The New Times (Kigali)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Felix Muheto
Kigali
While Rwanda still mourns the Genocide perpetrated 14 years ago against more than 1 million Rwandans, Paul Rusesabagina, a self-proclaimed hero fallaciously claims having saved 1,268 people that took refuge in the Hotel des Milles Collines in 1994.
He still continues to cultivate a negative image of Rwanda among the Rwandan Diaspora, friends of Rwanda as well as other foreigners - though lately with little success.
This was evidenced by a number of conferences and interviews Paul Rusesabagina had these last months with different personalities in order to attempt different ways of promoting his disingenuous ideology based on sectarianism that he uses as a playing card to vilify the government in Rwanda.
In the same vein, Rusesabagina convened a conference in Brussels on November 24, 2007, that intended to entrench his negative propaganda. As our readers might recall, we described how access to that conference was denied to Rwandans who do not belong to his extremist ethnic-based ideology by a security cordon that was manned at the entrance by the most extreme among his followers.
The access was also restricted in favour of some foreigners who share his negationism of the Rwandan Genocide such as the recently indicted French writer Pierre Péan whose book, "Noires fureurs Blancs menteurs", alleges the existence of a "Double Genocide", a revisionist attempt to alter realities of the well-known history of the 1994 Genocide with other false comparisons. Fortunately, as it is so easy to discern the malicious intention of the propaganda he advocates, the conference was attended by a small number of participants, but Rusesabagina later on lied to the international media that the conference was welcomed and attended by many people.
Similarly on the closing of the EU-ACP summit that was held in Kigali last November, Rusesabagina himself, having realized that foreign delegates might have been aware of the significant steps that have been made by the Rwandan government, organised an interview with a Dutch journalist called Raymond Frenzen, the founder and chief-editor of EUX.TV, in order to persuade him that whatever good is done in Rwanda benefits Tutsis at the expense of the Hutus.
Whereas discrimination in Rwanda is a crime according to the Rwandan Constitution, Rusesabagina still perpetuates the tool that was unfortunately the cause of the 1994 Genocide. As written previously, he benefited out of the heinous crime of the 1994 Genocide and it is hence not surprising that he is trying the same tools in the hope of its incarnation. He is, however, living in history. Rwandans have said no to ethnic ideology and it is actually a transcended subject and disappeared with the collapse of the Habyarimana dictatorial regime. The present government of national unity and reconciliation has a single concern which is the development of its citizens and empowerment of all on an equal base, different from the past when policies of exclusion and discrimination prevailed. This is an issue that is easily perceptible by even a primary school kid in present Rwanda.
In the article entitled "Hotel Rwanda; the Sequel - Rusesabagina seeks Truth and Reconciliation for Rwanda" published by Dutch journalist Raymond Frenzen, Paul Rusesabagina persuaded him that anti-retroviral medicines benefit only Tutsis at the expense of Hutu HIV positive patients. It would seem by this as if the Genocide continues, and that Aids is used as one of the new weapons. Unfortunately for messrs Rusesabagina and Frenzen there is not a shred of evidence supporting this allegation; although it clearly shows the true colors of Rusesabagina, the unscrupulous self-styled hero.
First of all ethnic-based identity aspects are illegitimate in current Rwanda. Unlike the previous regimes, ethnic based identity cards were banned by the current government and all are now viewed and identified equally as Rwandans.
Secondly, unless Rusesabagina wants people to believe that blood tests can identify the ethnic group to which one belongs, this would be in perfect line with his genocide ideology. On the contrary, Rwandans wouldn't agree with Rusesabagina's claims that Hutus are still being systematically and pervasively discriminated against. Indeed, retired U.S. chemistry teacher Albert Schlueter, now working with students in Rwanda on a voluntary basis, took an offensive with a recent commentary written locally by Cheadle's cinematic namesake; he insists that in fact much progress is being made and openly seen by whoever happens to visit or stay in Rwanda at present.
Another deceptive piece of information that Rusesabagina gave the journalist and published in the afore-mentioned article is that in Rwanda there is a police force that is not known to so many people called the "Local Defense Forces". Honestly, this is something that can only be questioned by somebody only deliberately bent on conveying a terribly negative image of Rwanda's administration for some hidden motives. The Local Defense Forces are known to be persons of integrity chosen by the population itself to take part in the maintaining of security in their local sectors or cells. This is well known by everybody in Rwanda, foreign or local, and nobody complains about it; and to be precise they are well known to the population because they work closer to them and are selected on merit by the very people they serve. In addition to that they are managed by the people themselves at their respective lower levels.
In his wicked plan of carrying on doing his discreditable propaganda, on January 2, Paul Rusesabagina declared his wish to lobby US Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton to support the establishment of his groundless 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission". However, if followed up, the latest revelations that Mrs. Clinton pressed his husband to intervene during the 1994 genocide, although in vain, he would have understood that it is unlikely that someone who saw what was happening and recognized it for what it was, genocide, would let herself be lured by falsehoods and clumsy allegations like he keeps making against the current regime.
Obviously, Rusesabagina's view of one group of Rwandans, who have been described as being in the minority, as controlling all the various districts and cell positions, as well as the elected Parliament, is mathematically impossible and exploits colonial-inspired hatred.
Finally, Rusesabagina's views take Rwanda back to Habyarimana's policy of ethnic identification and he had better know that genuine Rwandans have said in one voice that "Never Again". Rusesabagina's self-described family history makes this point clear. One of his parents is Hutu and the other Tutsi and this is common among Rwandans, he said. Instead of being Rwandan he is still inclined and insisting on the use of discriminative ethinism for his own selfish ends.
The Habyarimana government, following the colonial example, forced an identity on him, and he wishes to perpetuate identity politics, even though most experts agree that one of the causes of conflict is identity politics. Rusesabagina's views take Rwanda back to the colonial period, if not the Genocide-promoting policies of the Habyarimana government, and this leads every good thinker to ask himself/herself how such a Hollywood-made "hero who saved people" now turns his sword towards the very people he claims to have suffered for
One can reasonably rule out his pretended heroism and consider him an opportunist and a mere discriminative agent.
maandag 21 januari 2008
UN Employee is Genocide Criminal
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
17 January 2008
Posted to the web 17 January 2008
Kigali
The UN Tribunal for Rwanda has not acted to reprimand one of its employees Mr. Ephrem Gasasira despite a Genocide trial due to start in which he is also accused by witnesses, African Rights said on Thursday in a new report.
On January 18, the trail of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Roman Catholic priest resumes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but interestingly, his alleged key ally during the Genocide Mr. Gasasira works with documentation department at the ICTR in Arusha - Tanzania.
African Rights claims Mr. Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza (now part of Southern Province) in 1994. The campaign organization says Mr. Gasasira is accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Father Nsengimana to ensure a successful Genocide in Nyanza.
The trail of Father Nsengimana began on June 22 last year but was adjourned six days later.
Before the trial for the cleric began, African Rights apparently informed the tribunal about the allegations against Mr. Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the Genocide.
However, Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, and in mid-January 2008, the witnesses remain fearful for their lives, as they prepare to leave for Arusha, the organization says in its report: 'Undermining Justice From Within Ephraim Gasasira and Father Hormisdas Nsengimana's Trail at the ICTR'.
It is not the first time Rwandan employees of the costly UN court have come under scrutiny for their past in Rwanda.
Genocide suspect Joseph Kanyabashi posed as ICTR investigator in Rwanda in order to gain access to information about several protected witnesses, and tried to discourage them from going to testify at the tribunal.
