Rwanda’s packed prisons and genocide ideology law
by Ann Garrison
“The crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes do not have a period of limitation.
“Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law.”
Today, 62 percent of the people packed into Rwanda’s prisons have been charged or convicted of genocide-related crimes and some of the country’s most admired leaders are being accused of the “genocide ideology” thought crime. Most prominent are Victoire Ingabire, Kagame’s strongest competitor for the presidency, and Paul Rusesabagina, the hero portrayed in the film “Hotel Rwanda,” who is charged with “Double Genocide Theory.”
Article 13 criminalizes not only genocidal violence but also disagreement with the received history of the Rwanda Genocide, which has become a major issue in Rwanda’s 2010 presidential election. Many academics, journalists and human rights investigators, the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda and Judge Fernando Andreu of Spain’s National Court now disagree with the received history of who and how many died, who killed whom, who was most responsible and how the tragedy unfolded, but Rwandan citizens who disagree must take care not to do so publicly.
University of Michigan Professor Allan Stam concluded, with University of Notre Dame Professor Christian Davenport, that the vast majority of people who died in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide were Hutus. Stam presented his findings last year at the University of Michigan in a speech entitled “Coming to a New Understanding of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.” Professor Stam’s passport to Rwanda has been revoked, but he remains safe in the United States.
An additional 2008 statute, named the “genocide ideology law,” was passed by Rwanda’s Parliament and published in Kinyarwanda, English and French in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Rwanda.
This enthusiastic article, “Rwanda: New Law to Fight Genocide Ideology,” published in the New Times and then republished on allAfrica.com, says:
“Kigali – Recently, lawmakers voted in a new law aimed to tackle cases of genocide ideology. The draft law was last Friday forwarded to the Senate for scrutiny. Legislators said the law was necessary to help fight the deadly ideology which plunged the country into the 1994 Genocide. The bill is introduced months after damning revelations that showed cases in which school children demonstrated predisposition to the genocide ideology. The Senate had also found rampant genocide ideology in families, schools and some individuals, which sparked the House to react immediately to stop the vice.
“The damning revelations of genocide ideology in schools by the lower chamber of Parliament caused an uproar in the House, which decided to uproot the vice and save the young generation from contamination.
“Under the new law, children under 12 years found guilty will be sent to rehabilitation centres for not more than 12 months.”
This highly critical Oct. 13, 2009, Human Rights Watch report, “You will be punished,” says:
“Largely aimed at the Hutu population, such offenses permit, among other measures, the government to send away children of any age to rehabilitation centers for up to one year – including for the teasing of classmates – and for parents and teachers to face sentences of 15 to 25 years for the child’s conduct. The government has repeatedly accused the Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corporation and other media outlets, as well as Human Rights Watch, of promoting genocide ideology; accusations these organizations deny.”
Rwanda’s rate of incarceration, which is the third highest per capita in the world, is second only to that of the United States and Russia, according to the King’s College 2009 World Prison Population List. The report includes a brief with a summary chart saying that Rwandan prisons hold 59,311 people, 593 per 100,000 people in Rwanda’s population, and that roughly 37,000 of these are “awaiting trial or serving sentences for crimes associated with the genocide of 1994.” (Gitarama Prison, pictured above, is described on Akorra.com, on March 10, 2010, as one of the “Top 5 Most Horrible Prisons on Earth.”)
Didas Gasana, editor of Umuseso, Rwanda’s independent Kinyarwanda language newspaper, made inquiries as to how many of the 62 percent of Rwandan prisoners incarcerated for “genocide related crimes” are accused of speech crime – disputing the received history of the Rwanda Genocide – but said that this statistic is not available and that his sources are “tight lipped.”
Gasana’s own prison sentence, for publishing a story on an elected official’s affair with a bureaucrat, is now on appeal and is being protested by Reporters without Borders.
Rwanda accuses Hotel Rwanda hero of ‘Double Genocide Theory’
Rwanda’s government has accused Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan exile played by actor Don Cheadle in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” of being a “revisionist” who “harbors the Double Genocide Theory.”
The Rwanda New Times reported on March 12 that the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda had ruled that Paul Rusesabagina’s testimony was “not an absolute necessity” at the trial of former ruling party official Joseph Nzirorera.
The New Times also reported: “Deogene Bideri, a senior official at the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), equated Rusesabagina’s actions to those of the accused. ‘Rusesabagina’s actions have made it clear that he is a revisionist and he harbors the Double Genocide Ideology.’
The report continues: “Theodore Simburudari, the president of Ibuka, an umbrella organization of Genocide survivors’ associations, said that for Nzirorera to ask Rusesabagina to be his witness is evidence in itself that both men have in their agenda spreading the Double Genocide Ideology.”
Much of the world’s emotional response to the 1994 Rwanda Genocide has been shaped by the Hollywood movie “Hotel Rwanda.“ At its end, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Army, led by Gen. Paul Kagame, appear as heroes to end the bloodshed, as the movie’s hero, Paul Rusesabagina, departs from a Rwandan refugee camp with his family.
The movie makes no mention of the many political and legal scholars, journalists and human rights investigators contesting the received history of the genocide, including University of Notre Dame Professor Christian Davenport and University of Michigan Professor Alan Stam, who, after many years of study, interviews with survivors and statistical analysis, concluded that :
- a million people died,
- the vast majority of those who died were not Tutsi, but Hutu,
- American, French and Belgian leaders, including Bill Clinton and the CIA, knew what was happening every day as the massacres continued and
- current Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a U.S. ally trained at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is guilty of war crimes of an extraordinary scale.
Professors Stam and Davenport’s Rwandan visas have been revoked.
Nor does the movie mention Kagame’s training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the Pentagon arming his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) army, or the victory of the U.S., U.K. and Anglophone interests over those of France, won by the RPF, as described by Professor Michel Chussodovsky in his Global Research report “Rwanda: Installing a U.S. Protectorate in Central Africa.”
Indeed, the movie ends with this message: “The genocide ended in July 1994, when the Tutsi rebels [Kagame’s RPF militia] drove the Hutu army and the interahamwe militia across the border into the Congo. They left behind almost a million corpses.”
It might therefore seem like good public relations for Kagame and his ruling RPF Party to remain on good terms, at least publicly, with Paul Rusesabagina, the real life hero of “Hotel Rwanda,” which is based on his autobiography, “An Ordinary Man.”
Instead, they have accused him of “revisionism” and “harboring the Double Genocide Theory.”
Kagame and the RPF are coming under more and more international pressure to hold a real presidential election this year, as reported by the London Independent on March 15 in “Rwanda’s Democratic Credentials Under Fire.”
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Campaign to Protect Journalists, the Global Greens, the European Green Free Alliance, the African Faith and Social Justice Network and U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Africa, have all called for civil and political rights and a free and fair election, but authorities continue to deny two of the three major opposition parties permits to convene, register or field candidates.
On March 12, the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation joined the list, issuing a press release that “condemns election related violence in Rwanda and calls for real democratic activity to be allowed.”
Authorities nevertheless continue to threaten the FDU-Inkingi Party’s candidate, Victoire Ingabiré Umuhoza, and the Parti Social-Imberakuri’s embattled leader, Bernard Ntaganda, with incarceration for the same offenses that Kagame’s government accuses Paul Rusesabagina of: “revisionism” and the “Double Genocide Theory.”
Both are speech crimes under the Rwandan Constitution ratified in 2003 and Rwanda’s “genocide ideology” statutes passed in 2008.
San Francisco writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Digital Journal, Examiner.com, OpEdNews, Global Research, Colored Opinions and her Youtube Channel. This story first appeared on Colored Opinions. She can be reached at anniegarrison@gmail.com.
Meet Paul Rusesabagina, Foundation President and inspiration for the film Hotel Rwanda from Paul Rusesabagina on Vimeo.
You Genocide Denier!!!
Annie,
You do such a great job reporting about the reality of the situation in Rwanda. I wish I had your writing skills.
Thanks for reporting this.
My parents (one of them who was a Tutsi) and 4 siblings were killed by Kagame- his army, on June 5, 1994. They were picked up from a Camp that RPF had established at a location called Indera in a bus full of other victims.. women, men and children were full in that bus.. countless victims, mostly Hutus,day after day were selected by RPF army and taken to be killed in a secluded area where no pictures were taken or media reached. Their bodies, i’m certain lay today in those genocide memorials all over Rwanda. My family were not the only ones, there are hundred thousands stories like mine.. but does anyone really thinks in Rwanda anyone would be dare to share such story? Thank God for saving me and taking me out of that country, till the day I left Rwanda, at the age of 11 yrs old.. i was still being hunted by the army.. their strategy is to leave none to tell their story..I’m certain Kagame would be pulling his hair right now if he was to read this..wondering, how stupid his army was to not be sure that they erased the whole family. RPR is no different from the Interahamwe or those who were killing Tutsis just because.. they only different is whom they target. May God help all broken hearts of Rwanda heal. As for Kagame and all others who murdered innocents people… be very afraid of the day you leave this earth..
No one denies that innocent Tutsis were killed in 1994, but what good does it do when you deny that Hutus were also killed during and after the awful atrocities. everyone knows this, but they want to play stupid. Respect human value, Hutu or Tutsi.
Annie,
I would like to say again and again THANK YOU VERY MUCH.!!!
The truth always hurts. That is why some people will come up on this forum with all kinds of insults calling you genocide denier,negationist,etc…they have no other things to say.I call them blind fanatics of the RPF regime.But in my opinion the won`t hide the truth forever.
I extend my thanks to Angie for her testimony and to david and Eric Brown for their comments.I ask Edmund to come back to his senses and stop insulting you for nothing because what you wrote are facts visible to everybody.May God bless you all !!!!
