Netherlands: Demonstrations Against Paul Kagame
PRESS RELEASE
The Dutch originating from Rwanda, the Rwandans exiled in the Netherlands and friends of Rwanda protest today March 31, 2010 to reject the tyranny of the RPF and demand respect for human rights especially the political rights. Asserting that the opponents against current regime are not enemies of the people of Rwanda, we say "NO" to the state of terrorism in Rwanda. The Dutch population must assume its responsibilities and refuse to support the military dictatorship of General Kagame.
The RPF and General Paul Kagame have been governing the Rwanda for 16 years. Apart from the political parties that are subservient, the RPF does not tolerate any other opinion. If a Rwandese does not align with the policy of Paul Kagame, he/she must remain silent, flee, end up in jail or simply disappear.
Since the RPF came to the power in 1994, several Ministers and MPs have rum away from Rwanda or are languishing in prison. They include the following figures:
1. Pasteur Bizimungu, First President under the reign of the RPF, was ousted and imprisoned because he had dared to create the political Party PDR-Ubuyanja along with Minister Charles Ntakirutinka who is still in prison.
2. Joseph Sebarenzi, first President of the Parliament under the RPF administration fled the country because he wanted the Parliament to be independent and to exercise its right to control the government.
3. Former Prime Ministers Faustin Twagiramungu and Pierre Celestin Rwigema were forced into exile.
4. Ministers, MPs and senior officials that have been forced into exile are innumerable.
5. Ambassadors, including Ambassador of Rwanda to the Netherlands, Mr Jean Pierre Bizimana, former head of domestic intelligence of Paul Kagame, because he has refused to implement macabre RPF’s plans against Rwandan refugees in the Netherlands and Ambassador of Rwanda to India, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa who was a former coordinator of intelligence have run away.
In Rwanda, no political party that is not subservient to the RPF is accepted. In 2003/2008 the RPF dissolved the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR) party, refused to register the party PDR-Ubuyanja and imprisoned its founder, the former President Pasteur Bizimungu. The RPF also refused the registration of the party ADP-Amizero and pushed its founder, Minister Celestin Kabanda into exile.
Since the announcement of the date of presidential elections in August 2010, three new Parties have tried to register so that they can challenge Kagame. The RPF and its government have erected a "wall of law" impassable according to Paul Kagame himself. Indeed, everything has been done in order to refuse the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda led by Frank Habineza and FDU-inkingi of Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza the right to hold constituent assembly, and plans are being orchestrated in order to dissolve the PS-Imberakuri recently approved. The three opposition parties have formed the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties.
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has been assaulted on February 3, 2010 within the premises of the administrative building in Kigali and is at high risk of prison. Mrs. Ingabire was recently forbidden from visiting her family and is under relentless police interrogations by the Criminal Investigation Department. Mr. Frank Habineza and Mr. Bernard Ntaganda fear for their lives. Mr. Mushayidi Deo, former RPF representative in Switzerland and founder of the political party PDP-Imanzi, has been kidnapped from Burundi and was thrown into jail in Rwanda.
We urge the Dutch Government that is one of the main sponsors of the dictatorship of Kagame to demand political rights and democracy in Rwanda. We say no to tyranny, we ask that Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza's rights be respected. We demand that the political opposition be given much political space and be free to explain their political agenda to the Rwandan population. We finally demand the release of Deo Mushayidi.
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FDU Hollande Stichting
Pro Justitia Stichting SBNZ
Stichting Gezonde Jongeren
Stichting Rwanda Ned Tubane
Stichting SWW Muhoza
CODAC
March 31, 2010
Rwandan company tops list of buyers of Congo Tin
By Rwanda News Agency
Monday, 29 March 2010 16:54
Kigali: Malaysia and Rwanda have become the primary destinations for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s tin ore, amid efforts in the east of the country to prevent the nation’s mineral wealth from enriching armed groups, Kinshasa announced.
Last year, under pressure from the United Nations and advocacy groups who said the tin-ore trade was fueling conflict in eastern Congo, at least two companies stopped sourcing minerals in the region. Their withdrawal redrew the supply lines from Congo’s forests to the world’s tin smelters.
Malaysia Smelting Corp., the world’s third-biggest tin producer, is now the largest buyer of cassiterite from eastern Congo, followed by Minerals Supply Africa, or MSA, a Rwandan company founded in 2008 by U.K. businessman David Bensusan, according to Congolese Mines Ministry statistics, Bloomberg News reported.
Congo is Africa’s largest producer of cassiterite, accounting for 6 percent of global output. In the mid 1990s, fighting in the aftermath of the Tutsi Genocide spread into eastern Congo, eventually engulfing the entire country in a series of wars that killed at least 4 million people.
Clashes continue in the eastern North and South Kivu provinces, where armed groups and some members of Congo’s army profit from exploiting and taxing minerals, according to the government.
In the first two months of 2010, “Malaysia and Rwanda have dramatically surpassed Belgium, which was the principal, primary importer,” of tin ore, or cassiterite, from North Kivu last year, the ministry said in a statement on March 22.
Malaysian and Rwandan companies accounted for 61 percent of registered exports from North Kivu in January and February, while Belgian imports fell to 21 percent of the total, compared with 48 percent for the whole of 2009.
Smuggling
MSA expects to do as much as $70 million in business from Congo and Rwanda in 2010, up from $20 million last year, Bensusan said in an interview in Gisenyi, Rwanda, on March 16. MSA sells all its cassiterite to MSC, he said.
In December, the UN accused Bensusan of smuggling cassiterite through Rwanda, a charge he denies.
Malaysia Smelting spokesman Chua Cheong Yong confirmed that the company is buying cassiterite from Congo, and is working with ITRI, the tin industry group, on a pilot project to trace their minerals.
“We are members of the DRC working group and very much part of the due diligence process,” he told Bloomberg News by phone from Penang in western Malaysia on March 25.
Anyone who buys minerals from illegal armed groups in Congo may face sanctions under a 2005 UN resolution that was renewed in 2009. Last year, both Traxys SA and Amalgamated Metals Corp. stopped work in the region, saying they couldn’t track their minerals.
Rwanda: No proof against Victoire Ingabire
By Sophie van Leeuwen
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
29 March 2010
There is no evidence yet against the leader of the Rwandan opposition, says the Rwandan minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama in a recent interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide. The case of Victoire Ingabire is still under police investigation in Kigali. Ingabire was forbidden to leave the country last week.
"The police hasn't found hard facts", Karugarama said during a visit last weekend in the Netherlands. “They have not found evidence to incriminate her. Once the investigation shows that she's innocent, nobody will touch her. But everybody in Rwanda should be held accountable and play by the rules."
Interrogation
Meanwhile in Rwanda, Ingabire has been questioned again on Monday. According to her spokesperson, the politician is still waiting for the results of the police investigation.
"They have been questioning Victoire, telling her there is information available that she has been dealing with armed opposition forces based in Congo. These are allegations. Once the investigation has been completed, the authorities will determine whether to profer charges against her or not" said Karugarama.
Rwanda's largely pro-government media accuse Ingabire of flouting the post-genocide constitution which bans acts that could incite conflicts. Rights groups say the law could be used to suppress opposition parties.
The UDF-leader criticises Paul Kagame’s government and requests more freedom and democracy in the country. In January, Ingabire returned to Rwanda - after spending many years in exile in the Netherlands - to start a bid for the coming presidential elections in August.
Criticism
During his recent visit in the Netherlands, Karugarama criticised the Dutch. He believes the Netherlands could speed up the prosecution of genocide suspects. "Many suspects of the Rwandan genocide live in the Netherlands. Track them down. If possible send them to Rwanda for trial. Or do it here. We shall be satisfied as long as they face trial", says the minister.
"We sent information about the suspects who live in The Netherlands. About their crimes, how and when they were committed. The Dutch judiciary got the files, they know their names. I cannot say how many they are. But they are quite a number."
However, in spite of his criticism, Karugarama thinks the Dutch do a better job than most other European countries. Joseph M, one of the genocide suspects was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Rwanda receives the International ‘Unity is Strength Award’
By Frank Kanyesigye
The Sunday Times-Rwanda
March 28, 2010
Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama (2nd from right) holding the Diversity award. With him are Second Counsellor Enid Mbabazi, ‘Unity is the Strength’ representative Nadya van Pottens, the Charge d’ Affaires a.i, Parfait Gahamanyi.(Courtesy photo)
KIGALI - Rwanda’s Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, has reiterated Rwanda’s pledge to promote unity among the people in the country.
He made the remarks yesterday while receiving the International ‘Unity is Strength Award’ (Diversity Award) on behalf of President Paul Kagame and the people of Rwanda in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
A special nomination committee consisting of 16 Dutch youth, unanimously awarded the Government of Rwanda the 2010 certificate of Diversity for its leading role in promoting unity among the people.
Addressing the guests, Minister Karugarama said that President Kagame is most grateful to the Youth of the Netherlands, particularly the jury and the Nomination Committee, for choosing Rwanda as the 6th beneficiary of the prestigious Award.
