A Candle For Remembering

A Candle For Remembering
May this memorial candle lights up the historical past of our beloved Country: Rwanda, We love U so much. If Tears could build a stairway. And memories were a lane. I would walk right up to heaven. To bring you home again. No farewell words were spoken. No time to say goodbye. You were gone before I knew it And. Only Paul Kagame knows why. My heart still aches with sadness. And secret tears still flow. What It meant to lose you. No one will ever know.

Rwanda: Cartographie des crimes

Rwanda: cartographie des crimes du livre "In Praise of Blood, the crimes of the RPF" de Judi Rever Kagame devra être livré aux Rwandais pour répondre à ses crimes: la meilleure option de réconciliation nationale entre les Hutus et les Tutsis.

Let us remember Our People

Let us remember our people, it is our right

You can't stop thinking

Don't you know Rwandans are talkin' 'bout a revolution It sounds like a whisper The majority Hutus and interior Tutsi are gonna rise up And get their share SurViVors are gonna rise up And take what's theirs. We're the survivors, yes: the Hutu survivors! Yes, we're the survivors, like Daniel out of the lions' den (Hutu survivors) Survivors, survivors! Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights et up, stand up, don't give up the fight “I’m never gonna hold you like I did / Or say I love you to the kids / You’re never gonna see it in my eyes / It’s not gonna hurt me when you cry / I’m not gonna miss you.” The situation is undeniably hurtful but we can'stop thinking we’re heartbroken over the loss of our beloved ones. "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom". Malcolm X

Welcome to Home Truths

The year is 1994, the Fruitful year and the Start of a long epoch of the Rwandan RPF bloody dictatorship. Rwanda and DRC have become a unique arena and fertile ground for wars and lies. Tutsi RPF members deny Rights and Justice to the Hutu majority, to Interior Tutsis, to Congolese people, publicly claim the status of victim as the only SurViVors while millions of Hutu, interior Tutsi and Congolese people were butchered. Please make RPF criminals a Day One priority. Allow voices of the REAL victims to be heard.

Everybody Hurts

“Everybody Hurts” is one of the rare songs on this list that actually offers catharsis. It’s beautifully simple: you’re sad, but you’re not alone because “everybody hurts, everybody cries.” You’re human, in other words, and we all have our moments. So take R.E.M.’s advice, “take comfort in your friends,” blast this song, have yourself a good cry, and then move on. You’ll feel better, I promise.—Bonnie Stiernberg

KAGAME - GENOCIDAIRE

Paul Kagame admits ordering...

Paul Kagame admits ordering the 1994 assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda.

Why did Kagame this to me?

Why did Kagame this to me?
Can't forget. He murdered my mother. What should be my reaction? FYI: the number of orphans in Rwanda has skyrocketed since the 1990's Kagame's invasion. Much higher numbers of orphans had and have no other option but joining FDLR fighters who are identified as children that have Lost their Parents in Kagame's Wars inside and outside of Rwanda.If someone killed your child/spouse/parent(s) would you seek justice or revenge? Deep insight: What would you do to the person who snuffed the life of someone I love beyond reason? Forgiving would bring me no solace. If you take what really matters to me, I will show you what really matters. NITUTIRWANAHO TUZASHIRA. IGIHE KIRAGEZE.If democracy is to sell one's motherland(Africa), for some zionits support, then I prefer the person who is ready to give all his live for his motherland. Viva President Putin!!!

RPF committed the unspeakable

RPF committed the unspeakable
The perverted RPF committed the UNSPEAKABLE.Two orphans, both against the Nazi world. Point is the fact that their parents' murder Kagame & his RPF held no shock in the Western world. Up to now, the Rwandan Hitler Kagame and his death squads still enjoy impunity inside and outside of Rwanda. What goes through someone's mind as they know RPF murdered their parents? A delayed punishment is actually an encouragement to crime, In Praise of the ongoing Bloodshed in Rwanda. “I always think I am a pro-peace person but if someone harmed someone near and dear to me, I don't think I could be so peaceful. I would like to believe that to seek justice could save millions of people living the African Great Lakes Region - I would devote myself to bringing the 'perp' along to a non-happy ending but would that be enough? You'd have to be in the situation I suppose before you could actually know how you would feel or what you would do”. Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Libre Penseur

Inzira ndende

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Hutu Children & their Mums

Hutu Children & their Mums
Look at them ! How they are scared to death. Many Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi, Foreign human rights advocates, jounalists and and lawyers are now on Death Row Waiting to be murdered by Kagame and his RPF death squads. Be the last to know.

Rwanda-rebranding

Rwanda-rebranding-Targeting dissidents inside and abroad, despite war crimes and repression Rwanda has “A well primed PR machine”, and that this has been key in “persuading the key members of the international community that it has an exemplary constitution emphasizing democracy, power-sharing, and human rights which it fully respects”. It concluded: “The truth is, however, the opposite. What you see is not what you get: A FAÇADE” Rwanda has hired several PR firms to work on deflecting criticism, and rebranding the country.
A WELL PRIMED PR MACHINE
PORTLAND COMMUNICATIONS, FRIENDS OF RWANDA, GPLUS, BTP ADVISERS
AND BTP MARK PURSEY, THE HOLMES REPORT AND BRITISH FIRM RACEPOINT GROUP

HAVE ALWAYS WORKING ON THE REBRANDING OF RWANDA AND WHITEWASHING OF KAGAME’S CRIMES
Targeting dissidents abroad One of the more worrying aspects of Racepoint’s objectives was to “Educate and correct the ill informed and factually incorrect information perpetuated by certain groups of expatriates and NGOs,” including, presumably, the critiques of the crackdown on dissent among political opponents overseas. This should be seen in the context of accusations that Rwanda has plotted to kill dissidents abroad. A recent investigation by the Globe and Mail claims, “Rwandan exiles in both South Africa and Belgium – speaking in clandestine meetings in secure locations because of their fears of attack – gave detailed accounts of being recruited to assassinate critics of President Kagame….

Ways To Get Rid of Kagame

How to proceed for revolution in Rwanda:
  1. The people should overthrow the Rwandan dictator (often put in place by foreign agencies) and throw him, along with his henchmen and family, out of the country – e.g., the Shah of Iran, Marcos of Philippines.Compaore of Burkina Faso
  2. Rwandans organize a violent revolution and have the dictator killed – e.g., Ceaucescu in Romania.
  3. Foreign powers (till then maintaining the dictator) force the dictator to exile without armed intervention – e.g. Mátyás Rákosi of Hungary was exiled by the Soviets to Kirgizia in 1970 to “seek medical attention”.
  4. Foreign powers march in and remove the dictator (whom they either instated or helped earlier) – e.g. Saddam Hussein of Iraq or Manuel Noriega of Panama.
  5. The dictator kills himself in an act of desperation – e.g., Hitler in 1945.
  6. The dictator is assassinated by people near him – e.g., Julius Caesar of Rome in 44 AD was stabbed by 60-70 people (only one wound was fatal though).
  7. Organise strikes and unrest to paralyze the country and convince even the army not to support the dictaor – e.g., Jorge Ubico y Castañeda was ousted in Guatemala in 1944 and Guatemala became democratic, Recedntly in Burkina Faso with the dictator Blaise Compaoré.

Almighty God :Justice for US

Almighty God :Justice for US
Hutu children's daily bread: Intimidation, Slavery, Sex abuses led by RPF criminals and Kagame, DMI: Every single day, there are more assassinations, imprisonment, brainwashing & disappearances. Do they have any chance to end this awful life?

Killing Hutus on daily basis

Killing Hutus on daily basis
RPF targeted killings, very often in public areas. Killing Hutus on daily basis by Kagame's murderers and the RPF infamous death squads known as the "UNKNOWN WRONGDOERS"

RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya

RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya
Rape, torture and assassination and unslaving of hutu women. Genderside: Rape has always been used by kagame's RPF as a Weapon of War, the killings of Hutu women with the help of Local Defense Forces, DMI and the RPF military

The Torture in Rwanda flourishes

The Torture in Rwanda flourishes
How torture flourishes across Rwanda despite extensive global monitoring

Fighting For Our Freedom?

Fighting For Our Freedom?
We need Freedom, Liberation of our fatherland, Human rights respect, Mutual respect between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority

KAGAME VS JUSTICE

Sunday, May 31, 2009



June 1, 2009

Mr. Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General
United Nations
New York, NY 10017

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Prime Minister Gordon Brown
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA


Dear Secretary General, President, and Prime Minister,

We the undersigned scholars and human rights defenders are writing to express our grave concern at the ongoing failure of Prosecutor Hassan Jallow to fulfil the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) by bringing indictments against those soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) who committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rwanda in 1994.

While we commend the ICTR for vigorously prosecuting numerous perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, we are deeply concerned that the failure to indict a single RPF soldier for killing civilians causes the Tribunal to be dismissed as “victor’s justice,” sets a dangerous precedent for future international prosecutions, and undermines efforts at achieving peace, security, and reconciliation in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region as a whole.

We certainly recognize that the RPF’s crimes against humanity and war crimes are not comparable to the genocide, either in scope or intent. Yet, that is no argument for granting impunity for those crimes. As Alison Des Forges, the historian and human rights defender, eloquently wrote before her untimely death earlier this year:

To insist on the right to justice for all victims, as did the [1994] UN Commission of Experts, is not to deny the genocide, nor does such an insistence equate war crimes with genocide; it simply asserts that all victims, regardless of their affiliation, regardless of the nature of the crime committed against them, and regardless of the affiliation of the perpetrator, must have equal opportunity to seek redress for the wrongs done them.

Indeed, today’s international war crimes tribunals, unlike their predecessors at Nuremberg and Tokyo, are founded on the principle of even-handed justice for all victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The UN has repeatedly insisted on impartial justice for all international crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994. According to experts working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, RPF soldiers killed an estimated 25,000 to 45,000 civilians in 1994. A UN Commission of Experts, set up by the UN Security Council in 1994, “strongly recommend[ed]” prosecuting the perpetrators of those crimes. Following that recommendation, the Security Council established the ICTR with a clear mandate to prosecute not only the génocidaires, but also those responsible for “other serious violations of international humanitarian law” in order to achieve both justice and “national reconciliation.” The Security Council reaffirmed this commitment to impartial justice with Resolutions in 2003 and 2004 that called “on all States, especially Rwanda . . . to intensify cooperation with and render all necessary assistance to the ICTR, including on investigations of the Rwandan Patriotic Army . . . .”

Prosecutor Jallow’s evident reluctance to prosecute RPF crimes is clearly the result of intimidation and obstructionism by the RPF, which now rules Rwanda. Several years ago, after the Prosecutor’s predecessor announced a timetable for issuing RPF indictments, the Rwandan government brought the ICTR to a grinding halt by preventing prosecution witnesses from travelling to the Tribunal to testify in genocide trials. That action blatantly violated Rwanda’s legal obligation to cooperate with the ICTR, directly defied the Security Council, and strongly suggested that the RPF-led government puts impunity for RPF crimes ahead of justice for the genocide.

By capitulating to this continuing threat of non-cooperation, Prosecutor Jallow has severely compromised his prosecutorial independence and the Tribunal’s integrity. Indeed, the ICTR’s one-sided justice stands in sharp contrast to the impartial justice achieved by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which have resolutely prosecuted all sides of those conflicts.

Last year, Prosecutor Jallow ceded the Tribunal’s primacy over RPF crimes by striking a deal with the RPF-led government whereby they would try four RPF officers for the notorious June 5, 1994 massacre of the Catholic Archbishop of Kigali, three bishops, nine clergy, and two other civilians who had been taken into the RPF’s supposedly protective custody. Flawed proceedings resulted in five-year prison sentences for two lower-ranking officers (who confessed to the killings) and acquittals for the two commanding officers.

This domestic case was a completely inappropriate substitute for ICTR prosecutions. For the past 15 years, the RPF-led government has shown that it is neither willing nor able to deliver justice for such politically sensitive crimes. First, the RPF never prosecuted any of its soldiers for war crimes in 1994 until this 2008 case. Second, the two acquittals and two light sentences handed down in this case do not reflect the gravity of the crimes committed. Third, in the past year, several ICTR trial chambers, the ICTR appeals chamber, and England’s High Court of Justice have ruled that Rwanda cannot even provide fair trials in high-profile genocide cases. The English High Court, in particular, expressed serious concerns about the Rwandan judiciary’s independence and impartiality.

Prosecutor Jallow promised to assess the Rwandan proceedings and reassert jurisdiction over the case if they did not meet international standards. Although the appeal process concluded in late February, Prosecutor Jallow has remained silent on the integrity of Rwanda’s RPF trial. He should take back jurisdiction over that case.

In conclusion, we call on you to ensure that the ICTR prosecutes RPF crimes. This issue should be raised when Prosecutor Jallow addresses the United Nations Security Council about his completion strategy on June 4, 2009. Under the current strategy, the ICTR is supposed to complete all trials in 2009 and all appeals in 2011. Unless the Prosecutor acts swiftly, the ICTR will squander not only its last chance to provide accountability for those serious crimes, but also its legitimacy.

cc:

Patricia O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General, The Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs
Judge Charles Michael Dennis Byron, President, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Prosecutor Hassan Jallow, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State
Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
HE Dr. Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations
HE Clint Williamson, US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
Michelle Gavin, Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council
James B. Donovan, Deputy Legal Adviser, United States Mission to the United Nations

David Miliband, UK Foreign Secretary
Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister with responsibility for Africa in the Foreign Office
Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development
HE Sir John Sawers, UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Cathy Adams, Legal Counsellor, United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations

Signatories

Professor Erin Baines, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Elizabeth Barad
Larissa Begley, University of Sussex, UK
Professor David Black, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Professor Stephen Brown, University of Ottawa
Professor Anuradha Chakravarty, University of South Carolina
Professor Christina Clark-Kazak, York University, Toronto, Canada
Professor Roger Des Forges, University at Buffalo
Professor Nigel Eltringham, University of Sussex
Conor Foley, International housing, land and property rights expert
Professor Paul Gready, Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York
Professor Sarah Freedman, University of California at Berkeley
Dr. Ann Griffiths, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Aloys Habimana, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professor Rhoda Howard-Hassman, FRSC, Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
Chris Huggins, Specialist, Conflicts over Land and Natural Resources Rights
Catharine Jenkins, Chair, Centre for Law & Conflict, SOAS, London
Professor Emeritus René Lemarchand, University of Florida
Professor Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Princeton University
Professor Timothy Longman, Director, African Studies Center, Boston University
Dr. J. Paul Martin, Director, Human Rights Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University
Constance Morrill, Human rights advocate
Professor Rosemary Nagy, Nipissing University, Thunder Bay, Canada
Professor Catharine Newbury, Smith College
Professor David Newbury, Smith College
Dr. Scott Newton, School of Law, SOAS
Professor Victor Peskin, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University
Tiamoyo Peterson, M.A., University of California, Irvine, USA
Professor Vern Neufeld Redekop, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada
Dr. Luc Reydams, University of Notre Dame
Professor Filip Reyntjens, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Samantha A. Smith, University of California, Irvine, USA
Professor Chandra Lekha Sriram, Director, Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, University of East London
Karen Stauss, Former Human Rights Watch researcher for the Democratic Republic of Congo
Professor Scott Straus, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tony Tate, Former Human Rights Watch researcher for Burundi
Carina Tertsakian, Former Amnesty International researcher on Rwanda
Dr. Susan Thomson, University of Ottawa, Canada
Alana Tiemessen, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Professor Kathryn Trevenen, Institute of Women's Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada
Noel Twagiramungu, Tufts University
Professor Jan Vansina, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michele D. Wagner, former professor, University of Minnesota
Lars Waldorf, Director, Centre for International Human Rights, University of London
Peter Webster
Professor Harvey M. Weinstein, University of California at Berkeley
Professor Richard A. Wilson, Director, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut
Eugenia Zorbas, Former staff, UNHCR-Rwanda


The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Rwanda

Head of state Paul Kagame
Head of government Bernard Makuza
Death penalty abolitionist for all crimes
Population 10 million

***

The government continued to reform the judicial system, but the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania declined to transfer cases to Rwanda, citing fair trial concerns, especially protection of witnesses. Legislative elections reaffirmed the political dominance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the ruling political party. Freedom of expression was limited and civil society and the media were under close scrutiny by the government. Four former combatants of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the armed wing of the political movement, were tried for murder in a military court. No other charges were brought against members of the RPA for crimes under international law committed before, during and after the genocide.

Background

The RPF continued to dominate all levels of political life in Rwanda, from the executive down to the local administration.