Today someone is on my Facebook page asking me whether I celebrated the death at the Twin Towers, on 09/11, and comparing 09/11 to the Rwanda Genocide. I.e., the Rwanda Genocide, like 09/11, is supposed to justify everything the government has done since.
And thank you all too!
people like EDMUND should go straight to hell because they are the ones who caused all this to happen but when the truth comes out they start calling people names as genocide denier in order to attract international apathy. you people you should know the blood of the people you killed since 1990s until now has reached the eyes of the Lord now it is the time the whole world knows how cruel you are; let me show you how you people are mercyless to even your own people”
First,,Kagame held a meeting in Windhock in Namibia where Ttutsi from Rwanda within Rwanda told him that if he continued to advance on the battle filed many tutsis were going to be killed as a retalliation from the hutus who were losing their relatives to RPF in Byumba and Ruhengeri but do you nremember what Kagame told them that if killing tutsis within Rwanda is helping him to gain the ground does he care?
if there is someone to be accused of genocide he should be Kagame first because he knew very well if he killed Habyarimana what would happen to innocent tutsis and hutus who were in opposition supporting RPF.
I am from Kiyombe in Byumba. RPF came in 1991 and called upon all the people from our village for a security meeting. after people had goathered at the soccer pitch of kiyombe.Mr Hittler Kagame ordered his military to bomb the gathering. I escaped and went through the tea plantation and found my way to Uganda ever since I have never returned to Rwanda but I am still considered a genocide denier or genocidaire?why? simply because I am a Hutu and I dont even have rights to go back to Rwanda and bury my family and relatives in dignity. do you know how old I was by then.just 16.I survived but it is me and me alone
Annie,
Thanks for this article. You are an outstanding researcher. All Rwandans know what happened. The RPF sparked and carried out genocide. The RPF killed millions of people accross Byumba, Ruhengeri, Kibeho, Kigali and the occupied territories.
The Interahamwe committed genocide and killed thousands of people accross the country. But let us not forget that the Interahamwe were a 5 column of the RPF. The chief commander and leader of the Interahamwe Robert Kajuga was not only a Tutsi, he was an RPF supporter and member. As Wikepedia puts it ‘Robert Kajuga, ironically a Tutsi, was the President of the Interahamwe’. He was just carrying out the orders of his master General Kagame.
We will never forget that. But telling lies about the Rwandan genocide will not heal the wounds or bring reconciliation.
Kagame’s governement blame the Interahamwe of committing genocide against the Tutsi. They have never mentioned that the leader of the Interahamwe in Rwanda Robert Kajuga was a Tutsi, and an RPF member…It is sad that history is distorted.
Rwanda will never forget….
I’m listening to Kagame’s speech on the 16th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide, in both Kinyarwanda, which I don’t understand, and English, which is emphatic enough.
i hope the U.S. State Dept., and Senator Russ Feingold hears this. In fact, I’m going to send Senator Feingold an e-mail right now and ask for his response to this.
http://rwandinfo.com/eng/speech-by-president-paul-kagame-of-rwanda-at-the-16th-commemoration-of-the-rwandan-genocide/
I was a journalist in Rwanda when the notion of “genocide ideology” made its first entries in the Rwandan political jargon in 2002. Following the publication by UMUSESO (the weekly I managed for 3 years) of an investigative story about the assassination of Gracien Munyarubuga who was a political activist, the then Minister of Information (Désiré Nyandwi) accused me during a press conference of “doing genocide propaganda”. Later on I was jailed on charges of “amacakubiri” or Divisionnism. That was a newly voted law which would become genocide ideology law. I was put the 1930 Central prison and freed without trial two months later.
Those of you responding with so much encouragement might also like my piece in Fog City Journal this week, “Rwanda Genocide: Honoring the Dead without Honoring the Lies,” http://goo.gl/nm7o
Iam a Hutu woman, i was 19yrs old during the 1994 genocide, iam surprised at most of your comments above where you are branding the RPF to be responsible for genocide.Now, be honest,was it the RPF who published the newspaper Kangura-which preached about the 10 commandments of a hutu-of which all of them taught the citizens of how a tutsi is a snake.Who was on the radio RLTM singing the songs that you all know? In 1994, when we all run away into Congo was because we were being misled by a few Interahamwe msterminds that RPF was coming to finish all the Hutus,but instead they the Hutus had actually finished killing all the Tutsis and now they wanted to lead us into Congo so that they can pick out the moderate Hutus and kill them too.I was there i saw it.The Interahamwe were determined to smear every Hutu were blood -they never wanted to be the criminals alone.When my father heard that the RPF were advancing and were heading Byumba , we diverted into Byumba where the RPF found us a temporary custody and the sand settled and we went back into our homes.That gathering mentioned above in Byumba by RPF -I was there,they were simply telling us that,we should help them to identify the people who are doing the killings.I remember the gentleman said ” Mudufashe kugirango natwe tubafashe”.Which simply means help us to help you.
Some Hutus hid and disguised or collaborated with the Interahamwe such that it became difficuly for RPF to offer us protection.It became so hard such that it was almost difficult to differeciate between the killer and the civilians since the civilians( even woman and elderly women were corporating with Militias -you know like passing on the information about the whereabouts of the RPF so that they can go into a different direction and slaughter more Tutsis.
I know that both Hutus and Tutsis lost their lives but most Hutus became victims of their actions.They offered no help to people who were protecting them. And i must add that not all Hutus are participated in the killing of the Tutsis.Some of us never killed and are now happily settled.We know that the past regimes planned and taught us in schools as young girls and boys that a Tutsi was an entruder ,who had a tail( all sorts of things to create fear to kids) but it was all stupid,and thus the outcome was what we all saw in 1994.Butchering another human being as if they are meat,cutting a baby out of its mother,raping a woman with a stick-i dont have to say,-i saw what i saw.Its surprising how people go on turing the game onto RPF.Can anyone name RPF who was cut a baby out of its mother?
The RPF were fighting a war and whenever theres a war ,theres bound to be loss of lives.Leave alone that the RPF were fighting the most difficult war of the century.A war where when you blink an eye someone slaughters another that because of their ethnic category.
Its so annoying to see that researchers have gone into research whose findings are only based on NUMBERS. “that majority who died were hutus ” ofcourse because they were the majority and those researchers dont know that the killing of the Tustis started way back in the 1991 and they are burried all over .The 1994 genocide against the TUTSI was just a finishing tourch.
I will take this into account as one more of many personal stories reported to me, as I try to sift through all the stories, testimony, and evidence to come to the most honest conclusions I can.
However, when you say “keep in mind that this was the most difficult war of the century,” please remember that there was a lot of blood shed in the 20th century. Twenty million Russians died on the Russian front during WWII. Six million died in Nazi concentration camps; two atom bombs were dropped on Japan; the toxicity left behind by the Vietnam and Iraq Wars is still causing epidemic birth defects and cancer; and there is a horrible amount of unexploded ordinance left behind in Laos, after the U.S. War in Southeast Asia, still injuring people, most of all children, every day. And, now as many as 8 million Central Africans dead thanks to Pentagon manipulation of regional tension to project military force. I do not blame the RPF for everything. As a U.S. citizen, I am most concerned with my own government’s role in al this.
I wonder if Justice is for all, I wonder if all crimes could ever be prosecuted.When does Hate end? When does blaming end? who makes the rules? There is just so many questions we don’t have answers for.
As I watched over and over testimonies on Patrice Lumumba, Leader of Congo’s independence, the CIA and Belgian intelligence agents involved in his assassination really shocked me!In their old age, these Agents showed no remorse, Patrice Lumumba was butchered and then dissolved into acide!
If we talk about slave trade,colonisation, where is justice?
After African Nations gained independence, CIA and other Western Nations helped greatly sabotage the African continent, from Angola to Guinea where the Son of Former British Prime Tchatcher was caught paying for mercenaries to overthrow the Government, where is justice?
If you asked me, I’d say that the Western World and Arab World have a lot to answer for before pointing their fingers at Africa, both Arab and Western Countries have participated in Genocide of Africans, slave Trade, colonisation, those crimes have gone unpunished, where is justice?
Thank you, Desire; I don’t know much about the Arab world in Africa, but I do know about the West, and lame as it sounds, I’m sorry. That’s one of the main reasons I keep doing this reporting.
Oh my gosh !! The so called June Suna tried to disguise as a hutu just to try make people who don`t know rwanda beleive in his(or her)fabricated story.After reading her comment I found just the same propaganda of RPF. Let me tell you Ann,ask honest rwandan people you know,they will tell you that the zone of BYUMBA mentioned by “June Suna”was under the control of RPF army couple months before the genocide in 1994.Half of the population of Byumba were living in refugee camps(displaced people)around the capitol Kigali or in Uganda.That area was also almost populated by hutus. There was no genocide there.But people were fleeing the fighting between the two armies(RPF and FAR).Those who stayed in that zone were just under the jurisdiction of the RPF.When the genocide started,I remember very well that people there were being killed because of being hutus.The RPF went to a high school called RWESERO minor seminary and killed all people who were there among them there were seminarians,priests,and many other people.Those people weren`t Interahamwe and had no connection to the genocide that was going on on the other zone controlled by the hutu governement.The same army went at a stadium and killed the displaced who were there and in the same way they killed many other displaced in Murambi.Those innocent people had no idea about what was going on on the side controlled by the government.I am really shocked to see people telling lies here on this blog and thinking that the truth will be hidden forever.I would like to see people telling the whole truth and pointing fingers to all criminals and all crimes committed by both sides which was involved in the fighting.When someone points to the crimes against humanity by RPF army,the only way to silence him is to accuse him(or her)of bringing up “double genocide ideology” or genocide denier and so on…Guys like June Sune what is wrong with you ? Do you think that other people different from you are not rwandans and human beings like you? I`m telling you,spreading lies is not a solution to our problems,but sitting around the table as rwandans of all categories and telling the truth about what happened and how to avoid that to happen again by working for true and lasting reconciliation,unity,peace and democray,will help considerably our country and even the whole region of the Great Lakes.