“I wish to reiterate Rwanda’s pledge of unwavering support to the efforts and principles embodied in the ‘Unity is Strength Foundation’ as we are a living witnesses of what unity can do and what lack of it can do as well,” he said.
“Unity can create a wonder nation; lack of it could lead to serious problems including the crime of Genocide”.
Karugarama added that Rwandans have fought hard to leave behind the effects of successive divisive politics that marred the country since the colonial era and which culminated into the heinous crime of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. “The people of Rwanda are honoured to receive this award and will not falter from the journey of building a nation of their dream; a nation governed by the rule of law, a nation of peace and stability, a nation of the present and the future, where indeed, unity is strength,” he said.
He noted that Dutch people have stood by Rwanda’s side as exemplified by the numerous interventions and projects they have been engaged in since 1994.
“This Award by the youth of the Netherlands will, in addition, help to motivate the youth of Rwanda towards the ideals and the principles embodied in the ‘Unity is Strength’ Foundation,” he said.
Each year, a country is chosen by the jury, consisting of young people from various NGO’s to identify a country that is making great efforts in promoting unity, peace, tolerance and rejects any form of discrimination.
South Africa President speaks about Gen. Kayumba
By Rwanda News Agency
Sunday, 28 March 2010
International law protects individuals who have been granted asylum and considers that a state has no obligation to surrender an alleged criminal.
Kigali: Rwanda’s hopes of having two dissident army generals currently in self-imposed exile extradited from South Africa to face trial appear to have taken a fatal blow after President Jacob Zuma said his country is obliged to follow international laws on asylum.
South Africa’s President Zuma confirmed to reporters at the end of his two-day state visit to Uganda on Friday that his country had granted asylum to Col. Patrick Karegeya, former director of Rwanda’s external intelligence office, and temporary asylum to Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamaswa, an envoy to India.
Responding to a reporter’s question over whether South Africa would execute arrest warrants for the two exiled army officers, who Rwanda accuses of subversion, President Zuma said: “Certainly, we are going to be guided by what governs the world in regards to refugee status.”
“I don’t think we can do anything outside of that,” said Mr Zuma, who admitted, however, that South Africa had not considered the issue of the two exiled officers in light of the arrest warrants.
“Once the matter is formally raised, am sure we shall consider it and arrive at the appropriate conclusion,” he said, according to Sunday Monitor newspaper.
International law protects individuals who have been granted asylum and considers that a state has no obligation to surrender an alleged criminal to a foreign state because to be granted sanctuary indicates that the state granting asylum regards the individual as being illegally persecuted by the country they fled from.
It appears a complicated matter for officials in Kigali especially in light of the absence of an extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa.
Lt. Gen. Nyamaswa escaped from Kigali on February 27 and transited through Kampala to Malaba border post before he fled to South Africa, a development that fuelled accusations that Uganda had aided his escape.
Kampala and Kigali have had frosty relations characterised by accusations and counter accusations of both countries aiding each other’s dissidents.
Meanwhile, the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) has dismissed reports in Kigali that another top army officer had been put under house arrest over coup plot claims. Rwanda Army spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara rubbished the news that Land Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga had been arrested in a failed coup attempt on Wednesday.
“We are tired of those [coup] rumours,” he told Sunday Monitor on telephone from Arusha, Tanzania on Friday. “It is wishful thinkers behind all these baseless rumours but they will be disappointed.”
This is the second time reports of a coup plot are coming up in less than a month even though Rwandan leader Paul Kagame said at the beginning of March that a coup is unattainable in Rwanda. The country, preparing for presidential elections this year, has in the last few months experienced isolated cases of bomb explosions in Kigali, which authorities blame on dissident army officers.
Related Materials:
South Africa-Rwanda: Zuma explains why Rwanda officers won’t return
South Africa shy at arresting Rwanda dissidents, says they are refugees
South Africa-Rwanda: Zuma explains why Rwanda officers won’t return
By Emmanuel Gyezaho & Risdel Kasasira
Daily Monitor
Sunday, March 28 2010
Kampala-Rwanda’s hopes of having two dissident army generals currently in self-imposed exile extradited from South Africa to face trial appear to have taken a fatal blow after President Jacob Zuma said his country is obliged to follow international laws on asylum.
South Africa’s President Zuma confirmed to reporters at the end of his two-day state visit to Uganda on Friday that his country had granted asylum to Col. Patrick Karegeya, former director of Rwanda’s external intelligence office, and temporary asylum to Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamaswa, an envoy to India.
The comments came in the wake of reports in Kigali that another top army officer had been put under house arrest over coup plot claims, allegations which the Rwandan government dismissed as hearsay. Rwanda Defence Forces spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara dismissed reports that Land Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga had been arrested in a failed coup attempt on Wednesday.
Rwanda denies
“We are tired of those [coup] rumours,” he told Sunday Monitor on telephone from Arusha, Tanzania on Friday. “It is wishful thinkers behind all these baseless rumours but they will be disappointed.” This is the second time reports of a coup plot are coming up in less than a month even though Rwandan leader Paul Kagame said at the beginning of March that a coup is unattainable in Rwanda. The country, preparing for presidential elections this year, has in the last few months experienced isolated cases of bomb explosions in Kigali, which authorities blame on dissident army officers.
Responding to a reporter’s question over whether South Africa would execute arrest warrants for the two exiled army officers, who Rwanda accuses of subversion, President Zuma said: “Certainly, we are going to be guided by what governs the world in regards to refugee status.” “I don’t think we can do anything outside of that,” said Mr Zuma, who admitted, however, that South Africa had not considered the issue of the two exiled officers in light of the arrest warrants. “Once the matter is formally raised, am sure we shall consider it and arrive at the appropriate conclusion,” he said.
International law protects individuals who have been granted asylum and considers that a state has no obligation to surrender an alleged criminal to a foreign state because to be granted sanctuary indicates that the state granting asylum regards the individual as being illegally persecuted by the country they fled from. It appears a complicated matter for officials in Kigali especially in light of the absence of an extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa.
Nyamwasa escape
Lt. Gen. Nyamaswa escaped from Kigali on February 27 and transited through Kampala to Malaba border post before he fled to South Africa, a development that fuelled accusations that Uganda had aided his escape. Kampala and Kigali have had frosty relations characterised by accusations and counter accusations of both countries aiding each other’s dissidents.
OPJDR: Open Letter to President Paul Kagame
By Pascal Kalinganire
OPJDR, Inc.
March 20, 2010
Excellency General Major Paul Kagame March 20, 2010
President of Republic of Rwanda N° 20/P/PK/310
PO Box 15 Kigali
Rwanda.
Ref: Rwanda’s Political Climate
Excellency President;
Following our letter of last February 8th expressing our concerns on the Rwanda’s political climate degradation, it is with further consternations that we call upon your authority to put both your ruling party, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and your government to exercise restrain against political oppositions parties and rather promote a genuine democratic process critical to the next August 2010 presidential elections.
In light of persistent intimidations and pressures to political oppositions, the Organization for Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR).Inc.; a Human Rights Organization, as many other close observers of Rwanda strongly fear that this degradation of political atmosphere in Rwanda could degenerate in another human tragedy. In this crucial time, your leadership is quite essential in siding on the right path for the Rwandans people for a stronger future where each Rwandan would feel included in the political democratic process and steer Rwanda from another calamity.
OPJDR deplores many of the government or leading party, RPF’s sponsored actions to silence political opposition leaders including the following:
•Just this week the Social Party – Imberakuri (SP-I) led by its President and Founder, Bernard Ntaganda has faced some significant aggressions sponsored by your own RPF’s party according to the SP-I party’s press release (N° 002/P.S.IMB/010) of March 16th, 2010:
• RPF’s leaders have asked the PS-Imberakuri’s leadership to resign or face consequences
• RPF and the government have visibly encouraged and sponsored the break-up of the SP-I party into factions.
• While other political opposition parties such as the Green party and the Unified Democratic Forces (FDU) are not even allowed to have meetings to elect their leading committee’s, it is very interesting to see how the government give authorization to one of the runaway faction of the PS-Imberakuri to meet expeditiously and declare the forming of the new committee that exclude those who have not accepted to dissolve the party’s leadership.
• This renegade faction of the PS-Imberakuri party is also given ample times on the airwaves of the government official radio (Radio-Rwanda) to conduct their political compaign that is essentially filled with hate speeches toward the other PS-Imberakuri political leadership.
• Furthermore, both the Green party and the UDF party have yet to be given permissions to assemble and successfully register when their respective leadership indicate to have satisfied all necessary government requirements.
OPJDR urges your government to work on the right side of the Rwandan history in promoting civil liberties and political rights. We call upon your authority to do everything possible to ensure full respect for the rule of law and human rights, build a free, credible, and transparent electoral process through advocating the expression of peaceful criticism and dissent.
