushya” is and RPF slogan since the beginning of the struggle. Angela, i find it unecessary to apologise to Ann on our behalf, she asked for it. another proverb for you to add to your list Ann, “urwishigishiye ararusoma” will you please…angela? Any, what i wanted to say is that since you decided to cry more than the bereaved, you should also accept what comes to you. Before you close this page, can angela please also translate/tell you what inkotanyi/gukotana means? Thank you. waiting for the next page, unless you want to debate amongst yourselves
@Gigi
You are just a bullshit ! What you want to do here is not to debate but to fight using insults. We will fight back by spreading the truth and the reality going on in Rwanda.Insults,I know many of them and can utter them on you but that would be just cowardise.If you want tuzakotana mpaka !!!!The truth is one and will prevail !!!!!
hahahahah
“… Insults,I know many of them and can utter them on you but that would be just cowardise,” Musonera.
“You are just b###sh#t,” Musonera
I will not take that as a contradiction of yours, but rather, a self description.
Officially, you have become, Jeremie Musonera the Big Coward! according to your own words.
It’s a tendency for people with no credible infor to contradict themselves even on the smallest issues in their own statements instead of dwelling on the matter of debate.
As for the rest of the people who know what “truth” means, keep it going and show it to the world.
I love Rwanda.
Gigi, thanks for the remarks pal.
I recommend this WBAI Radio interview: http://goo.gl/qwcY
Also, no one’s going to shut this page down. Anyone who wants to continue to talk here is free to, at least so far as I know–I’m not hte editor— but I’ve never seen comments edited off the Bay View site except when I once asked to have a few of my own removed, regarding another issue, because the discord they were causing was disproportionate to the issue at the time.
But I’m going to go into “Manage your subscriptions,” so as to stop receiving any more responses to this as e-mail because we’ve long passed the point where this is meaningful to anyone with regards to the original editorial.
Haha! it cant get any funnier! Musone, thank you for ‘not insulting me!’ i appreciate. However, you talk about gukotana- (i hope the other Rwandese lesbian did what i requested her to do, for the benefit of her American partner) how will you do this when you are not inkotanyi in the first place? Kagame and those who dont believe in an ethnically divided Rwanda are the true face of gukotana because they have a very high endurance thresh hold – that is how they managed to stop the genocide, thats how they managed to restrain themselves from retaliating against genocidaires even when they had the upper hand in the war, despite finding their families lying in their compounds hacked and raped. That is how Kagame ordered the execution of irate soldiers who were overwhelmed by the killing of their families and retaliated. Those who were not executed still languish in the mulindi military prison. That is how Kagame has managed to put all the history behind and tried to unite Rwanda, to mould it into a decent modern country that is mentioned not for the wrong reasons at every international gathering. Before 1994, Rwanda was merely a French landing site. So please Musonera, dont talk about gukotana because you make me boil with rage – you remind me of many things. This word now has a copyright tied to it and it should only be used by those who know its meaning
I am ashamed to be a rwandan. Dear, ann, i think rwandan will never reconcile at all. Hope there is no lifeforever vacci yet to keep you all alive eternelly. Ann keep up your job because none has notto teach yo your Job. I am currently living in rwanda i meet every day that New time propagandist, but i am ashamed as his brother that we may share the same bloor. Forgive them . Rwanda is too small.
@ Rwanda( so you call yourself).
Why dont you choose another user name that suits your ideologies atleast? I would imagine if i was called Rwanda then i would be it.
For your infor if you are ashamed of the Newtimes propandist-as you call them ,i am also ashamed of you.You ideas are a disgrace to our nation.Those men and women of Newtimes have dedicated their lives to building our nation which atleast by your comment above you helped to destroy.
@Musonera. I want you to read Gigi’s recent comment above and master it. It will help you if you want.What GiGI explained above is exactly what anyone would have done when they reached in Rwanda in 1994-retariation.But Kagame restrained some of his soldiers who some had lost loved ones from revenging.And thats waht he is doing up to now-bulding instutions of reconciliation.
Like Michele Obama ,for the first time i feel proud of my country.I was born and raised in Rwanda, live under the Hutu led regime as a hutu but never felt proud and patriotick like i do today.Now, i know some of you dont like to hear this but the fact is home is sweet guys and its a free world i say what i feel,isnt it?-come home all of you Hutu, Tutsi,Twa and you will know what i mean.
O f course Ann, aimable, agaba would shout: THE HEAD CHOPPER!
Ok, no problem, let us go back to the contents of the article, and i have A FEW WORDS: THIS IS SIMPLY A POLITICAL DISCOURSE
1. Which political parties? a political party cant be one unless registered
2. The situation of newspapers, which newspapers? these are tabloids, gutter press with kabonero and gasasira opinions only – should every Rwandan be allowed to start a newspaper for use to bash a neighbour or politician they hate?
3. Military reshuffle 'and what is supposes'- its that, a strategic military reshuffle, there are no suppositions
@Ann. Show us which UN facts back the fact Rwanda's welath is in the hands of the elites?
That would mean that Rwanda is Africa's biggest corrupt nation yet the last time i checked Rwanda was named as the least corrupt country of Africa.
@ Jeremie. Just in time , i was about to tell the audience that i have since discouvered who you are and where you are.I recently got that about you do for a leaving-you are the master mind behind FDRL 's trade in minerals there in Europe- you are the man behind the business.Usibye ko bizeye ubusa kuko sinabaza ko ukomeye neza mumutwe to handle any kind of business transaction.
@Amimable.
Iam glad you are using the word "sparking off" that means it was a spark of what had been existing-planned genocide by the Hutus to exterminate the tutsis.