Ann and your bunch of genocide deniers
Jeremie Musonera in particular,you should go and hang if guilt is killing you.Who are you trying to fool us?Maybe the likes of Garrison can buy you crap.The rest of us know the history and we will not look upon people like Ann to rewrite it for Christ’s sake.
June Sina asked a few questions which all of you have failed to answer.Who published Kangura,who started RTLM, who taught the hate for Tutsi in Schools?who smashed Babies on walls or who inserted sharp objects into the wombs of expectant mothers?
She is a polite woman who despite belonging to the side that killed a million and so people, came out to acknowledge what happened in here and the reason why people like Musonera are claiming that she disguised herself shows you how guilty they are.
She further says she is back to her home settled,just like thousands of other people who were crammed into DRC camps by extremists and today have noticed that all is well and they are coming back home.
RPF fought one of the most complicated wars Ann,period.I would shed some more light on this for you but i found no reason to do so because we dont owe you anything, neither do you owe us anything—hence we don’t need you,however much you have decided to stick on us.
How many times are we going to tell you to leave our country alone?Your poorly researched work is of no value to us,save for the few genocide deniers who through guilt find solace in you.Our history is there and people like Ann will not alter it.Let RPF write a new chapter of Rwandan History–the good side of it though.Deal with it!!
Long Live Rwanda
Great work Annie…Ive been following this story since i was made aware that Hotel Rwanda did NOT tell the real story…people like Robin Philpot and Peter Erlinder, and Michael Hourigan tell us to look back to the assassination of Haniyarimana to understand what really happened. The story of Hourigan(who was a UN investigator) shows the role the Evil Empire(US) has played in the region..not for any good.
Its clear this Genocide Law is enacted to protect Kagame and his thugs, from being brought to justice.
Keepo up the good work.
Edmund…your country was stolen by Kagame and his band of thugs.Now his regime is unravelling, with former henchmen seeking asylum, media being shutdown, and the ghosts lof his past hauntng him so hes had to enact his socalled genocide law as a talisman to protect himself.
AND of course behind him stands the Evil Empire, as Michael Horuigan found out.
‘Adelaide lawyer Michael Hourigan says the UN shut down his investigation in 1997 into the shooting down of a plane carrying the extremist Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and the president of Burundi.
The investigation implicated ethnic Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame, who is now the President of Rwanda. The 100-day genocide, in which Hutu extremists murdered Tutsis and moderate Hutus, began hours after the plane was shot down.
Late last year, President Kagame was publicly blamed for the crash by French anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Brugiere.
A never-before released memo reveals that Mr Hourigan’s team of UN investigators had received detailed information from three well-placed sources about the plane attack. The sources all implicated Mr Kagame and offered to provide further information, including documentation.
Mr Hourigan wrote the memo in early 1997 for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s senior judge, Louise Arbour.
Mr Hourigan told The Age that after he gave Ms Arbour the memo, she told him to end his investigation.
“She was aggressive and negative. She had done a 180-degree turn. She effectively told me that my inquiry was at an end,” he said.
Late last year, Mr Hourigan prepared an affidavit for the tribunal. “I feel that unknown persons from within the UN leadership and possibly elsewhere pressured judge Arbour to end (Hourigan’s team’s investigations) into the shooting down of president Habyarimana,” it says in part
Mr Hourigan said the informants told him a “foreign power” was linked to the attack.’
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/un-shut-down-rwanda-probe/2007/02/09/1170524298428.html
Ann,I’d recommend you to watch this documentary on Patrice Lumumba:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28smP8ckARQ&feature=related
You’ll hear testimonies of his Daugther and CIA/Belgian Intelligence agents, how $1m was paid to organize the murder of an African revolutionary, the complicity of Belgium/US and the UN in this crime is something that no African can ever forget.
When you hear the Agents talk about what they did, it hurts so bad!
I’d recommend you to watch King Leopold’s documentary on his rule in the Congo,the hand chopping of congolese Children under the order of the Belgian King, it is revolting:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3146068175882284969&ei=kNfJS5akKMrC-QaA9NGOCw&q=king+leopold+II+King+of+belgium+king+of+the+congo&hl=en#
And the looting of the continent of Africa continues, every continent on earth is guilty, from supplying weapons to Military advice, I wonder if the system could ever be challenged!
About the arab slave trade, you only have to look at Darfur of Sudan, or may be read a bit on this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade
How will the average,ordinary Africans ever be compensated, restored in their dignity?
@Edmund,
The truth hurts!!! ….Now you think that insulting me would give credit to your lies and hatred.You exactly incarnate the real image of extremism and ideology installed nwo in rwanda.Keep revealing who you are man..!The souls of those innocent people killed will haunt you !
May the souls of all rwandans from all tribes repose in peace.
Very well Ann, personal testimonies sieved properly will add to your findings into this reserach you are undertaking.Now Monsieur Musonera, i do not owe any explanations of who iam or who you want me to be or whowever you claim i disguise to be, for 2 reasons because 1.i know my father and monther and you dont,2.Having gone through your comment above, i think your mind i so cheap,corrupted by the ideologies of the pre-genocide regimes.I feel pity for you, your thoughts still think that members of one ethinic group(Hutu and Tutsi) should not look eye to eye despite the fact that they are al Rwandans.For your information i used the Hutu Tusti language in my comment above because i was telling a testimony that is related otherwise that language is long past us.Iam Hutu but above all and best is that iam Rwandan which unlike the Habyarimana’s regime the RPF today promotes the ALL RWANDANS.Today my Ndangamuntu( National ID) does not read June Sina Ubwoko(ethinic group) Hutu -i do not have to state my that again while writing a national exam or applying for a job.God knows why i dont and i manage to live a confortable life.Why is it working now? Tell me Jeremie, why?
People like you have smeared us with a bad name yet like i mentioned earlier not all off us are guilty of the brutalities commited by members of our ethinic groups.Like the saying goes “umukobwa aba umwe agatukisha bose” the equivalent in English would be “One soiled finger is likely to soil other fingers just because all the 5 are fingers” thats what people like Musonera have done to us.
I also noticed that he did not take time to analyse my story before attacking me ,probably because his brain was long damaged and biased by the hate of Tutsis.He must have been a good student of the Kangura commandments.Did i not mention that my family sought refugee in Byumba because RPF had captured it hence safe for us?Why did they not kill us and yet we were Hutus and coming form Mugunga Regugee camp across in Congo?.Now, what i told was a personal story and dont you dare defy it because you dont know it.Evey human being has their own stories,would you like to share yours Jere?we will probably find yours more convincing.
If Hutus and i mean those who commited crimes came clean, we wouldnt be branded the Hutu -killers.Today we have the FDLR thats another cross that we the innocent Hutus have to bear.For as long as they are where they are-raping women with bottles of fanta and sticks,its is constant reminder to the whole world of what we the Hutus are capable of doing.
I recently travelled to the Belgium,to do a course which by the way for your infor Musonera, i was offered that scholarship by government on merit-I did not have to mention whether iam Hutu or Tutsi.While i was there, introduced myself as Rwandan,the next question was are you Tutsi(the victims) or Hutu( the killers)? I said iam Hutu but today we are all Rwandans of course i explained that it was just a group of Hutus who did the killing and not all.They said but today theres the FDLR hutu are waiting to come and slaugher more Tutsi?.Can you imagine.? The story of Hutu attrocities unless we come out clean and bury our past for good.
Keep telling your lies but you won`t get me.I repeat it again you are trying to desguise as a hutu just to convince those who don`t know our situation that killers are from the hutu sides,that there is no more ethnic groups in Rwanda,that human rights are respected,that freedom of speech is allowed,that Rwanda is a good example of democracy nowadays,that there is no segregation because we are all rwandans,that there is no injustices,..that..that…that..and you mix up your lies by mentioning Mugunga refugee camp in Congo which has no connection at all with the killings in Byumba.Mr or Mrs June you are not only cynical but also very mean. I showed your comment to a friend of mine from Byumba and who lost his whole family and he was about to pass out because of the shock.He begged me not to show him such comments anymore. I agree with him and I am very compassionate for his case. You and your friend Edmund (if not the same person) try to put me on the side of extremist killers and you mention hutus.I say thank you. But I am telling U,”akari munda y`ingoma kamenywa n`uwayihanze”Don`t judge me negatively because I speak up the truth.You don`t know me and my family.The fact of trying to hide the truth is a trap that will catch you somehow,and nowadays we have revealing signs.
!!!If you feel comfortable in insulting me, go ahead,but at the and of the day the truth and justice will triumph.In my lifetime,I won`t embrace lies ,hatred and extremism.It is your right to praise dictators and hide keep in silence their crimes,but it is my right to speak up and denounce all crimes wherever they come from and whoever committed them.Period.
Ann, your research work will be tough. You may be submeged by messages or testimonies from illintentiones. That is how it works when you have to deal with Rwandans. Fake Hutu and fake Tutsi will always there to confuse “ignorants foreigners”. Beware of IMPOSTORS. When you need to be sure of what people have posted on your site, meet them in person and see what they are!!! It is not easy, but you need to try it out!!!
Ismail
I meant ill intentioned people
I certainly don’t believe everything that everyone writes to me, Ismaili. I consider what seems plausible and logical within the context of everything else I know, what begins to add up. That’s how everyone builds their understanding of anything. Your story, that of a journalist imprisoned and now exiled, is one of many such stories I’ve heard by now. Today I talked to Umuseso Editor Didas Gasana who said the death threats against him have so increased that he’s resigned to the likelihood that he will be assassinated.