Our organization further believes that not only the government needs to ensure a transparent electoral and democratic process with a broader participation of its people but it should also work on a true process of dialogue to reconcile the nation.
We thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter and hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely.
Pascal Kalinganire
Coordinator General
OPJDR, Inc.
BP 3026 Manchester, NH 03105
PHONE: (603) 361-6473
http://www.opjdr.org/.
C.I.:
Excellency Mr. President Bingu wa Mutharika
African Union President and President of Malawi
African Union Headquarters
P.O. Box 3243 Roosvelt Street (Old Airport Area) -W21K19
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia
Tel: (251) 11 551 77 00
Fax:(251) 11 551 78 44
Honorable Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State US State Department
Washington, DC 20520
Honorable W. Stuart Symington
US Ambassador in Rwanda
2657 Avenue de la Gendarmerie - Kacyiru
Tel: (250) 596 400 Extension: 2553
Fax: (250) 596 771 / 596 591
P.O. Box 28 Kigali - RWANDA
Honorable Mr. Tony Blair
Africa Governance Initiative
P.O. Box 60519 London - W2 7JU
United Kingdom
info@tonyblairoffice.org
Note:
OPJDR is a non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
Rwanda: An Opposition Politician Challenges Nation's Image
By Saratu Abiola
All Africa
23 March 2010
STAFF BLOG
As Rwanda heads for presidential elections in August, human rights groups are focusing increasing attention on the record of President Paul Kagame, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) leader who grew up in exile in Uganda, then led the military assault which brought to an end the 1994 genocide.
In recent weeks, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued statements condemning Kagame's handling of opposition.
Frank Habineza, head of the Democratic Green Party which largely comprises ex-RPF members, has allegedly been warned not to run against Kagame. Efforts to register his party for the upcoming elections, he says, have been sabotaged at the local level. Members of his party have also been arrested without charge.
However, it is the attacks on Victoire Inagbire of FDU-Inkingi that have gained most media attention, both negative and positive.
Ever since Ingabire and an aide were reportedly attacked when picking up candidate registration forms, this 41-year-old repatriate from the Netherlands has become a polarizing figure in Rwanda and is the subject of a must-read report from Canada's Globe and Mail making the rounds in the African blogosphere.
As the Globe and Mail reports, she is not only harassed like other opposition politicians, but is also working in a hostile media environment. Kigali's New Times newspaper treated the reported attack on her as a fracas arising from queue-jumping.
Before emigrating to Netherlands during the 1994 genocide in which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus died, Ingabire experienced her own tragedy: her brother was killed when mistaken for a Tutsi.
"When people talk about the pain they feel, they need to understand that everybody feels pain," she says in the Globe and Mail interview. "We have to understand the pain of others. When I condemn the genocide, I'm also thinking of my brother. Not all Hutus are killers, and not all Tutsis are victims."
In a country still trying to make sense of the genocide, Ms. Ingabire says she draws a distinction between the slaughter of the Tutsis – which she calls a genocide – and the killings of many Hutus, which she describes as a crime against humanity.
The killings of Hutus to which she refers are RPF killings of Hutus in the same three-month period during which the genocidaires were operating.
Ingabire's public statements have helped make her a controversial figure. She has said that she does not know the actual death toll of either Tutsis or Hutus, or even who suffered a higher death toll, in spite of evidence that the Tutsi and moderate Hutu victims of the genocidaires were far more numerous and were systemically hunted down and killed.
Such statements have not only been widely panned and evoked the ire of genocide survivor groups like IBUKA, but have also helped feed the notion that she is "leaving the impression of an equivalency between the two sides," in the words of the Globe and Mail report. According to the report, the managing director of the New Times, Joseph Bideri, wrote a personal letter to Inagbire on January 22 saying the paper will not give her space in which to counter the attacks on her because she is a "genocide denier." The New Times has written report after report criticizing Inagbire since the date of that letter.
Kagame has not shied from criticizing media coverage of Ingabire either. In a recent interview, he condemned the Kenya-based regional weekly The East African for interviewing Ingabire, calling the actions of the newspaper "offensive" and an attempt to make Rwanda "less East African."
As the election draws nearer for a country portrayed widely abroad as one of Africa's success stories, the glare of media may prove harsh. At issue is not the right of the media to ask legitimate questions of any political candidate – Ingabire included – but the right of a political candidate aspiring to any office to be heard.
Ghosts of a Genocide: The Story of the Kibeho Massacre
Bryan Patterson
Sunday Herald Sun
March 28, 2010
ON April 22, 1995 - almost 15 years ago - a group of Australian soldiers watched in horror as more than 4000 unarmed men, women and children were slaughtered by machetes, guns and grenades in front of their eyes.
Our soldiers could do nothing to stop the madness. A decade and a half later, many still have regular nightmares about that.
Embedded in their memories are the faces of the victims, arms stretched out and pleading for help that couldn't be given. And they can still see the sneering laughing faces of the Rwandan killers, their hands covered in blood as they slaughtered the women and children and babies.
Our soldiers were sent to Rwanda as part of a UN peacekeeping team. But restricted by the UN rules of engagement governing the deployment, they could only watch helplessly as the orgy of killing unfolded and try to help the wounded under the gaze of trigger-happy killers.
Nothing could have prepared any soldier for that.
"The scars will be with us forever," said Kevin "Irish" O'Halloran, author of Pure Massacre, a new book on the mission.
"Many of the vets have a lot of guilt about what happened because they were not able to do the best they could do to save lives. They could not do anything to defend those who couldn't defend themselves."
Jake Blake, who was a corporal on the Rwanda mission, said O'Hallaron's book had lifted the lid on "a dirty little secret".
"This is the first time the story has been told in detail by people who were on the ground. The first time the story has been told by those who can't forget."
A year before the Kibeho massacre, the landlocked country bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania had been involved in a bloody civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in the 1994 genocide.
After the genocide and the victory by the army of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Army, many ethnic Hutus, including an unknown number of those who had committed genocide, fled from the army-controlled areas to internally displaced persons camps taken over by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda and a number of aid organisations.
Major-General Guy Tousignant, the former UN force commander of United Nations forces, recalled arriving in Rwanda's capital city Kigali on August 15, 1995. Bodies lay in the street and packs of dogs, fattened from the corpses, ruled the city. There was no drinking water or electricity.
"The devil had swept through the country and killed Rwanda's spirit and soul," said Maj-Gen Tousignant.
"All that seemed to remain was the stench of genocide and children abandoned by war pathetically wandering the streets, traumatised by the death and destruction they had witnessed."
By early 1995, the displaced persons' camp at Kibeho was the biggest in Rwanda, sprawling for 9sq km and containing 80,000 to 100,000 people.
The 32 Australian soldiers and medical officers arrived there as part of the UN peacekeeping force on April 18, 1995.
There were daily random killings by the Rwandan soldiers, but the slaughter exploded out of control soon after 10am on April 22. The Australians had a grandstand view of the nightmare from the Zambian compound.
The RPA soldiers murdered women and children right up to the UN wire. Bodies were everywhere. For the Diggers behind the wire, the next few hours were agonising.
For the refugees, there was nowhere to run.
As the Australians collected the wounded from among the piles of dead, the crisis began to escalate as panic-stricken Hutus overran the Zambian compound, driven forward by machete-and rifle wielding militia.
Hundreds were killed in the crush and the Australians were forced to repel at bayonet point the terrified victims they were supposed to be protecting, pushing them back into the RPA killing zone.
The RPA went wild and cut loose with another hail of fire on the panicking crowd.
Despite the madness, according to Kevin O'Halloran, the Australians proved their mettle, venturing out from the Zambian compound time and time again to collect the wounded before the RPA could finish them off.
At the same time they were trying to impress upon the RPA that the world was watching.
Lance Corporal Andrew Miller would later describe how the RPA made sport out of killing even babies.
"At one stage, a whole crowd of people were running down the hill and the RPA were firing after them and the whole hillside was littered with different coloured clothing as they lay dead on the ground. The RPA just stood on the top of the hill and picked off people as they ran away."
Corporal Jake Blake recalled this week: "It all went mad. At the time everything was semi-real".
One memory still haunts him.
"All of a sudden we had displaced persons outside our perimeter. We would grab them and take them back over the wire.
"One bloke came through and we dragged him back, five minutes later he was back in again so we put him back over the wire. He came in again, offering me a wad of money, desperate for help, but it was not in our mandate. So we put him back over the wire.
"He came back again and this time in broken English he offered me a little girl. Not to save her. He wanted me to take the girl in payment to save him.
"My 2IC and I grabbed the bloke and dragged him over the wire to the shoulder of the hill. There was a road just below us and rightly or wrongly it was my call. We dropped him over the edge down to the road as we had had a gutful by that stage and the business with the little girl. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"He got up and looked back at us. About half a dozen RPA soldiers appeared, grabbed the bloke and dragged him off down the road. All the time he never broke eye contact with me. They moved off in the darkness and we lost sight of him.