The government reacted with hostility to criticism. Donor governments were locked into a close relationship with the Rwandan authorities and did not for the most part challenge or criticize them openly, preferring a policy of soft diplomacy. Governments were however critical when a UN report found that Rwanda was supporting a rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, leading to a withdrawal of aid from the Netherlands and Sweden in December.

Significant economic growth was reported by the government in 2008. Donor governments provided considerable support; one development agency estimated that approximately 50 per cent of the national budget came from foreign aid. The same agency reported an overall reduction in poverty, including improvements in health and education. However, despite this overall reduction, the poor remained marginalized and inequalities between the urban elite and the rural poor reportedly grew.

Kigali showed signs of rapid urbanization, following the expropriation of land for urban reconstruction. Some Kigali residents complained that they had received inadequate compensation.

The National Assembly amended the Constitution to give former Presidents immunity from prosecution for life, including for crimes under international law. Another amendment reduced judge’s tenure of office from life to four years, potentially compromising the independence of the judiciary.

Legislative elections in September were monitored by the EU Election Observation Mission to Rwanda, whose preliminary findings noted a lack of real political debate during the pre-election period and certain irregularities. The two main opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party, were allied to the RPF. Local election monitors stated that the voter turn-out of 98 per cent was indicative of coercion. They also stated that local results consistently gave the RPF well over 95 per cent, and that consolidated national results giving the RPF 78.9 per cent were deliberately lowered to lend the elections greater credibility.

"War crimes and crimes against humanity committed during and after the genocide remained largely unprosecuted. "

The report of the Mucyo Commission, set up in 2006 by the Rwandan government to investigate the role of France in the 1994 genocide, was published on 5 August 2008. The report alleged the involvement of 33 current and former French political and military figures in the genocide. The Prosecutor General stated on 15 November that the authorities were ready to indict 23 of those named.

The Mucyo report followed an investigation instituted by a French judge into the shooting down in 1994 of a plane whose passengers included President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi and three French nationals. The French judge issued international arrest warrants on 17 November 2006 against nine leading members of the RPF for shooting down the plane. Rose Kabuye, Chief of Protocol for President Kagame, was arrested on 9 November 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany. She was transferred to France and charged with “complicity in murder in relation to terrorism”.

Freedom of expression – the media

Freedom of expression remained severely limited. Journalists critical of the government were closely monitored by the authorities. Foreign journalists and Rwandan journalists working for foreign newspapers were prevented on several occasions from entering Rwanda or attending official events.

On 2 May, the editors of three newspapers were turned away from the World Media Celebration Day (a day to coincide with Press Freedom Day), by order of the Information Minister.

On 18 August, the Information Minister threatened to close the BBC and Voice of America broadcasts in national languages and accused the two broadcasters of lies and exaggeration.

Human rights defenders

Human rights work remained strictly controlled and limited by the government. There was little or no space for domestic human rights organizations critical of the government, and human rights defenders and other members of civil society generally applied self-censorship to avoid confrontation with the authorities.

Some election observers from a local NGO were prevented from carrying out their work by the authorities. The organization issued a public statement in September alleging that the election process was marred by irregularities.

Prisoner of conscience

Charles Ntakirutinka, a former government minister, remained in Kigali Central Prison, serving a 10-year sentence. He had been convicted, in an unfair trial, of inciting civil disobedience and association with criminal elements.

International justice

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

The ICTR was to finish all first-instance trials by the end of 2008 and complete all work by 2010, according to UN Security Council Resolution 1503. This deadline became unfeasible, given the 28 detainees on trial and the nine accused awaiting trial. In July, the UN Security Council extended the terms of the Trial Chamber and its judges until 31 December 2009.

Four requests by the Rwandan Prosecutor General for cases to be transferred from the ICTR to Rwanda were rejected on the basis that the accused were at risk of being subjected to an unfair trial. The four decisions cited reports that defence witnesses inside and outside Rwanda risk being rejected by their community, mistreated, arrested, detained, beaten, tortured and in some cases killed. In this context, the presiding judges voiced concern that the accused would have limited ability to call defence witnesses to trial.

The 2007 transfer law abolished capital punishment and replaced it with life imprisonment in solitary confinement, commonly considered as a violation of Article 7 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. The ICTR decisions ruled that the application of life in solitary confinement as punishment would prevent the transfer of the cases to Rwanda. The Rwandan Parliament passed a law on 3 November to prohibit solitary confinement for transfer cases.

Criticism of universal jurisdiction

At the AU summit in June, President Kagame criticized abuse of the principles of universal jurisdiction in response to arrest warrants issued in France and Spain against leading RPF members. The AU summit called for an international regulatory body “to review and/or handle complaints or appeals arising out of abuse of the principle of universal jurisdiction” by states.

Genocide suspects living abroad

Judicial proceedings against genocide suspects took place in Belgium, Canada, France and the Netherlands. Extradition hearings against genocide suspects in Sweden, Germany and Norway were continuing. A genocide suspect was detained in Finland and it remained unclear whether he would be extradited to Rwanda. During the year, France refused an extradition request made by Rwanda. In the UK, the Home Secretary ruled that four genocide suspects in the UK should be extradited to Rwanda. The suspects all lodged appeals.

Justice system

At the end of December, Rwanda’s prisons contained 59,532 people. Of these, 37,277 people had been accused of genocide and 22,321 of other offences. Most pre-trial detainees were being held on ordinary criminal charges, not genocide-related charges.

The international community supported the government in reforms of the justice system, including training judicial staff, training the Rwandan Bar Association and developing information management systems for prisons.

Gacaca proceedings

In October, an estimated 10,000 category one cases were pending before gacaca courts, whose procedures fail to meet international standards of fair trial. Category one cases involve the planners, organizers, instigators and supervisors of the genocide. Of these, at least 6,000 were rape cases which were transferred to category one in May 2008.

Gacaca trials were reportedly marred by false accusations and corruption. In addition, defence witnesses were reluctant to come forward because they feared that the authorities would level false accusations against them.

On 21 January, a gacaca judge in Karana sector was accused of trying to bribe a prosecution witness. The case was at the appeal stage and the accused had been sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment.

Impunity

War crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the RPF and RPA before, during and after the genocide remained largely unprosecuted.

In an isolated case, four former RPA officers were tried for the killing of 13 members of the Roman Catholic clergy in Kabgayi district in June 1994. The investigation was undertaken jointly by the Rwandan prosecution and the ICTR. On 24 October the Military Tribunal of Kigali sentenced two captains, who pleaded guilty, to eight years’ imprisonment. The other two were acquitted.

Law on ‘genocidal ideology’

A new law criminalizing “genocidal ideology”, whose terms are vague and ambiguous, was promulgated on 1 October. The offence is punishable by 10 to 25 years’ imprisonment. This law could potentially stifle freedom of expression, and restrict the ability of the accused to put forward a defence in criminal trials.

Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

The government was hostile towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, whose members faced harassment and intimidation. In March, two female LGBT activists were accused of forging documents and detained for two weeks after attending a LGBT conference in Mozambique. They were subsequently released.

The National Assembly was considering an amendment to the Penal Code which would criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relationships.

The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine











***
by Felicien Kanyamibwa, PhD.
New Jersey, USA, May 19, 2009.

***

INTRODUCTION

Fifteen years after the small nation of Rwanda experienced one of the worst tragedies of the modern history, the core problems remain unresolved. While most people, including Great Lakes Region experts, humanitarian and human rights organizations, diplomats, intelligence services, and Great Lakes region nationals agree on the social roots of the problems, they disagree on the
solutions.

The agreement that ethnic politics constitute the root of the problem remains widespread. Ethnic politics have set the stage for the tragedy to happen and have continued to profoundly shape the political landscape. Several propositions to resolve the conflict have been put forward. Unfortunately, these proposed solutions appear not based on clear specific, measurable, achievable, pragmatic and time-bound objectives.

Without such clearly defined objectives, the roads to durable solutions in the Great Lakes region, especially in Rwanda, may only lead nowhere. This lack of clear vision has lead to the multiple
invasions of the DRC by Rwanda and Uganda, the recent invasion of the DRC by Rwanda through proxy forces, and the combined military operations by the Rwandan Army, Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) and the congolese army, FARDC, against congolese militias, rwandan rebels, and rwandan refugees.

The world has been experimenting with Henry Kissinger’s theory that “If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there” and the Roman Empire narcissistic approach that “all roads lead to Rome”. The result of the chaotic approach to solving the problems of the Great Lakes region has been more chaos, massive losses of life, missed economic opportunities, and making the problem even more complex.

This memorandum goes from lessons learned from my own personal tragedy and attempts to propose an approach and find solutions to reach durable peace in the Great Lakes region. The memorandum proposes to look at the ways of the past without following the roads that led to failure. As the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho said: “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” The experience of our predecessors can teach us what made them fail despite their honest vision.

They sought a peaceful and prosperous region, where ethnic groups will live harmoniously, while individuals would thrive, and the region would live in an economic integration. For that purpose, our Rwandan predecessors tried ethnic politics and failed: from the seeds of ethnic politics, Rwandans harvested unbearable suffering. It is the task for the current Rwandan leaders and the future generations to follow the legitimate aspirations of their predecessors, but track a different road: a road beyond ethnic politics and fear.

The memorandum describes the road as envisioned. The proposition in the memorandum maps four critical phases:



  • Recognize the fallacies behind the denial of ethnic identities;

  • Mobilize the Rwandan people for consensual democracy;

  • Aim for the full democracy, where platforms of ideas will transcend ethnic
    identities;

  • Openness to the World, beginning with good neighborhood and regional
    integration.

    A DAY OF RECKONING

I can claim that my active interest in the Rwandan politics started on March 2, 1997. That date will remain forever engraved in my memory. In the morning of March 2, 1997 a company of Tutsi soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) army, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), encircled the villages and small towns of my origin, in Jenda, Cellule Kabatezi, Sector Nkuri, Prefecture Ruhengeri, Norwestern Rwanda.


They rounded up all Hutu men and young boys they could find, tied their arms in the back with sturdy ropes (also known as “Akandoya”, one of the torture methods in RPA arsenal) and led them into the mountains of Konoma, Rubare, and Runyanjya. Late that evening, women and a few men who by chance had escaped, heard heavy fusillades. When the fusillades ceased, the
RPA soldiers descended down the mountains and left the villages.

During the night, the surviving men, conquering their fear, went to the place where the fusillades took place. The macabre scene lit by the moon could only be equaled by episodes from the scariest horror movie. Torn apart bodies of young boys and men, old and not old, lay in pools of blood, some with arms tied in the back by sturdy ropes that had eaten away the flesh.


Unrecognizable and severed heads were smashed and lifeless bodies were riddled with bullets. Few of these surviving men, frozen by fear, had enough courage to burry some of the bodies before the sunrise. In the following morning the RPA troops came back with trucks and led terrified Hutu porters up in the mountains to carry the bodies and load them in waiting trucks. When the RPA troops could not find some of the bodies, they went on rampage, killing more Hutu men, torturing and executing women they suspected of knowing where the missing bodies
were buried.

The cleansing operations took several days. After the operations, only a few Hutu men and young boys from the villages of Jenda and the surroundings had escaped the pogrom. Several women and children, including infants, were massacred. Hutu men and young boys and women who were spared were because they either were mistaken for Tutsis or were hidden by
Tutsis.

On the single day of March 2, 1997, thousands of Hutu people were systematically massacred by Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) troops. My close family alone lost 57 people. These are 57 brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles and aunts, and their wives, husbands or kids, who were killed by the RPA for one reason: being Hutu or suspected of being Hutu or Tutsi
associated with Hutus. However, even the most brutal regime cannot annihilate an entire clan. Several more brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles, and aunts, along with their spouses or kids survived the pogrom. Some survived because they were Tutsis, or mistaken for Tutsis, others because of the flip side of the human wicked face: humanity.

This is how Human Rights Watch recounted these events in an report titled:

“Rwanda: the search for Security and Human Rights Abuses, published by Human Rights Watch on April 1, 2000: “In 1997, ex-FAR and Interahamwe who had returned from the Congo and who had strengthened their forces by recruiting inside Rwanda, conducted a major insurgency in the northwestern prefectures of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri. In suppressing this uprising, as in the first Congo war, RPA troops killed tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, a slaughter which Rwandan authorities sought to justify by their need for security.”

In that period of total darkness, a dim light shone and humanity prevailed in some cases. Some Tutsis conquered their fear and risked their lives to protect some of my surviving relatives against the murderous madness of their Tutsi brothers of the RPA. My Hutu relatives who survived that day owe their lives to these courageous and selfless Tutsis. When I contacted my surviving relatives they could not tell me the story: It was too painful to relate. It is from these
Tutsis that I came to know the tragic story of what happened in my village on that fateful day of March 2, 1997.

From those tragic moments, I retained the names of two individuals: the criminal commander of the Tutsi RPA company responsible for the ethnic cleansing, and one of the fearless and self-sacrificing Tutsis who stood guard in front of the shacks and caverns where some of my Hutu relatives hid for days. Sadly, RPA soldiers, when they learned that these Tutsis had protected my relatives, murdered some of them.

When I asked one of the Tutsis who saved my relatives why he did it, he simply answered: I am a Christian. I did what any good christian would do: “having the fear of God’s judgment and making amends by loving your neighbor as yourself.” He attempted to apologize on the behalf of the Tutsis but I stopped him. I explained that the horrendous crimes were not committed by Tutsis, but that criminals just happened to be Tutsis. I also gave him the example of Tutsis
relatives who were massacred in the same period.

FEARLESSNESS, A NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE OF TRUTH

The Tutsi’s answer reminded me of Gandhi’s vow of fearlessness: “When we fear God, we shall fear no man, no matter how high-placed he may be. And if you want to follow the vow of truth in any shape of form, fearlessness is the necessary consequence. And so you find, in the Bhagawad Gita, fearlessness is declared as the first essential quality of Brahmin. We fear consequences, and therefore we are afraid to tell the truth. A man who fears God will certainly not fear any earthly consequence.”
In the days following March 2, 1997 and after listening to the amazing story of the fearless Tutsis who stood guard in front of the hideout of my relatives and gave them the chance to live another day, I took two important decisions: first to honor the memory of my 57 relatives brutally murdered for their ethnicity on March 2, 1997 and second, as a tribute to the bravery and selflessness of the fearless Tutsis. These two decisions have followed me and guided my political engagement for the last 12 years:

1) I will tell the truth about the Rwandan tragedy
2) I will strive for fearlessness in pursuing the truth

These incidents happened when a number of Rwandan refugees living in the
United States of America, Europe, and Africa were busy building the human
rights organization, Organization for Peace Justice, and Development in Rwanda
(OPJDR) that we had co-created in 1995. As the Coordinator General of OPJDR,
I looked at the human rights organization as a launching pad and a platform for
fulfilling the vows I had made.

The OPJDR sought to actively and objectively create awareness about the situation in Rwanda. During an investigation on massacres committed in Eastern Rwanda, I received troubling reports regarding my relatives who had moved to and resettled in Rusumo region of Kibungo Prefecture and Mutara region of Byumba Prefecture in search of land and other economic opportunities.


I learned that when Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) resumed attacks on April 6, 1994, RPA troops quickly reached Gabiro and Kabarore. An uncle lived there and owned a prosperous small business in Kabarore, Mutara. The first day of the attacks, RPA troops captured the small town of Kabarore, rounded up all Hutu men, including my uncle, his sons, and neighbors and massacred them. My uncle’s wives and a few of his remaining children fled South-East to Rusumo to live with my other relatives, including uncles, aunts, cousins and their spouses and kids. The RPA troops caught up with them around the end of April - early May 1994.

A company of RPF soldiers massacred them and dumped their bodies into the Akagera river. It is believed their bodies were among those found hundreds of miles away in Lake Victoria and that I watched with horror on US TV floating and being recuperated and buried by Ugandans. Refugees International, working with UNHCR recounted the massacres in the May 17, 1994 SITREP by Mark Prutsalis transmitted to George Hogeman, Program Officer of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the U.S. Department of State:

“At Rusumo commune, sectors NYAMUGARI, GISENYI, NYARUBUYE, the RPF comes
at 05h00 waiting for villagers to open their doors. The villagers are caught and taken
away to the river by trucks. No one has returned. Refugees of the area have seen
people being tied together and thrown into the river…

Asked by UNHCR field officer refugees said that RPF did not care whether victims were hutu or tutsi villagers” In these Rusumo massacres, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) massacred
almost all my relatives who had migrated to Rusumo and Mutara, including 43 adults, and an unknown number of children. Only two young men are known to have escaped to Tanzania and are still alive.