And there are some stories you can’t make up. I don’t think that Kamanzi could have made up his story, above, about escaping through the tea plantation.
“The “Double Genocide Theory” is the belief that Hutus as well as Tutsis were victims of genocidal violence in 1994.”
This is patently untrue. It is the belief that not only was there a genocide targeting Tutsis, but also a second one in which Tutsis wanted to exterminate Hutus.
As far as I know, nobody in the Kagame regime has ever denied that Hutus died in the genocide. If that were the case, then how do you explain that Agathe Uwiligiyimana is included in the official list of recognized heroes?
Moreover, there are many well-documented stories of Hutus who refused to take part in the genocide, or even hid Tutsis, and who paid the highest price for that.
In this respect, what exactly does “the vast majority of those who died were not Tutsi, but Hutu” prove? Hutus, it is well known, indeed constituted the big majority of Rwandans, and moreover a significant number of Tutsis were living in exile, so there were not too many of them remaining in Rwanda.
However, if it is officially called the genocide against the Tutsis, that is because the target of the massacres was to wipe out the Tutsis. Any Hutu who tried to protect them, or just opposed the genocide, therefore also became an enemy and could be killed. Many of them did so, which proves that not the entire country had gone mad.
I am tired of talking about Hutu and Tutsi. Bernard Ntaganda, presidential candidate of the Parti Social-Imberakuri told me that the real problem in Rwanda now is not Hutu/Tutsi but poverty, that all the political power and wealth are concentrated in a few hands and that most Rwandans are very poor. All available statistics statistics and reports addressing the issue of poverty bear this out. Sixty percent live below the poverty line; 37.5% on a dollar a day; and 70%, who speak only Kinyarwanda, and maybe a little French, also have no internet access and thus could not even be part of this conversation or any others online.
After all this I am still unable to make sense of the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi as anything but a class distinction because both speak the same language and share the same culture. I find no indication that it has anything to do with the meaningful, cultural definition of “ethnicity”: “denoting or deriving from or distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people,” http://goo.gl/7CIf.
This meaningful definition is ultimately about sustainability—or not. With global warming and resource exhaustion threatening life on earth, thanks to the deification of economic growth which is central to the “culture” or rather, anti-culture, that Europe has conquered the world with, Rwandans, must, like the rest of the world, ask themselves whether they can create a sustainable culture as Rwandans, Africans, and members of the world community.
Ann,
As someone who has been living in Rwanda for twelve years now, I am tired of talking about Hutu/Tutsi too, and I think Ntaganda is indeed right (I must admit, though, that I am by no means a specialist of the country, since I have very little knowledge of Kinyarwanda so a lot of what really lives among the people still escapes me). But I was just reacting to some things you wrote in your post.
I would also want to react to something you wrote in your previous comment: “I certainly don’t believe everything that everyone writes to me.” That might be true, but I find that you easily take at face value what some people, especially anti-Kagame/RPF ones, tell you. For instance, when Umuseso reports that there are plans to assassinate Frank Habineza, or when Didas Gasana tells you he expects to be killed, you should realize that those are guys who will take any rumor (or invent them) that discredits Kagame and publish it as absolute truth. That’s what they’ve been doing for years now and that’s in part what finally got their newspaper suspended (I recognize, though, that the suspension comes at a very convenient time for the government as it muzzles the newspaper until after the elections).
So I think you might be a bit more critical when talking to such people, and not gratuitously accept what they are saying.
By the way, for full disclosure: my name is Erwin Winkler and I work as editor at The Rwanda Focus.
The hard evidence discrediting Kagame is far greater and more damning than what Frank Habineza said about expecting arrest and Gasana said about expecting assassination. See the Rwanda Documents Project, http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.
No one will know that Frank was really going to be arrested unless he is, or that Didas has been assassinated–or arrested—unless he is. Fears are not facts, except insofar as those who have them really do and I do believe that Frank and Didas’s fears are based in Rwandan realities, and their own. Reporting them may make the world pay a bit more attention and give them a better chance of surviving.
So Erwin Winkler does not believe Frank and Didas face danger today? I will not be amazed to hear the same Erwin testifying against his former boss Deo Mushayidi on charges of embezzlement as they both worked hard to redynamize Rwandan Press House. 12 years, living and working in Kigali media institutions, Mr Erwin should be a good defender of journalists. He is instead taking defense for Kagame to discredit Gasana. He said he doesn’t understand Kinyarwanda, yet he asserts Umuseso reports or invents rumors. What a liar!
This is an open dialogue where evryone who feels concerned can participate and where one includes a personal story to help clarify what they want to say,it doesnt mean that they are trying to win the battle.In most cases the stories we tell here are personal and emotional thus delicacy would be regarded if everyone who is participating in this dialogue was discilpined.Now, Musonera iam done with you -ndagusuzuguye cyane kuko uri akagabo kimbwa in the kinyarwanda context-not in the European way because dogs in Europe are respected.Look at yourself mourning that iam insulting you,who started it? I tell my personal story and you of all people come up with cheap criticism? We have trouble with people like you,playing the race card.Anyway whoever iam is none of your business but what i know is that i will never cease the tell world what my own enthic tribe -Hutu did to their innocent Tutsi neighbours.No one will prevent me from this campaign of self exonnoration.
While Musonera works hard to drag the all of us Hutus in the mad we work even hard to distance ourselves from his dirty red coated, blood stained hands.My slogan is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was a genocide against the Tutsi and moderate Hutus carried out by Hutu EXTRIMISTS and it was stopped by RPF who have since restored peace and reconcillaition among the two ethinic group.I say that out of experience-this is a story iam living it.I will do anyyhing in my means to keep this as it is-leaving as good neigbours and with hope that we shall never go back.
One thing i picked from Ann’s cooment above that she is ashamed of her country’s role( USA) and i think thats somthing we share-iam also ashamed of my Hutu ethnic group who up to now refuse to admit to the shame thy caused all of us and instead go on justify their actions through FDRL in DRC.
@JUNE N EDMUND
I wanted to let you know that you are still stupid and we will punish you more for your stupidity,you are another remaining garbage of tutsi extremists who think there are better than other human beings. June I wanted you to know that we hutus dont need such kind of a stupid women to hide herself behind a hutu tribe. we are self sufficient without you tutsis being backed by USA n UK we can do whatever we want and we can bring a truth democracy in Rwanda. Musonera tell those foolish people that they should nkow how to argue instead of continue succumbing in trading genocide as a good thing that has ever happened to them. you are animals tutsis. I have never seen animal people like who who allow your brothers and sisters to be killed just for the greed of power. look at you now you have started fleeing going into exile starting from your generals so where are you going to go now since hutus are allover the world?
I wish I would ber your adiviser and tell you that this is the time where the genocide card you have been trading is expiring. the best next move it is you extremists tutsis to come up opoenly and ask for forgiveness to both hutus and tutsis that who were inside Rwanda in 1994 and ask to be incorporated in a new leadership movement that is going to lead the future Rwanda otherwise this time around the world over has known that you are liars.
You are such kind of tutsis who have been brought to USA and CANADA by that bogus refugee organization called MAPENDO INTERNATIONAL established and financed by Kagame and USA government in order to bring bogus refugees for resettlement in USA as genuine refugees leaving those genuine refugees who are not tutsis to rot in Kenya. we know everything. now you should shut your becks and listen and ask forgiveness. hutus are humble and understanding. we shall forgive you. Coming to MAPENDO INTERNATIONAL again. good investigative jurnalist like Annie should do a research also to establish that movement. its missions and what it does. It has been shipping bogus refugees who include the RPF soldiers calling them to be Banyamurenge. these bogus refugees have been given resettlement to USA,CANADA as genuine refugees and yet they have Rwandan passports which they live in Nnairobi and use it when they want to go back to Rwanda. these bogus refugees have a password if you do not know it Mapendo will not give you a resettlement. I am here in australia but i worked with UNHCR in Nairobi I saw all these with my own eyes.so June and Edmund you should keep your mouth shut
@ Haganinfura,
“Stupid, stupid ,stupid” ….as the song you are singing.Is that what you call an argument? Imbwa zibaho ye.You are problem is that you cant adhere to that the fact that out there are Hutus who dont share your ideology.But we are there and we will stay and we shall fight you until we are left clean from the smear of blood you smeared us.Clean Hutus do exist and unlike you who is cris crossing the world with no clear identity.
Just like you we are also self sufficient-we the moderate Hutus will not accept any more smears and we shall hunt you down,even up to Australia-its not Heaven you know.We shall bring you to face justice if you commited a crime .
Now i would like to end with a piece for you Haganinfura-See next time you enter a discussion or dialogue do it like a real man.Speak sense and let your audience grab the message.
Fuck you Haganimana (Haganashitani)!!
Aburubohoye baracyahari!!If you get my drift. Don’t ever think that one day you Genocidaires will rule this country. Go and rot in Australia,that’s the best you can do.
If you cant beat, them join them!!You must be another Genocidaire disguising himself somewhere,i bet you are in Australia,i will come and get you wherever you are you Bastard!!
guyz stop highjacking names of precious tribes ! why can’t you be proud and remain what you are !!? kagame,kambanda,kabarebe,kajuga,kayumba,… are smelling of blood allover their hands. and hey ! did i hear someone claiming RPA took mugunga refigees back home in rwanda hahahh !!or they simply worked hard to waste them !!! and as 4 edmund and sinabyaye no more cash 4 RPF from the west.kagame’s contract has expired in the great lakes, he s now kissing congo good bye !! so learn how to minimise your threats on pple as far as australia and canada xkm.. from whrever you ARE B4 you even tackle the the FDLR cousing desorder ah !!,u rather advise kagame and karugarama to now concentrate and fucus on how to avoid 9% during election Bcoz this time around it is coming VERY hot with slim chances and edeas of riging like the previous one !! i simply wish u a very prosperous and sweet new nation “rwanda” to come.plz pass my wishes to any f of your freind.