"We turned to walk away and a single shot barked out. We looked back at the road to see the same RPA soldiers walking back past us laughing and waving to us."
He said it was a decision that has haunted him ever since.
"Maybe I could have done something to save the bloke. I don't know. You think of these things all the time. It doesn't get any easier."
O'Halloran also carries an image that won't disappear. It is of a mother with a child strapped to her back, a little girl and a little boy at her feet. All dead.
After the madness stopped, one Australian medic with a hand-held counter counted bodies he passed. He reached more than 4000 clicks about halfway through the killing field before RPA soldiers threatened to kill him if he did not stop.
For two days, the Australians brought out those still alive and helped to fill mass graves with corpses.
Some estimate that up to 8000 could have been killed at the camp. The Rwandan Government's estimate of the number killed was about 300.
Most Australian soldiers there during the rampage later agreed that they would have died at the hands of the RPA soldiers had they tried to stop the killings. The RPA heavily outnumbered and outgunned the Australians.
O'Halloran said the Australians who saw the Kibeho savagery were brave, steadfast and courageous.
"They were determined to save as many lives as they could with the limited mandate and inadequate equipment. They achieved this while under fire.
"Members of the RPA tried to goad them into taking offensive action. But the Australian officers remained cool, calm and collected under difficult conditions.
"One of the greatest achievements was the incalculable number of lives saved by the sheer presence of the Australian soldiers. I truly believe our service should be remembered as as a success against the odds."
He said the Australian military tradition was "long, glorious and, for the most part, honourable".
"However our encounter at Kibeho and the murder of so many in front of us seemed anything but honourable for the men and women who served there," he said. "Our hands were tied."
Four Australians were awarded the Medal for Gallantry for their distinguished service at Kibeho, the first gallantry medals awarded to Australians since the Vietnam War.
When the story of Kibeho first broke, the world was appalled. The UN announced an investigation, but the results were indecisive.
Kevin O'Halloran said it took him 10 years to finish his book on the events at Kibeho.
"I thought there was no book on the market that told the story from the soldiers' point of view. I wanted to give those veterans a voice."
O'Halloran said he hoped the world had learned a lesson from Kibeho. Such a thing would probably not happen again.
Jake Blake is not sure.
"I don't think they learned anything," he said.
"Yes, it could happen again."
Related Materials:
COMBAT MEDIC: An Australian’s eyewitness account of the Kibeho Massacre
Mbandaka Terminus: The Path of Rwandan Refugee Mass Graves in Congo
DRC: Murder of Hutu women and children around Mbandaka
Goma/Bukavu: Testimony of a direct eye witness, January 1997
Refugees From Congo Give Vivid Accounts of Killings
USA: Article prompts memories of Rwanda struggle
On The Myth Of Collective Responsibility In Rwandan Genocide
Rwanda: Killing in the name of God
BY NDAHIRO KENNEDY
The New Times-Rwanda
March 27, 2010
Part One
Violence and religion have, time immemorial, gone hand-in-hand. History books have many references of "defenders of the faith" leading religious expeditions to punish or forcefully convert non-believers.
From the Holy Jihad mounted by Prophet Muhammed through the First Crusade instigated by Pope Urban II to the Roman Inquisition, blood has been shed in the name of God.
In those days, Rome’s brand of Christianity was the only accepted creed; any deviation from it and you would be branded a heretic and risked an excruciating form of death - burning on the stake.
Astronomers Galileo and Copernicus paid the price of stating that the world was round and revolved around a stationary sun, the centre of the universe!
The 1099 Jerusalem massacres during the First Crusade, where thousands of Muslims were slaughtered in the name of Christianity was the beginning of Islam’s beef with the West.
Today Islamic fundamentalists have taken centre stage with their "Holy Wars". The buzz word today is "suicide bombers", a new form of religious violence whose reverberations today are felt around the world. Yesterday’s Mujahideen is today considered a terrorist, a legitimate target for George Bush’s war against terror.
Rwanda for many decades revolved around the Catholic Church which had a big say in the social, political and economic course of the country. The majority of schools were run by the Church - the biggest landowner - which in turn formed the elite.
Our parents and grandparents were groomed under the strictest conditions, what could be termed as "Catholic fundamentalism". They could not tolerate any other religion, and Islam and protestant religions were taboo when it came to marrying off their children.
They could recite the Holy Scriptures in Latin without understanding a word. Many set aside corners in their homes for an altar where a candle-lit statue of the Virgin Mary solemnly stood.
Religious communities were the lifelines of many in the rural areas where a dependent culture was cultivated and nurtured. The term "Abagiraneza" (benefactors) came to refer to the likes of Catholic Relief Services who gave food handouts, scholastic materials and second-hand clothes to the villagers.
The Church and its affiliates came to be an indispensable factor in the country, to the extent that the Archbishop of Kigali was a member of the ruling party’s Central Committee! ile the Catholic Church has eased its hold on the political pulse of many Third World countries, Rwanda inclusive, a few pockets of resistance still remain within its ranks. Many have taken it upon themselves to be the unofficial opposition in Kigali, albeit from a foreign land. It is difficult not to imagine that these "lone rangers" have the backing of somewhere up there in the Vatican. One US-based organisation which describes itself as "a community of advocates for responsible U.S. relations with Africa" is a case in point.
The Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) based in Washington DC groups together over 30 Who-is-Who in the missionary community in the US and Africa, many of them operating in Rwanda.
One only has to read documents by their staff, especially by Beth Tuckey and her Congolese colleague, Bahati Ntama Jacques, to realize that AFJN has fallen into the extremist trap that sees everything in the region and Rwanda in particular through ethnic binoculars.
US president George Bush’s recent visit to Rwanda seems to have struck a raw nerve and it is not difficult to tell who feeds them their "daily bread". They recently wrote this on http://www.pambazuka.org/:
"Will the leader of the most powerful country in the world have the courage to discuss Rwanda’s negative role in peace and economic development in DRC? Will he castigate Rwandan President Kagame for not providing the political space for Hutus to return to Rwanda? Likely, no…"
Of course there was some grudging respect on Rwanda’s achievements but their parting shot gives an insight of where their interests lie.
"Though Kagame has undoubtedly brought strong economic development to the small Great Lakes nation, he has failed to adequately deal with the legacy of the 1994 Genocide – the strained relationship between Hutus and Tutsis".
I can now understand why being shut out of their traditional role of "Abagiraneza" is painful. Their "Crusade" against Kigali is to "suicide bomb" whatever efforts that have been achieved and portray the country as being on the edge of a precipice, requiring their God-given intervention. They forget the old Kinyarwanda adage that says "God is away during the day but in the evening comes home to Rwanda".
Related Materials:
Support Free and Fair Presidential Elections in Rwanda to Prevent Another Genocide
The US ‘War on Terror’ Exported to Rwanda: A Threat to Peace in DRC
Cracks in the mirror as Rwanda prepares for elections
By Kris Berwouts
Director, EurAc
http://www.eurac-network.org/
21 March 2010
Cracks in the mirror as Rwanda prepares for elections
By Kris Berwouts,
Director of EurAc
Post-field visit report
March 2010
I visited Rwanda during the second week of March 2010. In recent years I have often passed through this country which I have been visiting since 1997, usually in transit to Goma, Bukavu or Bujumbura. Each time I have taken advantage and met some personal or professional contacts, but since 2007 I have never stayed more than 24 hours.I have, of course, always kept up to date with what was happening in Rwanda and, together with my colleagues at EurAc, I have made a continuing effort to provide information to understand the issues better and to discuss them objectively. Such a « leitmotiv » is relevant everywhere but it is especially important in the case of Rwanda: here very often the arguments between “believers” and “non- believers” are like the deaf listening to the dumb.In the weeks just before my arrival it was possible to feel considerable tension building up in the country. Of course we all expected the space for political dialogue to be reduced in the months leading to the election. The demonization of Victoire Ingabire when she returned to the country to lead a campaign for president as the candidate of the opposition party, FDU-Inkingi, led to increasing aggression against the other opposition parties present inside the country. On 19 February, a Friday evening, various well frequented places in the capital were the subject of three grenade attacks at the height of the rush hour resulting in two deaths and several people wounded. The Rwanda media first accused the FDLR, then Victoire Ingabire for these attacks. On Thursday 4 March 2010 in two further, almost simultaneous, bomb attacks in Kigali 16 more people were wounded. These acts of violence were followed by a wave of accusations and arrests.
In the time between the two attacks, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa left the country and went to South Africa. After his departure this former Chief of the General Staff of the Rwandan army was accused of being behind the grenade attacks of 19 February and of being associated with the former chief of foreign intelligence, Colonel Patrick Karegeya, who has been in South Africa since 2007.
On Saturday 6 March, the Rwanda authorities announced the arrest in Burundi of an opposition activist, Déo Mushayidi, accused by Kigali of being one of the authors of the recent grenade attacks. Gradually the bomb throwers started to outnumber the bombs.