The RPF government tried to deny the massacres and attacked the UNHCR in the “Statements on the Questions of Refugees and Security in Rwanda”, published on 25 September 1994 by Colonel Frank Mugambage from the Ministry of Defense and Claudine Nyinawumwami
Umutoni Deputy Minister for Rehabilitation and Social Welfare (MINIREISO): “At the height of the genocide in April-May this year the UNHCR officials dared to make a false report that RPF forces were responsible for the genocide…

The UNHCR accepted and widely publicized false reports by MRND-CDR militias in refugee camp in Ngara… UNHCR officials encouraged the people [from the zone Turquoise] to run to Zaire lest they be killed by the RPF forces when the French Forces left … UNHCR reported bodies (of HUTU) in Akagera river in early September purportedly as a result of Government atrocities. Following this, the President [Pasteur Bizimungu] made a week long verification tour in areas along the river and did not come across a single body in the river...


The above cases raise suspicions that UNHCR could be having other motives not yet known to us. Otherwise how does one explain their continued baseless and unfounded allegations up this day.”
From that time on, the UNHCR was intimidated and remained silent about the atrocities committed by the Rwandan government, to the point of declaring in the April 1997 report called “REFUGEE CAMP SECURITY IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION that: “The fatal accident which befell the President of Rwanda in April 1994 gave the signal for the start of a brutal genocide which was to last for several months and involve the massacre of several hundred thousand civilians,” when it was already public knowledge that President Juvenal Habyarimana’s
plane was shot down by a missile.

I fell sick when I learned about the massacres and dumping the bodies into Akagera river, including those of at least 43 of my relatives. As I remembered seeing on TV and in news papers and magazines the bloated bodies floating in the Akagera river, the hands tied in the back, and those being fished in the Lake Victoria I could only imagine the cruel death these Hutus and Tutsis suffered in the hands of an organization that claimed to liberate them and the country.
The denial by the RPF government officials was a sharp knife in a bleeding wound, a proof that a monster had inherited a den full of preys: the innocent Rwandan Hutu,Tutsi, and Twa alike.

The fact that RPF systematically massacred Hutus, Tutsis and Twas while claiming to stop the “genocide of Tutsis” showed an even more sinister side of the regime. I believed the RPF wanted to eradicate Hutus and Tutsis living alongside them in selected areas, so that the separation
between Hutus and Tutsis would be effective and any reconciliation and cohabitation would be doomed forever. This realization convinced me that remaining a mere activist would be equivalent to staying silent in the face of the worst evil.

Thus, I embarked on the second project towards reaching the goals I set for myself. I researched the circumstances of the assassination of the two Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi and their entourage. The research led to the publication in September 1999 of the “Memorandum on the Assassination of the President Habyarimana.”

These two experiments - launching OPJDR and the publication of the memorandum- taught me several things that I had long sensed, but never really pinpointed.

1) Ethnic politics were entrenched in our lives; we could not move forward before we face the sad reality heads-on;

2) Wherever I looked, and despite the tragedy that separated Rwandans, I found people who, though conscious of their ethnicity, sought ways to escape the entangling web of ethnic politics. Somehow these individuals aspired to be transported into a “neverland” where ethnic groups would have never existed, and the events that have plunged the Rwandan nation in an endless cycle of violence, retribution, fear, and bloodshed since 1990 were just a nightmare;

3) There were, and possibly will always be, some cliques of individuals who will seek to use ethnicity to reach their machiavellian goals at all cost including assuming the helm of the power.

CONQUERING ETHNIC POLITICS.

I realized that we can ignore ethnicity only to our own risk. At the same time I found genuine people who would see ethnic identity as a positive addition to the diversity of ideas, experiences, and enrichment in a nation that has always regarded peaceful coexistence as a major, if not the key source of resources and progress. This realization and finding led me to contemplate the third idea, and to engage on a path that would alter the course of my life forever.

My participation in the creation of the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) lay within that approach. The co-founders of the FDLR believed that on both sides of the ethnic divide, there are forces of good that can mobilize the rest to sit at the table and debate their differences within a fraternal and constructive framework. The Inter-Rwandan Dialogue which constituted the backbone of the FDLR platform stemmed from this core belief, shared by the
initial members of the FDLR.

A few years later, a light shone on this idea with the birth of the “Alliance pour la Démocratie et la Reconciliation Nationale (ADRN-Igihango)”. ADRN-Igihango was an experiment, where Tutsis, who could no longer tolerate the cruelty, brutality and dictatorial methods of the ruling RPF, and Hutus, mostly refugees, met, debated, and proposed a platform for change: the Consensual Democracy.

The Consensual Democracy envisioned a democratic society where an effective representation and protection of all the components of the Rwandan society would be guaranteed. Meanwhile, it had became clear that some key leaders of the FDLR no longer had the vision of the founding members and favored political profiteering to the goals of rebuilding the society beyond ethnic politics. Several of the founders, including myself, and a large number of my companions of the struggle could no longer identify themselves with what had become of the FDLR. We decided to
pursue our vision and objectives outside the organization and leaders resigned from the FDLR in September 2004.


The ADRN-Igihango could not survive the departure of the leaders who had engineered the platform of inter-ethnic dialogue and consensual democracy. Despite its failure, the ADRN-Igihango experiment, remained a watershed in conquering ethnic politics.Along with other political leadership companions, the failure of ADRN-Igihango coincided with our resignation from the FDLR in September 2004.

However, the ADRN-Igihango experience left me with the following important lessons that would fuel my next political move:

1) Several Hutus and Tutsis share core aspirations for the creation of a democratic, yet diverse and plurastic society, where people’s voices will be heard, and truth and genuine participation will be given precedence over fear and ethnics politics;

2) Building a consensus around the idea of Consensual Democracy is an arduous enterprise, that requires a ground up approach of mobilizing the grassroots before diffusing innovative ideas slowly across the Rwandan social fabric;

3) Time is the best friend of success.
It is with this realization that I, working with other struggle companions that had resigned from the FDLR, embarked on a new initiative: the creation of the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD-Urunana). The principle behind the initiative remained the shared vision of consensual democracy, the constant dialogue among ethnic groups, the mobilization for a Rwandan nation united for the common purpose, while aiming for a sustained development and regional
integration to the benefit of all the components of the society.

The RUD experiment was unique, yet promising because of the existence of a team with a focused vision, a sense of common purpose, an idea that we could not afford to lose. An impetus was added when Tutsis brothers and sisters of the Rally for the Rwandan People (RPR), mostly ex-RPA, joined the Army National (AN-Imboneza), to protect Hutu refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The fact that hundreds of Tutsis troops who, a few months or years before were part of the RPA that sought to exterminate the Hutu refugees, had joined their former Hutus opponents to fight for a common good and just cause, while protecting Hutu refugees, was a first and a major step in the direction of the birth of a new Rwanda: a Rwanda with a political landscape void of ethnic politics. It was a major victory over ethnic politics and a significant blow to the clique of Hutus or Tutsis who promoted these politics. It was an awesome experience lived by fearless individuals, Hutus, Tutsis and Twas.

THE THREAT OF FEARLESSNESS TO ETHNIC POLITICS

The RUD/RPR experiment threatened those who sought to plant fear among Rwandan ethnics groups to better control them. The Tutsi-led Rwandan regime, whose ethnic politics is the root and the engine of its existence, felt particularly vulnerable. The Rwandan Intelligence and security services apparatus launched a terrorist campaign targeting all the Hutus and Tutsis suspected rightly or wrongly of being behind the RUD-RPR coalition initiative.

After dismissing the existence of RUD-Urunana/RPR on Voice of America (VOA), Mr. Richard Sezibera, then Rwandan President Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, suddenly made a volte-face. On March 17, 2006, Mr. Sezibera published in the Daily Monitor, one of the leading Ugandan newspapers, an article alleging that Rwandan dissidents in Kampala were preparing to wage a war against their homeland. He particularly singled out RUD-Urunana and RPR. His article showed that the Rwandan regime was clearly alarmed by pespectives of the collaboration among mostly Hutu and mostly Tutsi political organizations.

The article set off a chain of repressive actions by the Kigali regime. Mobilizing its full financial, diplomatic, and political machine, Kigali hunted down people across Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region suspected of supporting the two organizations. People were arrested and accused of all sorts of things: Tutsis were accused of being members of “Army of the Tutsi King”.

Already in September 2006, just after they learned of the collaboration between the RPR and RUD, Kigali government officials circulated a list to the Tripartite-Plus, on which the founders of the two political parties were included. On that list, the former RPA officer Major Gerard Ntashamaje, a Tutsi and the leader of RPR was included as a Hutu and a former ex-FAR.

Yet, Major Gerard Ntashamaje, whose father was a prominent Tutsi, government Minister, Supreme Court Judge, and Prosecutor under the previous regimes, was until 2000, an RPA soldier and RPF high ranking government official. On March 17, 2007, after the Rwandan Government exerted a heavy diplomatic pressure on the Ugandan Government, 10 people, including 9 Tutsis and 1 Hutu that were arrested in Uganda a few months earlier were handed over to the Rwandan intelligence services and accused of being RUD/RPR members.

The uneasiness of the Rwandan Government about the peaceful cohabitation between Hutu and Tutsis was clearly underlined by several independent observers. In an report published on April 1, 2000 and titled: “Rwanda: the search for Security and Human Rights Abuses,” Human Rights Watch observes:

“Between November 15 and 20, 1999 local authorities in Nyamirambo, a section of the capital city, Kigali, detained more than 200 young people on the charge of being part of the "army of the king".

They arrested the young men on the streets, where they had supposedly been awaiting transport to take them to places where they would receive military training. The young men were detained in the local lockup for two days and then handed over to the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI), which reportedly released them after they had confessed to
unspecified crimes. Unlike previous opposition groups identified solely with Hutu, the monarchists include both Hutu and Tutsi.”

The Human Rights Watch Report continues further: “Some Tutsi soldiers of the RPA, both survivors of the genocide and those from Burundi and the Congo, say they have no wish to fight the war in the Congo. They want that conflict settled by negotiations, even if this means coming to terms with the insurgents.

The multi-ethnic nature of the monarchist group poses a major challenge to authorities who previously could discredit opposition groups for being composed only of Hutu and for including persons implicated in the genocide. Now both the RPF and the government are themselves increasingly criticized for being dominated by Tutsi. Although they continue to talk about the multi-ethnic sharing of power, about nationalism, and about reconciliation, the RPF and the
government have progressively excluded all the major Hutu leaders who once participated in power.”

The Rwandan Supreme court judgment Nr RPA 0017/07/CS of October 25, 2007 of Prosecutor vs Rukeba Francois (Tutsi) , Ugirimpuhwe Leonard (Hutu), Kabagambe Peter (Tutsi), and Iyarwema Vedaste (Tutsi) accused of seeking to overthrow the Rwandan government under the provisions of articles 164 and 165 reinforce the trend of Rwandan ethnic and fear politics. The three Supreme Court judges: Mukanyundo Patricie, Hatangimbabazi Fabien and Kanyange
Fidelite convicted the defendants of creating the RPR and having cooperated with RUD-Urunana.

Specifically they convicted them of “having talked on phone with Kanyamibwa (myself), residing in America” and of “belonging to the political party created by Ntashamaje Gerard.” The case of Rukeba Francois took its roots long before 2000. The Tutsi-led government National Rights Commission writes in its 2000 Annual report published in March 2001, under the section: “The arrest and detention of Second Lieutenant MURERA Bertin, Pte BYABAGAMBA Innocent, RUTABANA Benjamin, RUKEBA Francois and RUGEMA Janvier”.

“The families of the soldiers MURERA Bertin and BYABAGAMBA Innocent, together with those of the Civilians, Benjamin RUTABANA (known by the name Ben) and François RUKEBA sought verbally the Commission's assistance so as to know where these four men had been detained. They had been arrested, some in Tanzania, others in Burundi and forced back into the country by Rwanda Government.

“As for RUTABANA Benjamin, he said that the charges referred against him were fabricated and not the real reason for his arrest. He thought the real reason could be that, he had been uspected of aiding and abetting in the escape of former Speaker of Parliament, Mr. SEBARENZI KABUYE Joseph.”

On his part, RUKEBA François admitted to have taken BYABAGAMBA Innocent in his car as far as Butare, on the day BYABAGAMBA fled the country. He did not however, know that he was running away from the country. He said they later on met in Burundi by coincidence. RUKEBA François denied any involvement in the soldier's escape.

During these discussions at the Kigali Military Prosecutor's Office, none of the detainees said he had been tortured or undergone any other cruel, in-human treatment. However, they showed such signs as unusual fatigue that the Commission believed those men might have experienced such kind of treatment but, out of fear, they concealed the fact.

Five months after the Commission met them for the first time, all the five were bailed out. They are currently waiting to appear before the court, free from detention.

However, at the time of writing this report, some information yet to be confirmed by the Commission says that two of them, namely RUKEBA François and RUGEMA Janvier,
might have fled the Country.”

The government will once more catch up with Rukeba Francois in Uganda a few years later and accuse him of allying himself with Hutus seeking to overthrow the government. Reading both Reports, one by the completely independent Human Rights Watch and the other by the Tutsi-led government sponsored commission, one may realize the following:

1) Like Hutu, Tutsis seeking to free themselves from ethnic politics and politics of fear are equally targeted by the Tutsi-led government;

2) They also, like Hutu, are arrested on trumped up charges and eventually tortured It is clear that ethnic politics and fear are used to intimidate both Tutsis and Hutus. The policy of division has been embraced, promoted, and enhanced into a method of governance by the Tutsi-led regime, since its inception. The regime has expanded the policy to promote divisions based on criteria such as clan, region of origin, second language.

FEARLESSNESS ON A LONG AND NARROW ROAD BEYOND ETHNIC POLITICS

This year, amazing things happened in the World. America got its first Black President (and first Black First Lady). On January 20, 2009 the voice of the Black President echoed across the halls where decisions that shake the entire World are made.

The man came from a race, which less than 50 years ago, was struggling to move from the back of the bus to decent schools, whose males were being lynched for making innocuous comments or gestures, women raped for being in a wrong neighborhood, and both men and women imprisoned or killed for just claiming their basic rights.

In his speech, the Black president preached hope, racial harmony, and a new order of peace around the World. Most Americans agreed with him that race and diversity should be a source of richness of ideas, initiatives, entrepreneurship and openness that would propel the most powerful and richest country to new heights of prosperity and respect around the World. The
American people, the most diverse nation in the World, made a bet on the complementarily of races, nationalities, and ethnic groups and won the war over racial and divisive politics.

America heeded the call of Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered in his March 4, 1933 First Inaugural Address: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

When the American people were making strides and renewing their shared commitment of building a nation as a beacon of hope and racial harmony, somewhere, in Africa, Rwanda in particular, ethnic identities were exploited and used for the politics lethal to the interests of the African people. The current Tutsi-led Rwandan regime has used and continues to use these politics to the criminal perfection.

On April 11, 2009 , in an article published in Los Angeles Times and titled: “The power of horror in Rwanda”,

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth wrote:

“One tool of repression has been the gacaca courts … which the government established at the community level to try alleged perpetrators of the genocide. …the law outlawing "genocide ideology" is written so broadly that it can encompass even the most innocuous comments. As many Rwandans have discovered, disagreeing with the government or making unpopular statements can easily be portrayed as genocide ideology, punishable by sentences of 10 to
25 years. That leaves little political space for dissent.”

In Rwanda, both the Gacaca courts and the law on “genocide ideology” targets one ethnic group: The Hutus. The purpose of these two instruments of repression is to keep both Hutus and Tutsis in constant fear and mutual distrust. The Hutus fear being jailed, tortured, or killed. The Tutsis are always reminded that Hutus are seeking to exterminate them.

It is a win-win situation for the small clique in power. The cynicism behind the logic is simple: Hutus will never express any dissent, and Tutsis will keep loyalty to a clique that promises
protection. It is a lose-lose situation for the Rwandan people: reconciliation will remain a distant dream. Therefore ethnic distrust will prevail while racial conflicts, like a ticking bomb, are bound to erupt.

Gandhi, in his speech on “Ashram Vows” at YMCA, Madras and published in Indian Review in February 1916 and The Hindu, 16 Feb 1916, writes about the Untouchables “There is an ineffaceable blot that Hinduism today carries with it. I have declined to believe that it has been handed to us from immemorial times.

I think that this miserable, wretched, enslaving spirit of “Untouchableness” must have come to us when we were in the cycle of our lives, at our lowest ebb, and that evil has still stuck to us and it still remains with us. It is to my mind, a curse that has come to us, and as long as that curse remains with us, so long I think we are bound to consider that every affliction that we labour under in this sacred land is a fit and proper punishment for this great and indelible crime we are
committing.

That any person should be considered untouchable because of his calling passes one’s comprehension; and you, the student world, who receives this modern education, if you become a party to this crime, it were better that you received no education whatsoever.” In Rwanda, a new class of “Untouchables” is being created. This class is made mostly of Hutus, but also of Tutsis who question the rationale behind ethnic politics.