Mr. Simon Nshamihigo, a former prosecutor with a provincial court in Rwanda managed to get a posting with the same tribunal. He would later be put to book. Others are Mr. Joseph Nzabirinda and Mr. Callixte Gakwaya.
In another very controversial twist in the history of the United Nations in Rwanda, Mr. Callixte Mbarushimana, a former United Nations employee linked to the Genocide was awarded thousands of dollars in compensation by the same organisation.
African Rights says the tribunal needs to do more to protect the identities of witnesses in the trail of the catholic priest whose family and former followers in Butare (now part of Southern Province) - are threatening them. In some cases, as the organization alleges, witnesses have been bribed not to testify.
The protection of witnesses invited by the Tribunal for its trails remains a thorny issue and some have alleged that court officials deliberately reveal their identities. Government of Rwanda and Genocide survivors have also angrily complained about the treatment they receive from examining attorneys.
17 January 2008
Posted to the web 17 January 2008
Kigali
The UN Tribunal for Rwanda has not acted to reprimand one of its employees Mr. Ephrem Gasasira despite a Genocide trial due to start in which he is also accused by witnesses, African Rights said on Thursday in a new report.
On January 18, the trail of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Roman Catholic priest resumes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but interestingly, his alleged key ally during the Genocide Mr. Gasasira works with documentation department at the ICTR in Arusha - Tanzania.
African Rights claims Mr. Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza (now part of Southern Province) in 1994. The campaign organization says Mr. Gasasira is accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Father Nsengimana to ensure a successful Genocide in Nyanza.
The trail of Father Nsengimana began on June 22 last year but was adjourned six days later.
Before the trial for the cleric began, African Rights apparently informed the tribunal about the allegations against Mr. Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the Genocide.
However, Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, and in mid-January 2008, the witnesses remain fearful for their lives, as they prepare to leave for Arusha, the organization says in its report: 'Undermining Justice From Within Ephraim Gasasira and Father Hormisdas Nsengimana's Trail at the ICTR'.
It is not the first time Rwandan employees of the costly UN court have come under scrutiny for their past in Rwanda.
Genocide suspect Joseph Kanyabashi posed as ICTR investigator in Rwanda in order to gain access to information about several protected witnesses, and tried to discourage them from going to testify at the tribunal.
Mr. Simon Nshamihigo, a former prosecutor with a provincial court in Rwanda managed to get a posting with the same tribunal. He would later be put to book. Others are Mr. Joseph Nzabirinda and Mr. Callixte Gakwaya.
In another very controversial twist in the history of the United Nations in Rwanda, Mr. Callixte Mbarushimana, a former United Nations employee linked to the Genocide was awarded thousands of dollars in compensation by the same organisation.
African Rights says the tribunal needs to do more to protect the identities of witnesses in the trail of the catholic priest whose family and former followers in Butare (now part of Southern Province) - are threatening them. In some cases, as the organization alleges, witnesses have been bribed not to testify.
The protection of witnesses invited by the Tribunal for its trails remains a thorny issue and some have alleged that court officials deliberately reveal their identities. Government of Rwanda and Genocide survivors have also angrily complained about the treatment they receive from examining attorneys.
Rights Body Accuses ICTR Staff of Intimidating Witnesses
The New Times (Kigali)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Edwin Musoni
Kigali
Human rights watchdog, African Rights (AU) has protested alleged intimidation and threats against witnesses in the case of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana who is currently held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The trial of Fr. Nsengimana began on June 22 last year and lasted six days before it was adjourned to today, January 18.
But in a 15-page protest report issued yesterday, African Rights said key prosecution witnesses were intimidated as away of discouraging them from going to Arusha to testify against Nsengimana.
The rights body gives a number of people accused of failing justice and that those involved are residents of the former Nyanza, Butare Prefecture (now Southern Province), where Nsengimana had worked and lived during the 1994 Genocide. They include a fellow-priest as well as Nsengimana's relatives.
Those implicated include Ephrem Gasasira, an ICTR staff who is currently working in the documentation department at the tribunal.
Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza in 1994, and is himself accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Nsengimana to perpetrate genocide in Nyanza and beyond.
'Before the trial began in June, African Rights informed the ICTR about the allegations against Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the genocide,' the AU report says.
It also indicates that if Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, witnesses would be fearful for their lives as they prepare to leave for Arusha.
Nsengimana was the rector of Christ Roi Secondary School in Nyanza, in the commune of Nyabisindu in 1994.
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Edwin Musoni
Kigali
Human rights watchdog, African Rights (AU) has protested alleged intimidation and threats against witnesses in the case of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana who is currently held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The trial of Fr. Nsengimana began on June 22 last year and lasted six days before it was adjourned to today, January 18.
But in a 15-page protest report issued yesterday, African Rights said key prosecution witnesses were intimidated as away of discouraging them from going to Arusha to testify against Nsengimana.
The rights body gives a number of people accused of failing justice and that those involved are residents of the former Nyanza, Butare Prefecture (now Southern Province), where Nsengimana had worked and lived during the 1994 Genocide. They include a fellow-priest as well as Nsengimana's relatives.
Those implicated include Ephrem Gasasira, an ICTR staff who is currently working in the documentation department at the tribunal.
Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza in 1994, and is himself accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Nsengimana to perpetrate genocide in Nyanza and beyond.
'Before the trial began in June, African Rights informed the ICTR about the allegations against Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the genocide,' the AU report says.
It also indicates that if Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, witnesses would be fearful for their lives as they prepare to leave for Arusha.
Nsengimana was the rector of Christ Roi Secondary School in Nyanza, in the commune of Nyabisindu in 1994.
Government Says Tony Blair Gesture is Not Unusual
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kigali
Former British Premier Tony Blair is widening his post-premiership portfolio by becoming an unpaid adviser to the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame and authorities here are saying he is just among a host of others "partners" that "want to help Rwanda", RNA has established.
According to The Guardian newspaper, in the first indication of the kind of work Mr. Blair would like to undertake in Africa, he has dispatched a three-strong team to Rwanda to see how he will be able to help build the capacity of the once war torn government.
The Press Secretary in the Office of the President Ms. Yolanda Makolo confirmed to RNA on Friday that such a gesture from Mr. Blair was in the works but declined to part with any more details.
Ms. Yolanda also confirmed that the three-member team was already in the country and the President Kagame and Mr. Blair "have spoken".
The team includes Ms. Liz Lloyd, former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Blair and an Africa specialist. Another is his former Number 10 private secretary Ms. Kate Gross and Mr. David Easton, a former McKinsey's consultant. Number 10 is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.
"The fact is Mr. Tony Blair is a friend of the President and he has offered to assist in capacity building.and he is exploring how that is feasible", Yolanda said.
According to her, the team is "here to explore how this can work". She also said the issue is still in the early stages "that is why he has sent a team here to explore how it could workout.
Mr. Blair has always taken the view that government capacity, good governance and fighting corruption are vital to development, The Guardian reported. Since leaving office Blair, who has often said he is ashamed that the world stood aside during the Rwandan civil war, has met President Kagame to discuss how they should work together.
Mr. Blair has apparently been impressed by the way Rwanda has transformed itself since the 1994 genocide and believes he can raise funds to help the government. The country already has the second highest growth rate in Africa, but half the government's budget is based on overseas aid.
The former prime minister showed his commitment to Africa in office by setting up the African Commission and, in 2005, working with Gordon Brown to build big financial pledges during the British presidency of the G8 industrialised nations.