You can understand that I did not know very well what to expect. As the days went by I had a problem knowing exactly why the situation seemed to me to be different from what it was the other times I had visited the country. I noticed that the people felt fear, but that had long been the case. I saw a closing up of the political space but this had often been experienced before. I had not remembered grenade attacks in the recent past (but a little research after my return told me that there had been in April and December 2008 and in April and July 2009), but at the same time I had the impression that the grenades were a symptom rather than a cause of events. It was my wish and my duty to bring together all these bits of information in one solid piece of analysis.
Finally what was really new dawned on me: I was watching a régime which was primarily not fighting its enemies; it was struggling to prevent its own disintegration. For ten years we had speculated about divisions within the inner circle of power. We always realized that there were disagreements but no-one could help me precisely define these divisions. Today when the régime looks at itself in the mirror it can see the cracks that belie the united and serene image which it wants to show to the public in Rwanda and internationally. The régime has come face to face with its own fragility; it is nervous and is reacting out of all proportion.
You will read in the following pages my findings, my impressions and my analysis. This does not reflect EurAc’s official position. It is based on the reflections of a single person and only he is committed by it – a person who, as usual, returns from a visit with more questions than answers.
Kris Berwouts
Director, EurAc
21 March 2010
1) Open debate in a closed political context?
Rwanda is not accustomed to open debate. Over the years the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), the party which has been in power since 1994 has built up a control over public life (including the political and judicial organs) on the lines of a one party system despite the existence of a number of other satellite political parties which operate on the fringes of power thanks to their basic loyalty to that power.
The electoral cycle (2001 – 2003) which marked the end of the transition period was organised with no open debate: the only opposition party, ADEP-Mizero, was never registered, and the main independent candidates for the presidential elections were disqualified just before the vote. President Kagame won his elections with a stalinist 95% of votes following a campaign marred by the disappearances, arrests and intimidation of voters, candidates and observers. The European Union found irregularities and serious fraud in both the legislative and presidential elections of 2003. The EU observation mission had similar findings during the legislative elections of September 2008. Although the wording of the report and in the declarations made at the time of its publication was very diplomatic and tried to avoid confrontation with the Rwandan régime, several of those who took part in this mission reported voting irregularities, in the handling of ballot boxes and in counting votes.
It is now four and a half months until the presidential elections due on 9 August 2010. The ruling party is taking them very seriously and making preparations, putting the party machine in order at local and national level and using all available means including its monopoly of the media.
At the same time other political groupings are preparing themselves too. They are trying to obtain registration as political parties and demanding a fair chance to make themselves known and heard by the electorate. The principal opposition parties are:
• The Parti Social Imberakuri, (PSI) with Bernard Ntaganda as President, formed by ex-members of the Parti Social Démocrate (PSD) which they left because they were frustrated that the PSD remained tied to the FPR.
• The Democratic Green Party, with a leadership drawn mainly from the Anglophones, is seen by many as an expression of discontent from within the FPR. Its President is Frank Habineza and its Secretary General Charles Kabanda, one of the founders of the FPR in the 80’s in Uganda.
• The FDU-Inkingi whose President, Victoire Ingabire, returned in mid-January to stand as a presidential candidate after an absence of 17 years.
The regime does not consider that these parties enrich Rwanda’s political life.
In 2009, the Parti Social Imberakuri tried to organise four congresses. Three of them were stopped by the regime for procedural reasons but one was held in June.The PS Imberakuri was recognised as a party in July 2009. Throughout this period the party president, Bernard Ntaganda, made very critical speeches on a number of social, political and judicial issues of concern to the people. For many Rwandans the fact that the regime was apparently allowing Ntaganda to speak so openly was an indication that there could be positive change and a new political openness.
In the end an offensive against Bernard Ntaganda was launched from within his own party. The Secretary General of the PSI, Noel Hakizimfura, accused his president of « divisionism and genocidal ideology ». In February Hakizimfura and another party member were expelled from the party for having accepted money from the FPR in order to destabilize the PSI. On Tuesday evening 16 March 2010, some leading members of the PS-Imberakuri were taken to the headquarters of the FPR where they were ordered to organise a party convention the following day, 17 March, to remove Ntaganda from his post. The convention was held and the party vice-president, Christine Mukabunani, declared afterwards that Bernard Ntaganda was no longer president of the party. As a result the institutional framework of the PSI has become very unclear.
In her case, Victoire Ingabire had for a long time been preparing her bid for the presidency of Rwanda from Holland where she had been living for 17 years. Ingabire arrived on Saturday 16 January in Rwanda: "I am ready to canvass for my candidature for head of state and victory is certain", she declared soon after stepping on to the tarmac at Kigali international airport. Her candidature and her direct way of speaking immediately caused tension within the regime which responded with immediate verbal aggression including in the media. Almost immediately she went to place flowers at the Gisozi Memorial. In part of her speech she said: "The road to reconciliation is still long. This memorial only commemorates the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis, whereas there were also massacres of Hutus », clearly alluding to the crimes committed in 1994 by members of the former Tutsi rebellion by the Rwanda Popular Front (FPR), now in power. “The Hutus who killed Tutsis must understand that they have to be punished. It is the same for the Tutsis who have killed Hutus." This declaration caused fury on the part of genocide victims, the media and the authorities who accused her of propagating “negativism”.
Since 10 February she has regularly been summoned by the police for investigation which has been very time consuming and has hindered her other activities and in which she has been accused of spreading « genocidal ideology, divisionism and contact with the FDLR”. Up to now no formal charges have been brought but a legal framework has been created which can lead to charges simply by transferring the police file to the courts.
At the same time the FDU-Inkingi was trying to organise its constituent assembly. This had not been formally forbidden by anyone but Ingabire faced “Kafkaesque” behaviour on the part of the authorities. The commune was willing to authorize the assembly on condition that the police would confirm that they would be present to ensure security. The police would be happy to ensure security provided that the commune gives its written authorisation, and so...
On 13 March, she received a letter from the communal authorities which forbade her to organise political meetings since she was subject to police investigation i.e. the February police interrogation was being used to prevent her exercising political rights today. She wanted to react by holding a press conference but all the hotels where she had booked a meeting room were threatened and cancelled the booking at the last minute.
The newest opposition party is the Green Democratic Party, launched in August 2009 in Kigali, with the aim of creating a genuine and broad-based opposition with a progressive and ecological vision. This party has also been stopped several times in its efforts to organise its meetings. Faced with this situation, the three parties mentioned have set up a common structure (Conseil de Concertation Permanent des Partis de l’Opposition) in the hope that this coordination will enable them to widen the democratic “space” by having a common position on certain subjects and joint lobbying nationally and internationally.
However, these groups, acting alone or together, are very fragile faced with a regime which has no desire for real debate during the elections and which is restricting democratic space through :
• Its monopoly of the media, which continually demonize the opposition parties and their leaders
• Verbal and physical intimidation of opposition parties, their leaders, members and activists
• The creation of a legal framework in which proceedings can be brought very rapidly and where the opposition finds it hard to defend itself (since accusations of spreading genocidal ideology and divisionism are very broad and not clearly defined in law. This terminology is applied to all those who have a different understanding than the official one of the recent history of Rwanda. This means it can be used to paralyse the leaders of the opposition and to prevent them carrying out their daily duties and exercising their political rights.)
• An administrative policy which aims to prevent opposition groups being registered, setting themselves up, organising meetings or making themselves known to the general public. In this way two of the parties mentioned above have not yet been registered, while the third has not been given the right to organise activities on the ground.
• Infiltration of opposition parties in order to destabilise them from within.
These strategies do not necessarily imply that the regime wants completely to ban the opposition. It could easily have done that before. Perhaps it wants first to slow down the opposition, to stop it getting through to the people with a message different from its own and to stop it gaining credibility. The opposition leaders I have met fear that the government will prevent them getting registration in March. The process cannot go forward in April, the month when the country is loaded with emotions, with ceremonies and activities commemorating the genocide. This would mean starting again in May. If the authorities use the same delaying tactics it is not unlikely that opposition political parties would only be recognised several weeks before the elections. In this case they would take part in the elections without any normal preparation for the campaign or for the vote and without a chance of getting through to the electorate.
2) Hawks on the run
On Wednesday 3 March, President Kagame accused two high ranking Rwandan officers of attempting to destabilise Rwanda: the former chief of foreign intelligence, Colonel Patrick Karegeya, and General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, former Chief of the General Staff of the Rwandan army and Ambassador to India who had also fled to South Africa, according to the Rwandan judiciary. "Nobody, not a single person, not even Kayumba, can make a coup d'etat here. Think about it and you will conclude that no-one can make a coup d'etat in Rwanda”, President Kagame insisted. Around the same time the state prosecutor, Martin Ngoga, accused General Kayumba Nyamwasa of the grenade attacks of 19 February. For a long time these two soldiers originating from the Ugandan Anglophone diaspora had been among the regime’s key personalities.
