Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Mwenda's article is mere propaganda and shameful for a man of his Status!

[Andrew Mwenda's uninformed opinions are misleading, because he is paid by President Kagame to be his Lap-dog or Chiwawa! This is a rebuttal to what he wrote in his column in The Independent==Gahutu1/Iwacu1.com].

Mwenda's article is mere propaganda and shameful for a man of his Status!
By Lusoke Willy
March 9, 2010

To Ugandans-At-Heart (UAH) and Andrew Mwenda:

(1) MWENDA ARGUES THAT:

"So now come to Rwanda: in 1994, the Tutsi confronted the possibility of their mass extermination. Although the genocide was organised through the state, it was executed by masses of ordinary citizens. Stressed by battles, bullets and mortars, Tutsi soldiers advanced, many losing their colleagues. Every village they captured, they found their mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, wives, sons and daughters – everyone – killed."

THE TRUTH IS:

With all dues respect, Mwenda is displaying absolute lack of knowledge of what happened in 1994 in Rwanda. For Mwenda’s information, by the time Habyarimana accepted to come to Arusha round table for ‘Peace Talks”, RPF had already captures almost 40% of Rwandan territory and Kigali risked falling to the then rebels, RPA. That the Tutsi were almost exterminated in the territory that was under Habayarimana government control is indisputable. But again, that RPA was also doing the same thing against the Hutu who were in the territory under their control is well documented. The Hutu in Byumba, Mutala, Kibungo were systematically killed en mass under Kagame’s direct orders. That is how we came to call the process “Mfanyiye”. This was Kagame’s Kiswahili word “fagiya” he used to order us to clear every thing that was Hutu!!!

For your information, if you revisit your TV images of the dead bodies of those Rwandans who were floating on L. Victoria, you will notice two things: 1. Most of them were tied the “Kandoya” style. This style of killing was only being used by RPA. It was borrowed from the NRA war in Luwero. No Habyarimana soldier or interahamwe knew this style of killing!! Secondly, most of those dead bodies did not look Tutsi at all. Anybody who is used to the physical look of an ordinary Tutsi would conclude that most of them dead bodies that floated on L. Victoria were actually of Hutu.

Mr. Mwenda, remember that save for the then Prime Minister of Rwanda Kambanda Jean, whose guilty plea consisted acceptance that he actually organized the genocide, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda ICTR has not convicted anybody of organizing the genocide. Yet they have tried almost all the former Hutu Military and political leaders. It would do you well to recall that after sentencing this Prime Minister (after his guilt plea), the Prime minister brought it to Court’s attention that ICTR prosecutor secured this plea fraudulently with promises to the former Prime Ministers which were not respected by prosecution. The Prime Minister informed Court that WASHINGTON and the ICTR prosecutors had promised to take his family to USA, to deposit specific amount of money into his account every month and, above all, to they had promised a lesser sentence for the former Prime Minister.

Mr. Mwenda, it is well documented that the UN special investigation team on the cause of the 1994 genocide concluded that the sudden death of Habyarimana in a plane clash was the trigger of the genocide. The Rwandan Hutu feared that the Tutsi who had killed their leader were going to exterminate them as the Burundian Tutsi had exterminated the Hutu after the Hutu president had been killed under similar circumstances. RPA and its high Command were sighted as the people that had killed Habyarimana. The ICTR then Prosecutor prepared arrest warrants for RPA officials. Bush 9 the then President of USA told this ICTR prosecutor that arresting and trying these RPA officials was a direct threat to USA strategic interests in the region. De Ponte insisted and Bush ordered her out of office. De Ponte has written a book about this and, today, she is in Washington telling Obama to investigate Bush’s behavior and role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Mr. Mwenda, are you well informed of these facts?

The 1994 Rwandan genocide is still a mystery both legally and politically. That is why most of the people who did the lobbying for the UN to accept it as genocide have ever since changed their position. One of them was the late Madam Des Forges who admitted that she made a fundamental mistake. He was cheated by RPA systematic lies. PRUNNIER is another one. He wrote a book last year in which he demonstrated that RPF too committed genocide and so they should be tried. France and Spanish Courts too, each acting independently, have issued arrest warrants for many RPA officials for similar crimes. WHAT IS MWENDA SAYING THEN?