Fear has, like a metastatic cancer, spread its tentacles into the fabric of a nation, fueled by ethnic politics. One sees it in the administration, in the private enterprise, and public ceremonies, in schools, in the military, in the police, in the financial system, in the judiciary system, and in the media: in summary, the entire public and private administration.

Every year, in April, Rwandans remembers the survivors of the 1994 madness. Usually, the first day, Rwandan leaders make speeches and survivors remember the departed. In all speeches, there is no mention of Hutus victims. Only Tutsis are mentioned and remembered. Only Tutsis have the right to remember, to shed tears, to cry, and to commemorate. As recently as in January 2009, a delegation of Hutu refugees visited the Memorial erected in Gisozi for Tutsis
killed in 1994. When her baby cried, the Hutu mother was expelled from the memorial site, being accused of defiling the sacred place.

Rwanda has moved from the period of ethnic politics to ethnic annihilation. Annihilation of Hutus has become a public policy: Hutus and Tutsis who sympathize with them are excluded at all cost, in order for the clique leading the country to maintain itself in power. In a resolution, the United Nations (UN) Security Council concluded that events in Rwanda in 1994 constitute “Rwandan
Genocide”. The Rwandan government, while denying the existence of a Tutsi ethic group, renamed the events “Tutsi genocide”.

The new qualification of the 1994 events by the current Tutsi-led government only solidifies the exclusion and annihilation of Hutus under three forms:


1) Constantly and wrongly reminding the other ethnic groups (Hutus and Twas)
that are criminals;
2) Trying to pretend that ethnic groups do not exist in Rwanda;
3) Imposing the belief that only Tutsis were killed.

With this politics, Hutus and Twas cannot claim being discriminated against: How can one be discriminated against if he or she doesn’t exist? Job, public service, scholarships, admissions to high and higher education, and other benefits can be given to one ethnic group without being accused of discrimination.

At the same time, Hutus can be arrested, accused of “genocidal ideology” and crimes against the Tutsi survivors, and be subjected to torture, summary execution, and arbitrary imprisonment because they are “marked” as being responsible for the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Hence, only Tutsis, as the only recognized survivors may benefit from all the programs such as Fond d’Aide aux Rescapés du Génocide (FARG), a fund set up to assist “ Tutsi genocide survivors” and Travaux d’Interets General (TIG), forced public work executed by Hutu prisoners.

Hutus and Twas cannot be survivors, because they are not Tutsis, and cannot claim to exist because there are no ethnic groups in Rwanda. Hutus and Twas as members of ethnic groups have been annihilated and Tutsis who sympathize with them suffer the same fate.
The annihilation of Hutus is fueled by fear:



  • Fear by Tutsis to tell the truth about the blatant repression against Hutus;

  • Fear by Tutsis to sympathize with the plight of Hutu, because they may risk to
    loose the support of or being persecuted by a Tutsi government;

  • Fear by Hutu to tell the truth, because they are already accused of being
    criminals and risk being accused of “genocide ideology.”, negationism or
    revisionism.

Maintaining fear among Tutsis and Hutu through ethnic politics is the only efficient and effective tool the current Tutsi-regime has to maintain itself in power. The Tutsi-led power preys on the nation and will devour the people if nothing is done. Tutsi and Hutus who have understood the machiavellian scheme have no other choice than finding ways to move beyond fear and ethnic
politics for their own survival but, most importantly, for the survival of Tutsis, Hutus, and Twas, and of Rwanda as a nation.

ETHNIC POLITICS WAS TRIED IN RWANDA BEFORE AND FAILED: IT LED TO 1959
BLOODY REVOLUTION

Between 13 and 28 June 1956, the Conseil Superior du Pays, exclusively composed of Tutsis, held a closed-door meeting called “Huitième Session du Conseil Supérieur du Pays”. The question of ethnicity was raised, following the general discontent of Hutus across the entire country. The Hutus openly complained about excesses, abuses, and repression by Tutsis. The Conseil Superior asked the Rwandan King to make the following statement to the nation
[French]:

“Certaines personnes peu ou mal informées répètent ou écrivent volontiers que les Batutsis venus dans le Pays en conquérant ont spoliés les Bahutu [Hutus] de leurs biens et les ont maintenus à un rang inférieur. Une telle affirmation relève d’une tendance à ne voir que le mauvais côté des choses. Ceux qui la formulent perdent de vue que certaines lacunes de l’organisation politique et sociale des Bututsi [Tutsis] étaient compensées par l’assurance qu’avaient les serviteurs de jouir de la protection de leurs maîtres, les administrés de celle de leurs chefs, cette protection revêtant un caractère nettement familial. …

“Les Bahutu eurent en tout temps l’occasion d’acquérir richesses et considération sociale. Quant au pouvoir politique, des Bahutu et même certains Batwa furent nommés chefs par le Mwami[King] du Ruanda. Si la chose a été perdue de vue, si l’on a pu croire que seuls les Batutsi étaient aux postes de commande du Pays, c’est que des alliances de ces chefs Bahutu et Batwa avec des familles Batutsi avaient tôt fait d’aplanir les différences sociales et raciales de sorte que toute distinction devenait impossible.

A plus forte raison sous le régime actuel, les chances sont-elles laissées à tous, suivant leur capacités et leur mérites, d’accéder a toutes les fonctions vacntes. “Le conseil Supérieur du Pays émet le voeu suivant: “que les mentions “Mututsi, muhutu ou mutwa soient rayés dans les livrets de recensement, fiches ainsi que dans tous les actes officiels.” La séance est suspendue à 12 heures.”

Hence, to the complaints of ethnic discriminations and the monopolization of power by one ethnic group, Tutsis, the Conseil Supérieur du Pays, composed exclusively by the Tutsi ethnic group decided to suppress he mention of ethnic groups in official records and documents. However, in months that followed, the complaints by Hutus became even louder across the entire country.

On October 21, 1957, the Hutus wrote a letter to the Mwami Mutara III
Rudahigwa asking for equal representation of Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa within the
Conseil Supérieur du Pays.
In October 1957, the Hutu published the Manifeste des Bahutu asking for democracy in general, and a constitutional democracy, in particular. On March 7, 1958, Vianney Bendantunguka, a prominent Hutu political activist, compared the situation in Rwanda to that at the night of the French Revolution on 4 August 1789.

However, he suggested that the King still had time for a peaceful revolution, instead of a bloody one, in order to replace a society based on privilege of one ethnic group by a society based on Democracy.

A series of unrelenting complaints came from all the regions of the country:

In Marangara:

Hutu asked why only Tutsis were allowed in colleges and universities, demanded the abolition of forced labor and sharecropping by Hutu, the introduction of competitive examination in attribution of scholarships, the participation of Hutu in Conseil Supérieur du Pays, the abolition of arbitrary confiscation or appropriation of Hutu farms by Tutsis, etc.

In Bushiru:

Hutus observed that all the Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, Judges, and public servants were Tutsis; that even these were imposed to the Hutus. Hutu owned the land, but now Tutsis had decided that land belonged to Tutsis. Hutu were not allowed to graze cattle on their own farms. Tutsis who failed schools were hired as teachers of agriculture, when Hutu farmers knew better.
In Kingogo: Hutus wondered why only Tutsis were the only ethnic group allowed to inherit. If a Hutu died, his property became the property of a Tutsi chief. All public functions were occupied by Tutsis. Hutus demanded the abolition of arbitrary confiscation or appropriation of Hutu farms by Tutsis, etc.

In Kabagali:

Hutus pointed out that all Judges and prosecutors were Tutsis. They insisted that there were 3 races in Rwandal: Hutu, Twa and Tutsis. They asked what criteria to get a public position: race (ethnic group) or competency. They wondered whether all Hutu were incompetent. They demanded the abolition of arbitrary confiscation or appropriation of Hutu farms by Tutsis, etc.
In Cyanika-Bufundu: Hutus asked why only Tutsis receive scholarships to study in Europe. They complained that all Jugdes were Tutsis. Hutu denounced corruption and arbitrary confiscation or appropriation of Hutu farms by Tutsis, etc.

And several other complaints from individuals or groups landed at the Royal court, in tracts, newspapers, magazines, reports from local meetings, etc. The core of those complaints was: Tutsis hierarchy oppressed Hutus and occupied most of the public positions; Tutsis were exclusively represented in the highest institutions of the country, such as Conseil Supérieur du Pays, Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs, Judges, persecutors. Tutsi were exclusively admitted in public high and higher education and exclusively received public scholarships;

Tutsi aristocrats misappropriated the farms of Hutus.

The situation before 1959 appears similar to what we observe in Rwanda today. At the invitation of the Government of Kigali and the international community and between 23 and 28 January 2008, a delegation of the combatants and their dependents of the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD)/Rally of the Rwandan People (RPR) conducted an exploratory visit to Rwanda.

The visit was in the agenda within the framework of the Peace Process initiated in Rome on May 9, 2008 between the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a coalition between RUD and RPR, under the facilitation of the Community Sant' Egidio.

The Roadmap of the Process was published in Kisangani on May 26, 2008. In executing the process, a first group of combatants of RUD/RPR voluntarily disarmed in an official ceremony held in Kasiki, Lubero Territory, North-Kivu, on July 31 2008. The combatants, their dependents and other Rwandan refugees were subsequently grouped in Kasiki.

The exploratory visit to Rwanda was organized in order for the delegation to enquire about the security conditions and social, economical, and political participation of Rwandans inside Rwanda with the purpose of a voluntary and peaceful repatriation of Rwandan refugees. The report published by the delegation after their visit underlines the following findings about the general political and social situation inside Rwanda:



  • pervasive lack of security for individuals;

  • terror by government militias, Local Defense Forces (LDF), et intelligence
    services;

  • harassment, targeting one ethnic group, fabrication of accusations and
    general lack of justice in the Gacaca courts;

  • lack of freedom in political and social participation;

  • selective exclusion of Hutus from government jobs, the army, the police et
    businesses;

  • arbitrary confiscation of private properties without compensation;

  • forced labor in Travaux d’Intérêt Generaux (TIG);

  • cruel treatment of prisoners and detainees;

  • forced recruitment of ex-combatants to fight in the Democratic Republic of
    the Congo, within CNDP or the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF).

The current Rwandan regime repeats the same mistakes and follows the roads of the past generations. The same causes lead to the same results. That is why it is important to reject ethnic politics, before its is too late. We need to create a just system, regardless of the ethnic background of those, with legitimate aspirations, who would associate with it.

However, the presence of all the components of the Rwandan social and historical fabric must be sought at all costs. All the components must be empowered. Leaders must earn the confidence of the Rwandan people in the legitimacy of their leadership, the positive goals of their purposes, and their vision.

Rwanda as a nation belongs to all Rwandans. In January 2008, at the invitation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a delegation of Rwandan political leaders visited Kinshasa. The purpose was to find peaceful solutions to the resolution of the 15 years old problem of Rwandan refugees in Eastern DRC.

At the conclusion of the visit, I, as the head of the delegation, challenged General Paul Kagame, in our 24 January 2008 statement in Kinshasa on peace in the Great Lakes Region, to rebuild “the Rwandan nation on a model [not] based on the failed past, but a future Rwanda where our descendants will rise above what has until now divided Rwandans; a Rwanda where our children and our descendants will not live in the confrontation but rather would spend their time exploring and putting into practice solutions for the development of Rwanda.”

Yet again, in Kasiki, on July 31, 2008, I invited General Paul Kagame to open the doors for the Rwandan refugees to go home. I invited him, first as a man, second as a former refugee, and third as a leader. The challenge has been the constence of our calls and we have always stated our willingness to meet General Paul Kagame anytime with the facilitation of fair and independent minded mediators.

We made the call because we believed, as a Chinese proverb teaches us, that “A Great Man Can Bend and Stretch.” The current Rwandan leaders need to show they can bend lower and stretch farther. The urgency of acting now, before it is too late, compels Rwandans to learn from the mistakes of the past and to avoid them. Both the French and the Rwandan Revolution had their time and taught us the consequences of ignoring the aspirations of the people and the tragedy of ethnic politics and politics of fear.

We need to free ourselves from fear and ethnic distrust, move beyond bitterness and retribution, so that Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region would not remain plagued by a cycle of violence and bloodshed. Other countries and nations became victors over ethnic politics and fear. We can learn from them and even do better. I remain convinced that Rwandans can get there if they focus their energies to reaching these stated goals.

A GRADUAL ROAD TO THE SOCIETY BEYOND ETHNIC POLITICS AND FEAR.

Rwanda has been living in a vicious cycle for which the velocity is fueled by ethnic politics. Ethnic politics can only exist because of fear and mistrust among the various ethnic groups. Dishonest politicians, like scavengers and parasites, feed on that fear, keep the mistrust alive, and inflame popular emotions to maintain themselves in power.


On December 12, 1958, less than a year before Hutu rebelled against the Tutsi monarchy in a bloody revolution, a Tutsi priest warned both the Tutsi aristocrats and the Colonial aministration about the impeding tragedy.

In an article titled “Aux Origines du problem Bahutu au Rwanda, published in Revue Nouvelle XXVII, no 12 p1-5, the priest Stanislas Bushayija wrote [French]:

“Le sentiment d’injustice que ressentirent à un moment donné les plébéiens romains
vis-à-vis des patriciens, les serfs vis-à-vis des seigneurs dans l’ancien régime, est celui
qu’éprouvent aujourd’hui les Bahutu par rapport aux Batutsi. Ils cherchent leur
émancipation, leur accession à un monde libre et égal pour tous.


C’est ainsi qu’il faut comprendre les discussions, les manifestes, les articles qui se succèdent à un rythme de plus en plus rapide. L’histoire nous montre que lorsque des revendication arrivent à
ce point de maturité, elles aboutissent fatalement à des révolutions ou des guerres civiles, si les responsables ne leur donnent pas une réponse satisfaisante.”

[Translation: “The sense of injustice felt at one time by the Roman plebeians towards the Patricians, the Serfs towards the Lords in the former regime, is now felt by the Hutu towards the Tutsis. They seek their emancipation, to access equal rights. Thus, it is necessary to understand the complaints, the events, the journal articles that follow each other at an accelerated pace. History shows that when claims reach such a point of maturity, they inevitably lead to revolutions or civil wars, if the leaders do not give them a satisfactory answer.”]

Unfortunately, very few leaders learn from history. As I recently pointed out in a speech I delivered at Rutgers University, citing the Irish author and Nobel Prize Laureate George Bernard Shaw: “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience... Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.”

The observation by the Tutsi priest remains relevant now and applies to the current situation in Rwanda. On October 30, 1959, Father Stanislas Bushayija wrote to the colonial Administrator to propose measures for calming the impeding social explosion [French]:

“ D’autre part, je suis persuadé que le temps est révolu où il était possible de gouverner le Munyarwanda, surtout le mututsi, par des négotiations douceureuses et concessions factices, c’est, aujourd’hui, l’énérgie (j’allais dire la force, mais je n’y pense pas moins)dans la justice et l’équité, qui doit et peut gouverner le Ruanda.”

[Translation: “On the other side, I remain convinced that the time where it was possible to rule on the Rwandan people, especially the Tutsis, by sweet negotiations and fake concessions has passed. Today, it is by strength (I was going to propose force, although I believe it is the right approach) with justice and equity of treatment, that must and should govern Rwanda.”
Eight days later, on November 7, 1959, the 1959 Rwandan Social Revolution had started, plunging the nation into an orgy of bloodbath that has marked the history of Rwanda to date.

Unfortunately, the dire consequences predicted by Father Bushayija are bound to happen. When tragedy strikes again, the flames from the fire of social revolution undoubtedly would consume masses of innocent people. That is why we cannot remain oblivious by-standers, and let Rwanda go on a road to perdition and annihilation. A society beyond ethnic politics is possible. I propose the following steps to get there.

1) Recognize the fallacies behind the denial of ethnic identities. Ethnic identity is who we are, our social heritage, our essence as people or group of people, whether we want it or not or others want to define us as such. It is not the existence of ethnic identity that is the problem: it is the use of ethnic groups to reach misguided political aims that dooms us. We need to question, fight against, and defeat this cursed heritage that our forefathers have left us with.

Ethnic groups cannot be suppressed or kept conveniently at the whims of politicians or one ethnic group. The social nation must determine the best way to manage a multi-ethnic state and use ethnic identity as a source of richness of ideas, initiatives, driven entrepreneurship, and openness and prosperity.

Rwanda has a good example in America, Canada, India, Great Britain, France, South Africa and other increasingly multiracial, multi-ethnic states, where diversity has become the best resource that fosters the goodness of the respective societies.