Patrick Karegeya was not only the former intelligence chief, he was also the main man running the Congo Desk, a bureau run by the External Security Department which was created in order to manage the exploitation of the wealth of eastern DRC, the income from which did not appear in official government accounts. This system enabled the army and political leaders to conceal huge sums of money. In all the discussions and documents relating to the official withdrawal of the Rwandan army from the Congo in September 2002 it has been very hard to distinguish precisely between the role of the Rwandan state and that of the non-state political and military lobbies as regards the illicit exploitation of Congolese resources and the support given to military groups such as the CNDP. In the shadowy zone between the state and the Rwandan lobbies, Patrick Karegeya and the Congo Desk occupied a central position.
Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa grew up in the south of Uganda and he became one of the most powerful people in the Rwanda army. He led the military campaigns in the north east of the country in the years following the genocide. In 2001 he was replaced as head of the army by General Emmanuel Habyarimana, who was himself later replaced by James Kaberebe. Kayumba was sent for training to the United Kingdom. In 2004, he was appointed ambassador to India. Political insiders in Rwanda have always believed that this appointment (and even sending him earlier to England) was a step taken by President Kagame to remove Kayumba from the centre of politico-military affairs in Rwanda as he was starting to build his own base within the core group of power in Rwanda.
In November 2006, the French judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, issued an international arrest warrant against Kayumba and eight other high ranking military men close to Kagame in connexion with the enquiry into the attack on President Juvénal Habyarimana’s airplane on 6 April 1994 which triggered the genocide. In February 2008, the Spanish magistrate, Fernando Andreu Merelles, issued fourty arrest warrants against senior officers in the Rwanda army (including Kayumba) for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and terrorism committed in Rwanda and in the DRC between 1 October 1990 and 2002. The cases had been submitted to the Spanish courts in 2000 by relatives of Spanish victims killed in Rwanda, religious and humanitarian workers and by exiled Rwandan organisations.
In an interview after his arrival in South Africa General Kayumba spoke of the transformation of Kagame’s regime into a dictatorship and of his own commitment to a democratic Rwanda. One must, however, make a distinction between hawks and doves inside Rwanda’s power structure – but Kayumba is most certainly no dove…
3) Déo Mushayidi
On Saturday 6 March 2010, the Rwandan authorities confirmed the arrest of the opposition leader, Déo Mushayidi. Mushayidi, had been living in recent months in Tanzania, was arrested by Tanzanian police in the town of Bukoba. On 4 March, he was taken to the Burundi frontier and transferred by the Burundian police to Bujumbura. On Friday 5 March he was extradited to Rwanda, despite the absence of an international arrest warrant or even any kind of legal procedure, and transferred to Kicukiro police station, Kigali.
Born in 1961 in the south east of Rwanda, Mushayidi was a genocide survivor who in 1995 resigned his post as assistant to the Secretary-General of the FPR, Major Théogène Rudasingwa. He became a journalist on several papers e.g. l’Ere de Liberté, Imboni where he began to denounce human rights violations and corruption. In 1996, he was elected president of the Association of Journalists of Rwanda (AJIR). He also became Executive Secretary of the Centre for the Promotion of Freedom of Expression and Tolerance in the Great Lakes Region. In 2000, persecuted and slandered by the government media, he requested and was granted asylum in Belgium.
There he involved himself in a number of political movements including the monarchist Alliance for Democracy and National Reconciliation (ADRN), Igihango and the Intwari Partnership in order to create in 2008 the Pact for the Defence of the People (PDP) of which he remains president until today. He left Belgium in order to continue his political activities closer to Rwanda.
After his arrest, Déo Mushayidi was accused of being implicated in the grenade attacks and of working with Kayumba et Karegeya. Amnesty International has organised an emergency action to support him.
4) The cracks in the mirror
The traditional opposition is not the main concern of the Rwandan regime at the present moment. When you have almost complete control over the legislative, executive and judicial institutions, when an independent press has almost completely disappeared, when that section of opinion which has not openly sided with you has attained an extraordinary level of sophistication in the noble art of self-censorship, when for a large part of national and international opinion you represent the ending of genocide and the return to stability, you are not going to lose the elections. Not against Victoire Ingabire who has not played any role in Rwandan public life and is therefore not known by the electorate in Rwanda. Not against Bernard Ntaganda either – his team is unstable and easily manipulated. And not against Frank Habineza, even though he has worked with people close to you including the first president (i.e. one of the first dissidents) of your country. They have a party which was still not in existence a year ago and which is not certain to be recognised in time to take part in the elections.
The Democratic Green Party is not going to defeat the FPR in the elections but it is making the regime nervous. This is because it shows how the Rwandan elite, the inner circle of power is losing its cohesion. This is not the only indication and it is not new, but Kayumba’s departure, the arrest of Mushayidi and the emergence of the Democratic Green Party prove that what the government sees when it looks in the mirror can be seen by everybody, not just by the government itself.
Nothing grows underneath a baobab
Part of the problem of tension inside the regime has nothing to do with the specific context of Rwanda. After the death of Fred Rwigema on the second day of the FPR armed struggle in October 1990, Paul Kagame took over the command of the rebellion and he still commands it today. He was the strong man during the war and after the victory, even though he reserved for himself the role of Minister of Defense, leaving Pasteur Bizimungu to head the institutions of state. This did not prevent anybody, inside Rwanda or not, being aware that it was he who was really running the country. Many in the international community had a high opinion of him: after the fall of the Mobutu generation, Kagame was for some people the incarnation of a new type of African leadership with an inspiring vision, an ability to mobilise and effective enough to achieve palpable and, in some areas, even spectacular results.
However, he is following the same track as other African heads of state (e.g. Museveni and Mugabe). His self-confidence is turning to arrogance and reading carefully the list of key people (high ranking military personnel, ministers, ambassadors) who have left the country shows that his rule has developed a self-destructive tendency, sawing off the branch on which he is sitting. Like Museveni, Mugabe and so many others, Kagame is turning himself into the “Roi Soleil” with no heir, a baobab tree beneath which nothing can grow.
Part of the discontent within the party and the associated community results from a build up of frustration among those who hang on to the coat tails of power without having access to it, people who thought that the FPR could be the motive force to drag them out of poverty. They can see people they grew up with in the refugee camps in Uganda who are now billionaires but they see no way in to that closed circle.
A generational aspect to their exclusion from power is also developing. The generation which took up arms won the war and took over the running of the country invested a lot in the education of their sons and daughters who are now returning home. Their intellectual and technical level far exceeds that of their fathers’ generation and they want to play a leading role in running the country.
International justice: the sword of Damocles
The legal procedures initiated by Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière in France and Fernando Andreu Merelles in Spain have badly shaken the inner circle of power. The Rwanda government can rely on the loyalty of a number of countries and international institutions, and this is at least partly based on feelings of guilt on the part of the international community for not having been able to prevent the genocide (and, frankly, not having tried too much to prevent it).
To preserve international support it is vital for the Rwandan regime to be sure of the interpretation the world makes of Rwanda’s recent history. Since 1994, the country has been managed in a psychological climate of winners of the war versus its losers, the victims of the crimes against their executioners, in which, for example, a whole system has been put in place through the gacaca courts to deal with crimes of genocide against Tutsis while at the same time there is a complete taboo regarding crimes committed by the FPR since the start of the war. This taboo reduces the positive effect that gacaca should have been able to have: instead of being the means of taking on board its traumatic past, gacaca has become a strategy for consolidating the winners/victims versus losers/ criminals scenario.
It is true that the initiatives of de Bruguière and Andreu are very irritating. They disrupt the picture and spoil the image. And they lead to worry on the part of those who feel concerned. Even though it is highly improbable that the current leaders of Rwanda would be brought to trial in France or Spain, perhaps the image the country wishes to present is not tenable in the medium term. It cannot be ruled out, even if this does not happen tomorrow, that the question will become: « What are we going to admit ? Who shall we sacrifice?». Such questions do not greatly help to create cohesion. The immediate future of Kayumba is a major concern of the regime. What will he say and before what audience? What if he is extradited to Spain? Hence the pressure on the South African government to send him back to Rwanda.
Rwanda’s involvement in the Congo
Since 1996 the Congo has taken a lot of space in Rwanda’s foreign policy, and on several occasions what happened in the Congo has been a bone of contention which has haunted the regime. For example Kayumba was opposed to the confrontation with Uganda in 2000 and 2002.
A recent example is the arrest of Laurent Nkunda at the start of the joint operation, Umoja Wetu. The operation was led by John Numbi (for the Congo) and James Kabarebe (for Rwanda) and one of the first actions was to arrest Laurent Nkunda who was the subject of a plan by Bosco Ntaganda to replace him at the head of the CNDP. This arrest provoked much animosity in Rwanda, not only in Congolese Rwandophone refugee circles and camps in Rwanda, but also in the army. After all, Nkunda had served in the FPR and elements of the FPR had served in Nkunda forces. This collaboration created strong links and common interests.