In the same year his wife Cherie visited Rwanda to see the war graves, and attend some of the court hearings held to try perpetrators of the Genocide. She addressed a major regional Women parliamentarians' conference in Kigali and attended a Gacaca court session. Mr. Blair himself has only met President Kagame on several occasions in London.
Blair's officials stressed that his work will be unpaid. He will be seeking to raise funds for the future consultancy. The Rwandans have already set a up a programme with the British government to pinpoint bottlenecks to growth, including the lack of export growth and the role of the private sector.
The daily also reports that Mr. Blair received criticism last week after it was revealed that he had taken a highly paid job as an adviser to J P Morgan, the blue chip US bankers.
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kigali
Former British Premier Tony Blair is widening his post-premiership portfolio by becoming an unpaid adviser to the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame and authorities here are saying he is just among a host of others "partners" that "want to help Rwanda", RNA has established.
According to The Guardian newspaper, in the first indication of the kind of work Mr. Blair would like to undertake in Africa, he has dispatched a three-strong team to Rwanda to see how he will be able to help build the capacity of the once war torn government.
The Press Secretary in the Office of the President Ms. Yolanda Makolo confirmed to RNA on Friday that such a gesture from Mr. Blair was in the works but declined to part with any more details.
Ms. Yolanda also confirmed that the three-member team was already in the country and the President Kagame and Mr. Blair "have spoken".
The team includes Ms. Liz Lloyd, former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Blair and an Africa specialist. Another is his former Number 10 private secretary Ms. Kate Gross and Mr. David Easton, a former McKinsey's consultant. Number 10 is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.
"The fact is Mr. Tony Blair is a friend of the President and he has offered to assist in capacity building.and he is exploring how that is feasible", Yolanda said.
According to her, the team is "here to explore how this can work". She also said the issue is still in the early stages "that is why he has sent a team here to explore how it could workout.
Mr. Blair has always taken the view that government capacity, good governance and fighting corruption are vital to development, The Guardian reported. Since leaving office Blair, who has often said he is ashamed that the world stood aside during the Rwandan civil war, has met President Kagame to discuss how they should work together.
Mr. Blair has apparently been impressed by the way Rwanda has transformed itself since the 1994 genocide and believes he can raise funds to help the government. The country already has the second highest growth rate in Africa, but half the government's budget is based on overseas aid.
The former prime minister showed his commitment to Africa in office by setting up the African Commission and, in 2005, working with Gordon Brown to build big financial pledges during the British presidency of the G8 industrialised nations.
In the same year his wife Cherie visited Rwanda to see the war graves, and attend some of the court hearings held to try perpetrators of the Genocide. She addressed a major regional Women parliamentarians' conference in Kigali and attended a Gacaca court session. Mr. Blair himself has only met President Kagame on several occasions in London.
Blair's officials stressed that his work will be unpaid. He will be seeking to raise funds for the future consultancy. The Rwandans have already set a up a programme with the British government to pinpoint bottlenecks to growth, including the lack of export growth and the role of the private sector.
The daily also reports that Mr. Blair received criticism last week after it was revealed that he had taken a highly paid job as an adviser to J P Morgan, the blue chip US bankers.
MPs in Bid to Stamp Out 'Genocide Ideology'
published in The Nation (Nairobi)
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kezio-Musoke David
Kigali
Rwanda's parliament has called for an extraordinary session. The session is distinctive in nature because it seeks to discuss the findings of an evil that is believed to have steered the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
This evil, referred to as "genocide ideology", according to the findings, is slowly creeping back into the society. And this time through a cross-section of Rwanda's secondary schools.
It all started late last year when a report presented to parliament by a team of MPs investigating the existence of "genocide ideology" since August 2007 revealed an alarming rate of cases of its existence in several secondary schools around the country.
"Genocide ideology" is a term used to describe the notion genocide perpetrators used to instill a hate campaign that creates divisions among two distinctive groups, usually ethnic groups.
These ideologies cause differences based on individual characteristic features, religion, race and tribal sentiments. But, ideologies are usually baseless and are used by leaders to incite hate against one another in order to yield power and control of resources. Adolf Hitler used the same principle of "genocide ideology" against Jews, describing them as parasites, bacteria and viruses.
Hitler's Nazi ideology revolved around the fantasy of Germany as a living organism containing virulent Jewish micro-organisms. Genocide on Jews was undertaken as a form of immunology, a struggle to kill pathogenic cells in order to save the organism.
In colonial Rwanda, the Belgians who served partially as colonialists identified each Rwandan with identification card as Hutu or Tutsi and this kind of division is believed to have bred all sorts of genocide ideologies.
The repeated references to "Hutu" and "Tutsi" labelling is feared to have continued to promote animosity among a section of some Rwandans, something that has prompted ethnographers to stop recognising the two as distinct ethnic groups.
They speak the same language, practise the same religions and share the same cultures.
The report presented to a parliamentary plenary session in December last year showed that there was evidence that some Rwandan schools were encouraging a platform to promote "genocide ideology".
Different uniforms
According to the New Times, a daily English newspaper, authorities in a school called Association pour la Culture, l'Education et le Development Integre de Mataba in Gakenke District, were found to have introduced and encouraged different uniforms for genocide survivors.
The MPs are now querying that motive. The MPs' inquiry came up with a list of 11 schools, where students rebuked each other depending on which ethnic group they came from.
Some students are reported to have developed a habit of writing to each other anonymous genocide-fuelling letters. One of the letters presented as evidence said, " ni inzoka, baraturambiye kandi tuzabica", which is literally translated to mean " they are snakes. We are fed up with them and we will kill them".
The report says that at the Institute Prespyterien de Kirinda, Karongi District in Rwanda's Western Province, there were hostile actions against a genocide survivor.
A cross-section of some students were found torching their colleague's clothing. Led by MP Donatilla Mukabalisa, the investigating team told their colleagues that in one particular school they found writings similar to the infamous ten "Hutu Commandments", which were once published in the former extremist Kangura newspaper, inciting violence against their victims, in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The killings were sparked off by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash in April 1994 and ended when rebels led by Paul Kagame, the current president seized power mid 1994.
Rwanda's parliamentarians have gone ahead to demand an immediate enactment of the law to punish those who harbour these kind of genocidal sentiments.
One MP, Juvénal Nkusi, said the law will not only protect genocide survivors in schools but also cure the country of an ideology that dragged Rwanda into the massacre of more than a million Rwandans in 1994. The report quoted the alarming rate of "genocide ideology" in two Northern Province schools, at 97 per cent.
This is something that prompted parliament to probe two Cabinet members, Dr Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, the Minister of Education, and her junior Joseph Murekeraho to explain their progress in containing the problem. The duo's explanations didn't really convince the law makers, labelling them careless. Dr Mujawamariya said the fact that there is prevalent genocide ideology in some schools does not mean that she, as the custodian of the education system in the country, is a subversive politician.
"We are not behind it and let me say that we are devising tough measures to stamp out the problem," Dr Mujawamariya told enraged MPs.
Parliament thereafter set up a six-man commission to help Dr Mujawamariya to further scrutinise the probe report.
In one case, Ms Alphonsine Musabyayezu the headmistress of Gakiarage Primary School in Nyagatare, Eastern Province was suspended by authorities and parents over "genocide ideology".
It is alleged that the headmistress dismissed and transferred teachers in the school basing on ideological leaning.
Ms Musabyayezu is also reported to have suspended the English section at the school, without any consultation with district leaders, a clear manifestation of her ill motives. Though Rwanda, a former French colony, is predominantly Francophone, her joining the East African Community and her application to join the Commonwealth has seen the English language being introduced as a compulsory part of the curriculum in recent years.