2) Consensual democracy remains the best solution to ethnic politics and fear. Ethnic politics in Rwanda is a curse. As Gandhi urged us, as long as that curse remains with us, the Rwandan people will be afflicted by suffering, exile, uprooting, bloodshed, and one day, annihilation. Annihilation can only be avoided by self recognition and acknowledgment of others, in a society where, as argued Philosophers Jurgen Harbermas and Bruce Barry, the legitimacy of our nation Rwanda must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects.

However, we need to marry those individual rights with the approach put forward by political scientists like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka:

Rwanda must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within the boundaries of a strong and fair political structure accepted by all.

Brief, we need a system where the voice of every individual is heard, but in which ethnic groups strive. That is the concept of Consensual Democracy.

3) Consensual democracy will phased out in favor of a full democracy.

Consensual democracy will protect minorities, specifically ethnic minorities, from the potential tyranny of ethnic majority. However, as trust among ethnic groups grow and political groups form around a platform of ideas and trensend ethnic identities, the consensual democracy will have outlived its usefulness, and eventually lead to a unfettered democracy.
4) Rwanda must work outward not inward.

Most of ethnic conflicts may be linked to limited resources. Unfortunately, overpopulated, landlocked, with limited natural resources, Rwanda and its people must only rely on their ingenuity, sense of entrepreneurship, and hard work.

They must develop good neighborhood and a sense of seizing opportunity wherever it comes from or may be found. Rwandans are bound to be good neighbors if they have to survive as a nation. They must be flexible, proactive, and strategic thinkers. They must anticipate and seize opportunities around and in front of them. However, they cannot do it if they do not burry their clothes of victims, and wear those of victors: Victorious over Ethnic Politics and Fear.

CONCLUSION

Despite all its complexity, problems arising from the current policy of ethnic politics and politics of fear promoted by the current Rwandan regime may find practical and actionable solutions. The fact that so many Tutsis are fleeing the country, and some are joining the so called “Hutu rebels” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or elsewhere, or creating their own armedrebellions is an indication that the policies of division and fear promoted by the current Rwandan regime have failed and Rwandans leaders are “building on moving sand”.

A system based on democratic values, respect for individual rights and freedom, exclusion of the complex of the conqueror, and the social, political, and economic participation of all the components of the Rwandan society is more likely to succeed. We, Rwandans, can not built a nation on vengeful and domination premises. Rwandans cannot get there alone. True friends of the Rwandan people cannot afford to watch Rwandans led on the path of destruction, like a flock of sheep to the butcher. These true friends have also an awesome and uplifting responsibility. It is this kind of system, with the help of true friends that would lead the Rwandan nation beyond ethnic politics and fear.

Felicien Kanyamibwa, PhD.
New Jersey, USA.
May 19, 2009.
E-mail: kanyami@optonline.net.
Tel: +(1) 201-794-6542
©Copyright 2009, Felicien Kanyamibwa.


The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine








Au-delà de la Politique Ethnique et de la Peur: Hutus, Tutsis et l’identité ethnique au Rwanda

***

Félicien Kanyamibwa, Ph.D.
New Jersey, Etats-Unis d’Amérique, le 19 Mai 2009.

***
INTRODUCTION

Quinze ans après que la petite nation du Rwanda ait connu l'une des pires
tragédies de l'histoire moderne, plusieurs problèmes restent en suspens. Alors que la plupart des gens, y compris des experts de la région des Grands Lacs, les organisations humanitaires et des droits humains, les diplomates, les services de renseignement, et des ressortissants de la région des Grands Lacs s'accordent plus ou moins sur les causes sociales des problèmes, ils sont en désaccord presque total sur les solutions possibles.

Un consensus s’est dégagé selon lequel la racine du problème reste la politique ethnique et son utilisation dans tous les rouages du fonctionnement de l’état moderne rwandais.

La politique ethnique a permis à la tragédie de se produire et continue à marquer profondément le paysage politique. Plusieurs propositions visant à résoudre ce conflit ont été avancées. Malheureusement, ces solutions semblent ne pas avoir un objectif clair, spécifique, mesurable, faisable,pragmatique, et planifié. Sans objectifs clairement définis, les voies de solution durable à ces conflits dans la région des Grands Lacs, plus particulièrement au Rwanda, ne mèneront nulle part.

Ce manque de vision claire a conduit à de multiples invasions de la RDC par le Rwanda et l'Ouganda,la récente invasion de la RDC par le Rwanda par le biais de milices commanditées, et les opérations militaires récentes par la coalition des Forces de Défense Rwandaises (FDR) et l’armée Congolaise, les FARDC contre les milices congolaises ainsi que les rebelles et les réfugiés rwandais.

Le monde a expérimenté avec la théorie d’Henry Kissinger que “Si vous ne savez pas où vous allez, n'importe quel chemin vous y emmène” et l’adage de l’empire Romain que “Tous les chemins mènent à Rome” . Le résultat de cette approche chaotique pour résoudre les problèmes de la région des Grands Lacs a été plus de chaos, la perte énorme en vies humaines sans parler des pertes économiques ce qui a rendu le problème encore plus complexe.

Le présent mémorandum tire des enseignements de ma tragédie personnelle, tente de trouver des solutions et propose une approche pour parvenir à une paix durable dans la région des Grands Lacs. Le mémorandum propose d'examiner les méthodes du passé, sans suivre les routes qui ont conduit à l'échec. Comme le poète japonais Matsuo Bashô du 17 ème siècle nous l’a conseillé: "Ne pas chercher à suivre les traces des ancêtres; rechercher ce qu'ils cherchaient."

L'expérience de nos prédécesseurs rwandais nous met en garde contre ce qui a fait échouer leur vision en dépit de leur honnêteté. Nos prédécesseurs rwandais ont cherché à construire une région pacifique et prospère, où les groupes ethniques vivent en harmonie et les individus s'épanouissent, à travers une intégration économique et sociale. Il est du devoir des dirigeants actuels et des générations futures de poursuivre les mêmes aspirations, mais en suivant un autre chemin: la voie au-delà de la politique thnique et de peur.

Le présent mémorandum essaie d’en baliser la route. La voie proposée s’articule autour de quatre étapes:

• Reconnaître les erreurs de la négation des identités ethniques;
• S’engager sur la voie de la démocratie consensuelle;
• Viser une pleine démocratie;
• Ouverture au monde autour de nous en commençant par un bon voisinage
et une intégration régionale.

UN JOUR DE JUGEMENT

Je peux dire que je me suis sérieusement intéressé à la politique rwandaise le 2 Mars 1997. Cette date restera à jamais gravée dans ma mémoire. Dans la matinée du 2 Mars 1997, des soldats de l'Armée Tutsi du Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR) encerclèrent les villages et les petits centres de négoce de ma cellule d'origine, dans Jenda, Cellule Kabatezi, Secteur Nkuri, Préfecture de Ruhengeri, au Nord-Ouest du Rwanda.

Ils rassemblèrent les hommes et les jeunes garçons Hutus qu'ils ont pu trouver, lièrent les bras derrière le dos avec des cordes solides (torture Akandoya dans la terminologie du FPR/APR) et les conduisirent dans les montagnes de Konoma, Rubare et Runyanjya. Tard dans la soirée, les femmes et quelques hommes qui avaient échappé par chance, entendirent des fusillades nourris. Lorsque les fusillades eurent cessé, les soldats de l'APR descendirent de la montagne et quittèrent les villages et les centres de négoce.

Dans la nuit, les hommes qui avaient échappé la rafle et le carnage conquirent leur peur et se rendirent à l'endroit des fusillades. La macabre scène éclairée par la lune ne put être égalée que par des épisodes du plus horrible film d’horreur. Les corps déchiquetés de jeunes garçons et des hommes, vieux ou jeunes, nageaient dans les bains de sang. Les têtes fracassées et des corps criblés de balles étaient méconnaissables.

Très peu parmi ces hommes survivants et pétrifiés par la peur, ont eu assez de courage pour enterrer quelques corps avant le lever du soleil. Dans la matinée suivante, les troupes de l'APR revinrent avec des camions et conduisirent des Hutu terrifiés dans les montagnes pour que ceux-ci transportent les corps et les chargent dans des camions apprêtés. Quand ils ne parvinrent pas à trouver certains des corps, les soldats de l’APR se déchaînèrent sur les survivants, tuant plus d’hommes Hutus , torturant et exécutant sommairement les femmes qu'ils soupçonnaient de savoir où les corps manquants avaient été enterrés.

Les opérations de nettoyage ethnique prirent plusieurs jours. Après la fin de ces opérations macabres, seuls quelques hommes et jeunes garçons hutus des villages de la région deJenda avaient échappé au pogrom. Plusieurs femmes et des enfants, y compris des nourrissons, furent massacrés.

Les jeunes garçons, hommes et les femmes Hutus qui ont survécu le furent soit parce qu'ils étaient pris pour des Tutsis ou furent cachés et protégés par les voisinsTutsis.

Dans la seule journée du 2 Mars 1997, des milliers de Hutus ont été systématiquement
massacrés par les troupes de l'Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR). Ce jour-là, à elle seule, ma famille proche perdit 57 personnes. Ce sont 57 frères, soeurs, cousins, neveux, nièces, oncles et tantes, et leurs époux ou enfants, qui ont été tués par l’armée du FPR, pour une seule raison: être hutu ou être soupçonné d'être Hutu ou de s’associer aux Hutus.

Cependant, même le régime le plus brutal ne put anéantir la totalité d’un clan. Plusieurs autres frères, soeurs, cousins, neveux, nièces, oncles et tantes, ainsi que leurs conjoints ou leurs enfants ont survécu au massacre. Certains ont survécu parce qu'ils étaient des Tutsis, ou confondu avec les Tutsis, d'autres, à cause du côté caché derrière la méchanceté de l’être humain: le simple sentiment d’humanité.

Human Rights Watch a relaté ces événements dans un rapport intitulé:

"Rwanda: la recherche de la sécurité et des droits de l'homme, publié le 1er avril 2000: ““In1997, ex-FAR and Interahamwe who had returned from the Congo and who had strengthened their forces by recruiting inside Rwanda, conducted a major insurgency in the northwestern prefectures of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri. In suppressing this uprising, as in the first Congo war, RPA troops killed tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, a slaughter which Rwandan authorities sought to justify by their need for security.”

Durant cette période d’obscurité totale, une lumière brilla et l'humanité a prévalu dans certains cas. Certains Tutsis vainquirent leur peur et risquèrent leur propre vie pour protéger certains des membres de ma famille qui survécurent la folie meurtrière de leurs frères Tutsis de l'APR.

Les Hutus membres de ma famille qui ont survécu ce jour-là doivent leur vie à ces courageux et désintéressés Tutsis. Plus tard, lorsque j'ai contacté les membres de ma famille qui ont survécu à ces massacres, ils ne pouvaient pas me raconter les événements: le souvenir était trop pénible. C’est grâce à ces Tutsis que je suis parvenu à connaître et à reconstituer l'histoire tragique de ce qui s'est passé dans mon village en ce jour fatidique du 2 Mars 1997.

De ces moments tragiques, j'ai retenu le nom de deux individus: le commandant criminel Tutsi de la compagnie de l'APR en charge de la purification ethnique, et un des courageux Tutsis qui, avec abnégation, a tenu garde devant les abris de fortune où certains des membres de ma famille se cachèrent pendant des semaines. Malheureusement, certains de ces amis Tutsis furent aussi assassinés par des soldats de l'APR aussitôt qu’ils apprirent qu’ils avaient protégé ma famille.

Lorsque j'ai demandé à l'un des Tutsis qui ont sauvé ma famille pourquoi il l'a fait, il a simplement répondu: “Je suis un chrétien. J'ai fait ce que tout bon chrétien ferait: “avoir la crainte du jugement de Dieu et faire amende en aimant mon prochain comme moi-même.” Il tenta de présenter des excuses au nom des Tutsis, mais je l’en dissuada. Je lui expliqua que ces crimes horribles n’avaient pas été commis par des Tutsis, bien que les criminels étaient des Tutsis. Je lui ai alors donné l'exemple des membres des familles Tutsis massacrés pendant la même période.

AUDACE, LA CONSÉQUENCE NÉCESSAIRE DE LA VÉRITÉ

La réponse du Tutsi me rappela la leçon de Gandhi sur le voeu de courage et d’audacité: “ When we fear God, we shall fear no man, no matter how highplaced he may be. And if you want to follow the vow of truth in any shape of form, fearlessness is the necessary consequence. And so you find, in the Bhagawad Gita, fearlessness is declared as the first essential quality of Brahmin. We fear consequences, and therefore we are afraid to tell the truth. A man who fears God will certainly not fear any earthly consequence."

Les jours qui suivirent le 2 Mars 1997 et après avoir appris l'incroyable histoire des Tutsis courageux qui gardèrent les cachettes où les membres de ma famille se terraient et leur donnèrent la chance de vivre un autre jour, je pris deux décisions importantes; d'abord pour honorer la mémoire de 57 de proches brutalement massacres ce 2 Mars 1997 pour leur appartenance ethnique et deuxièmement comme un hommage à la bravoure, l'abnégation, et le sacrifice des voisinsTutsis qui ont sauvé certains membres de ma famille.

Ces décisions ont guidé mon action politique au courant des douze dernières années:
1. Je vais dire la vérité sur la tragédie rwandaise;
2. Je m'efforcerai avec courage dans la poursuite de la recherche de la vérité.

Quand ces incidents eurent lieu, un certain nombre de réfugiés rwandais vivant aux États-Unis d'Amérique, en Europe et en Afrique était occupé à solidifier l'organisation des droits de l'homme, Organisation pour la Paix, la Justice et le Développement au Rwanda (OPJDR) que nous avions cocréée en 1995. Je faisais partie de ce groupe de pionniers. En tant que Coordinateur Général je regardais l’organisation des droits de l'homme comme un tremplin et une plate-forme pour la réalisation des objectifs que je m’étais assignés.

L’OPJDR chercha activement à expliquer avec objectivité la situation qui prévalait au Rwanda. Au cours d'une enquête sur les massacres commis dans l'Est du Rwanda, je reçus des nouvelles inquiétantes au sujet des membres de ma famille qui avaient émigré à Rusumo, dans la Prefecture de Kibungo et Mutara, dans la Prefecture de Byumba, à la recherche de terres et d'autres opportunités économiques.

J'appris que, lorsque le FPR reprit les attaques, le 6 avril 1994, ses éléments atteignirent très rapidement Gabiro et Kabarore. Un oncle vivait et possédait une petite entreprise prospère dans Kabarore au Mutara. Le premier jour, le FPR attaqua le centre de négoce de Kabarore, rassemblant tous les hommes hutus, dont mon oncle, son fils, et des voisins et les massacra. Ses femmes - mes tantes - et quelques autres enfants fuirent vers le Sud-Est, dans la région de Rusumo, pour aller vivre avec les autres membres de famille, y compris des oncles, des tantes, des cousins ainsi que leurs conjoints et enfants.

Le FPR atteignit la région de Rusumo aux mois d'Avril-Mai 1994. Les soldats du FPR massacrèrent les membres de ma famille et jetèrent leurs corps dans la rivière Akagera. Il parait que leurs corps ont été parmi ceux qui ont été repêché à des centaines de kilomètres loin de là, sur le lac Victoria, par des Ougandais et que j'ai vu avec horreur sur les TV américaines.

Refugees International, en collaboration avec le HCR a décrit les massacres dans le SITREP du 17 Mai 1994 par Mark Prutsalis et transmis à George Hogeman, Fonctionnaire au Bureau de la Population, des Réfugiés et des Migrations au Département d'État américain:

“At Rusumo commune, sectors NYAMUGARI, GISENYI, NYARUBUYE, the RPF comes at 05h00 waiting for villagers to open their doors. The villagers are caught and taken away to the river by trucks. No one has returned.

Refugees of the area have seen people being tied together and thrown into the river… Asked by UNHCR field officer refugees said that RPF did not care whether victims were hutu or tutsi villagers”

Dans ces massacres de Rusumo, les soldats du FPR ont massacré la quasi-totalité de ma famille qui avaient émigré vers Rusumo et Mutara, dont 43 adultes, et un nombre inconnu d'enfants. Seuls deux jeunes hommes connus ont pu échapper vers la Tanzanie et sont encore en vie.