Clearly a great part of the Congo’s importance for Rwanda is the illegal trafficking of the Congo’s resources through Rwanda. This traffic is evidently not controlled by the Congo government but a good part is also outside the control of the Rwanda government even though it serves the interests of key people in the Rwandan politico-military establishment. Such business interests can be very various and do not always contribute to the cohesion of the regime either. It is partly for this reason that one can understand the nervousness about the current obligation that the Rwandan rulers must report their wealth and their income transparently.
Directly linked to the Rwandan involvement in the Congo is the problem of demobilised soldiers. Now that a direct presence in the Congo is no longer an option, Rwanda finds itself with much too large an army. Part of the surplus can be deployed by the African Union but that is a limited option. The remainder has to be demobilised, and many of these ex-soldiers feel basically abandoned by the regime which they have fought for, often in very tough circumstances.
The language issue
We all know about the linguistic tension in Rwanda: the FPR introduced English since the rebellion was led by those who had grown up in Uganda. The fact that they had taken power gave English a much more important status in the public life of the country than could be imagined from the numbers that actually spoke it. Over the years the balance has gradually shifted in favour of English and this was accompanied by a feeling of discrimination among many Francophones.
A decisive moment was in 2008 when English was recognised as the official language in education. For some this was a visionary decision to open up the country to the regional, continental and global reality; for others it was a decision to set in stone the ambition of a minority regime to monopolize communication and the country’s intellectual life, to dominate the country’s youth, to rewrite history and in the end to take control of the country’s collective memory.
Quite independently of the point of view from which this question is viewed, it is obvious that the decision has strengthened some and marginalised others. It deepens the already existing gulf between those who came out of Uganda and formed the nucleus of the regime and the others, where genocide survivors found themselves in an even more uncomfortable situation than that found by those who returned from Burundi or the Congo in 1994.
Power and the clan structure
The clan structure around the Rwanda royal family, even though it has not reigned for over half a century, is still seen by many as a factor. The monarchist movement around King Kigeli V (currently in the United States) continues to play a political role and it wants to participate in running the country. Some Rwandan analysts point out that membership of these clans is an important aspect of the identity of a number of those currently active on the political stage. In particular the ancestral tension between Banyiginya and Bega is one of the cracks which enable us better to understand the goings on side the power structure: Kagame is a Mwega, whereas Kayumba, Karegeya, Nyetera, Kazura, Sebarenzi and many others are Banyiginya.
I am not at all an expert in this subject to understand to what degree clans play a serious role in the present situation but I thought I should at least mention it.
Conclusion: more questions than answers
Is the Rwandan regime in crisis? It is possible, certainly. Given the over-reaction of the authorities when confronted by new situations on the ground, we get the impression that the regime believes so, even while the authorities keep declaring that everything is under control. Is the reign of the FPR approaching its end? I meet many people who hope so, but that remains to be seen. Even though I believe that the Rwanda government is not working towards a lasting solution to its problems, it seems clear that the control which it has established remains solid based as it is on a culture of silence and a tradition of obedience to authority. Is the country about to implode again? We definitely hope it isn’t. It is very hard to imagine that Rwanda and its people have anything to gain from that, and any such event would have serious consequences for the whole region – for the essential but fragile peace process in Burundi for example; or for the people in eastern Congo who have seen many changes since the Umoja Wetu operation without any resulting sign of future lasting peace.
What is certain is that things are not going well. People are not comparing the situation with the pre-electoral atmosphere in 2003 but with that of 1993. The grenade attacks have provoked fear. The question: « Who threw them? » remains unanswered. Victoire Ingabire and the presidents of the other opposition parties simply want a really free and transparent electoral process. For them the present climate is counter productive. Kayumba ? There are plenty of precedents in the history of post-colonial Africa of generals trying to take power but I do not remember any case where they began their campaign by throwing grenades at a bus stop. The FDLR ? I have just been in eastern Congo and I had a strong impression that the FDLR had other things on their mind. Déo Mushayidi ? Frustrated demobilised soldiers? People who were angry because they found that Sarkozy was not forced to make a proper apology (that was one of the suggestions I heard)? Not very likely. In fact there are no probable explanations but one of the least improbable ones is that the regime itself organised the attacks so as to create a climate where citizens could be arrested and intimidated. I met many people who were frightened and there were others I was not able to meet as they were so frightened that they did not dare meet me.
The pre-electoral situation remains volatile. It is hard to foresee what Rwanda will be like during and after the elections if the opposition remains muzzled, harassed or crushed. It is important for the Rwandan regime to receive signals from the international community that it must stop this intimidation. At the present time this community gives the impression that it is not at all concerned. It seems to believe that the pre-election tension was predictable, that the situation is under control, that the nervousness might increase a little before the election but that in the end Kagame will win with a comfortable, even crushing, majority. Then the international community will continue business as usual. This is a rather weak analysis. It underestimates the destabilising potential of the present situation and it serves very badly the chances for democracy in Rwanda in the medium and longer term.
From our point of view we must recommend that the international community put pressure on the regime to take measures that will help create political stability in Rwanda and the holding of truly free and transparent elections. Such pressures should principally consist of:
• urging the regime not to refuse to register opposition parties, not to prevent them from working on the ground and not destroying them;
• stopping political and police harassment of the leaders and members of the opposition ;
• asking the government not to use the public media to demonise its opponents;
• demand that a new electoral law be published and an independent electoral commission be set up;
• rapidly deploy an international electoral observer mission.
Beyond the immediate question of the election, it is really important for the FPR to reverse trend to restriction and exclusion and to put its effort into solving the antagonisms which exist, but this falls outside the Terms of Reference of my March visit. EurAc will come back to this matter in a future document.
For further details:
Kris Berwouts
Rue des Tanneurs, 165 B - 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 213 04 000
@: kris.berwouts@eurac-network.org
Danger and Volatility in Rwanda
By Khante
March 27, 2010
On March 25, 2010, President Paul Kagame said that he is ready to do whatever it takes to protect the nation from ill-intentioned people.
He made such remarks while officiating at the swearing-in ceremony of two new Members of Parliament: Hamidou Omar and Athanasie Gahondogo, as well as the Deputy Ombudsman, Bernadette Kanzayire.
Kagame assured the country of full protection and security, and that he will not tolerate anything that causes insecurity, adding that the recent incidents were minor.
Kagame also said that those who fought for the country are still there and are ready to fight once again for the security of the country. Nobody should play with the security of the Rwandan people, he added.
However, the RPF mouthpiece newspaper, The New Times, intentionally failed to mentione such a statement in their article, probably in order to fool the international donors.
When Kagame talks about Rwandan security, nobody should get confused because he is only talking about his own security. He wants to stay on power to avoid to face justice. He knows that when he will lose his presidential immunity, he may face justice for several crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by his troops in Rwanda and in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He is not willing to open up the political space in Rwanda because he already knows that he will surely lose any free and fair election. This is why he will try to maintain himself on power by all means until he dies in office. He will always attempt to cause chaos and put the blame on his opponents when his security could be in danger.
In his 7 April 2007 commemoration of genocide, delivered in Murambi , Rwanda , President Paul Kagame said that the RPF Army made a mistake: they should have finished off all the Hutus before they fled to Congo ( Zaire ), and they should have finished off all those who returned, when they had the chance. Kagame’s supporters, both emboldened and embarrassed by his words, issued a sanitized version of this speech; the original version has disappeared from public view.
On April 30, 2003 in Bwisige, Rebero-Byumba, President Paul Kagame said similar thing in Kinyarwanda warning those who claim to have corn or sorghum harvest that he already has grinding machines specifically designed to grind such a harvest.
Should violence erupt anytime soon in Rwanda, President Paul Kagame along with his army and Local Defense militia (Intore) might bear full responsibility of such a chaos. As Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the leading figure of the Rwandan opposition and chairperson of the United Democratic Forces (UDF-Inkingi) has always claimed, there is no need for more blood shed to implement democratic principles in Rwanda.
However, without US and UK pressure on the Kagame's regime, violence may indeed erupt once again anytime. As the major donors and supporters of post-genocide Rwanda, the US and UK need to be involved to make sure there is smooth transition to democratic governance, which in turn will provide more stable institutions and economy.
Otherwise, the millions of taxpayer dollars that we used to help rebuild Rwanda would have gone to waste since war might erupt again.
USA: Beck's Fearmongering Mimics Rwandan Genocide Propaganda
By Cord Jefferson
The Huffington Post
March 24, 2010
These days, a great many Americans know that Fox News heavyweight Glenn Beck's nightly rhetoric is silly, frequently factually incorrect, and, most of all, melodramatic. In fact, as of late, even other Fox staffers have started turning on the blubbering simp. Still, few people seem to be discussing how, given the right circumstances, a person like Beck can go from laughable clown to dangerous threat almost overnight.
I've often thought Beck's fearmongering was a bit troubling, but I didn't realize just how troubling until this weekend, when I compared it to some RTLM transcripts.