Launching a new drive to fight genocide ideology, State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary of Education, Mr Joseph Murekeraho, addressed 600 head teachers at Lycee de Kigali and told them that school disciplinary committees will be introduced with powers to inspect and review students' behaviour on a daily basis. "It's shameful to hear of 'genocide ideology' in the education sector, which is expected to transform our society from such a horrific mind-set," Mr Murekeraho said. Mr Narcisse Musabeyezu, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Education, said that genocide ideology in schools was a litmus test to the elite who are expected to uphold the future socio-economic revolution of this country.
Under their national umbrella body, Rwanda Federation for Directors of Secondary Schools, school directors have come out to boost joint efforts to fight genocide ideologies.
The federation's vice chairman, Mr Peter Claver Kabanda, has suggested the establishment of "Never Again, Unity and Reconciliation" clubs in all schools.
Vice Speaker of Parliament Mr Denis Polisi is quoted in the local press late last week saying that the major reason for calling for an extraordinary session is to discuss the report of the commission and draw measures to contain the genocide ideology in schools.
18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008
Kezio-Musoke David
Kigali
Rwanda's parliament has called for an extraordinary session. The session is distinctive in nature because it seeks to discuss the findings of an evil that is believed to have steered the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
This evil, referred to as "genocide ideology", according to the findings, is slowly creeping back into the society. And this time through a cross-section of Rwanda's secondary schools.
It all started late last year when a report presented to parliament by a team of MPs investigating the existence of "genocide ideology" since August 2007 revealed an alarming rate of cases of its existence in several secondary schools around the country.
"Genocide ideology" is a term used to describe the notion genocide perpetrators used to instill a hate campaign that creates divisions among two distinctive groups, usually ethnic groups.
These ideologies cause differences based on individual characteristic features, religion, race and tribal sentiments. But, ideologies are usually baseless and are used by leaders to incite hate against one another in order to yield power and control of resources. Adolf Hitler used the same principle of "genocide ideology" against Jews, describing them as parasites, bacteria and viruses.
Hitler's Nazi ideology revolved around the fantasy of Germany as a living organism containing virulent Jewish micro-organisms. Genocide on Jews was undertaken as a form of immunology, a struggle to kill pathogenic cells in order to save the organism.
In colonial Rwanda, the Belgians who served partially as colonialists identified each Rwandan with identification card as Hutu or Tutsi and this kind of division is believed to have bred all sorts of genocide ideologies.
The repeated references to "Hutu" and "Tutsi" labelling is feared to have continued to promote animosity among a section of some Rwandans, something that has prompted ethnographers to stop recognising the two as distinct ethnic groups.
They speak the same language, practise the same religions and share the same cultures.
The report presented to a parliamentary plenary session in December last year showed that there was evidence that some Rwandan schools were encouraging a platform to promote "genocide ideology".
Different uniforms
According to the New Times, a daily English newspaper, authorities in a school called Association pour la Culture, l'Education et le Development Integre de Mataba in Gakenke District, were found to have introduced and encouraged different uniforms for genocide survivors.
The MPs are now querying that motive. The MPs' inquiry came up with a list of 11 schools, where students rebuked each other depending on which ethnic group they came from.
Some students are reported to have developed a habit of writing to each other anonymous genocide-fuelling letters. One of the letters presented as evidence said, " ni inzoka, baraturambiye kandi tuzabica", which is literally translated to mean " they are snakes. We are fed up with them and we will kill them".
The report says that at the Institute Prespyterien de Kirinda, Karongi District in Rwanda's Western Province, there were hostile actions against a genocide survivor.
A cross-section of some students were found torching their colleague's clothing. Led by MP Donatilla Mukabalisa, the investigating team told their colleagues that in one particular school they found writings similar to the infamous ten "Hutu Commandments", which were once published in the former extremist Kangura newspaper, inciting violence against their victims, in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The killings were sparked off by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash in April 1994 and ended when rebels led by Paul Kagame, the current president seized power mid 1994.
Rwanda's parliamentarians have gone ahead to demand an immediate enactment of the law to punish those who harbour these kind of genocidal sentiments.
One MP, Juvénal Nkusi, said the law will not only protect genocide survivors in schools but also cure the country of an ideology that dragged Rwanda into the massacre of more than a million Rwandans in 1994. The report quoted the alarming rate of "genocide ideology" in two Northern Province schools, at 97 per cent.
This is something that prompted parliament to probe two Cabinet members, Dr Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, the Minister of Education, and her junior Joseph Murekeraho to explain their progress in containing the problem. The duo's explanations didn't really convince the law makers, labelling them careless. Dr Mujawamariya said the fact that there is prevalent genocide ideology in some schools does not mean that she, as the custodian of the education system in the country, is a subversive politician.
"We are not behind it and let me say that we are devising tough measures to stamp out the problem," Dr Mujawamariya told enraged MPs.
Parliament thereafter set up a six-man commission to help Dr Mujawamariya to further scrutinise the probe report.
In one case, Ms Alphonsine Musabyayezu the headmistress of Gakiarage Primary School in Nyagatare, Eastern Province was suspended by authorities and parents over "genocide ideology".
It is alleged that the headmistress dismissed and transferred teachers in the school basing on ideological leaning.
Ms Musabyayezu is also reported to have suspended the English section at the school, without any consultation with district leaders, a clear manifestation of her ill motives. Though Rwanda, a former French colony, is predominantly Francophone, her joining the East African Community and her application to join the Commonwealth has seen the English language being introduced as a compulsory part of the curriculum in recent years.
Launching a new drive to fight genocide ideology, State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary of Education, Mr Joseph Murekeraho, addressed 600 head teachers at Lycee de Kigali and told them that school disciplinary committees will be introduced with powers to inspect and review students' behaviour on a daily basis. "It's shameful to hear of 'genocide ideology' in the education sector, which is expected to transform our society from such a horrific mind-set," Mr Murekeraho said. Mr Narcisse Musabeyezu, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Education, said that genocide ideology in schools was a litmus test to the elite who are expected to uphold the future socio-economic revolution of this country.
Under their national umbrella body, Rwanda Federation for Directors of Secondary Schools, school directors have come out to boost joint efforts to fight genocide ideologies.
The federation's vice chairman, Mr Peter Claver Kabanda, has suggested the establishment of "Never Again, Unity and Reconciliation" clubs in all schools.
Vice Speaker of Parliament Mr Denis Polisi is quoted in the local press late last week saying that the major reason for calling for an extraordinary session is to discuss the report of the commission and draw measures to contain the genocide ideology in schools.
donderdag 17 januari 2008
Trial of Catholic Priest Resumes Before UN Court
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
14 January 2008
Posted to the web 15 January 2008
Arusha
The trial of Abbot Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Catholic priest accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, resumed Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), reports Hirondelle News Agency.
It is the first trial to resume after the end of year festive holidays.
During 1994 genocide, the priest, who has pleaded not guilty, was vice-chancellor of the College of Christ the King of Nyanza, southern Rwanda, one of the most prestigious schools of the country.
The prosecution Monday called a witness who worked at the College of Christ the King and claimed that the accused had ordered death of a Tutsi identified as Kayombya, who lived in the vicinity of the College.
Presenting himself as "an old man who can neither read nor write", the witness alleged that the victim was never seen again.
"I never saw him again (...) I concluded that they killed him", he told the court, without elaborating further.
Nsengimana was arrested in March 2002 in Yaounde, Cameroon, and was transferred to the ICTR detention facility in April, the same year.