Le FPR a essayé de nier les massacres et critiqua le HCR dans les “Statements on the Questions of Refugees and Security in Rwanda”, publié le 25 Septembre 1994 par le colonel Frank Mugambage du Ministère de la Défense et de Claudine Nyinawumwami Umutoni sous-ministre de la Réadaptation et de la Protection Sociale (MINIREISO):

“At the height of the genocide in April-May this year the UNHCR officials dared to make a false report that RPF forces were responsible for the genocide… The UNHCR accepted and widely publicised false reports by MRND-CDR militias in refugee camp in Ngara UNHCR officials encouraged the people [from the zone Turquoise] to run to Zaire lest they be killed by the RPF forces when the French Forces left UNHCR reported bodies (of HUTU) in Akagera river in early September purportedly as a result of Government atrocities. Following this, the President [Pasteur Bizimungu] made a week long verification tour in areas along the river and did not
come across a single body in the river.

The above cases raise suspicions that UNHCR could be having other motives not yet known to us. Otherwise how does one explain their continued baseless and unfounded allegations up this day.”

À partir de ce moment, le HCR fut intimidé et resta silencieux sur les atrocités commises par le gouvernement, au point de déclarer, en avril 1997 dans un rapport intitulé “REFUGEE CAMP SECURITY IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION: “The fatal accident which befell the President of Rwanda in April 1994 gave the signal for the start of a brutal genocide which was to last for several months and involve the massacre of several hundred thousand civilians,” au moment où il était déjà de notoriété publique que l'avion du Président Juvénal Habyarimana avait été abattu par des tirs de missile.

Plus tard, quand j'eu vent des massacres de Rusumo et le déversement des corps, y compris au moins 43 membres de ma famille, dans la rivière Akagera, je sentis une révulsion. Je me souviens avoir vu à la télévision et dans les journaux et magazines les cadavres gonflés, les mains liées dans le dos, flottant dans la rivière Akagera, et ceux qui étaient repêchés du Lac Victoria. Je me suis souvent imaginé la mort cruel que ces Hutus et Tutsis ont endurée sous la coupe d'une organisation qui se targuait de vouloir les li érer et libérer le pays.

Le démenti par les fonctionnaires du FPR était un couteau dans une plaie ouverte, une preuve qu’un monstre venait d’hériter une caverne pleine de proies: les innocents rwandais, Hutus, Tutsis et Twas. Le fait que le FPR a massacré systématiquement les Hutus, les Tutsis et les Twas et a continué à déclarer vouloir stopper le "génocide des Tutsis” montra la face cachée
du régime.

Je réalisa que le FPR voulait éliminer les Hutus et les Tutsis qui vivaient ensemble dans certaines régions, pour que la séparation entre les Hutus et les Tutsis soit une réalité et toute tentative de réconciliation et de cohabitation soient vouée à l’échec. Cette réalisation m’a convaincu que le fait de rester un simple militant des droits de l’homme serait équivalent à rester silencieux face aux actes les plus ignobles.

Ainsi, je me suis engagé sur le deuxième projet pour atteindre les objectifs que je me suis fixé. J'ai fait des recherches sur les circonstances de l'assassinat des deux présidents du Rwanda et du Burundi et de leur entourage. Ces recherches ont mené à la publication du "Mémorandum sur
l'Assassinat du Président Habyarimana" en Septembre 1999.

Ces deux expériences, le lancement de l’OPJDR et la publication du mémorandum, m'ont fait découvrir plusieurs choses que je sentais depuis longtemps, mais que je n’avais jamais pu mettre en évidence:

1. La politique ethnique est bien implantée dans nos vies, nous ne pouvions pas aller de l'avant avant d’affronter cette triste réalité;

2. Chaque fois que j'ai observé, et en dépit de la tragédie qui a séparé les Rwandais, j'ai toujours trouvé des individus qui, bien que conscients de leur appartenance ethnique, cherchent à se débarrasser des tentacules de la politique ethnique. Quelque part ces personnes aspirent à être transporté dans un “neverland”, où les groupes ethniques n'auraient jamais existé, et les événements qui ont plongé la nation rwandaise dans un cycle interminable et infernal de violence, de vengeance, de peur et d’effusion de sang depuis 1990, seraient juste un cauchemar;

3. Il y a eu, et peut-être il y aura toujours quelques groupuscules qui cherchent à utiliser l'appartenance ethnique pour parvenir à tout prix à leurs objectifs machiavéliques y compris la conquête du pouvoir par tous les moyens.

CONQUERIR LA POLITIQUE ETHNIQUE

Je me suis rendu compte que nous ne pouvons ignorer les ethnies qu’à notre dépens. En même temps, j'ai trouvé de véritables personnes qui verraient leur identité ethnique comme une addition positive à une diversité d'idées, d'expériences, et d’enrichissement dans une nation qui considère la coexistence pacifique comme l'un des principaux, sinon la principale source de ressources et de progrès. Cette réalisation et cette découverte m’amenèrent à contempler la troisième idée, et à m'engager sur une voie qui allait changer le cours de ma vie à jamais.

Ma participation à la création des Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) se situe dans cette approche.

Les fondateurs des FDLR dont je faisais partie estimaient que, dans chacun des trois groupes ethethniques qui composent la nation rwandaise, il existe des forces du bien, qui peuvent mobiliser le reste à s'asseoir autour d’une même table et débattre de leurs différences dans un cadre serein, constructif et fraternel. Le dialogue inter-rwandais qui constituait l'épine dorsale de la plate-forme des FDLR découle de cette conviction fondamentale qui était partagée par tous les fondateurs des FDLR.

Quelques années plus tard, une lumière brilla sur cette idée avec la naissance de l'Alliance pour la Démocratie et la Réconciliation Nationale (ADRN-Igihango).

Igihango a été une expérience,où la plupart des Tutsis,qui ne tôleraient pas les dérives du régime FPR et les réfugiés Hutus pour la plupart, se réunirent, débattirent et proposèrent une plate-forme pour le changement: le concept de la Démocratie Consensuelle était né. La démocratie consensuelle est conçue pour une société démocratique dans laquelle la représentation effective de toutes les composantes de la société rwandaise et la protection des minorités ethniques seront garanties.

Entretemps, il était devenu clair que certains dirigeants des FDLR n’avaient plus la vision des membres fondateurs et privilégiaient le mercantilisme politique aux objectifs de rebâtir la société au-delà de la politique ethnique. Plusieurs des fondateurs, y compris moi-même, et une grande partie des compagnons de lutte ne se retrouvaient plus dans ce qu’étaient devenues les FDLR. Nous décidâmes de continuer la poursuite de notre vision et objectifs en dehors de l’organisation et démissionnâmes des FDLR en Septembre 2004.

L’ADRN-Igihango ne put survivre le départ de ces dirigeants qui étaient à la base même de l’existence de sa plateforme de dialogue interethnique et de démocratie consensuelle. Malgré l’échec de l’'ADRN-Igihango, cette expérience a marqué en ce qui me concerne un tournant dans la conquête de la politique ethnique. L’ADRN-Igihango m'a laissé d'importantes leçons qui détermineront mon prochain engagement politique:

1. Plusieurs Hutus, Tutsis et Twas partagent les mêmes aspirations en vue de construire une la société démocratique, pluraliste dans laquelle lles aspirations légitimes du peuple rwandais guideront toute organisation politique et garantiront une véritable participation dans la lutte contre la peur et la politique ethnique;

2. Construire un consensus autour de l'idée de la démocratie consensuelle est une tâche ardue qui exige une mobilisation des couches de base avant d’atteindre les autres couches supérieures pour s’infuser lentement dans le tissu social rwandais.

3. Le temps est le meilleur ami de la réussite C'est avec cette conscience que nous nous sommes engagés dans une nouvelle initiative: la création du Ralliement pour l'Unité et la Démocratie RUD-Urunana). Le principe reste la vision consensuelle de la démocratie, le dialogue constant entre les groupes ethniques et la mobilisation de toute la nation rwandaise pour atteindre des objectifs communs comme le développement durable, partagé et pour tous tout en soutenant une intégration régionale au service de toutes les composantes de la société rwandaise.

L’expérience du RUD a été unique et aussi porteuse d’espoir en raison de l'existence d'une équipe ayant une vision focalisée, le sens du but commun, et l'idée que nous ne pouvons pas nous permettre d’échouer. Une impulsion a été ajoutée lorsque nos frères et soeursTutsis du Rassemblement du Peuple Rwandais (RPR), pour la plupart ex-membres de l’Armée
Patriotique Rwandaise ont rejoint l'Armée Nationale -Imboneza, pour protéger les réfugiés hutus en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC).

Le fait que des centaines de jeunes Tutsis qui, quelques mois ou quelques années auparavant, faisaient partie de l'APR qui cherchait à exterminer les réfugiés hutus, ont rejoint les Hutus opposants pour se battre pour une cause juste, tout en protégeant les réfugiés hutus, a été une
première et une étape majeure vers la naissance d'un nouveau Rwanda: le Rwanda avec un paysage politique vide de politique ethnique.

Ce fut une grande victoire sur la politique ethnique et un coup contre la clique de Hutus et/ouTutsis qui font la promotion de ces politiques. C’était une expérience extraordinaire vécue par des individus, des Hutus, des Tutsis et des Twas ayant une audace et un courage exceptionnels.

LA MENACE DE L’AUDACE CONTRE LA POLITIQUE ETHNIQUE

Cette expérience de la coalition RUD / RPR menaça ceux qui cherchent à cultiver la peur parmi les groupes ethniques du Rwanda afin de mieux les contrôler. Le régime de Kigali, dont la politique ethnique est la racine et le moteur de son existence, s’estima particulièrement vulnérable. Les services de renseignement et l'appareil de sécurité rwandais visèrent tous les
Tutsis et les Hutus suspectés à tort ou à raison d'être derrière l’initiative de la coalition RUD-RPR.

Après avoir renié l'existence de RUD-Urunana/RPR sur la Voix de l'Amérique,

Mr. Richard Sezibera, alors Envoyé Spécial du président rwandais pour la région des Grands Lacs, fit tout à coup une volte-face. Le 17 Mars 2006, M. Sezibera publia dans le Daily Monitor, l'un des principaux journaux ougandais, un article dans lequel il accusa les opposants Rwandais résidents à Kampala de préparer à mener une guerre contre leur patrie.

Il s’attaqua particulièrement au RUD-Urunana et le RPR. Son article montra sans détour que le régime rwandais était au plus haut sommet de l’état préoccupé par la perspective d'une collaboration entre les organisations politiques composées principalement de Hutus et de Tutsis.

L'article déclencha une chaîne d'actions répressives menées par le régime de Kigali. Mobilisant sa machine financière, diplomatique et politique, le régime de Kigali pourchassa des personnes soupçonnées de soutenir les deux organisations à travers le Rwanda et la région des Grands Lacs.

Les gens furent arrêtés et accusés de toutes sortes de délits: notamment les Tutsis furent accusés d'être des membres de “l'armée du Roi (Tutsi)". Déjà en Septembre 2006, juste après qu'ils aient appris le fait de la collaboration effective entre le RPR et RUD, le gouvernement de Kigali dressa une liste d’individus qui fut distribuée au courant de l’une des réunions de la Tripartite-Plus. La liste incluait les fondateurs des deux partis politiques.

Sur cette liste, l'ancien officier de l'Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Major Gérard NTASHAMAJE, un Tutsi et le chef du RPR fut inscrit comme étant Hutu et ancien ex-FAR. Major Gérard Ntashamaje, dont le père avait étéMinistre, Juge et Avocat à la Cour Suprême dans les régimes antérieurs, avait été jusqu’à l’an 2000 un officier et haut fonctionnaire dans l’administration publique du Gouvernement du FPR.

Le 17 Mars 2007, après une forte pression sur le gouvernement ougandais,10 personnes, dont 9 Tutsis et 1 Hutu, qui avaient été arrêtées en Ouganda quelques mois plus tôt, furent remis aux services de renseignement rwandais et accusés d'être membres du RUD / RPR.

Cette inquiétude de rapprochement entre les deux principaux groupes ethniques avait été déjà remarquée par certains observateurs. Ainsi, dans un rapport intitulé: “Rwanda: the search for Security and Human Rights Abuses,” publié par Human Rights Watch le 1er avril 2000, l'inquiétude du Gouvernement rwandais à propos de la cohabitation pacifique entre les Hutus et les Tutsis avait été clairement soulignée:

“Between November 15 and 20, 1999 local authorities in Nyamirambo, a section of the capital city, Kigali, detained more than 200 young people on the charge of being part of the "army of the king". They arrested the young men on the streets, where they had supposedly been awaiting transport to take them to places where they would receive military training.

The young men were detained in the local lockup for two days and then handed over to the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI), which reportedly released them after they had confessed to unspecified crimes. Unlike previous opposition groups identified solely with Hutu, the monarchists include both Hutu and Tutsi.

Le Rapport de Human Rights Watch continue plus loin:

“Some Tutsi soldiers of the RPA, both survivors of the genocide and those from Burundi and the Congo, say they have no wish to fight the war in the Congo. They want that conflict settled by negotiations, even if this means coming to terms with the insurgents.

The multi-ethnic nature of the monarchist group poses a major challenge to authorities who previously could discredit opposition groups for being composed only of Hutu and for including persons implicated in the genocide. Now both the RPF and the government are themselves increasingly criticized for being dominated by Tutsi. Although they continue to talk about the multi-ethnic sharing of power, about nationalism, and about reconciliation, the RPF and the government have progressively excluded all the major Hutu leaders who once participated in
power.”

Le jugement de la Cour Suprême Rwandaise n ° RPA 0017/07/CS du 25 Octobre 2007 du Procureur vs Rukeba François (Tutsi), Ugirimpuhwe Léonard (Hutu), Peter Kabagambe (Tutsi), et Iyarwema Vedaste (Tutsi)accusés de chercher à renverser le gouvernement rwandais en vertu des dispositions des articles 164 et 165, renforcèrent d’avantage les tentatives du régime de privilégier la politique ethnique et de la peur au Rwanda.

Les trois juges de la Cour Suprême: Mukanyundo Patricie, Hatangimbabazi Fabien et Kanyange Fidelité condamnèrent les accusés pour la création du RPR et d'avoir coopéré avec RUD-Urunana. Plus précisément, ils étaient coupables d'avoir parlé au téléphone avec Kanyamibwa (moi-même), résidant en Amérique et de l'appartenance au parti politique créé par Gérard
Ntashamaje.

Le cas de François Rukeba date de bien avant l’an 2000. La Commission Nationale des Droits Humains, un organe créé par le gouvernement, écrit dans son Rapport Annuel 2000 publié en Mars 2001, sous la rubrique:

"L'arrestation et la détention de sous-lieutenant MURERA Bertin, Pte BYABAGAMBA
Innocent, RUTABANA Benjamin, François Rukeba et Rugema Janvier “:
“The families of the soldiers MURERA Bertin and BYABAGAMBA Innocent, together with those of the Civilians, Benjamin RUTABANA (known by the name Ben) and François RUKEBA sought verbally the Commission's assistance so as to know where these four men had been detained. They had been arrested, some in Tanzania, others in Burundi and forced back into the country by Rwanda Government.

“As for RUTABANA Benjamin, he said that the charges referred against him were fabricated and not the real reason for his arrest. He thought the real reason could be that, he had been suspected of aiding and abetting in the escape of former Speaker of Parliament,Mr. SEBARENZI KABUYE Joseph.”

On his part, RUKEBA François admitted to have taken BYABAGAMBA Innocent in his
car as far as Butare, on the day BYABAGAMBA fled the Country. He did not however,
know that he was running away from the country. He said they later on met in Burundi
by coincidence. RUKEBA François denied any involvement in the soldier's escape.

During these discussions at the Kigali Military Prosecutor's Office, none of the detainees aid he had been tortured or undergone any other cruel, in-human treatment. However, they showed such signs as unusual fatigue that the Commission believed those men might have experienced such kind of treatment but, out of fear, they concealed the fact.

Five months after the Commission met them for the first time, all the five were bailed out. They are currently waiting to appear before the court, free from detention. However, at the time of writing this report, some information yet to be confirmed by the Commission says that two of them, namely RUKEBA François and RUGEMA Janvier, might have fled the Country.”

Quelques années plus tard, Le gouvernement va rattraper François Rukeba en Ouganda et l'accuser de s’allier aux Hutus cherchant à renverser le gouvernement.

L’analyse des deux rapports, l'un par l’organisation complètement indépendante Human Rights Watch (HRW) et l'autre par une commission créée et financée par le gouvernement rwandais dominé par les Tutsis permet de réaliser ce qui suit:

1. À l'instar des Hutus, des Tutsis qui cherchent à se libérer de la politique
ethnique et de la peur sont également ciblés et persécutés par le gouvernement
dirigé par les Tutsis;
2. Ces Tutsis sont aussi, comme les Hutus, arrêtés et éventuellement torturés
sur base des accusations forgées de toutes pièces.

