FDU-RNC: Open Letter to Alexander Gonzalez, President of the California State University, Sacramento
Washington DC, October 21, 2011
Alexander Gonzalez, President
California State University , Sacramento
6000 J Street, Sacramento Hall 206
Sacramento, CA 95819-6022
Tel: 916-278-7737
Fax: 916-278-6959
Email: alexg@csus.edu
Re: President Paul Kagame’s invitation to speak at the third International Genocide Conference on November 3rd, 2011.
It is with dismay that the coalition of political organizations for change FDU-Inkingi and RNC learnt that Rwandan President Paul Kagame will be attending an international conference on genocide at the California State University , Sacramento1 from November 1st to November 4th, in which he will deliver the keynote address on November 3rd. More troubling yet is that the President of the California State University , Sacramento is reportedly scheduled to present him with a honorary plaque in the name of the University after his keynote address. You may not be aware but Paul Kagame is not the right person to talk about genocide for several reasons:
As you know, the 1994 Rwandan genocide was triggered by the downing of former president Habyarimana’s airplane that was immediately followed by mass killings in which, according to the UN about 800,000 people mostly Tutsis and “moderate” Hutus died.
So far, the world as a whole and the UN in particular have failed to investigate that key incident despite the creation of an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to investigate crimes of war, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide committed on the Rwandan territory between January 1st, 1994 and December 31st, 1994. The ICTR may also prosecute Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other such violations of international law committed on the territory of neighboring States during the same period.
However, Spanish2 and French courts3 later decided to investigate the president’s airplane incident and the crimes that followed in Rwanda and Congo in which Spanish and French citizens died. They have since launched international arrest warrants for 40 top military officers in Rwanda including 9 high ranking militaries close to the regime of President Paul Kagame.
It is now widely known that President Paul Kagame ordered the shooting down of the presidential plane causing the death of the president of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana, the president of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira along with 6 other top officials of Rwanda and Burundi and 3 French members of the aircraft technical crew. In his confession4published on October 1st, 2011, Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, former Secretary General of the ruling party Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), former Ambassador of Rwanda to the USA, and former Chief of Staff for President Paul Kagame, declared that Paul Kagame, then overall commander of the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA), the armed wing of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), was personally responsible for the shooting down of the plane. President Kagame therefore bears an enormous responsibility in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which was triggered by that event.
For all these reasons, the Platform FDU-Inkingi and RNC believes that by inviting President Paul Kagame to speak at the California State University in Sacramento, you will be, Mr President, playing into his campaign of cover up and doing disservice to the student body, to the Rwandan people and to the world as a whole. Indeed, by obstructing the truth about what really happened in 1994, your institution is helping spreading lies, depriving the Rwandan people of the right to work towards true reconciliation through dialogue and truth telling and the world of the right to know the truth about what really happened in Rwanda in 1994 in order to avoid future recurrence of similar disasters. Such an odious role is a sad role that the California State University should not want to play indeed.
Therefore, we at the Platform FDU-Inkingi and RNC humbly request that you withdraw the invitation you have extended to President Paul Kagame to speak at the international conference on genocide at the California State University , Sacramento and refrain from sharing the blame with President Paul Kagame for the 1994 Rwandan Genocide through your planned award to him.
FDU-Inkingi USA Coordinator
Theophile Murayi
RNC Interim Coordinator
Theogene Rudasingwa
Tel: 815-298-3444
References:
1. International Conference on Genocide at The California State University, Sacramento
2. Spanish Court indictment
3. French Court indictment
4. Who killed Habyalimana Former RPF general secretary and chief of staff says
5. The Gersony report: proof it exists and more
6. 2001 Illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the DRC
8. 2003 Illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in DRC
9. 2008 Illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the DRC
10. UN Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , 1993 – 2003
BOSTON: INTRODUCTION FOR PAUL RUSESABAGINA
The K. George and Carolann S. Najarian, M.D. Lecture on Human Rights
Endowed Public Program of Armenian Heritage Foundation, sponsor of
Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston
Faneuil Hall
20 October, 2011
Charlie Clements
Tonight I have an easy task. It is my honor to introduce a man – Paul Rusesabagina -- who needs no introduction. If you have not seen the movie Hotel Rwanda , you have probably heard of it. It is a film about humanity in the midst of horror. About a manager of a hotel, who managed to save hundreds of lives by standing up to, cajoling, bribing, and tricking perpetrators while their colleagues took hundreds of thousands of other lives in the genocide that gripped Rwanda in 1994.
