Rwanda: A Citizen’s Weekly Open Letter to President Paul Kagame-April 5

By Aimable Mugara
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
April 05, 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 19 weeks left before the elections. This is my fourth letter and there are 19 letters left. This week, we remember with great sadness the horrible tragedy of genocide that befell our nation in 1994. A tragedy that began on April 6th, 1994 which was sparked by the simultaneous assassinations of Mr. Habyarimana the President of Rwanda, Mr Ntaryamira the President of Burundi, General Nsabimana the Chief of Army of Rwanda, all of them assassinated at once by the shooting down of the Falcon 50, the Rwandan presidential plane that was carrying them along with their top cabinet members who also got killed. This shooting down happened during a war that had spanned 4 years and caused the deaths of thousands of civilians and the internal displacement of over a million people. It is simply undeniable that this terrorist act is what started the genocide and without it there would never have been any genocide in Rwanda.

As we remember the innocent lives that were lost during the genocide, it is very important for us to look for answers to a very important question that remains unanswered today, 16 years after the fact. The question is: Who ordered or authorized this terrorist act? Whoever authorized this terrorist act, how many casualties were they expecting as a result of the cycle of violence that would surely take place in the aftermath of these assassinations? Was the resulting "collateral damage" considered reasonable for the sake of whatever goal that terrorist mastermind was trying to achieve? What goal did that terrorist have that could justify starting a genocide?

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that:

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person

Yet, a certain terrorist took that right from the passengers of the Falcon 50 plane, but more importantly this same terrorist is responsible for all the bloodshed that followed. So, Mr President I ask you today, why is it that your government has not asked the United Nations for an investigation into that terrorist act? This is in stark comparison with Lebanon where their Prime Minister Mr. Hariri was assassinated in February 2005 and within a few weeks their leader was at the United Nations Security Council urging them to open an investigation. Less than 2 months later, a United Nations investigation into Hariri’s assassination started. Why is it that your government has gone out of its way to block any investigation by the United Nations into the shooting down of the presidential plane, the event that surely sparked the genocide?

As long as the terrorist who killed President Habyarimana and President Ntaryamira has not been convicted in an international court of law, there is a danger that the cycle of violence will continue in our country. For the sake of the 800,000 to 1 million innocent civilians who were butchered in Rwanda during the genocide, the truth needs to come out. Who made that decision to shoot down the Falcon 50 plane and did this person know at the time that they were risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians? Your government talks so much about honoring the victims of the genocide. Yet, your government continues to block any attempts for the United Nations to find out who the culprit was. It is time for your government to do more than talking. It is time for your government to ask for a United Nations investigation into this terrorist act. The truth about who actually ordered the shooting down of that presidential plane is a better way to honor the genocide victims, better than all the talk.

Thank you!

Aimable Mugara
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Related Materials:
Rwanda: A Citizen’s Weekly Open Letter to Paul Kagame-March 29

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

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

Rwanda: Rhetoric and the politics of genocide