Il est clair que la politique ethnique basée sur la peur est utilisée pour intimider les Tutsis et les Hutus. Celle-ci est à considérer comme une politique de division mise en place et entretenue par le gouvernement du régime rwandais depuis sa création. Il est aussi apparu ces dernières années que cette politique du régime actuel tend à pérenniser dans la société rwandaise plusieurs formes d’exclusions basées sur les clans, les régions d’origine et la langue secondaire pour ne citer que celles-ci.

AUDACE SUR UNE ROUTE LONGUE ET ETROITE AU-DELÀ DE LA POLITIQUE ETHNIQUE.

Cette année, un des événements des plus merveilleux eut lieu dans le monde. Les Etats-Unis d’Amérique ont choisi leur premier président noir (et la première dame noire). Le 20 Janvier 2009, la voix du Président noir retentit à travers les salles où les décisions qui secouent le monde entier sont prises.

L'homme vient d'une race qui, moins de 50 ans auparavant, peinait de passer de l'arrière d’un autobus pour aller au travail et à trouver des écoles décentes. C’était une période dans la quelle les hommes noirs étaient lynchés pour avoir fait des commentaires ou des gestes anodins comme se trouver dans un quartier interdit, ou tout simplement avoir fait valoir leurs droits fondamentaux.

Dans son discours, le président noir prêcha l'espoir, l'harmonie raciale, et un nouvel ordre de paix dans le monde. La plupart des Américains furent d'accord avec lui. En effet la race et la diversité doivent être une source de richesse d'idées, d'initiatives, l'esprit d'entreprise et d'ouverture qui peuvent propulser le pays le plus puissant et le plus riche vers de nouveaux sommets de prospérité et du respect dans le monde. Le peuple américain, la nation la plus diverse dans le monde, a fait un pari sur la complémentarité des races, des nationalités, et des groupes ethniques et a gagné la guerre sur la politique de la division raciale.

L’Amérique a répondu à l'appel de Franklin Delano Roosevelt lancé le 4 Mars 1933 dans son Premier Discours Inaugural: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless,unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

Pendant que le peuple américain continue à faire des progrès et à renouveler leur engagement commun de construire une nation représentant un rayon d'espoir et d'harmonie raciale, quelque part, en Afrique, au Rwanda en particulier, les identités ethniques sont exploitées et utilisées pour une politique meurtrière à l'encontre des intérêts de l'Afrique.

Le présent régime dirigé par des un groupe restreint de Tutsis rwandais a utilisé et continue d'utiliser cette politique criminelle à la perfection. Le 11 avril 2009, dans un article publié dans le Los Angeles Times et intitulé:

“La puissance de l'horreur au Rwanda”, Kenneth Roth, le Directeur exécutif de Human Rights Watch, a écrit:

One tool of repression has been the gacaca courts, which the government established at the community level to try alleged perpetrators of the genocide. the law outlawing "genocide ideology" is written so broadly that it can encompass even the most innocuous comments. As many Rwandans have discovered, disagreeing with the government or making unpopular statements can easily be portrayed as genocide ideology, punishable by sentences of 10 to 25 years. That leaves little political space for dissent.”

Au Rwanda, les juridictions Gacaca et la loi sur “l'idéologie du génocide” visent un seul groupe ethnique: les Hutus. Le but de ces deux instruments de répression est de maintenir les deux ethnies -Hutus et Tutsis - dans la crainte et la méfiance réciproque. Les Hutus craignent d'être emprisonnés,
torturés, ou tués. Les Tutsis sont toujours rappelés que les Hutus cherchent à les exterminer. C'est une situation entretenue sciemment par la petite clique au pouvoir.

Le calcul du régime est simple : dans un tel climat les Hutus ne pourront jamais s’opposer au gouvernement, et les Tutsis jureront fidélité à une clique qui leur promet la protection. Il s'agit d'une situation perdante pour le peuple rwandais car dans un tel climat une réconciliation authentique restera un rêve lointain.

En effet, la méfiance sera omniprésente et les conflits raciaux ne seront qu’une bombe à retardement.

Gandhi, dans son discours sur “Ashram Vows” au YMCA, Madras publié dans l’Indian Review de Février 1916 et The Hindu du 16 février 1916,écrit à propos des Intouchables “There is an ineffaceable blot that Hinduism today carries with it. I have declined to believe that it has been handed to us from immemorial times.

I think that this miserable, wretched, enslaving spirit of “Untouchableness”must have come to us when we were in the cycle of our lives, at our lowest ebb, and that evil has still stuck to us and it still remains with us. It is to my mind, a curse that has come to us, and as long as that curse remains with us, so long I think we are bound to consider that every affliction that we labour under in this sacred land is a fit and proper punishment for this great and indelible crime we are committing. That any person should be considered untouchable because of his calling passes oneʼs comprehension; and you, the student world, who receives this modern education, if you become a party to this crime, it were better that you received no education whatsoever.”

Au Rwanda, une nouvelle classe d'intouchables est née. Cette classe est composée de la plupart des Hutus, mais aussi des Tutsis, qui remettent en question la logique derrière la politique ethnique. La peur, comme un cancer métastatique, a étendu ses tentacules dans le tissu d'une nation, et est alimentée par la politique ethnique. On constate ses méfaits dans l'administration, les entreprises privées et publiques, les cérémonies, les écoles, l'armée, la police, le système financier, le système judiciaire, et les médias; en bref l’état rwandais.

En Avril de chaque année, les Rwandais se souviennent des survivants de la folie de 1994. Habituellement, au courant de la première journée, les dirigeants rwandais font des discours et les survivants commémorent leurs morts. Dans tous les discours, il n'est pratiquement fait aucune mention de victimes Hutus.

Seuls les Tutsis sont mentionnés. Seuls les Tutsis ont le droit à la mémoire et à la commémoration. Par exemple, en Janvier 2009 une délégation de réfugiés hutus a visité le mémorial érigé à Gisozi en mémoire des Tutsis tués en 1994. Quand un bébé pleura, la mère Hutue fut expulsée du mémorial et accusée de souiller le lieu sacré.

Le Rwanda est passé de la période de la politique ethnique à la phase d’annihilation politique.

L’annihilation des Hutus est devenue un programme du régime les Hutus, et les Tutsis qui sympathisent avec eux, sont exclus à tous les coups pour que la clique au sommet du pays se maintienne au pouvoir. Dans une des résolutions du Conseil de Sécurité de l'Organisation des Nations Unies (ONU) sur le Rwanda, a qualifié les crimes abominables qui ont été commis
au Rwanda en 1994 de “génocide rwandais”. Cependant, le Gouvernement Rwandais, tout en niant l'existence du groupe ethnique Tutsi, rebaptisa les événements “génocide des Tutsis.”

Cette appellation du régime de Kigali ne fait en effet que perpétuer l’exclusion et l’anéantissement des autres groupes sous les formes suivantes:

1. Rappeler constamment et à tord que seuls les autres groupes ethniques ( Hutus et Twas) arborent des criminels;
2. Prétendre que les groupes ethniques n'existent pas au Rwanda;
3. Imposer une contre-vérité à tous les rwandais que seuls les Tutsis ont
été tués.

Avec cette politique, les Hutus et les Twas ne peuvent pas prétendre qu'ils sont victimes de discrimination. En effet, comment peut-on être victime de discrimination si on n'existe pas? Ainsi, les emplois dans le service public, les bourses d'études, les admissions à l'enseignement secondaire et supérieur, et d'autres avantages peuvent être donnés à un seul groupe ethnique sans être accusé de discrimination.

Si une personne d’un autre groupe ethnique daigne se plaindre et/ou revendiquer ses droits, elle sera arrêtée et accusée d’arborer “l'idéologie génocidaire” et de crimes contre les Tutsis survivants et peut en cas échéant être soumise à la torture, être victime de disparition et d’exécution sommaire, d’assassinats. La dite-personne peut aussi être arbitrairement jetée en prison parce qu’elle sera accusée d'être responsable du génocide rwandais de 1994.

Les Tutsi, reconnus comme les seul survivants, peuvent bénéficier de tous les programmes comme le Fond d'Aide aux Rescapés du Génocide (FARG), un fonds créé pour aider “les Tutsis survivants du génocide” et des Travaux d'Intérêt général (TIG), les travaux forcés exécutés par les prisonniers hutus.

Les Hutus ne peuvent pas être des survivants, car ils ne sont pas des Tutsis, et ils ne peuvent pas prétendre d’exister parce qu'il n'y a pas de groupes ethniques au Rwanda. Ainsi les Hutus en tant que membres d’un groupe ethnique sont entrain d’être anéantis. Il est important de faire remarquer que les Tutsis qui sympathisent avec les Hutus et/ou les Twas subissent le même sort.

L'anéantissement des Hutus est alimenté par la peur:

• La peur des Tutsis de dire la vérité sur cette répression ouverte dont sont victimes les Hutus;
• La peur des Tutsis de sympathiser avec les Hutus parce qu'ils risquent à leur tour de perdre le soutien et/ou d'être persécuté par un gouvernement Tutsi;
• La peur des Hutus de dire la vérité, parce qu'ils sont déjà accusés d'être des criminels et risquent d'être accusé d’ “idéologie génocidaire, de négationniste et/ou de révisionniste”.

Entretenir la peur parmi les Tutsis et les Hutus par le biais de la politique ethnique est le seul instrument efficace que le régime actuel Tutsi a de se maintenir au pouvoir. Un régime prédateur au pouvoir comme celui qui est au sommet de l’état au Rwanda ronge la nation et va dévorer le peuple si rien n'est fait. Des Tutsis et des Hutus qui ont compris les intentions machiavélique de ce régime n'ont pas d'autre choix que de trouver les moyens d'aller au-delà de la peur et de la politique ethnique: pour leur propre survie, mais plus important encore, pour la survie des Tutsis, des Hutus, des Twas et du Rwanda en tant que nation.

LA POLITIQUE ETHNIQUE A ÉTÉ ESSAYÉE AU RWANDA AVANT ET A ÉCHOUÉ: ELLE A CONDUIT À LA RÉVOLUTION SANGLANTE DE 1959

Entre le 13 et le 28 Juin 1956, le Conseil Supérieur du Pays, composée exclusivement de Tutsis, a tenu une réunion à huis clos appelée "Huitième Session du Conseil Supérieur du Pays".

La question de l'appartenance ethnique fut soulevée, à la suite du mécontentement général des Bahutu à travers tout le pays, se plaignant des excès, les abus, et de la répression par les Tutsis. Le Conseil Supérieur demanda au Roi du Rwanda de faire la déclaration suivante à la nation :

“Certaines personnes peu ou mal informées répètent ou écrivent volontiers que les Batutsis venus dans le Pays en conquérant ont spoliés les Bahutu de leurs biens et les ont maintenus à un rang inférieur. Une telle affirmation relève dʼune tendance à ne voir que le mauvais côté des choses. Ceux qui la formulent perdent de vue que certaines lacunes de lʼorganisation politique et sociale des Batutsis étaient compensées par lʼassurance quʼavaient les serviteurs de jouir de la
protection de leurs maîtres, les administrés de celle de leurs chefs, cette protection revêtant un caractère nettement familial.“ Les Bahutu eurent en tout temps lʼoccasion dʼacquérir richesses et considération sociale.

Quant au pouvoir politique, des Bahutu et même certains Batwa furent nommés chefs par le Mwami du Ruanda. Si la chose a été perdue de vue, si lʼon a pu croire que seuls les Batutsi étaient aux postes de commande du Pays, cʼest que des alliances de ces chefs Bahutu et Batwa avec des familles Batutsi avaient tôt fait dʼaplanir les différences sociales et raciales de sorte que toute distinction devenait impossible.

A plus forte raison sous le régime actuel, les chances sont-elles laissées à tous, suivant leur capacités et leur mérites, dʼaccéder a toutes les fonctions vacantes.
“Le conseil Supérieur du Pays émet le voeu suivant: “que les mentions “Mututsi, muhutu ou mutwa soient rayés dans les livrets de recensement, fiches ainsi que dans tous les actes officiels.” La séance est suspendue à 12 heures.”

Par conséquent, en guise de réponse aux plaintes de discrimination ethnique et de monopolisation du pouvoir par un groupe ethnique,les Tutsis, le Conseil Supérieur du Pays, composé exclusivement par des Tutsis décida de supprimer la mention ethnique dans les documents officiels. Toutefois,dans les mois qui suivirent, les plaintes s’amplifièrent à travers le pays.

Le 21 Octobre 1957, les Hutus ont envoyé une lettre au Mwami Mutara III Rudahigwa demandant l'égalité de représentation des Hutus, Tutsis, et Twas au sein du Conseil Supérieur du Pays.

En Octobre 1957, les Hutus publient le Manifeste des Bahutu demandant la démocratie en général, et la démocratie constitutionnelle, en particulier. Le 7 Mars 1958, Vianney Bendantunguka, un des activistes politiques Hutus, compara la situation au Rwanda à celle de la nuit de la Révolution française, le 4 août 1789. Toutefois, il suggéra que le Roi avait encore du temps pour une révolution pacifique, au lieu d'une sanglante afin de remplacer une société fondée sur le privilège d'un groupe ethnique par une société fondée sur la démocratie.

Une série de plaintes soutenues provenaient de toutes les régions du pays:

Marangara: les Hutus se demandèrent pourquoi seuls les Tutsi sont admis dans les collèges et les universités. Ils demandèrent également l'abolition du travail forcé et du métayage, proposèrent l'introduction de concours dans l'attribution de bourses d'études et la participation des Hutu au sein du Conseil Supérieur du Pays, l’arrêt de la confiscation arbitraire des propriétés
et des exploitations agricoles des Hutus par les Tutsis, etc.

Bushiru: les Hutus firent remarquer que tous les chefs, les sous-chefs, les juges, et les fonctionnaires sont des Tutsis et que même ceux-ci étaient imposés aux Hutus. Les Hutus possédaient la terre, mais maintenant les Tutsis ayant décidé que toute la terre leur appartenait , les Hutus n'étaient plus autorisés à faire paître leur bétail sur leurs propres exploitations.

Les Tutsis qui échouaient dans les écoles étaient recrutés comme moniteurs agricoles alors que les Hutus connaissaient mieux l’agriculture.
Kingogo: les Hutus se demandèrent pourquoi seuls les Tutsis sont autorisés à hériter. Si un Hutu mourrait, ses biens devenaient la propriété d'un chef Tutsi. Toutes les fonctions publiques étaient occupées par des Tutsis.
Les Tutsis procédaient à la confiscation arbitraire ou appropriation des exploitations agricoles des Hutus etc.

Kabagali: les Hutus firent remarquer que tous les juges et les procureurs sont des Tutsis. Ils firent remarquer qu'il existait 3 races au Rwanda: Hutu, Tutsi et Twa. Les Hutus demandèrent quels étaient les critères pour obtenir un emploi dans le service public: la race (ethnie) ou la compétence.
Ils se demandèrent si tous les Hutu sont incompétents et condamnèrent la confiscation arbitraire et l’appropriation des fermes des Hutus par les Tutsis, etc.

Cyanika-Bufundu: Les Hutus se demandèrent pourquoi seuls les Tutsis recevaient des bourses pour étudier en Europe. Ils se plaignirent que tous les Juges étaient Tutsis et corrompus, de la confiscation ou l'appropriation arbitraires des fermes de Hutus par les Tutsis, etc.
Et plusieurs autres plaintes émanant de personnes ou des groupes de personnes parvinrent à la cour royale sous forme de tracts, de journaux, de magazines, de rapports de réunion, etc. La constante de ces plaintes était la suivante: l’aristocratie Tutsi opprimait les Hutus et occupait la plupart des fonctions publiques; les Tutsis étaient exclusivement représentés dans les plus hautes institutions et fonctions du pays, telles que le Conseil Supérieur du Pays, les chefs et sous-chefs, les juges, les procureurs;

les Tutsis étaient exclusivement admis dans l’enseignement public secondaire et supérieur, et recevaient exclusivement des bourses d'études. La situation d’avant 1959 semble être similaire à ce que l'on observe ces jours-ci au Rwanda.

À l'invitation du Gouvernement de Kigali et de la Communauté Internationale, une délégation des combattants et leurs dépendants membres du Ralliement pour l'Unité et la Démocratie (RUD/Rassemblement du Peuple Rwandais (RPR) ont mené une visite exploratoire au Rwanda entre le 23 et le 28 Janvier 2009.

La visite faisait partie d’un des volets du Processus de Paix initié à Rome le 9 Mai 2008 entre le Gouvernement de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) et le Congrès National pour la Démocratie (CND), une coalition entre le RUD et le RPR, avec la facilitation de la Communauté Sant 'Egidio.