Paul is invariably referred to as the ‘hero of Hotel Rwanda,’ but it is a label he does not wear comfortably. It is not a label he has or would have chosen for himself. Each time Paul receives a humanitarian award, he faces more criticism from Rwandans who have complained he is an “opportunist, a liar, an imposter, a revisionist, a traitor, a defender of mass murderers, a man profiting from the blood of a million victims.”
Yet you have men like Terry George, who directed the film Hotel Rwanda, who traveled to Rwanda to meet with survivors of the genocide, many of whom described in detail how Paul was responsible for their survival in that dangerous time. Sometime around the 12th anniversary of the genocide, the President Kagame of Rwanda , turned on Paul Rusesabagina unleashing a smear campaign by journalists and politicians that has not abated.
He receives frequent death threats.
What turned Paul from a hero to a villain was daring to criticize President Kagame in public in a regime that brooks no criticism. A former U.S. Ambassador in a neighboring country had to say this about Rwanda : “Today, journalists and former high-level leaders who have broken with Kagame have "disappeared," been shot in South Africa , or been imprisoned in Rwanda . Even an American attorney who sought to defend a Rwandan opposition candidate was briefly imprisoned. Censorship is widespread, and some citizens have been imprisoned for suggesting that Tutsis have killed Hutus for ethnic reasons, just as Hutus have undoubtedly killed Tutsis.” When the history of this era is finally written, Paul may be regarded as a hero, not for what he did in Hotel Rwanda, but for his outspokenness afterwards in the face of constant attempts to silence him.
We do not tolerate our heroes turning their criticism on us. Let me remind you that LIFE magazine who adored the Rev Martin Luther King as a Nobel laureate called his famous speech at Riverside Church, in which Dr. King turned against the Vietnam war -- "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” The day after that speech, the Washington Post declared the youngest Nobel laureate in history had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”
We turn on our heroes who don’t ‘stay in their place.’
It has never been Paul Rusesabagina’s nature to stay in his place. He would not have saved lives in the hotel had he stayed in his role as hotel manager. We are not here tonight to debate or discuss the reality of Rwanda today nor its leadership. But we are here tonight to hear someone who has courageously committed his recent life to truth, reconciliation and sustainable peace in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region of Africa and continues to do so at great risk.
I am proud to introduce a man I know and admire, a man who perhaps more than anyone I know embodies those words written by a Greek playwright thousand five hundred years ago, when Aeschylus told us, “He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
I think what compels Paul Rusesabagina is that in his own despair, against his will he has been graced with the wisdom to speak truth to power.