(2) MWENDA ARGUES THAT: “It is one of the biggest miracles of the 20th century that there was no counter genocide in Rwanda in 1994. It is a statement of extraordinary organisational discipline, coherence and leadership that RPF contained the rage of its own members. On many occasions, the RPF military court martial had to order the public execution of Tutsi soldiers in front of Tutsi soldiers for killing innocent Hutu civilians” THE TRUTH IS:

Mwenda’s assertion at this level is contrary to the contemporary research findings by independent, credible and competent bodies and individuals as I have demonstrated it in “argument 1” above. It is also contrary to a number of outstanding ICTR case law. It is true that some RPA executed some Tutsi solders but the reasons were far from what they tell you. Most of those people that were executed were from Burundi. Most of these Tutsi guys from Burundi had joined us after their High school or University. Most of our bosses in RPA had not been to school. They viewed these young men a possible threat to “take power from us”!!! Others who were being executed were those from Uganda who had come from “cities” as opposed to ‘the Bakonyine” - THOSE Tutsi who had been in refugee camps in Western Uganda especially Nakivale where Kagame and his core Tutsi extremists grew and came from.

For your information, these killings within RPA started as early as November 1990 – shortly after RPA attacked Rwanda. We used to call it “agafuni”!!! It was malicious elimination of all those “independent thinkers” who were challenging the Tutsi extremists – the Kagame group!!!

(3) MWENDA ARGUES THAT: I do recognize that individual RPF soldiers could have committed human rights violations and were not punished. But decisions at the level of a president have to be weighed against many other considerations. To ignore the extraordinary levels of restraint RPF exhibited is to undermine one of the most important things that can help Rwanda’s reconstruction and democratization. It is naïve to expect that such a war could have been fought faultlessly; war is not a tea party” THE TRUTH IS:

It is funny that Mr. Mwenda ignores not only the facts that implicate Kagame as a person but also the well established legal principles that hold the top command of any army accountable for what the field commanders do during war. Mwenda goes so far to “White Wash” his boss Kagame. Has Mwenda ever heard about principles like THE Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) and the defense called Superior order?

Has Mr. Mwenda ever come into contact with The Geneva Convention especially the Common Article (3)? Does he think that protecting civilians during war is mere favor, choice or a luxury?

(4) MWENDA ARGUES THAT: Today, the most dominant influence in control of Rwanda is Tutsi. Put yourself in their shoes: what would be their major fears and temptations? Many would think that control of power is the only insurance against genocide. Therefore, any opposition politician who is Hutu needs to recognize this fear and craft a message that seeks to reassure them that loss of power will not lead to mass extermination” THE TRUTH IS:

Mr. Mwenda clearly advocates for Tutsi domination and control simply because “they” fear!!! God, does Mwenda know the role of our Tutsi great grant fathers’ history? Does he know the well documented inhumane conduct of the pre Independence Tutsi leaders against the Hutu? Does Mwenda know the politics of exclusion and systematic dehumanization the Hutu endured under the Tutsi monarchy? Does Mwenda know that the Tutsi who now dominate and “control” the Hutu and Twa in Rwanda are hardly 15% of the entire population yet: a) 96% of the Ministers are Tutsi? b) 99.05% of the senior officers in the army are Tutsi? c) 98% of Permanent Secretaries and Senior officers in the Public Service are Tutsi? c) 95% of the lower house of Parliament and the Senate are Tutsi? d) 96% of Rwandan Ambassadors are Tutsi? e) All presidents of Constitutional commissions are Tutsi? The entire leadership of the National Police and Prisons services is Tutsi?

Does Mwenda know that getting married to a Hutu in Kagame’s government is an offence that leads a Tutsi to loss of a job? Shame on you Mwenda!! How do you justify that?