Ismail,
What I was saying is that since it would suit Gasana and Habineza very well if the current government is discredited (because they are opposed to it), we should not take their declarations at face value. There should be some proof. Since I have neither proof for nor against, I simply have no opinion on the issue.
As for Deo, I would like to point out that at the time he fled the country and a new team took over at the Rwandan Journalists Association, I and a colleague published an open letter denouncing the fact that instead of decrying the fact that several journalists found it necessary to leave the country, the new leadership immediately accused Deo of embezzlement and even came to conclusions even while the investigation was still ongoing. I quit ARJ soon after. As to the embezzlement accusations themselves, I wouldn’t be able to give whatever evidence since I was not involved in the financial management.
I must say, though, that I did not agree with what Deo wrote in Imboni, which in my opinion was mere ranting and raving instead of facts-based journalism. Neither do I agree with the political line he has taken ever since. That is the reason why I have not been in contact with him for a very long time now, but it does not mean I wish him ill.
It amazes me, however, that the same people who obstructed us so much when indeed Deo was trying hard to revitalize ARJ (we didn’t even get the support of the rest of the ARJ executive committee, some of whom did whatever possible to sabotage his efforts), are the ones who today seem to declare him their patron saint.
Defending journalists: I am all for it, provided they do their work in an ethically correct manner. Accusations that are not based on facts, spreading lies and rumors, invasion of privacy and insults are not what I consider journalism, so I will not come out in defense of people who practice that.
As for Umuseso, you are right, I do not read the paper myself, I get information about it from people whom I trust sufficiently to believe that they are telling me is indeed what the paper writes.
Ann,
Since you told me that you are tired of hearing about Hutus and Tutsis, I find it strange that you do not make the same remark to Haganimana. His insulting rants based purely on ethnicity are bringing down the level of the discussion here.
Hamedi
You must be living on another planet….look at what you wrote
“u rather advise kagame and karugarama to now concentrate and fucus on how to avoid 9% during election Bcoz this time around it is coming VERY hot with slim chances and edeas of riging like the previous one !! i simply wish u a very prosperous and sweet new nation “rwanda” to come.plz pass my wishes to any f of your freind”
Save for the bad English,the rest seem like it is an alien from Mars who wrote this,Kagame is winning this,and in transparency.I dont know where you live but here in Rwanda people know what they want.
People who reason like you remain deep in the jungles of North Kivu,but still a big number of them have seen the light and are heading home voluntarily.
This is the new Rwanda,the one you are talking abt is in your wildest dreams!!
“Defending journalists: I am all for it, provided they do their work in an ethically correct manner.” (E.W)
Erwin,
Could you honestly tell me a single Rwandan media (whether government owned or private) that you can deem ” ethically correct “? The Rwanda Focus maybe? I live in Canada and read North American magazines. To tell you the truth, some of them seem to be far behind Umuseso so far as ethics is concerned, in spite of the huge financial means they have. I can tell you Umuseso has done incredible job in the democratization of Rwanda since the year 2000 when it was created. The newspaper has been reporting news which authorities in Kigali will always decry and label as rumors, but at the end of the day everything written in Umuseso proves to be true. Now Erwin, as a defender journalists, tell me how you agree with the Media High Council’s decision to “shut down” Umuseso and Umuvugizi newspapers. Didn’t you write this yourself “(I recognize, though, that the suspension comes at a very convenient time for the government as it muzzles the newspaper until after the elections)”? You seem to approve the Kigali regime’s attitudes vis-à-vis of independent journalists, and I think you are wrong.
As for our friend Deo, I cannot blame you for having different political stands with him. As a foreigner you will agree with me that a lot of things are beyond your reach in terms of who is a good or bad Rwandan! Just be skeptical however you trust your informers or interpreters. Hey! I miss all of you, guys!
Ismail
@ Hemedi, you cant win; Game over.Everything you wished and thought has since been diluted.What you are left with is izima which is baseless.
What i can tell you is that we have moved on with our current leaders happily and the future is bright,bright enough for us to continue hunting you Hutus who have refused to admit to the crimes you commited against your neighbours.We shall continue to distance ourselves from bloody hutu criminals and be good united Rwandans.
Your sister Ingabire is failing big time.You should have advised her that playing the ethnic card is past and gone for good.
Our president was smart enough to realise that the the ethnism would not bring Rwanda to the success story it is now.Even if some of you still dispute the fact that The current intergrates all ethinic groups BUT it is a fact and there is northing you will do to blind the international world to see what a difference Kagame has made his country.You know what i even pity you guys wherever you are Australia, Europe,DRC Jungles you will always be refered to as Rwandans.Even if they offer you citizenship in Canada or wherever atleast iam sure you will always be asked this qtn “where do you originary come from?” and your answer will be Rwanda.Can you imagine the pain of living a life where you are associated with a place you hate to be.You can run but you cant hide from the fact that you are Rwandan.
Mutahe mwihane muture nkabandi bose,accept that the Habyarimana’s regime lied,used and munupulated us the Hutus to hate our neighbours.Whoever comes back like Ingabire echoeing the Habyarima’s hate langauge has no place in our current NEW Rwanda.
Muzabeshye abandi batazi iby`aha iwacu kandi twe abanyarwanda turaziranye bihagije sha !!!orororororo..mwasetsa ye.!!! Juna Sina,Edmund,Erwin,etc.. Keep lying at the end the truth will triumph !!!!!
There is a difference between genocide and simple murder, or unfortunate revenge killings. Yes, RPF soldiers did sometimes murder Hutus, and they should be held accountable. But the international tribunal is set up to judge the crime of genocide. The national courts and military justice system should deal with the other murders. And do not forget that many thousands of Hutu genocidaires and rapists have essentially received amnesty or very light sentences in the gacaca courts, and many of their victims who have to live next to them do not feel justice was meted out. The overwhelming number of Tutsis — and moderate Hutus — that were killed as part of a systematic plan to eliminate them on the basis of their ethnicity or lack of genocidal ideology (moderate Hutus) cannot be credibly disputed. The one person commenting above who has the most credibility is June — a Hutu woman who lived through it all and continues to live in the new Rwanda — not in exile, hoping for the day when genocidaires can “finish the job.” No, Rwanda is not a true democracy yet. But what would happen if people like Victoire Ingabire came to power? Her family is closely associated with the genocide. There are many people I have spoken to in Rwanda (I worked there last year) who say that they would flee the country if Kagame were to be killed. Many people feel that he has held the country together, although there is always room for improvement. Many Americans hated bussing to eliminate segregation in schools, but people’s attitudes towards race have improved by living, working and going to school together. Kagame is trying to move Rwanda beyond ethnic ideology — sometimes heavy-handedly — but understandable in the light of history. It will take more than one generation to achieve this in any meaningful way, but at least he is trying.
@ edmond and sena
YOU ARE LYING !!!!
who do you think is going to win elections when the ICC is knoking at his door !!? your president is now guiltly sneakin into the USA as a simple tourist,he can’t afford a 4 minutes meeting with a current US president as he used to @tym of bush,not even a simple hand shake ’0 tolerance’ my dear freinds!! His hands are nolonger belived to be clean. as for you ‘sena’i think you shld stop your silly kagOme’s fake campains,talkin abt rwandan unity before you advise him to unite with nyamaswa who ran away from the zoo ‘minadef’ aaaaaah ..!! the only remaing thing for him is likely to be ugly nighmares on the day kayumba will totally turn against him and testfy on all his brutal operation of butchering innocent rwandan refugees in the congo,in northern reagion of rda without mantioning the crussification of his own tribe ‘careless power hungry man’ !!! And as of talibanizing rwandans,let me tell you guyz that RPA is now a toothless dog, i remember talkink to you abt it’s accont 4congo being frozen, SO i urge u to part ways with any more tricks of assassinating top potential politicians ‘victoire,etc…’ same way RPF did in 1994 as short cut to access power unlawfully.instead opt to the better method of talking to rwandans in a perfect and honest way bref’democratically’ just stop this phobia of democracy what’s wrong w U !!!!!
eheh eh, and i think forgot something for ‘edmund’ here; plz advise mr paul kagame to use the correct english accent, before you talk abt my english, atleast me i don’t take it with me all the way to the enternational summit !!!!!!! !!! what he speaks is not english it simply lounds like one.i think he shld shut up and use local kinyarwanda and ask 4 enterpreters,or still uses his cheap kiswahili with which he also seems to be staglling !!
Hemedi we? look at you talking, you don’t even know how to use spellcheck? common, style up!!! Kagame know more English than you will ever know in your lifetime…sorry for you, no more French its over guys! over!!!!
Hemedi we? look at you talking, you don’t even know how to use spellcheck? common, style up!!! Kagame knows more English than you will ever know in your lifetime…sorry for you, no more French its over guys! over!!!! You probably don’t even know the correct spelling of your name. such a pity rwose!
@cash: Thank you for confirming my interpretation of what we know as the Rwanda Genocide as an imperial contest between the Anglophone and Francophone worlds, for dominance over Rwanda, Central Africa, and its resources—with the Anglophone world triumphant. Published here in San Francisco’s Fog City Journal on April 8, 2010. http://goo.gl/nm7o
Ann, thank you for confirming my earlier interpretation of your myopic understanding of Rwandan issues. Equating genocide to an imperial contest? you continue to amaze me with your level of ignorance, clearly you still have a lot of reading to do on Rwanda’s history.Goodluck!
Rwanda is progressing whether you like it or not, so just keep blogging and blogging till kingdom come.