The accused is among other three Rwandan Catholic priests indicted before the UN court over their roles in the 1994 killings.
14 January 2008
Posted to the web 15 January 2008
Arusha
The trial of Abbot Hormisdas Nsengimana, a Catholic priest accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, resumed Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), reports Hirondelle News Agency.
It is the first trial to resume after the end of year festive holidays.
During 1994 genocide, the priest, who has pleaded not guilty, was vice-chancellor of the College of Christ the King of Nyanza, southern Rwanda, one of the most prestigious schools of the country.
The prosecution Monday called a witness who worked at the College of Christ the King and claimed that the accused had ordered death of a Tutsi identified as Kayombya, who lived in the vicinity of the College.
Presenting himself as "an old man who can neither read nor write", the witness alleged that the victim was never seen again.
"I never saw him again (...) I concluded that they killed him", he told the court, without elaborating further.
Nsengimana was arrested in March 2002 in Yaounde, Cameroon, and was transferred to the ICTR detention facility in April, the same year.
The accused is among other three Rwandan Catholic priests indicted before the UN court over their roles in the 1994 killings.
Armenians Protest Genocide Revisionism in Brussels
Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008
Kigali
The Armenian community in Belgium says it is outraged at the aggression of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda by a top government official who has not even been punished, RNA reports.
A Belgium daily Le Soir (Read: 'Haine raciste à la Région bruxelloise', Jan. 12-13, 2008), reported that the Director of External Trade in the Brussels Regional government had used hate language against Mr. André an employee of the same local office.
The unnamed Brussels official according to witnesses said: "Should it be the person with a taller size and light colour, I will kill him (.). If it is him.the Rwandan Genocide is not over yet!".
However, instead of expressing remorse and apologizing for the hate language, the official has refused and actually denied he did anything like that despite testimony affirming the action, the Committee of Armenians in Belgium said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Armenian community says the reaction of the regional government is also 'shocking' because instead of punishing the official, he was to be given a 3-month paid leave. The Armenians have described this as 'gratifying the guilty'.
Meanwhile, the affected employee of Rwandan origin Mr. André, who has worked with the Brussels government since 1996, has since refused to go back to work until the courts put an end to the situation.
According to different versions of history, millions of Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) at different times with the climax in 1909, but Turkey has been dismissive of any responsibility.
The Armenian Genocide as they themselves now refer to it is also covering the walls of the Kigali Memorial Center - that houses remains of thousands of victims of the Rwandan Genocide.
As indication that Turkey does not accept any responsibility for the Armenian massacres, it blocked a photo exhibition depicting the Rwandan Genocide at the UN Headquarters in New York last year.
The Armenians in Belgium are also bitter that the line-Secretary of State Ms. Brigitte Grouwels - who they have called 'negationist Secretary of State' - because as they say, she has simply 'closed her eyes'. They also blame her for not doing anything even when an Armenian businessman was abused on October 21 last year.
Ms. Grouwels has even sided with the (Genocide) negationists, notably by participating as a speaker at a scandalous conference held December 15 2006 at ULB (Belgian university), the Armenian community says.
This conference was organized by exiled Rwandans - most of whom are defiant critics of the establishment in Kigali. Such occasions are often used to distort facts about the Genocide the left over a million lives massacred.
16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008
Kigali
The Armenian community in Belgium says it is outraged at the aggression of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda by a top government official who has not even been punished, RNA reports.
A Belgium daily Le Soir (Read: 'Haine raciste à la Région bruxelloise', Jan. 12-13, 2008), reported that the Director of External Trade in the Brussels Regional government had used hate language against Mr. André an employee of the same local office.
The unnamed Brussels official according to witnesses said: "Should it be the person with a taller size and light colour, I will kill him (.). If it is him.the Rwandan Genocide is not over yet!".
However, instead of expressing remorse and apologizing for the hate language, the official has refused and actually denied he did anything like that despite testimony affirming the action, the Committee of Armenians in Belgium said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Armenian community says the reaction of the regional government is also 'shocking' because instead of punishing the official, he was to be given a 3-month paid leave. The Armenians have described this as 'gratifying the guilty'.
Meanwhile, the affected employee of Rwandan origin Mr. André, who has worked with the Brussels government since 1996, has since refused to go back to work until the courts put an end to the situation.
According to different versions of history, millions of Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) at different times with the climax in 1909, but Turkey has been dismissive of any responsibility.
The Armenian Genocide as they themselves now refer to it is also covering the walls of the Kigali Memorial Center - that houses remains of thousands of victims of the Rwandan Genocide.
As indication that Turkey does not accept any responsibility for the Armenian massacres, it blocked a photo exhibition depicting the Rwandan Genocide at the UN Headquarters in New York last year.
The Armenians in Belgium are also bitter that the line-Secretary of State Ms. Brigitte Grouwels - who they have called 'negationist Secretary of State' - because as they say, she has simply 'closed her eyes'. They also blame her for not doing anything even when an Armenian businessman was abused on October 21 last year.
Ms. Grouwels has even sided with the (Genocide) negationists, notably by participating as a speaker at a scandalous conference held December 15 2006 at ULB (Belgian university), the Armenian community says.
This conference was organized by exiled Rwandans - most of whom are defiant critics of the establishment in Kigali. Such occasions are often used to distort facts about the Genocide the left over a million lives massacred.
vrijdag 11 januari 2008
Interpol Mounts Crackdown
The New Times (Kigali)
11 January 2008
Posted to the web 11 January 2008
Felly Kimenyi
Kigali
Following Tuesday's arrest of ex-FAR Lt. Col. Marcel Bivugabagabo in France, the Interpol has vowed to spare no effort in apprehending Rwanda Genocide fugitives.
Bivugabagabo was arrested in the southern town of Toulouse following joint efforts between the Interpol secretariat and the Rwandan and French judicial authorities.
"The close co-operation between Interpol, Rwandan judicial authorities and French police should send a signal to fugitives of our commitment we will spare no effort in finding and bringing them to justice," Interpol Secretary General, Roland Noble, said in a statement released yesterday.
The cooperation between Rwanda and Interpol regarding the arrest of fugitives stems from a meeting that was held between both sides in Kigali in October last year.
It was during that meeting that modalities of cooperation in relation to the location and apprehension of Genocide suspects still at large around the world were drawn.
Bivugabagabo, who is accused of six counts related genocide, was a director of operations in the former prefectures of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi during the Genocide.
He allegedly supervised the killing of thousands of people at the former Ruhengeri Court of Appeal (now Musanze High Court) and at the Nyakinama university campus.According to the spokesman of the prosecution, John Bosco Mutangana, Interpol has of recent been actively involved in the tracking and arresting of fugitives both on the request of the Rwandan government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, (ICTR).
"There is commitment on behalf of Interpol following our meeting and it has started bearing fruits; we expect more to be arrested because there are many still at large," Mutangana said yesterday.
He said that many indicted suspects are still moving freely on French territory and in other European countries.
Regarding the extradition of Bivugabagabo, Mutangana said that they will have to wait for what transpires next.
"Despite the fact that we are considering extradition as a first priority, there is no precedence because we have not heard from the French we will have to wait," he said.
Just like in the case of Isaac Kamali, another Genocide suspect currently in French custody, Rwanda has sent extradition request for Bivugabagabo to face justice in Rwanda.
Extradition is handled at diplomatic level, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Charles Murigande, said that there is still a long way to go to secure the extraditions.
"We currently have no diplomatic relations with France so there is no way for us to negotiate the extraditions," Murigande said yesterday.