Please welcome Paul Rusesabagina, recently announced as the winner of the 2011 Lantos Human Rights Prize.####
Rwanda: Conférence de presse du Président Paul Kagame 11/10/2011- Réaction des FDU-Inkingi
Par Boniface Twagirimana
FDU-Inkingi
Vice-Président intérimaire
Kigali le 12 octobre 2011
Le Président rwandais KAGAME très emprunté sur sa responsabilité dans l’assassinat du Président HABYARIMANA et sur le procès de Madame Victoire INGABIRE
Ce mardi 11 octobre 2011 au Village Urugwiro à Kigali, le Président Paul KAGAME, a tenu une conférence de presse. Les points saillants qui ont été abordés sont les suivants :
1. Sa responsabilité présumée dans l’attentat aérien qui a coûté la vie à l’ancien Président de la République rwandaise Juvénal Habyarimana, déclenchant ainsi le génocide du printemps 1994;
2. Le procès de Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Présidente du parti politique, FDU Inkingi, en prison depuis le 14 octobre 2010 et dont le procès a été ouvert depuis le 20 juin 2011 et repris le 5 septembre ;
3. Ses parts d’actions dans la Banque de Kigali ;
4. Sa position sur la crise libyenne ;
5. Les investissements chinois en Afrique ;
S’agissant de son rôle présumé dans l’attentat aérien, le président Kagame réagissait aux déclarations de son du Docteur RUDASINGWA Théogène, ancien secrétaire général à la présidence de la République, ex ambassadeur du Rwanda aux USA, ancien secrétaire général du FPR et actuellement coordinateur ad intérim de la formation politique d’opposition Rwandan National Congress. Dans sa déclaration du 1er octobre 2011, M. Rudasingwa accuse en effet, le général Kagame d’avoir délibérément ordonné le 6 avril 1994 l’assassinat de son prédécesseur, le Président Habyarimana. Visiblement emprunté, il a éludé la question en disant que ledit attentat n’intéressait pas le peuple rwandais, car occupé à œuvrer pour son développement économique.
Donnant la parole à un journaliste de la Voix d’Amérique, comme s’il pressentait la question qui allait être posé, le Président Kagame, avant même que ledit journaliste n’ait prononcé la moindre parole, s’est empressé de l’interdire d’aborder la moindre question relative à la situation carcérale et politique de Madame Victoire Ingabire .
S’agissant de sa prise de participation contestée dans le capital-actions de la Banque de Kigali, le général Kagame a répondu, sans convaincre, avoir acheté les actions grâce à son salaire de président de la République.
En ce qui concerne la crise libyenne, M. Kagame a dit ne pas se ranger du côté des dirigeants qui ordonnent la fusillade de leurs populations. Enfin, au journaliste qui posait la question des investissements chinois en Afrique, lesquels ne se préoccupent guère de la situation de la gouvernance et des droits de la personne humaine dans les pays hôtes, le président a répondu en être très satisfait.
Pour une conférence présidentielle, qui a duré deux bonnes longues heures, nous nous attendions à ce que le Président de la République aborde des questions aussi importantes que : l’ouverture de l’espace politique, la liberté de la presse, l’emprisonnement des leaders de l’opposition et de la presse indépendante, les conséquences néfastes de la politique nationale agricole catastrophique de monoculture imposée à la population, la pauvreté du monde rural péri-urbain, les salaires de misère des enseignants, le chômage qui touche plus particulièrement les jeunes. Rien de tout cela. Comme si la cécité politique avait définitivement l’emporté.
Human rights activist calls for action in Rwanda
By Paul Lampathakis
The Sunday Times
October 16, 2011
CALL FOR ACTION: Frank Habineza, the exiled president of the Rwandan Greens party, wants CHOGM to pressure Rwanda towards democracy. Source: Supplied.
INTERNATIONAL democracy prize-winner Frank Habineza is pleading with Commonwealth leaders to use their Perth meeting to pressure Rwanda to stop the killing and imprisonment of the Government's political opponents.
Mr Habineza, the president of the Rwandan Greens Party, who fled to Sweden last year after his party deputy was decapitated and other political leaders were jailed, wants the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to help bring "democracy and the rule of law" to his homeland.
He said the international community was once again "turning a deaf ear to what is happening in Rwanda", as had happened during the 1994 genocide when 800,000 people were massacred.
Speaking from Sweden this week ahead of a speech in Perth next Sunday at a Greens forum on human rights and the Commonwealth, he said the international community wanted the current government to continue because it pushed economic reform.
"They (the international community) think the country will get stable with economic development, so they're not worried about democracy," Mr Habineza, who was awarded a democracy prize in the Swedish Parliament in April, said.
"But if you have economic development without democracy, then (Rwanda) will become like Zimbabwe. Harare (Zimbabwe's capital) was one of the best cities in Africa, but because of a lack of democracy they lost everything."
In April, the US Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices gave a scathing report of human rights abuses in Rwanda, especially around the time of its elections in August last year.