Ann, I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already, the three books by French writer Jean Hatzfeld about the genocide, where he interviewed Tutsis and Hutus in one community, over the years since the genocide. Of particular relevance here, in his 2007 book, winner of the Prix Medici, “The Antelope’s Strategy,” Hatzfeld quotes (on p. 205) a former Hutu genocidaire, Pancrace Hakizamungili, who was released from prison and went back to live in his community:
“In prison, lots of killers do not accept the fact that they were defeated and that they botched the genocide. In fashionable neighborhoods of Paris or Nairobi, notorious leaders remember their lost glory with regret; they suffer only from nostalgia, and long for chaos to return them to Rwanda. They are the ‘negationists.’ If no one tampers with it, the truth never deceives. This is indeed true; many Hutus were shot by the soldiers of the Patriotic Front on the hills and later in the camps in Congo. Many Hutus were dispatched by fatal illness in prison as well. Still, their losses cannot compare to those of the Tutsis. Hutus were not cut in a program of extermination. They did not see their babies, still at the breast, slammed against walls, or the mamas cut short at the legs. It’s clear today that we are not weak and traumatized like the survivors. The negationists blow on the embers of hatred, they spark confusion in the minds of those living together in hopes of better days. The naysayers aim to sting the survivors’ nerves, and so thwart all good understanding.”
@ Sarah:
Do you exopect anybody to believe in your lie propaganda and heinous utterences?
Did you forget that such a culture of lie that is so embeded in you and your likes has already been revealed to the whole world before?
It is rather you who deserves that so-called "good rape" you described above. Indeed, that would be a good retribution for your hatred against my people and for for so many innocent lives lost at your boss hands in Rwanda and in DRC, crimes against humanity he will surely have to pay for in the near future.
As John pointed out above, pLease be reminded that the ruthless Killing Methods of the Interahamwe were learned from the RPF Inkotanyi. Such kiling methods include but are not limmitted to:
(from an eye witness who is ready than ever before to testify against your boss, Paul Kagame in court).
On the RPF side, the killings began on Oct 4, 1990, 2 days after the death of Fred Rwigyema, their leader, on October 2, 1990.
1. Tying up the legs, then binding both arms in the back while pulling and applying pressure until the chest bones crack up, then kneeling the victim and striking them in the head with a used up hoe. After the victim collapses, smashing the head in both temples, splitting up the head like a clod.
2. Tying up the victim as described above, then stabbing them in the ribs repeatedly with knives, or stepping on the victim's belly while bayoneting them.
3. Tying up the victim, then fitting their head with a plastic bag closed up around the neck, leaving the victim to die from suffocation.
4. Tying up a person, drawing gasoline into a syringe, then squirting the fuel into both of the victim's ears, and leveling a hard smack simultaneously on both ears. The victim will fall into an agonizing spell of dizziness, before dying.
5. Making a running noose around somebody's neck with a rope, then dragging the victim until the noose tightens and death ensues.
6. Tying up together both arms and legs real tight, then hanging the victim upside down on a horizontal beam until blood oozes out of the mouth, ears, and nose, and death ensues.
7. If there was critical information to wrest away from the victims, they were downright tortured. They were needled on their genitals, jabbed all over with sharp objects, and pinned under dripping fireballs from a burning plastic object until they begged for death. There were times when siblings, or a husband and a wife, or a mother and a son, were forced to have sexual intercourse out there in the open before being killed, etc.
8. Often times for those who were killed by gunfire or grenades, it was when lack of time didn't allow for a slow death. Other times, girls who had just been raped by RPF soldiers were the lucky ones to be killed with bullets, supposedly to ward off any bad luck from these girls that might cause the rapist soldiers to die on the battlefield. And yet, this crime was not tolerated at all even though it was committed in many areas. If you were found to have committed this crime, you were punished severely. If by a remote chance the rape victims were spared, they walked away thinking rape was part of an accepted culture within the RPF organization, because they had no way to know that the offenders had been punished. Another crime that was severely punished, was raping women then brutally shoving up knives or sticks deep inside the women's private parts, causing them to bleed to death.
9. In a particularly unique show of ruthlessness, in order not to waste time, RPF soldiers would hold children victims by the legs and swing them against a wall or a tree, smashing their heads and killing them instantly.
10. I have no personal knowledge of any place, nor have I been told or heard of any, other than from the Rwandan national radio and the RTLM radio, where an RPF soldier ever disemboweled any pregnant woman, killing her and the child… If it happened, I am not aware of it. I do know, however, that in killing such pregnant women, RPF soldiers kicked them in the belly and ribs with knees, and then fitted their heads with a plastic bag to asphyxiate them. RPF soldiers firmly upheld a dubious theory, whose exact origin is uncertain, that a pregnant woman will not die from a blow to the head with a used up hoe, or will take much too long to die.
(http://hungryoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/01/testimony-of-abdul-ruzibiza.html)
@ Claudine Mukeshimana
The above comment was intended to you and your likes in response to your heinous utterences….
@cash !
ehhhh, look who’s poppin out !!! why didn’t it apply on ‘kagame know more english’or’its over guys’ if you are claiming that yr spelling abilities were that much perfect! by the way,i’m shocked !! i thought you were going to bost of yr personel advantage over me in ‘maths,ecos,phyisics,..’instead of comparing me with the head of state !!! hey look english is just a language, that’s all !! Did anybody from’ paris,geneva,brussels, frankfurt or tokyo’tell you that he’s not sleeping becouse he doesn’t know a single word in english!? were you dozing on yr keyboard when you wrote this or what!!? infact,you should’t worry much about that.you should now be asking yourself why you are still behind the president curently ranked 4th among leaders inficting terror on their own peaple especially!! Another think to advise you my dear,i think it would be wise enough if you reduced this funny comfort’sort of affiliation’ you seem to be enjoying from the word ‘genocide’ it’s not something to abuse verbally!! as for you tricks and politics of confusing rwandans lying about violance from politisians,that one you’ve lost it !! i assure you/no one is following RPF’s footsteps and bring more walls,hatreds and killings in the presious sweet county ‘rwanda’we LOVE it.two of the many missing things we are bringing back home is democracy,and extradition of our current president to ICC,uh.. we can’t wait !! he’s surely costing us more peaple also polarising rwandans and congolese,we are tired of dead pleaple.
@ Sarah
I agree with you completely and your views are good.
I only want to make a correction on one issue.The RPF could have shot at the Hutus simply because the Hutus were hiding the militias-remember it was a civilian killing another civilian-neighbour to neighbour.What happened is that when they realised that they had been defeated they now removed that Kitenge uniform they used to put on the road blocks and mixed themselves with the civilians who were heading into Congo.But this didnt stop them from killing wherever they passed,the RPF got no help from the Hutu civilians to help them identify the killers not to mention the shield they were provided for by the French soldiers “zONE TURQUOISE” ETC.This led to some RPF soldiers to loose temper especially some young Tusti men who had managed to run away at the begining of that terror mood and joined RPF in the hope of saving their families.These young men are the ones who went out of control when they reached home and they found only dead bodies which is natural.But these acted independly -and they have since been punished.So this thing of comparing RPF to Hutu Interahamwe is all baseless and scum.
As for Ann Garrison, she deserves one good rape of a hutu extrimists using a sharp spear then she will understand what a Hutu extrimist is made of.
Spoken like a true RPF extremist.
I am always suspicious of people who produce more heat than light. I do not know whether they are acting on some ulterior motive, or are people not accustomed to civilized discourse to begin with and the heat of what may be honest emotions overwhelms their ability to address questions of fact so terribly that they can only lash out with threats and insults.
Ann has presented a lot of sources for examining relevant facts. I would have more confidence in the future of Rwanda if Ann’s “critics” (witch-burners) were to examine these sources and analyze them intelligently.
The studies cited may be flawed and the data or inferences from the data may be wrong, but to ignore or reject them simply because they lead to conclusions that contradict the “official” line identify Ann’s critics as people not worthy of serious attention or respect. For example, is there even one of her critics who is capable of reading and understanding this: http://web.mac.com/christiandavenport/iWeb/Site%207/GenoDynamics.html
@Juna Sina, edmound and others like you I want to let you know that FPR started killing when they attacked Byumba in 1990s. I remember I was still in primary school when my pregnant aunt was sliced in her both armpits that she was carrying a hutu. we all saw how brutally she was killed. then came when we were in camps in Goma. more than 200,000 refugees were killed btn July and November 1994 because of the poisons that Congolese had put in water and food that were available to hutu refugees. I remember I lost 10 people in that incident. then came the attack of hutu refugee camps in 1996 by RPF you remember that you started killing from day one. I remember seeing a USA soldier in military fatigue calling us to go back to Rwanda saying that RPF is allover we had no way out exceot going back to Rwanda to be butchered. my parents went back but I continued into the forest of Ituli. my family never made it to Ruhengeri leave alone Byumba. RPF continued to shell at us from Sake, Walikale, Tingi tingi, Ubundu, okello, Mbandaka, until we crossed over to Brazaville. I witnessed the people RPF killed in tingi tingi more than 200,000 lost their lives there.
Lets go back to Rwanda in Ruhengeri and Gitarama in July 1997. the people of Nyakinama and Mukingo and Kinigi fled into Musanze caves where the RPF cemented all the openings so that people could die inside the caves from starvation. More than 200,000 of this region were killed by the RPF between 1997 and 1998. Annie if you do not believe what I am saying you send people in Nkuli,Mukingo, Nyakinama, Nyamutera, Rambura, Jenda, Kora, BIgogwe, Gisenyi, Kinigi, Nkumba and see if you can find anyone of 30 years and above who is still alive. only kids who were like 5 by then who head their households now. the rest were killed or taken to unknown places.
