Rwanda: A Citizen’s Weekly Open Letter to Paul Kagame-March 22

By Aimable Mugara
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

March 22, 2010

H. E. General Paul Kagame
Office of the President
Republic of Rwanda
P.O. Box 15 Urugwiro Village
Kigali - Rwanda
Fax: +250 572431

Copy:

Prosecutor General
Martin Ngoga
National Public Prosecution Authority
BP 1328
Kigali – Rwanda
Fax: +250 589501

Commissioner General Emmanuel Gasana
Rwandan National Police
Kigali - Rwanda
Fax: +250 586602

Chief Executive Officer
Editor-in-Chief
The New Times Publications SARL
Immeuble Aigle Blanc
P.O. Box 4953
Kigali - Rwanda

A Citizen’s Weekly Open Letter to General Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda

Dear General,

There are 21 weeks left before the elections. This is my second letter and there are 21 letters left. I still do not believe that Rwanda is beyond repair. I still believe that it is not too late to take the steps required to secure sustainable peace and prosperity for all Rwandan citizens. These are my personal opinions. I do not represent anyone but myself. In this letter, I continue to plead with you to do everything in your powers to stop the damage that your generation continues to do to our nation. As I write today, opposition parties are still being denied the fundamental human right to register as political parties in Rwanda. For the sake of your children, my children and our children’s children, please stop the nation’s bleeding!

Let the presidential elections in Rwanda this August be a beacon of hope for all the Rwandans and Friends of Rwanda, who have waited for so long to see Rwanda join the community of truly democratic nations. 16 years ago, we made a really bad name for our nation. Let us turn that around. Let us not be synonymous with the dictator generals of Burma (Myanmar)! Your generation on both sides of the power struggle has destroyed our country at its very core. Please let this election be the first brick in the foundation of a positive rebirth of our nation.

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings have the following two inalienable rights:

(i) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(iii) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

as stated in Article 21 (i) and (iii) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In a recent article titled “Understanding Rwanda's Journey” published in the Huffington Post, your policy advisor Dr. Jean Paul Kimonyo advances a theory that in Rwanda the above rights cannot be granted today. First of all, such theory is based on the assumption that a majority of Rwandans are not human beings; and that therefore universal human rights do not apply to them. Dr. Kimonyo’s rationale appears to be that whenever there was this type of democracy in Rwanda, it led to “mass killings with political parties and independent media playing a big role in that violence.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Mass killings in Rwanda have always been due to the lack of democracy, not because of democracy. There has never been a leader in Rwanda who was elected by a majority of the people with a mandate to commit mass killings.

The 19th century educator Horace Mann once said “Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.” Please do not surround yourself with the likes of Dr. Kimonyo, whose theory that true democracy always leads to mass killings in Rwanda makes me ashamed to be Rwandan. When one’s name is preceded by the title of “Dr.”, one expects such individual to be knowledgeable. It is such a shame that Rwanda has an individual with a doctorate degree who publicly writes that true democracy leads to mass killings. It is also deplorable that such an individual is the policy advisor to the president. You would bring such honor to our nation if you surrounded yourself with better advisors than this.

All Rwandans are human beings. They have the same human DNA as all other human beings. Therefore, all the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights apply to all of us Rwandans. If your other advisors hold similar opinions to Dr. Kimonyo’s, that would explain why so far it appears that the August 09, 2010 presidential elections in Rwanda are going to be neither free, nor fair. What a missed opportunity that would be! Mr. President, it is time to prove that you have better advisors than Dr. Kimonyo who believes that Rwandans are not human beings. It is time to show that true democracy and universal human rights for all Rwandans is the only way to prevent our nation from imploding in violence again. It is not too late to allow opposition parties to register. Plus, in the long-term the ruling party should never have a say on whether opposition parties can register or not. Because obviously it is an insult to our intelligence that one political party can be the judge and the plaintiff at the same time.

Thank you!

Aimable Mugara
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Related Materials:
Rwanda: A Citizen’s Weekly Open Letter to President Paul Kagame-March 15

Rwanda: Rhetoric and the politics of genocide