Rwanda: Hidden Agenda Behind False Allegations by The New Times
By Kim Bazumva
January 23, 2010
[This article was posted on DHR in response to Felix Muheto's article in New Times (http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14146&article=24998)].
"I listened to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza’s speech at the Genocide Memorial Center carefully and I have read her subsequent declarations and press releases that I compared to the accusations New Times have made against her. To my surprise, I find it a shame that a very simple and peace-minded speech such as this brings out this kind of false accusations. There is a compelling evidence of an agenda behind these allegations made by Mr. Felix Muheto and his commanding bosses. Not only they have brought to light how far paranoid and “genocide” opportunist the system actually is but also how far Rwanda has to go to reach unity and true reconciliation if these allegations are formulated by the so-called professional journalists.
It is a really far fetched idea for New Times to accuse Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza of being a Genocide denier while in her speech Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza advocated that anyone responsible in the Genocide against Tutsi be brought to Justice. She went on to insist that Rwandans must at all times remember victims of such heinous crime and that such crime shall never be repeated. It transpired to me that the fact that, besides acknowledging the Genocide against Tutsi, she equally mentioned crimes against humanity committed to Hutu people in history of Rwanda is what appeared to New Times “revolutionary” as no one was and is allowed to ever refer to that publicly.
There is nothing but the truth about these crimes that she referred to but very unfortunately what infuriated those who have made a bargaining currency the suffering of Rwandan people is that she did not follow RPF guidelines to never remember other victims of Rwandan conflict, to never honor and commemorate them since it challenges the RPF instrument of intimidation. In face of her case proving a bit tricky for the RPF machine operatives to call her, like everyone else that goes away from the RPF guidelines, a “genocidaire” or with “genocidal ideology”, they were left with only one option: to intentionally twist her words into a claim for “Double Genocide Theory”. Thus the wish of the pseudo-friend of Felix Muheto that Victoire Ingabire is “lucky she was out of the country during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, otherwise she might also…have been in the gallows”.
For 16 years she did not live in Rwanda until 17th January 2009 but what Victoire is being blamed for as “shear ignorance of what Rwanda today stands for” is that she refuses to be streamlined and brainwashed by the RPF psychological machine and still fights for democracy and the rule of law. So for that, may be if she had not challenged “those who committed [genocide and crimes against humanity] to bear legal consequences” and if she had not called all Rwandans “to come together in unity and with mutual respect in order to develop our country peacefully”, she would not have been qualified by New Times as “a munyarwanda of hate and divisionism. If Victoire Ingabire had not asked that “we must be fair and compassionate towards every Rwandan’s suffering”, she would not have been labeled “negationist”. Clearly, she is not “seduced by those luxurious buildings and residences and totally miss the misery, the pain, the despair, the discrimination, the hunger, poor health, or other dictatorial practices imposed to our people” neither will be any peace loving Rwandan today.
Adolf Hitler’s propaganda machine claimed at the realm of Nazism that when a lie is repeated million times it becomes the only truth. RPF brainwashing structures have been doing the same since 1990 telling lies after lies to Rwandan people and the rest of the world. But there are personal experiences of people who went through and are still living the suffering of RPF oppressive and killing hierarchy, and cannot forget. They have decided to do something about it for the good and future of their beloved country. The BIG LIE propaganda cannot and will never erase from their memory their pain and its consequences on them and others like. Killing people’s memories is killing their foundations and who they are. If today Victoire Ingabire is challenging RPF’s BIG LIE of saying that among Rwandans there were those who died more than others during the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath, she is condemning and going against the divisive and segregationist policy that RPF government has been relentlessly promoting. And when this is publicly opposed they feel offended, blaming on others the sins they bear. You can lie one time, even two times, but you cannot lie forever. The time comes when courageous people like Victoire Ingabire make you face the truth."
Related Materials:
CYNICAL MEDIA LYNCHING AND CALLS FOR ARRESTING IN RWANDA
Rwanda: False allegations in the New Times
posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 2:46 PM
2 Comments:
I am surprised by the testimonies by the Rwandans on the genocide issue. if really RPF masterminded the genocide with international bodies like UN,FBI,Canada and USA then kagame and his team will never be in cort and the truth will never be respected.
The same friends will protect him forever since exporsing the truth means loosing credibility and respect internationally.
The only weapon left to Rwandans is to push for democracy and change of institutions to respect human rights and promote equality.
Dear Anomnymous,
Thanks for your comment.
It is true that western powers will do everything possible to protect their proxies in the region. However, they cannot protect notorious war criminals and continue to preach spreading freedom and democracy worldwide.
One day they will have to use their influence on their proxies in the region so that they can sit down around the table with their opponents in order to find peaceful solutions to current political deadlock in Rwanda.
Anyone who is still skeptical towards such an approach should take a closer look at what the CNDD-FDD accomplished in neighboring Burundi. One should also recall that Burundi represents a good specific example because both Rwanda and Burundi share the same ethnic composition of their populations not to mention a similar dark history of sporadic ethnic cleansings.
Another good example can be found in South Africa where western powers ended up working with ANC in order to uproot the apartheid system then through a National Truth and reconciliation commission South Africans achieved a genuine reconciliation nationwide.
This can be achieved in Rwanda. The Rwandan people are ready to do so. What is lacking is the willingness of some western powers to supports this ongoing democratic process in Rwanda which has now reached a non-return point.
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