So this useless people who think that Hutus do not deserve justice just only Tutsis because they are the favorites of USA,UK,Canada they should wait one day our justice will come and all our people killed will receive justice it doesnt matter how long it takes
@ Claudine Mukeshimana: Did you know that things interahamwe did, copied them from RPF inkotanyi? As a matter of fact interahamwe were infiltrated by inkotanyi. Which means that Tutsis killed other Tutsis and raped women so that they can blame all the killings on Hutus and demonize them. For example Kajuga Robert, the chief interahamwe was a Tutsi and probably Kagame’s agent. The rape of women and many methods of killing practiced today in the great lakes region are an invention of Tutsi extremists of RPF, first practiced in Uganda, then in Rwanda, and later on in Congo. One congolese said that, before Tutsis of RPF invaded the Congo, there was never any mention of rape. It all started when Kagame crossed over. I thank God for the year 2010. It is the year that will be remembered in History as the year that RPF was uncovered, the year when a wolf dressed as a sheep finally showed it’s true nature. When you say that Annie deserves to be raped with a sharp spear, one can tell that if you get your hands on her that you would do it. One can tell that your heart is full of evil thoughts, yet you claim not to be compared to Interahamwe. If you ask me, you Tutsi extremists are worse than Interahamwe. The fact that you succeeded in manipulating the international community which thinks of Tutsis as innocent victims does not make that necessarily true. I went to school with Tutsi extremists some of whom ended up joining the RPF, you guys are evil. Yes, I said that. Call me a genocide denier if you wish. Your comments above speak for themselves.
The RPF and Kagame are well skilled in torture technique. What Claudine Mukeshimana above is wishing for Ann is exactly what RPF/Kagame’s soldiers did to Congolese women. There is something seriously about the RPF and their soldiers. However, the day will come when a free and fair election will get them out of office similar to what happened to South Africa apartheid government.
No one should ever minimize the pain ans suffering subjected to both Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda. All who committed these crimes should and will be punished. It is amazing that today the RPF is jailing a sole genocide survivor in his family, Deo Mushayidi under “genocide ideology” charges of all things.
The RPF is so affraid of any oposition that they rush to jail or exile anyone who disagrees with them including Nyamwasa and Sebarenzi. Rwanda will be free from the current ruling elite who are hell bent on oppressing poor Rwandans. In case you had heard, remember you heard it here first.
They accuse Ingabire of associating with genocidaires while one of their government minister for the better part of the last 16 years was the ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF for the EX FAR. That person is General Marcel Gatsinzi who led the EX FAR’s DURING the genocide. The hipocrisy is appaling. Also, the role of P kagame and his RPA is becoming clearer and clearer as time goes.
I meant to say that there is something seriously SICK about the RPF and their soldiers in post #58. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Claudine Mukeshimana is an RPF soldier who has practiced or seen this torture technique practiced on Rwandans and Congolese by P Kagame’s soldiers.
Dear All:
Do you want to have an idea about ‘genocide ideology’?
- If someone says that Hutus killed Tutsis, this is not genocide ideology, but if you say that Tutsis killed Hutus, this is a genocide ideology;
- if you say that the Rwandan army is predominantly Tutsi, this is a genocide ideology, but if you say that the big majority of the former army was Hutu, this not a genocide ideology;
- if you say that in 1994, Tutsis were killed because they were Tutsis, this is not a genocide ideology, but if you dare say that Hutus were killed because they were Hutus, this a genocide ideology;
- if you sit in a pub or bar and loudly say that Hutus are bastard, this is not a genocide ideology, but if you dare say to the colleague next to you and someone hears you saying “Tutsis are bastard” immediately you are arrested for genocide ideology.
Briefly, any words relating to the brutality, ruthlessness, savageness, cruelty, hatred of Hutu towards Tutsi is accepted like a pure truth, any aspect indicating that Hutus mistreated Tutsis during their reign is encouraged, whereas any words or conduct that show any wrong-doing by the Tutsi community to Hutus is interpreted like a genocide ideology.
So if you do not want to be accused of genocide ideology,simply put in your head that Hutus are oppressors, Tutsis are victims, Hutu are evils, Tutsi are angels otherwise the contrary is considered as ‘genocide ideology’.
why would tutsis ‘as small minolity as they are in rwanda’ think of exporting the remaing wars and violance in DRC where they only contribute 0.09% of the entire DRC population !!! was that kind of next step to search for more hatred in the region “this time from congolese”!? before they even reconcile with hutus as kagame claims of the later being acheived!! was kagame in his full senses when he appoined kabarebe ‘now rwandan defence minister’ as chef commanda of congolese army,being same time rwandan!!ah .. even americans would not do this in irak or anywhre else guys! these guys should stop their funny desires of aquiring more and bigger things than they can handle’especially when they do it violently !!!they have put an insult to the entire rwandan community.. they shouldn’t use violance to get on power every where ;in uganda, burundi,rwanda and carry on to do it in congo 95time the size of rwanda, this would bring an endless conflict in the region!! OR still if they see nothing wrong with it, they should prepare to fight congolese back by the time they will also gain power and capacity to launch their revenge on rwanda. that war will only be fought by kagame kabarebe and some other blind followers of the RPF no one will be ready to pay for what he did not steal from congo !
@ Claudine Mukeshimana,
The hatred in your words when you wish that Annie should be raped simply shows how your mind thinks. If someone has an opinion that is different from yours, you hate them so much to the extent that you would wish rape upon them. It is this type of self-righteous extremism that leads to mass murders. You really need to learn to respect other people’s opinions. That is how decent people live peacefully with each other in the peaceful countries.
@ Claudine Mukeshimana,
So, that is how you guys raped Hutu and Congolese women???? With sharp spears???
@Hemedi, I will tell you what I also told Ann.
Thank you for confirming my earlier interpretation of your myopic understanding of Rwandan issues. Equating genocide to an imperial contest? you continue to amaze me with your level of ignorance.
Why don’t you and your bunch of negative commentators take a few seconds to reflect on where Rwanda has come from (NEVER BEFORE in its history has Rwanda ever registered such economic growth rates, FDI growth, all MDG’s are on track to be achieved by 2015 , 100% food security etc…) We have all witnessed a complete turn-around in Rwanda in a space of only 16 years.
Rwanda is progressing whether you like it or not, so just keep blogging and blogging till kingdom come!! The Rwandan people have since moved on.
@John,
When you say that the what Interahamwe did copied them from RPF.? Did they copy the contents of Kangura from RPF? we all know what kajuga repesented, he grew up in the middle of Hutu extrimists yet he was Tutsi, so he had to buy himself by following into their footsteps.He was a simple pupet, but who to some extent cant be fully be blamed,the Hutus would have slaughtered him if he didnt join them into exterminating the Tutsi race.
@John again ,how can i tell that you Hutus dont carry the same anger against me? i dont have to doubt it because it happened to me.I know that the Hutu extrimsts-mark my word extrimists only are inhuman.Some of you here especially Ann Garrison are discussing from what you read from books, news etc but i speak from experience. May if Ann experience would teach people like Ann a lesson-she needs to experience it.Experience teaches even the dull.
The Hutus raped, hacked to death Tustis live on camera.
Let someone produce live proof of RPF doing what the interahamwe did to us ?? The whole world knows that The RPF are the most discilpined army in Africa.Thy are expales even in Darfur-the other army envy them .
@Aimable.
I have no hatred for any innocent person,what i have is hatred for someone who supports a person who raped women with sharpened sorghum sticks.And iam a descent person or perhaps i was until your brothers -Hutu extrimists met me in april 1994.
Its not a question of having a different opinion-people have diffrent opinions evry where in the world-the Republicans still Obama’s opinions up to now.I
@ Aimable -continuation.
Its a question of someone denying what is true,just because they are biased.Thats exactly what Ann repersents here-biased woman.so unless she experiences it i dont see any other way of making her understand
@ Mukeshimana Claudine
You need to see a psychiatrist because what you are saying here shows that you are mentaly unbalanced.Something is wrong with you. Do you know Aimable ? You dare to call him extremist hutu because he puts you in front of your inner disorders? You a man call yourself a woman( Claudine isn`t your name ),then you utter nonsense and evil wishes to Ann,and then you call whoever doesn`t agree with an extremist hutu. Come on ? Are you normal ?Your background must be very dark maybe because of what you did to hutus.
@Musonera.
Dont ever think that there is anything you will do to change the game .It is on camera Hutu extrimists butchering Tutsi babies and women-iam sorry that you musonera and all your clan wil have to live with those ghosts haunting you up to the last day of your life.
Despite being desparately disappointed by the ghosts you called onto yourselves, you are also a bunch of idiots.How can you be planning on hacking or raping a woman and you go infront of camera.Now proof is written evrywhere-and you are desparatel gasping for air by trying to turn the cards onto RPF.
O yes, iam seeing a pshchiatrist and so is my sister,my aunt and all victims of your Hutu extrimsits you left behind.Surprisingly is that you are not finished-you want to come back and finish the unfinished.What do you want to do? If you pounded babies in mortars like sombe,what’s next? may cooking them and eating them because you not human beings you people.
@Mukeshimana Claudine
I don`t like discussing with a fool but it seems to me that you are among those who butchered people in Byumba,Ruhengeri,Kigali-Ngari,Kibeho,etc…and across the border in the forests of RDC…Those ghosts will haunt you forever and that is why you seem to be out of mind.You are just saying what you did. Wapfuye uhagaze wo gacwa we.Uri nka wa mupfu utinukira.