For those who don't know, RTLM, or Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, was the propaganda station used to broadcast vicious hate propaganda during the Rwandan genocide. Staffed exclusively by Hutus, the RTLM's "news" briefs were bad enough that foreign governments considered jamming the station's signal in order to mitigate the Tutsi massacre. Ultimately, they didn't, for fear of being branded as censors, leaving hundreds of thousands of Tutsis to be slaughtered.
Not shutting down the Hutu hate speech when the chance presented itself is regrettable. Today, seeing how strikingly similar Beck's nonsense is to some RTLM transcripts, I can't help but wonder if we'll eventually also regret giving him airtime.
RTLM: "It is not only today that the [Tutsis] want to take and monopolize power in order to oppress the Hutus and cast democracy out of the window; the Batutsis' superiority complex has been around for a very long time. ... It is this superiority complex which set the Tutsis apart because, even today, many of them are still convinced of their intellectual superiority to the rest of the Rwandans."
Glenn Beck: "Isn't that exactly the thing that we used to like about America, that the average Joe could have a voice? That's what [progressives] don't like about Sarah Palin, and listen to the vitriol. ... They don't like Sarah Palin, they don't like Joe the Plumber because they're average people, and if you're an average person, well, you're just not good enough."
RTLM: "The [Tutsis] ... are wicked and a wicked person always finds a way of performing evil arts."
Glenn Beck: "I know who our czars are now. And this collection of these czars, these are evil people. These are wicked, crazy, frightening people."
RTLM: "When you look at them, you wonder what kind of people they are. In any case, let us simply stand firm and exterminate them..."
Glenn Beck: "There's a time for everything. To every purpose, there is a season. And let me tell you, today the season is clubbing people over the head with shovels.
RTLM: From Salon: "Radio Democracy, the voice of Hutu rebel forces fighting Burundi's Tutsi-controlled national army from neighboring Zaire, routinely brands government soldiers as 'bloodthirsty vampires.'"
Glenn Beck: "I think this is a sign that the government won't think twice before they jam their fangs into your neck. ... These bloodsucker vampires are not going to be satisfied with just sucking the blood out of GM's top guy, the AIG executives or any other business or businessperson. Their thirst for power and control is unquenchable. They will not stop. There's only two ways for this movie to end: Either the economy becomes like the walking dead, or you drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers.
RTLM: "We then ask you seriously to help us and work with us on discovering and protesting against anyone who would still have evil plans of bringing us back to a worse situation. ... give information to the soldiers, and all those who are in charge of security...
Glenn Beck: "I beg you, America, I beg you. Great and powerful evil is on our doorstep. Great and powerful evil is here. I beg you, read about the progressives.
RTLM: "This has been diffused by journalists of Radio France Internationale, who serve as [Tutsi] tools. The wish of these white men is that the preferred race, by God, must rule Rwanda.
Glenn Beck: "[Van Jones] is yet another community organizer. This is yet another black nationalist in the same way that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a black nationalist. ... And America, you need to wake up, because this country is being transformed, and if you don't think--it's way beyond socialism. It is way beyond socialism. It is into black nationalism.
RTLM: "[P]eople from Uganda, Burundi and elsewhere ... instead of coming in peace, they steal our country, they destroy it. Therefore, let us get up and fight for Rwanda.
Glenn Beck: "Your country is being hijacked. They are using things like green jobs as a front. They are using healthcare as a front. In the context of Obama style reparations, that's what they're doing."
RTLM: "Another thing is that so far, the RTLM radio station has told the whole truth. And what it said happened. It has been proving what it said. ... It will never be discouraged. It will never stop its transmissions."
Glenn Beck: "As for Fox, they only seem biased compared to the one-sided reporting of NBC, ABC, CBS and especially MSNBC. The fact is, I don't know of ANY lies Fox News has told. Fox gives both sides of the argument of virtually every issue."
Note:
All RTLM transcripts via surplus knowldge.
Unless otherwise noted, all Glenn Beck transcripts via The Glenn Beck program.
About the Author:
Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Cord Jefferson now lives in Brooklyn, where many other 26-year-olds from far away live. He has only one kidney after donating the second to his once ill father, an operation you can read more about here: http://www.kidneyandthekingdom.tumblr.com/.
He is the managing editor of Jossip Initiatives and other of his writings have appeared in Filter, The Onion, National Geographic and on http://www.nerve.com/.
Joseph Ntawangundi “guilty”, denies some Genocide charges
By Rwanda News Agency
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Photo: A Gacaca court in session but no relations to this case.
Kigali: Controversy still mares the Genocide conviction of opposition politician Mr. Ntawangundi Joseph – in that at some stage he is fiercely contesting some charges but also accepting others. A weeklong marathon Gacaca court sitting in eastern Rwanda has sentenced him to a reduced term, but not without provoking more questions.
The drama-filled re-trail of Mr. Ntawangundi, who was an assistant for Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the United Democratic Forces Inkingi (UDF) chief ended Wednesday evening with a 17-year conviction. The original 2007 conviction was 19 years, and the panel of Gacaca judges did not explain why that had been reduced.
Mr. Ntawangundi’s file stated that he was the Principal of the Agro-veterinary school of Gitwe in Eastern province (EAVE-GITWE) at the time of the Tutsi Genocide and that he organized massacres of Tutsis in the institution. The judges found Mr. Ntawangundi guilty of also taking part in the killings himself.
However, all through the re-trail which started last week, the defendant explained that he never was the head of that school. He added that he was in Sweden during the genocide. Then what could be considered a bombshell, on March 19, he supposedly wrote a letter to the Gacaca panel making a U-Turn.
Amid a surprised crowd intently listening to the proceedings of the final day of the trail, the Gacaca panel said the defendant had accepted the charges, and that he was indeed at the said school during the massacres. Mr. Ntawangundi apparently in the letter also pleaded for forgiveness from the Gacaca panel.
But that was not the end of the case. As required by the Gacaca court system, before sentencing, the defendant is given time to say something. In a soft-spoken tone – like it had been through the trial, Mr. Ntawangundi publicly confirmed that the person mentioned in the case was indeed him.
He also confirmed that he was at the school during the massacres, but added he had worked there for a short time. Mr. Ntawangundi also said he accepts responsibility for genocide crimes committed by his staff.
Around 20 witnesses had testified having seen the accused when the massacres took place. Amongst them, one presented himself as a former student, one said she was Mr. Ntawangundi's servant and another one asserted she was his former partner. Other confessed killers themselves confirmed that the defendant “worked with us” – meaning killed.
Mr. Ntawangundi also had disowned a woman who claims she has a 15-year old child whom she believes is their child.
However, in his last words before the verdict was read, Mr. Ntawangundi stunned the session when he denied killing anybody using his own hands. Speaking slowly and guardedly, he also denied having supervised anybody doing the killing.
According to him, he had been at the school for a short time and had not known well all the people working there by the time the Genocide started.
In a lengthy presentation of his final defense as about eight of his accusers looked on, Mr. Ntawangangi admitted that he indeed saw some of his staff killing Tutsis but that he had not given them any orders. I did not have any control over the killers, he said.
After the defense of his acts, the Gacaca judges led by Mr. Celestin Turinabo went into a closed-door session which also lasted about two hours to decide on the verdict.
On return, presiding court leader Mr. Turinabo said that Mr. Ntawangundi was guilty of two levels of Genocide – on acts he committed as an individual, and for failing to reign in his staff as they rampaged killing Tutsis. The judge president went through the details of the case and eventually sentenced Mr. Ntawangundi to 17-years.
Though with a reduction of two years from the original sentence in absentia of 19 years, the Gacaca panel did not say why it had reduced the sentence. Speculation remained with those attending the proceedings who suggested that probably Ntawangundi’s letter had played a part.
Now detained in Kibungo's Central prison, Joseph Ntawangundi was arrested in February on the grounds of a judgment delivered in 2007 by a Gitwe Gacaca court. The tribunal sentenced him in to 19 years in jail for complicity in the mass slaughter. He was allowed to ask for a rehearing trial as he had been judged as he lived in Europe.
Despite standing by her assistant, opposition party chief Ms. Ingabire was recently forced to withdraw her support. In a press release posted on February 8 on the FDU-Inkingi website, Ms. Ingabire claimed that her assistant was not present in Rwanda during the genocide.
The website read: “Joseph Ntawangundi left Rwanda in 1986 for studies in Poland (Wroclaw), returned to Rwanda in 1992 and worked in Kigali (CESTRAL). In 1993, he left Rwanda for ICFTU - AFRO (International Confederation for Free Trade Unions, African Regional Organization, NAIROBI, Kenya) as a Research and Training Officer until 2002. During the genocide, Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi was attending, on behalf of the ICFTU – AFRO, a 2-month training course in Sweden (GANGNEF) and returned to Kenya".
However, when the situation turned against her version of events, she changed her defense, instead saying Mr. Ntawangundi had not revealed his past to the party.
Following the verdict, the guilty Ntawangundi was taken back to jail and it is not clear if he will appeal because he still has several layers above.
Related Materials:
Ingabire’s assistant pleads guilty, seeks forgiveness