La Feuille de Route du dit Processus fut rendu public à Kisangani, le 26 Mai 2008. Suite à cet accord, un premier groupe de combattants du RUD/RPR furent volontairement désarmés au cours d’une cérémonie officielle qui s'est tenue à Kasiki, Territoire du Lubero (Nord Kivu), le 31 Juillet 2008. Les combattants, des personnes à leur charge, ainsi que d’autres réfugiés rwandais furent regroupés à Kasiki.

La visite exploratoire au Rwanda fut organisée pour que la délégation des réfugiés et des combattants puisse s'informer sur les conditions de sécurité et de participation sociale, économique, et politique des Rwandais au Rwanda dans le but d'un rapatriement volontaire et pacifique des réfugiés rwandais.

A l’issue de cette visite, la délégation a émis un rapport qui mettait en exergue les observations suivantes au sujet de la situation politique et sociale au Rwanda:

• l’absence généralisée de sécurité pour les individus;
• la terreur par les milices gouvernementales, Local Défense Forces (LDF);
• le harcèlement, justice dirigée contre les Hutus seulement, fabrication des accusations et des preuves, et le manque de justice dans les Gacacas (tribunaux populaires);

• absence de libertés de participation à la vie politique;
• exclusion sélective des Hutus des emplois publics, l’armée, la police, et des
affaires;
• confiscation arbitraire des biens individuels sans compensation;
• emprisonnement arbitraires des Hutus et des opposants politiques;
• Travaux d’intérêt généraux (TIG) qui ressemblent plus au travail forcé;
• traitement cruel des prisonniers et des détenus;
• forcer les ex-combattants à retourner en RDC pour se battre au sein de CNDP ou des forces de l’armée rwandaise (RDF).

L'actuel régime rwandais répète les mêmes erreurs et suit les schémas des énérations passées. Les mêmes causes conduisent aux mêmes résultats.

C'est pourquoi il est important de rejeter la politique ethnique, avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. Nous devons créer un système juste, légitime et équitable répondant aux aspirations légitimes de toutes les composantes de la population rwandaise.

Toutes ces composantes doivent être impliquées dans la recherche de solutions durables et viables aux problèmes auxquels notre pays fait face. Ce n’est que dans un tel cadre que les dirigeants rwandais peuvent se prévaloir d’une quelconque légitimité.

Le Rwanda en tant que nation appartient à tous les Rwandais. En Janvier 2008, à l'invitation de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), je me suis rendu à Kinshasa. Le but était de trouver une solution pacifique à la résolution du problème vieux de 15 ans, des réfugiés rwandais dans l'Est de la RDC.

À 'issue de la visite, j'ai lancé un appel au général Paul Kagame,dans notre déclaration 24 Janvier 2008 à Kinshasa sur la paix dans la région des Grands Lacs, en l’invitant à reconstruire "la nation rwandaise qui n’est pas basée sur des solutions défectueuses du passé, mais un Rwanda nouveau où nos descendants seraient au-dessus de ce qui a jusqu'à présent divisé les Rwandais, un Rwanda où nos enfants et nos descendants ne vivront pas dans la confrontation récurrente, mais plutôt exploreront et mettront en pratique des solutions pour le développement du Rwanda.

"Encore une fois, à Kasiki, le 31Juillet 2008, j'ai invité le général Paul Kagame à ouvrir les portes pour que les réfugiés rwandais rentrent chez eux. Je l'ai invité, d'abord comme un homme, puis comme un ancien réfugié,et enfin en tant que leader. Ce défi a été la constance de nos appels et nous avons toujours affirmé notre volonté à vouloir rencontrer le général Paul Kagame en tout temps avec l'aide de médiateurs indépendants.

J'ai fait l'appel parce que, comme un proverbe chinois nous enseigne “A Great Man Can Bend and Stretch.” Les dirigeants actuel du Rwanda se doivent de démontrer qu’ils peuvent tendre la main très loin et se recueillir dans l’humilité.

L'urgence d'agir maintenant, avant qu'il ne soit trop tard oblige les Rwandais à apprendre des erreurs du passé et de les éviter. La Révolution française et la Révolution rwandaise ont eu leur temps et nous ont appris les conséquences d'ignorer les aspirations du peuple et la tragédie de la
politique ethnique et de la peur.

Nous devons nous libérer de la peur et la méfiance ethnique et aller au-delà de l'amertume et la vengeance pour que les Rwandais et la région des Grands Lacs ne restent pas dans un cycle de violence et des effusions de sang à répétition.

D'autres pays et nations vainquirent la politique ethnique et de peur. Nous pouvons apprendre d'eux et même faire mieux. Je reste convaincu et confiant que nous les rwandais nous pouvons y parvenir si nous y consacrons toutes nos énergies.


VERS UNE SOCIETE AU-DELA DE LA POLITIQUE ETHNIQUE ET DE PEUR.

L’histoire du Rwanda a été marquée par un cercle vicieux dont l’intensité est alimentée par la politique ethnique.

La politique ethnique ne peut exister que suite à la peur et la méfiance entre les différents groupes ethniques.

Des politiciens véreux et malhonnêtes,comme des charognards et des parasites, se nourrissent de cette peur, entretiennent cette méfiance, et attisent les émotions populaires en vue de se maintenir au pouvoir.

Le 12 Décembre 1958, moins d'un an avant que les Hutus ne renversèrent la monarchie tutsie dans une révolution sanglante, un prêtre tutsi mit en garde à la fois les aristocrates Tutsis et l'administration coloniale sur les risques d’une tragédie imminente.

Dans un article intitulé "Aux origines du problème Bahutu au Rwanda, paru dans la Revue Nouvelle XXVII, n ° 12 p1-5, le Prêtre Stanislas Bushayija écrivit:

“Le sentiment dʼinjustice que ressentirent à un moment donné les plébéiens romains vis-à-vis des patriciens, les serfs vis-à-vis des seigneurs dans lʼancien régime, est celui quʼéprouvent aujourdʼhui les Bahutu par rapport aux Batutsi. Ils cherchent leur émancipation, leur accession à un monde libre et égal pour tous. Cʼest ainsi quʼil faut comprendre les discussions, les manifestes, les articles qui se succèdent à un rythme de plus en plus rapide. Lʼhistoire nous montre que lorsque des revendication arrivent à ce point de maturité, elles aboutissent fatalement à des révolutions ou des guerres civiles, si les responsables ne leur donnent pas une réponse satisfaisante.”

Malheureusement, très peu de dirigeants tirent des leçons de l'histoire. Comme je l'ai souligné récemment dans un discours que j'ai prononcé à l'Université Rutgers, en invoquant l'auteur irlandais et prix Nobel George Bernard Shaw: “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience... Hegel was
right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.”"

L'observation par le prêtre tutsi demeure pertinente et s'applique à la situation actuelle au Rwanda. Le 30 Octobre, 1959, Père Stanislas Bushayija écrit à l'administrateur colonial en proposant des mesures pour calmer l'explosion sociale imminente:

“ Dʼautres part, je suis persuadé que le temps est révolu où il était possible de gouverner le Munyarwanda, surtout le mututsi, par des négotiations douceureuses et concessions factices, cʼest, aujourdʼhui, lʼénérgie (jʼallais dire la force, mais je nʼy pense pas moins) dans la justice et lʼéquité, qui doit et peut gouverner le Ruanda.”
Huit jours plus tard, le 7 Novembre 1959, la Révolution Sociale Rwandaise de 1959 commença, plongeant le pays dans une orgie de sang qui allait marquer l'histoire du Rwanda jusqu’à ce jour.

Malheureusement, les conséquences telles que prévues par le Père Bushayija finissent par se produire. Lorsque la tragédie se produit, les flammes de l'incendie de la révolution sociale consommeront des masses de personnes innocentes. C'est pourquoi nous ne pouvons pas rester immobiles et inactifs et laisser le Rwanda se diriger tout droit vers une route conduisant à une perdition et un anéantissement certains. De mon humble avis, une société au-delà de la politique ethnique est possible. Je propose les mesures suivantes pour y arriver:

1) Reconnaître les erreurs derrière la négation des identités ethniques. L'identité ethnique est ce que nous sommes, notre héritage social, notre essence en tant que peuple ou groupe de personnes, que nous le voulions ou que d'autres veuillent nous définir en tant que tel. Ce n'est pas l'existence de l'identité ethnique qui est le problème. C’est le recours à des groupes ethniques pour atteindre des objectifs politiques destructeurs qui nous ont dévasté et le feront encore une fois si tous ensemble nous n’y prenons pas garde..

Nous avons besoin de remettre en question, combattre et vaincre ce maudit héritage que nos ancêtres nous ont laissé. Les groupes ethniques ne peuvent pas être supprimés ou maintenus selon les caprices des politiciens ou d'un groupe ethnique.

La Nation doit déterminer la meilleure manière de gérer un état multi-ethnique et d'utiliser l'identité ethnique comme une source de richesse d'idées, d'initiatives, d’esprit d'entreprise, d'ouverture et de prospérité. Le Rwanda a un bon exemple en des états comme l’Amérique, le Canada, l’Inde, le Royaume Uni, la France, l’Afrique du Sud et d'autres Etats où le caractère multiracial est devenu un atout pour toute la société.

2) Je suis de la ferme avis que la Démocratie Consensuelle reste la meilleure solution contre la politique ethnique et de peur. La politique ethnique au Rwanda est une malédiction. Comme Gandhi nous mit en garde, aussi longtemps que ce fléau demeurera avec nous, le peuple rwandais sera condamné à la souffrance, l'exil, le déracinement, l'effusion de sang, et un jour, l'anéantissement.

L’annihilation ne peut être évitée que par la reconnaissance de soi et la reconnaissance des autres dans une société où, comme les philosophes Jurgen Harbermas et Bruce Barry le font valoir, la légitimité de notre pays le Rwanda doit être basée sur une notion des droits politiques et d’autonomie des sujets individuels.

Cependant, nous avons besoin de marier ces droits individuels à la démarche proposée par des scientifiques politiques comme Charles Taylor et Will Kymlicka: le Rwanda doit reconnaître l'identité ethnique et développer un processus à travers lequel les besoins particuliers des groupes ethniques peuvent être satisfaits dans les limites d'une politique et une structure fortes.

Bref, nous avons besoin d'un système où la voix de chaque personne soit entendue, où la participation de chaque entité soit effective, mais dans lequel les groupes ethniques s’épanouissent. C'est le concept de la Démocratie Consensuelle.

3) La Démocratie Consensuelle Cédera la place à une Pleine Démocratie. La Démocratie Consensuelle doit protéger les minorités, en particulier les minorités ethniques, contre la tyrannie potentielle d’une majorité ethnique. Toutefois, au fur et à mesure que la confiance entre les groupes ethniques se solidifie et les groupes politiques se développent autour d'une plate forme d'idées, la démocratie consensuelle va éventuellement céder la place à une véritable démocratie.

4) Le Rwanda doit se tourner vers l'extérieur, et non se concentrer vers l'intérieur.
La plupart des conflits ethniques sont liées à des ressources limitées. Malheureusement le Rwanda est surpeuplé, enclavé, et avec très peu de ressources naturelles. Le Rwanda et son peuple doivent se fier à leur ingéniosité, leur esprit d'entreprise et de travail dur. Ils doivent développer la politique du bon voisinage et le sens de saisir l'opportunité. Les Rwandais
sont tenus d'être de bons voisins s’ils doivent survivre en tant que nation. Ils doivent être souples et stratégiques. Ils doivent anticiper et saisir les opportunités autour et en face d'eux. Toutefois, ils ne peuvent pas le faire s'ils ne sont pas prêts à enterrer leurs vêtements de victimes et endosser ceux des vainqueurs: Victorieux sur la politique ethnique et de la
peur.

CONCLUSION

En dépit de toute leur complexité, les problèmes issus de la politique ethnique et de la peur promue par le régime actuel au Rwanda peuvent trouver des solutions pragmatiques. Le fait que tant de Tutsis fuient le pays, et certains ont rejoint les soi-disant "rebelles hutus" en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) et ailleurs ou créent leurs propres rebellions armées, est une indication sans équivoque que le système implanté par l'actuel régime rwandais a échoué et est bati sur “du sable mouvant.”

Seul un système basé sur des valeurs démocratiques, le respect des libertés et des droits individuels, l’exclusion du complexe de vainqueur sur le vaincu, et la participation sociale, politique, et économique de toutes les composantes de la société Rwandaise a plus de chances de réussir. Nous, rwandais, ne pouvons bâtir un pays sur fondation basée sur la vengeance et/ou
la domination de l’autre.

Cependant, les Rwandais ne peuvent pas y arriver seuls. Les véritables amis du peuple rwandais ne peuvent pas se permettre de regarder les Rwandais s’aventurer sur la voie de la destruction comme un troupeau de bétail amené à l’abattoir. Ces amis ont aussi une énorme responsabilité.
C’est ce genre de système, avec le support de vrais amis, qui pourra conduire la nation Rwandaise au-delà de la politique ethnique et de peur.

Félicien Kanyamibwa, PhD.
New Jersey, Etats-Unis d’Amérique.
19 mai 2009.
E-mail: kanyami@optonline.net.
© Copyright 2009, Felicien Kanyamibwa.



The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine

AS International

AS International
SurViVors SPEAK OUT - Rights of Victims Seeking Justice and Compensation for the RPF Genocide. This is an Exciting Collaborative Project launched by The AS International Founder Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Economist and Human Rights Activist. Join US and Be the First to know about the Mastermind of the Rwandan Genocide Still At large and enjoing Impunity.

Profile

I am Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, an Economist, Content Manager, and EDI Expert, driven by a passion for human rights activism. With a deep commitment to advancing human rights in Africa, particularly in the Great Lakes region, I established this blog following firsthand experiences with human rights violations in Rwanda and in the DRC (formerly Zaïre) as well. My journey began with collaborations with Amnesty International in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and with human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and a conference in Helsinki, Finland, where I was a panelist with other activists from various countries. My mission is to uncover the untold truth about the ongoing genocide in Rwanda and the DRC. As a dedicated voice for the voiceless, I strive to raise awareness about the tragic consequences of these events and work tirelessly to bring an end to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)'s impunity. This blog is a platform for Truth and Justice, not a space for hate. I am vigilant against hate speech or ignorant comments, moderating all discussions to ensure a respectful and informed dialogue at African Survivors International Blog.

Genocide masterminded by RPF

Finally the well-known Truth Comes Out. After suffering THE LONG years, telling the world that Kagame and his RPF criminal organization masterminded the Rwandan genocide that they later recalled Genocide against Tutsis. Our lives were nothing but suffering these last 32 years beginning from October 1st, 1990 onwards. We are calling the United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, and Great Britain in particular, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany to return to hidden classified archives and support Honorable Tito Rutaremara's recent statement about What really happened in Rwanda before, during and after 1994 across the country and how methodically the Rwandan Genocide has been masterminded by Paul Kagame, the Rwandan Hitler. Above all, Mr. Tito Rutaremara, one of the RPF leaders has given details about RPF infiltration methods in Habyarimana's all instances, how assassinations, disappearances, mass-slaughters across Rwanda have been carried out from the local autority to the government,fabricated lies that have been used by Gacaca courts as weapon, the ICTR in which RPF had infiltrators like Joseph Ngarambe, an International court biased judgments & condemnations targeting Hutu ethnic members in contraversal strategy compared to the ICTR establishment to pursue in justice those accountable for crimes between 1993 to 2003 and Mapping Report ignored and classified to protect the Rwandan Nazis under the RPF embrella . NOTHING LASTS FOREVER.

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Carla Del Ponte, Ancien Procureur au TPIR:"Le drame rwandais mérite une justice impartiale" - et réponse de Gerald Gahima

Sheltering 2,5 million refugees

Credible reports camps sheltering 2,500 million refugees in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been destroyed. The UN refugee agency says it has credible reports camps sheltering 2,5 milion refugees in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been destroyed.

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Peter Erlinder comments on the BBC documentary "Rwanda's Untold Story Madam Victoire Ingabire,THE RWANDAN AUNG SAN SUU KYI

Rwanda, un génocide en questions


Bernard Lugan présente "Rwanda, un génocide en... par BernardLugan Bernard Lugan présente "Rwanda, un génocide en questions"

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Everything happens for a reason

Bad things are going to happen in your life, people will hurt you, disrespect you, play with your feelings.. But you shouldn't use that as an excuse to fail to go on and to hurt the whole world. You will end up hurting yourself and wasting your precious time. Don't always think of revenging, just let things go and move on with your life. Remember everything happens for a reason and when one door closes, the other opens for you with new blessings and love.

Hutus didn't plan Tutsi Genocide

Kagame, the mastermind of Rwandan Genocide (Hutu & tutsi)

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