@Claudine Mukeshimana
Does it make a difference whether a human being was killed or raped in front of cameras? Does it really matter? Does the fact that Kagame is smart enough to kill millions in hiding make him less of a killer than the Hutu extremists? When the RPF Inkotanyi soldiers jammed hot pepper in women’s vagina’s in Congo and cut open pregnant women’s wombs in Rwanda, was that any different than the Interahamwe when they did it on Camera? When the RPF soldiers hacked people to death using hoes in hiding, was that different than those who butchered people with machetters in front of cameras?
@Claudine Mukeshimana:
Do you expect anybody to believe in your lie propaganda and heinous utterences?
Did you forget that such a culture of lie that is so embeded in you and your likes has already been exposed to the whole world before?
As John pointed it out above, please be reminded that the ruthless Killing Methods of the Interahamwe were learned from the RPF Inkotanyi.
According to Abdul Ruzibiza, an eye witness who is ready than ever before to testify against your boss, Paul Kagame in court, on the RPF side, such killings began on Oct 4, 1990, 2 days after the death of Fred Rwigyema, their leader, on October 2, 1990.
The killing methods include but are not limmitted to:
“1. Tying up the legs, then binding both arms in the back while pulling and applying pressure until the chest bones crack up, then kneeling the victim and striking them in the head with a used up hoe. After the victim collapses, smashing the head in both temples, splitting up the head like a clod.
2. Tying up the victim as described above, then stabbing them in the ribs repeatedly with knives, or stepping on the victim’s belly while bayoneting them.
3. Tying up the victim, then fitting their head with a plastic bag closed up around the neck, leaving the victim to die from suffocation.
4. Tying up a person, drawing gasoline into a syringe, then squirting the fuel into both of the victim’s ears, and leveling a hard smack simultaneously on both ears. The victim will fall into an agonizing spell of dizziness, before dying.
5. Making a running noose around somebody’s neck with a rope, then dragging the victim until the noose tightens and death ensues.
6. Tying up together both arms and legs real tight, then hanging the victim upside down on a horizontal beam until blood oozes out of the mouth, ears, and nose, and death ensues.
7. If there was critical information to wrest away from the victims, they were downright tortured. They were needled on their genitals, jabbed all over with sharp objects, and pinned under dripping fireballs from a burning plastic object until they begged for death. There were times when siblings, or a husband and a wife, or a mother and a son, were forced to have sexual intercourse out there in the open before being killed, etc.
8. Often times for those who were killed by gunfire or grenades, it was when lack of time didn’t allow for a slow death. Other times, girls who had just been raped by RPF soldiers were the lucky ones to be killed with bullets, supposedly to ward off any bad luck from these girls that might cause the rapist soldiers to die on the battlefield. And yet, this crime was not tolerated at all even though it was committed in many areas. If you were found to have committed this crime, you were punished severely. If by a remote chance the rape victims were spared, they walked away thinking rape was part of an accepted culture within the RPF organization, because they had no way to know that the offenders had been punished. Another crime that was severely punished, was raping women then brutally shoving up knives or sticks deep inside the women’s private parts, causing them to bleed to death.
9. In a particularly unique show of ruthlessness, in order not to waste time, RPF soldiers would hold children victims by the legs and swing them against a wall or a tree, smashing their heads and killing them instantly.
10. I have no personal knowledge of any place, nor have I been told or heard of any, other than from the Rwandan national radio and the RTLM radio, where an RPF soldier ever disemboweled any pregnant woman, killing her and the child… If it happened, I am not aware of it. I do know, however, that in killing such pregnant women, RPF soldiers kicked them in the belly and ribs with knees, and then fitted their heads with a plastic bag to asphyxiate them. RPF soldiers firmly upheld a dubious theory, whose exact origin is uncertain, that a pregnant woman will not die from a blow to the head with a used up hoe, or will take much too long to die”.
FYI, here is the link to Ruzibiza’s whole testimony:
(http://hungryoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/01/testimony-of-abdul-ruzibiza.html)
Annie is one the few westerners who know the true nature of Kagame and his mafia. Her work is noble. She is a hero to many Rwandans. We love and support her. Justice will prevail.
@John
You`re right ! Ann is absolutely my hero and many rwandans I talk to think the same way.They know about her by just reading her articles and they admire her courage and honesty. God bless you Annie and enjoy the nice weather of Bay Area !
Just because foreigners did not witness RPF's cruelty you think they will be deemed angels! That cannot be bought by Rwandans, whether Hutu or Tutsi. We know each other, people, lying to US, UK, or UN will end up in a big failure. You better apologize to Rwandans (I mean all criminals, Interahamwe as well as Inkotanyi) because no one will ever forget what you have done to Rwandans. Mukeshimana, when you observe the way Kagame can not tolerate a Hutu's candidacy for the Presidency (this is 16 years the man has been ruling Rwanda), do you think the same Kagame tolerated hutu enemies during the war? When you say cameras did not film your killings, you are totally wrong. Just read books, some written by same killers relate what they have done to Hutus. Have you ever heard about J.P. Mugabe, J. Ruzibiza or D. Kagiraneza's testimonies? Others are to publish soon more incriminating books on Kagame's own role in Killing from Uganda up to RDCongo. They know his role in the death of Burundian Presidents (Ndadaye and Ntaryamira), Rwandan President (Habyarimana) and lately Congolese President Laurent Kabila. Do you know how many innocent people have died following those assassinations? To ease your curiosity, they are EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE in the whole Great Lakes Region. You better get ready to face justice, willingly or by force.
@cash
what a research !!!!!!
where did you get your fake statistics from!!referering to what you’ve written saying RPF is assuring a 100% n food security by yr 2015, then you should be seriously blind my dear freind ! is there any other african country you know where people are suffering from hunger at same time receiving a heavy assistance from the UK,US,CANADA, and some other EU countries ? dispite all the assistance rwanda gets from these counrties majority of rwndans still leave on 1 meal/day,pple did not live such lifes before the so called RPF staped on power,forcing rwandans to cut off banana plantations at expense o both flowers exported by kagame’s wife in europe and creating farms for cattles belonging to RPA top officials ! if you are among pple who are convinced there have been economic developement on interest of rwandan citizens, then you should go back to yr basics!if kagame buys 2 airplanes and hide them in SA working for his own account, or build 2 estates in kigali out of unfair and unbalance taxes from poor rwandans,this doen’t mean much to rwandans! beside these shoudn’t be attributed to his compentance, all sources of money are known ‘DRC,heavy taxes on rwandan stragling busnesses, and donations from the west which stimulates him to send more rwandans to die in congo’ infact if you are very pround of kagame’s economic revival programs,then you should also tell him to stop using former gouverment public infrastuctures! in bref, he should be now landing his plane somewhere else not gregoire interN airport,or hord his silly speech in parlement or stadia he did not build, just say the truth RPF is bulding what others should have built, there is nothing special! other african counties are also silently building.
@J Nepo
You are so evil!!!You must have killed hundreds of people during the Genocide!!You know all the tactics!!Ruzibiza’s testimony by the way no longer holds water.He retracted it!
You should be ashamed of what you or your brother did in disemboweling expectant mothers.It is the most gruesome way you can kill a woman and even though you try to cover it up,it will not work.
I have met you on different discussion boards and what you posted up here is not surprising.You are such an extremist,you must be Bagosora’s son in-law.
RPF is here to stay my Man, never worry!!Tuzarubanamo sha!!Ahubwo nduzi wowe wibera mumahanga!!
Reviewing some comments made before I came to this discussion, and continuing past my own comment to the latest one (by Jeremie), several things strike me. First, there is an understandable bitterness in those who speak mainly from personal experience; unfortunately, they extrapolate from their personal experience to an extent that obscures a comprehensive survey of the wider reality and history. So far, I do not see a reasoned refutation of the evidence that Kagame's team began a series of attacks on Hutus 3 or 4 years before the date that US media (and many others) designate as the "beginning" of genocide in Rwanda.
A somewhat broader view focuses on Rwanda as a whole (supposedly) and interprets events in terms of internal struggles. People commenting on that level display a regrettable parochialism. As someone who has looked at the role of European and US powers in Africa over the past century or two, it is obvious to me that these outside powers have ALWAYS exploited local conflicts for the benefit of their overall strategy of controlling African resources. Ann is quite right to point out that US grooming of Kagame (his Ft. Leavenworth training) is part of an ongoing contest between France and the US. I find this ESPECIALLY telling: "…The new RPF rulers declared English the language of business, causing enormous stress and dislocation to French-speaking Rwandan professionals…"http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2010/04/r…
[What the US must contend with now is a very determined Chinese entry into this high-stakes game.]
I am also struck by the naivete (disingenuousness?) of those who assert that Kagame will triumph in the election because almost all Rwandans support him and are happy with the direction the nation is taking. Certainly the appeal for "unity" and "forgive/forget the past" will motivate some, as will the infusion of US dollars and/or continuing spoils of war in the Congo. However, Kagame has insured that these attitudes will prevail by closing down the majority-language press and threatening to jail dissident voices (including rival candidates and journalists). One does not know what the electorate would do if fully informed. One also does not know if any but a very tiny part of the electorate can see where these tactics are leading. Alas, I am probably the only one commenting here who is old enough to remember Adolph Hitler. This is not a superficial comparison: the German people welcomed his "benevolent" approach in rescuing German pride and improving their lives during the 1930s. I suppose one could also point to the similarities between the Reichstag fire, the 9-11 attacks, and the well-publicized Hutu killing of Tutsis in the uses to which militarists, demagogues, and authoritarians put them.
Thank you for speaking out for the spleechless and weak people, the whole world needs to know what goes around in this country which came from being "one thousand hills" country to a "one million dead" country
@Edmund:
Have you no shame? Angie is just trying to help out by writing this article yet you insult her. I hope god isnt merciful on you. And this is comming from a kid.
CHw3fP http://gdjI3b7VaWpU1m0dGpvjRrcu9Fk.com