He added that the process that is now underway is trying to normalise the diplomatic impasse between the two countries.
"There is some progress in this regard (restoration of diplomatic relations) but you need to be patient in that regard (extradition)," he added. Rwanda severed diplomatic ties with France after a French judge Jean Louis Bruguiere issued indictments against several Rwandan senior officers for their alleged role in the murder of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana.
A total of five Rwandans are currently under French custody but only Bivugabagabo and Kamali can be extradited.
The other three, Fr Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, Laurent Bucyibaruta and Dominique Ntawukuriryayo were arrested on the warrants of the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda, (ICTR).
11 January 2008
Posted to the web 11 January 2008
Felly Kimenyi
Kigali
Following Tuesday's arrest of ex-FAR Lt. Col. Marcel Bivugabagabo in France, the Interpol has vowed to spare no effort in apprehending Rwanda Genocide fugitives.
Bivugabagabo was arrested in the southern town of Toulouse following joint efforts between the Interpol secretariat and the Rwandan and French judicial authorities.
"The close co-operation between Interpol, Rwandan judicial authorities and French police should send a signal to fugitives of our commitment we will spare no effort in finding and bringing them to justice," Interpol Secretary General, Roland Noble, said in a statement released yesterday.
The cooperation between Rwanda and Interpol regarding the arrest of fugitives stems from a meeting that was held between both sides in Kigali in October last year.
It was during that meeting that modalities of cooperation in relation to the location and apprehension of Genocide suspects still at large around the world were drawn.
Bivugabagabo, who is accused of six counts related genocide, was a director of operations in the former prefectures of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi during the Genocide.
He allegedly supervised the killing of thousands of people at the former Ruhengeri Court of Appeal (now Musanze High Court) and at the Nyakinama university campus.According to the spokesman of the prosecution, John Bosco Mutangana, Interpol has of recent been actively involved in the tracking and arresting of fugitives both on the request of the Rwandan government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, (ICTR).
"There is commitment on behalf of Interpol following our meeting and it has started bearing fruits; we expect more to be arrested because there are many still at large," Mutangana said yesterday.
He said that many indicted suspects are still moving freely on French territory and in other European countries.
Regarding the extradition of Bivugabagabo, Mutangana said that they will have to wait for what transpires next.
"Despite the fact that we are considering extradition as a first priority, there is no precedence because we have not heard from the French we will have to wait," he said.
Just like in the case of Isaac Kamali, another Genocide suspect currently in French custody, Rwanda has sent extradition request for Bivugabagabo to face justice in Rwanda.
Extradition is handled at diplomatic level, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Charles Murigande, said that there is still a long way to go to secure the extraditions.
"We currently have no diplomatic relations with France so there is no way for us to negotiate the extraditions," Murigande said yesterday.
He added that the process that is now underway is trying to normalise the diplomatic impasse between the two countries.
"There is some progress in this regard (restoration of diplomatic relations) but you need to be patient in that regard (extradition)," he added. Rwanda severed diplomatic ties with France after a French judge Jean Louis Bruguiere issued indictments against several Rwandan senior officers for their alleged role in the murder of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana.
A total of five Rwandans are currently under French custody but only Bivugabagabo and Kamali can be extradited.
The other three, Fr Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, Laurent Bucyibaruta and Dominique Ntawukuriryayo were arrested on the warrants of the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda, (ICTR).
Orphans, widows commit to work together
BY EDWARD K. MWESIGYE
EASTERN PROVINCE
Jan 11,2007
RWAMAGANA — Orphans and widows from Rwamagana district have vowed to work together to eliminate poverty in their midst.
They made the commitment on Wednesday, at the end of training in government poverty reduction programs; including economic revolution, project formulation and management of small scale enterprises.
"This training has helped me to understand that working together rather than on individual basis can lead us to development," a representative of youth Genocide survivors said.
She noted that in addition to working hard she had learnt the importance of unity and reconciliation in development of youth and the nation.
Francoise Ihirwe, the president of Twizamure-an association of community residents told the group to be inspired by their association [Twizamure] which reportedly started in a simple manner; engaging in garbage collection to setting up many small scale enterprises like a garbage recycling plant.
She urged the group not to despise jobs.
Earlier, while officially opening the training, Alphonsine Murekatete, Vice Mayor in charge of social affairs, asked the participants to practice the acquired skills and disseminate the knowledge to other people for poverty reduction.
The training held at AVEGA centre, was sponsored by the National Electoral commission and it attracted representatives of orphans, widows, and persons in charge of social affairs at sector and district levels.
EASTERN PROVINCE
Jan 11,2007
RWAMAGANA — Orphans and widows from Rwamagana district have vowed to work together to eliminate poverty in their midst.
They made the commitment on Wednesday, at the end of training in government poverty reduction programs; including economic revolution, project formulation and management of small scale enterprises.
"This training has helped me to understand that working together rather than on individual basis can lead us to development," a representative of youth Genocide survivors said.
She noted that in addition to working hard she had learnt the importance of unity and reconciliation in development of youth and the nation.
Francoise Ihirwe, the president of Twizamure-an association of community residents told the group to be inspired by their association [Twizamure] which reportedly started in a simple manner; engaging in garbage collection to setting up many small scale enterprises like a garbage recycling plant.
She urged the group not to despise jobs.
Earlier, while officially opening the training, Alphonsine Murekatete, Vice Mayor in charge of social affairs, asked the participants to practice the acquired skills and disseminate the knowledge to other people for poverty reduction.
The training held at AVEGA centre, was sponsored by the National Electoral commission and it attracted representatives of orphans, widows, and persons in charge of social affairs at sector and district levels.
dinsdag 8 januari 2008
Gacaca Courts - Are We At the Beginning of the End?
The New Times (Kigali)
OPINION
7 January 2008
Posted to the web 7 January 2008
Stephen Rwembeho
Kigali
As Gacaca courts prepare to close down their proceedings there is great need to analyse the wrongs and rights, the successes and failures.
At the same time, is the time ripe enough to call it quits for Gacaca courts? We certainly need to know that the complexity of Genocide in Rwanda demands it to be handled with a lot of care, and this therefore calls for a revision of deadlines.
From the beginning the courts received great criticism from the international community and some individuals went to the extent of calling it gambling with justice, etc.
Nonetheless, the very international community has been trying to borrow the idea so as to try it in other similar circumstances - an indication that their earlier position has since been revised.
Gacaca courts are home made and are based on typical Rwandan culture, which is why they do not really need trained lawyers. The trained lawyers do not base on the "real norms" of the Rwandan society. They are guided by what the book of laws says. The success of the ill-trained or not trained Gacaca lawyers cannot therefore be overemphasized.
They are the sons and daughters of this particular community in which the crimes occurred and therefore know who is who, not only in the context of crime but also in the context after the crime.
It has therefore been so easy for the Gacaca lawyers to locate and punish génocidaires accordingly. The problems the courts are facing are actually the ones they are fighting. The only people opposing the courts are those who still have the ideology of hatred and therefore do not want to see the Rwandan society heal.
The other great problem has been the work of prisons. Prisoners who have been in jail on suspicion of crimes of Genocide do not seem to come out changed. This is evidenced by their genocide behaviour that is only reminiscent of the one they had before entering prisons. They pose great difficulties to the courts as they hide the truth and do not show any signs of remorse. So a question emerges: Are prisons rehabilitative institutions, hiding places, places that can be used for more politicking or just punitive and isolated areas for criminals?