Mr. Mwenda, for your information, the opposition is not made of Hutu only. Anybody who disagrees with Kagame is a State enemy!!! I am Tutsi but I live in exile after working so hard to bring about sanity in Rwanda after the genocide!!! Is the King of Rwanda Kigeli a Hutu? Is he allowed to come to Rwanda? Is Mushayidi Deo who was kidnapped from Burundi just the other day and whose where about is unknown up to now a Hutu? Is Kayumba Nyamwasa, a general, who is now accused of grenades in Kigali a Hutu? Is Rudasingwa a Hutu?? Let me tell you one thing, most Tutsi in Rwanda and we in exile agree with Ingambire Vicotories’ analysis of the Rwandan problem. She believes there was what she calls ‘double genocide’ and so all the perpetrators should be brought to book. I agree with her 100%. She believes most Gacaca courts have been used to settle political differences than bringing about justice. I agree with her 100%. She believes Kagame has misused state resources for his family’s egoistic interests, I agree 100%. She does not believe Rwanda should have such diplomacy of aggression and revenge. I agree. Man, Mwenda, what are you talking about?

(5) MWENDA ARGUES THAT: “Ingabire’s claims are even more ridiculous because there are hundreds of thousands of Hutu who actively participated in the genocide and have not been punished for it. They live happily in Rwanda; some sit in cabinet, others in parliament, government agencies – everywhere. The RPF realised long, long ago that punishment through criminal prosecution cannot solve Rwanda’s problems. Political reconciliation will; and that is what it has been doing.” THE TRUTH IS:

Mwenda must be undergoing some kind of temporary insanity if not permanent insanity!! Jesus!!! When Kagame releases a significant number of Hutu peasants from prison after 16 years without any trial on condition that they testify against the Hutu elite in Arusha and Rwanda cases for the sole purpose of eliminating the Hutu elite who would lead these poor peasants into a revolution against Kagame then you praise the Kagame? What is the purpose of releasing about 30,000 Hutu peasants from prisons and you imprison over 100,000 elite Hutu?

I personally investigated the role played by those few Hutu guys in Kagame’s government. I spoke to Kagame about it. Kagame told me that “a Hutu is good only when he serves the Tutsi cause!!! These guys are still good for us. They have international connections, they are in contact with their fellow Hutus who are fighting us, they can convince their fellow Hutu to accept us and above all, when we have a few Hutus in our government, and we have an argument for the international community that ours is not a Tutsi Junta”. For example, the infamous interahamwe leader Mr. Rucyagu, who killed the Tutsi in numbers, is now the one in charge of training Kagame’s militia called “Intore”!!!

(6) MWENDA ARGUES THAT: “Are there problems and weaknesses with this process including Gacaca courts? You bet! If they were not there, that would not be a human process. However, Rwanda needs to begin a conversation about the future, not a quarrel over the past. There are one million claims and counter claims Rwandans on either side of the political/ethnic divide make against each other: some true, some false; some legitimate, others out of context” THE TRUTH IS:

This one is an African young “intellectual” who claims to be independent yet Kagame’s dollars can blind fold him this far!! A system that allows for no basic freedoms of speech, association, etc and basically has no respect for people’s fundamental rights, Mwenda calls it “an ordinary human process”!!! Unfortunately, he is always on Museveni’s neck for the same. In Mwenda’s primitive logic, it is good if it is done by Kagame who pays him and it is bad if it is done by Museveni who did not give him ‘a fat office and pay”. God!!! How can Mwenda justify a court system that can throw some one in prison for life - in total exclusion from the outside world – and yet the accussed is not allowed any legal representation, no formal charge sheet against which one can present his/her defense? God, is Mwenda serious? Can he explain the fact that Gacaca courts, manned by people who have never attended a law class and in most case who have never been to school and most of the time the “judges” also being witnesses in the same case, have powers even to review cases that were decided by courts in which the accused was set free or given ‘lesser sentence? Mr. Mwenda, did you know that some Gacaca courts have “convicted’ Hutus for the 1994 genocide who died much earlier before 1994 simply because those courts want to find a pretext to confiscate these Hutus’ land? Is all that “normal human process”?

UAH, Mwenda has his personal interests to defend Kagame and make sure Kagame lives another day in office. What I know is that Mwenda will be forced to bring our money back to Kigali after Kagame has gone. Of course, we shall have to bring back all our money Kagame has siphoned to USA, UK, South Africa, China and Finland. We know where he has put deposited and/or invested our money. Mwenda too will pay.

Source.

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posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 11:49 PM