The report said there had been reports of two high-profile killings, that of the Greens vice-president and an independent journalist, that had not been fully resolved.
Also among serious concerns were that "security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained persons (and) restraints on judicial independence and limits on freedoms of speech, press, association, and religion."
WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said CHOGM should provide an opportunity to focus on human rights violations within the Commonwealth, not only in Rwanda, an opportunity the Australian Government "could not throw away".
"For CHOGM to be relevant, for the Commonwealth itself to mean anything, it must have strong, enforceable human rights standards," Senator Ludlam said.
"The Rwandan Government is not the only one in the Commonwealth that needs to be held to account, and the Australian Greens will continue to push for the Commonwealth to take a decisive stand on human rights."
The Australian Greens forum begins at 5pm next Sunday at the Uniting Church on William St, Perth.
Other speakers include Meena Krish on the Sri Lankan conflict and Ulli Helen Corbett on the rights of indigenous peoples.
Attentat contre Habyarimana : Kigali sur la défensive
Source: Nouvelles de Kigali à Bruxelles
Dimanche, 16 octobre 2011
Il y a deux semaines lorsque l’ancien major, ancien ambassadeur et ancien secrétaire général du Front patriotique rwandais Théogène Rudasingwa a fait des révélations explosives sur l’attentat qui a coûté la vie à l’ancien chef de l’Etat rwandais Juvénal Habyaraimana, son homologue burundais Cyprien Ntaryamira, leurs suites et l’équipage français de l’avion qui les ramenait de Tanzanie, les autorités rwandaises n’ont pas eu beaucoup recours à leur enquête (Commission Mutsinzi) dans cette affaire.
Nous avons pu réentendre la ligne de défense des autorités de Kigali, exprimées dans l’émission
Imvo n’Imvano de la BBC en kinyarwanda/kirundi dans la bouche du secrétaire exécutif d’Ibuka Janvier Forongo selon lequel le témoignage de M. Rudasingwa n’est que mensonge en raison - principalement - du retard pris pour le formuler. Les motivations de l’ancien bras droit du président Kagame ne seraient ni sincères ni désintéressées et ses révélations n’auraient de ce fait aucune crédibilité.
M. Forongo n’étaient pas seul à intervenir dans cette émission puisqu’il y avait aussi M. Etienne Masozera ancien secrétaire exécutif d’Ibuka et Noël ,Twagiramungu activiste des droits de l’homme (ex-secrétaire général de la Liprodhor). Ses deux interlocuteurs n’étaient pas d’accord avec lui en ce qu’ils n’ont pas simplement dit que Rudasingwa était un menteur ou une personne indigne de foi du fait de sa personnalité, etc. Pour eux la vérité mérite d’être connue parce que l’attentat contre Habyarimana ne peut pas être dissocié du génocide qui a suivi et que même s’il n’en est pas la cause, il y a contribué comme déclencheur et/ou accélérateur.
Tous ceux qui ont disqualifié le témoignage de Rudasingwa n’ont paradoxalement pas dit qu’il mentait parce qu’une commission d’enquête rwandaise avait établi que Habyarimana avait été tué par les siens lorsqu’ils ont fait tirer des missiles depuis le camp militaire des Forces armées rwandaises à Kanombe.
Les deux intervenants qui insistent que la connaissance de la vérité est essentielle pour comprendre notre histoire, ne se sont pas attardé, sur cette thèse des extrémistes Hutu comme responsables de l’attentat. S’ils veulent en savoir plus c’est qu’ils n’ont pas été convaincus par la Commission d’enquête rwandaise. Ils ne sont pas les seuls et les autorités ne se défendent pas beaucoup en s’y référant comme cela devrait être le cas logiquement.
On a plutôt assisté à des attaques ad hominem (débauche, association avec des génocidaires, détournement de fonds, etc.) , character assassination comme on dit en anglais, au lieu de dire en quoi le témoignage était contraire à la vérité contenue dans le rapport d’enquête commandité par les autorités rwandaises dans cette affaire.
NKB 16/10/2011
Ecoutez l’émission !
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