Lack of constructive activity, proper education and training programmes, result in prisoners returning to the community without being properly rehabilitated. Prison is a punishment but it must also be a route to change criminal behaviour and encourage people to return to a law-abiding life. That is why we witness hundreds of thousands of prisoners being released, only to commit again the very crimes that led them to prison.
On the contrary most prisons are rarely rehabilitative places. Crime victims derive no benefit from this misery. We offer convicts no opportunities to learn compassion or take responsibility for what they have done, or make restitution or offer atonement to their victims in any practical ways.
he truth is, most prison inmates are confused, disorganised, and often pathetic individuals who would love to turn their lives around if given a realistic chance. Unfortunately, many non-violent offenders will no longer be non-violent by the time they leave prison. Prisons are not scaring offenders away from crime; they are incapacitating them so they are hardly fit for anything else.
It's inconceivable that we routinely dump non-violent offenders into prison cells with violent ones, even in local jails and holding tanks. We mix Genocides with minor criminals who have gone off the law because of reasons that are in most cases not their own making. What are we thinking? Violent prisoners should not be mixed with other prisoners if we have in our mind the question of changing prisoners for the better. For, if you do not separate them, non-violent offenders will turn violent too with time.
We need to offer conflict-resolution training such as the "Alternatives to Violence" programmes currently being conducted by and for convicts around the country. Such training should be required for all prisoners and staff. Prisoners should be taught not through isolation or corporal punishment but through positive psyche setting lessons. Not all prisoners are beyond "repair". Not all prisoners in Rwanda are in prison because of genocide ideology which is why they are supposed to be separated. Changing an ideology is more difficult than changing a behaviour or simple attitude. The vast majority of inmates just want to do their time, improve them in some way, and get out alive and changed. This should be the objective of everybody if we are to make prisons more meaningful and not only primitive punitive institutions.
The whole idea is that prisons activities should be reflective of the whole idea of Gacaca system.The traditional system of Gacaca that existed from the pre-colonial times into the 1990s, was used alongside the formal judicial system at the local level, especially in settling family disputes and minor offences between neighbours. It's intended primarily to restore social order; traditional Gacaca meted out punishments with the intention of restoring harmony between the community and those responsible for discord. Now resurrected to deal with crimes more serious than those for which it was originally intended, Gacaca courts can only maximize this if prisons aim at restoring its inmates' hope.
Gacaca encompasses three important features of relevance to broader experiments of reconciliatory justice. First, Gacaca rewards those who confess their crimes with the halving of prison sentences. Second, Gacaca law highlights apologies. Part of the procedure of the traditional Gacaca system, apology has been maintained in the new variant as an important ingredient to promote reconciliation. Third, reparations to victims are a cornerstone of Gacaca.
International and domestic, retributive and restorative structures are being deployed to address the atrocities of the Genocide.
The problem has always been whether we will know that Gacaca leads to individual and/or national reconciliation? Concurrent retributive and restorative justice mechanisms provide fruitful material with which to examine the fundamental question of whether restorative justice is merely "second-best."
Assessing this has been a great problem because Genocide convicts have been mixed with other minor offenders and this has rendered the question of punishment troublesome. Not all prisoners do not necessarily need retributive punishment, but agree or not, genocide convicts should be subjected, to some extent, to this form of justice.
Nonetheless, Gacaca is wrongly portrayed by some foreign scholars as a Tutsi thing aimed at collectively punishing the Hutus. These are people who make completely wrong conclusions based on data that is not representative of the Rwandan population at all. Researches therefore, of this nature are not reliable; they are invalid and actually violate important research ethics. Unfortunately when it falls into the ears of those who cannot think critically or those who would like to use it for their own ends, problems arise.
he human psyche intriguing is more complex than the metamorphosing cocoon, and more phenomenal than the human brain could ever imagine.
Human psyche is one of life's most bizarre and unparalleled traits within the physical being. It enables our extrasensory perception, encourages drive and motivation, feeds our emotional balance and at times, permits us to undertake feats that our conscious being would never allow.
The human psyche is nevertheless a frail thing that can be easily shaped into different figures and therefore the mind of hatred can be changed. The way it is shaped therefore determines what you become in future. This again negates mixing high level criminals with other low level criminals.
onvictism in Australia occurred during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when large numbers of convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government. One of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony to alleviate pressure on their overburdened correctional facilities. The last convicts to be transported to Australia arrived in Western Australia in 1868.
Sending prisoners to far-off Australia would also make transportation a much harsher punishment. Most slum dwellers in their life never traveled more than 30 miles from where they were born. Sending them to what was then considered the remotest place on Earth, with little likelihood of return, would be a horrific punishment. The government hoped this punishment would strike terror in the hearts of would-be criminals.
Even so, the convicts were not considered slaves or "property." They possessed rights under British law. For example, neither the government nor private masters could physically punish a convict without first getting the approval of a judge at a hearing. But approval was routine.
For Rwanda's case we should think of a deep island where we can send Genocide criminals so that they are isolated from others. This will not only save us from congested prisons but also stop the negative shaping of the mind of minor criminals.
But all these notwithstanding, are we ready to close the doors of Gacaca courts? I would say NO! There is still some unfinished work that still demands the input of Gacaca. There should be no hurry when restorative justice is on its way. It should be remembered that Genocide took years to be planned and reversing its trend needs more years. The end will justify the means.
OPINION
7 January 2008
Posted to the web 7 January 2008
Stephen Rwembeho
Kigali
As Gacaca courts prepare to close down their proceedings there is great need to analyse the wrongs and rights, the successes and failures.
At the same time, is the time ripe enough to call it quits for Gacaca courts? We certainly need to know that the complexity of Genocide in Rwanda demands it to be handled with a lot of care, and this therefore calls for a revision of deadlines.
From the beginning the courts received great criticism from the international community and some individuals went to the extent of calling it gambling with justice, etc.
Nonetheless, the very international community has been trying to borrow the idea so as to try it in other similar circumstances - an indication that their earlier position has since been revised.
Gacaca courts are home made and are based on typical Rwandan culture, which is why they do not really need trained lawyers. The trained lawyers do not base on the "real norms" of the Rwandan society. They are guided by what the book of laws says. The success of the ill-trained or not trained Gacaca lawyers cannot therefore be overemphasized.
They are the sons and daughters of this particular community in which the crimes occurred and therefore know who is who, not only in the context of crime but also in the context after the crime.
It has therefore been so easy for the Gacaca lawyers to locate and punish génocidaires accordingly. The problems the courts are facing are actually the ones they are fighting. The only people opposing the courts are those who still have the ideology of hatred and therefore do not want to see the Rwandan society heal.
The other great problem has been the work of prisons. Prisoners who have been in jail on suspicion of crimes of Genocide do not seem to come out changed. This is evidenced by their genocide behaviour that is only reminiscent of the one they had before entering prisons. They pose great difficulties to the courts as they hide the truth and do not show any signs of remorse. So a question emerges: Are prisons rehabilitative institutions, hiding places, places that can be used for more politicking or just punitive and isolated areas for criminals?
Lack of constructive activity, proper education and training programmes, result in prisoners returning to the community without being properly rehabilitated. Prison is a punishment but it must also be a route to change criminal behaviour and encourage people to return to a law-abiding life. That is why we witness hundreds of thousands of prisoners being released, only to commit again the very crimes that led them to prison.
On the contrary most prisons are rarely rehabilitative places. Crime victims derive no benefit from this misery. We offer convicts no opportunities to learn compassion or take responsibility for what they have done, or make restitution or offer atonement to their victims in any practical ways.
he truth is, most prison inmates are confused, disorganised, and often pathetic individuals who would love to turn their lives around if given a realistic chance. Unfortunately, many non-violent offenders will no longer be non-violent by the time they leave prison. Prisons are not scaring offenders away from crime; they are incapacitating them so they are hardly fit for anything else.
It's inconceivable that we routinely dump non-violent offenders into prison cells with violent ones, even in local jails and holding tanks. We mix Genocides with minor criminals who have gone off the law because of reasons that are in most cases not their own making. What are we thinking? Violent prisoners should not be mixed with other prisoners if we have in our mind the question of changing prisoners for the better. For, if you do not separate them, non-violent offenders will turn violent too with time.
We need to offer conflict-resolution training such as the "Alternatives to Violence" programmes currently being conducted by and for convicts around the country. Such training should be required for all prisoners and staff. Prisoners should be taught not through isolation or corporal punishment but through positive psyche setting lessons. Not all prisoners are beyond "repair". Not all prisoners in Rwanda are in prison because of genocide ideology which is why they are supposed to be separated. Changing an ideology is more difficult than changing a behaviour or simple attitude. The vast majority of inmates just want to do their time, improve them in some way, and get out alive and changed. This should be the objective of everybody if we are to make prisons more meaningful and not only primitive punitive institutions.
The whole idea is that prisons activities should be reflective of the whole idea of Gacaca system.The traditional system of Gacaca that existed from the pre-colonial times into the 1990s, was used alongside the formal judicial system at the local level, especially in settling family disputes and minor offences between neighbours. It's intended primarily to restore social order; traditional Gacaca meted out punishments with the intention of restoring harmony between the community and those responsible for discord. Now resurrected to deal with crimes more serious than those for which it was originally intended, Gacaca courts can only maximize this if prisons aim at restoring its inmates' hope.
Gacaca encompasses three important features of relevance to broader experiments of reconciliatory justice. First, Gacaca rewards those who confess their crimes with the halving of prison sentences. Second, Gacaca law highlights apologies. Part of the procedure of the traditional Gacaca system, apology has been maintained in the new variant as an important ingredient to promote reconciliation. Third, reparations to victims are a cornerstone of Gacaca.
International and domestic, retributive and restorative structures are being deployed to address the atrocities of the Genocide.
The problem has always been whether we will know that Gacaca leads to individual and/or national reconciliation? Concurrent retributive and restorative justice mechanisms provide fruitful material with which to examine the fundamental question of whether restorative justice is merely "second-best."
Assessing this has been a great problem because Genocide convicts have been mixed with other minor offenders and this has rendered the question of punishment troublesome. Not all prisoners do not necessarily need retributive punishment, but agree or not, genocide convicts should be subjected, to some extent, to this form of justice.
Nonetheless, Gacaca is wrongly portrayed by some foreign scholars as a Tutsi thing aimed at collectively punishing the Hutus. These are people who make completely wrong conclusions based on data that is not representative of the Rwandan population at all. Researches therefore, of this nature are not reliable; they are invalid and actually violate important research ethics. Unfortunately when it falls into the ears of those who cannot think critically or those who would like to use it for their own ends, problems arise.
he human psyche intriguing is more complex than the metamorphosing cocoon, and more phenomenal than the human brain could ever imagine.
Human psyche is one of life's most bizarre and unparalleled traits within the physical being. It enables our extrasensory perception, encourages drive and motivation, feeds our emotional balance and at times, permits us to undertake feats that our conscious being would never allow.
The human psyche is nevertheless a frail thing that can be easily shaped into different figures and therefore the mind of hatred can be changed. The way it is shaped therefore determines what you become in future. This again negates mixing high level criminals with other low level criminals.
onvictism in Australia occurred during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when large numbers of convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government. One of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony to alleviate pressure on their overburdened correctional facilities. The last convicts to be transported to Australia arrived in Western Australia in 1868.
Sending prisoners to far-off Australia would also make transportation a much harsher punishment. Most slum dwellers in their life never traveled more than 30 miles from where they were born. Sending them to what was then considered the remotest place on Earth, with little likelihood of return, would be a horrific punishment. The government hoped this punishment would strike terror in the hearts of would-be criminals.
Even so, the convicts were not considered slaves or "property." They possessed rights under British law. For example, neither the government nor private masters could physically punish a convict without first getting the approval of a judge at a hearing. But approval was routine.
For Rwanda's case we should think of a deep island where we can send Genocide criminals so that they are isolated from others. This will not only save us from congested prisons but also stop the negative shaping of the mind of minor criminals.
But all these notwithstanding, are we ready to close the doors of Gacaca courts? I would say NO! There is still some unfinished work that still demands the input of Gacaca. There should be no hurry when restorative justice is on its way. It should be remembered that Genocide took years to be planned and reversing its trend needs more years. The end will justify the means.
An Eventful Life
The East African (Nairobi)
7 January 2008
Posted to the web 7 January 2008
Shyaka Kanuma
RWANDAN PRESIDENT, Paul Kagame, turned 50 last month. The event was celebrated at Jali club in the country's capital, Kigali.
Various personalities in Rwandan politics, business and industry, journalism and other professions attended the ceremony after being invited by the president's family.
Even though the nature of the audience gave the impression that it was a public event, the Kagames - the president, First Lady Jeannette and their four children - did not allow it to turn into that. TV Rwanda and Radio Rwanda did not air the event.
President Kagame has a notable aversion to using public resources to turn personal affairs into grandiose public events. Everything at the birthday party - all the food, drinks, entertainment and hiring of the marquee - were paid for from personal resources, according to sources close to the First Family.
Not many people whose life has taken twists and turns like the Rwandan president's live to mark 50. When Kagame was a toddler in 1959, marauding Hutu militants almost killed him, his parents and siblings.
That year was when modern Rwanda's violent history began. It was the time of the "Hutu Revolution," a spate of bloody upheavals that were much less a political revolution than a violent transfer of political power from Tutsis to Hutus instigated by the Belgian colonialists.
What saved the young Kagame and the other members of his family is that one of his aunts was Queen Gicanda, wife of King Mutara Rudahigwa. She sent a car that evacuated her beleaguered relatives in the nick of time, the pursuing Hutus just a few metres behind.
Long after the late Deogratius Rutagambwa, President Kagame's father, had taken his family to exile in neighbouring Uganda (a situation that befell hundreds of thousands of other Tutsis), the young Kagame, who was always restless, kept asking about Rwanda, wondering when they would return home.
As a teenager in the early to mid 1970s, Kagame the future revolutionary would, according to his own account, cross over into Rwanda dressed in a shirt, shorts and rubber shoes and go all the way to Kigali without arousing suspicion. This was a daring move since in those days being a Tutsi was enough reason for one to be hauled into a police station for questioning.
The people Kagame visited in Kigali were relatives who had remained in Rwanda. Once in Kigali, the young Kagame, still clad in his schoolboy outfit, would hang around public places such as bars, drink a soda, and listen in to conversations around him while making mental notes and learning.
During the day, the boy would walk along the street across former president Juvenal Habyarimana's State House.
After he did this a couple of times, one of the presidential guards noticed him and called out to him to come over.
"I ran away very fast!" Kagame says.
Was what he learnt during those forays in Kigali useful in his future role as leader of the Rwandese Patriotic Front guerrilla movement? No doubt it was.
It takes an unusually courageous, resourceful and intelligent man to lead movements to dislodge entrenched oppressive systems. President Kagame proved from an early age to be that kind of person. But these personality traits were understated because he was not a charismatic public figure like his close friend Fred Rwigema, the RPF's first leader, with whom he shared many adverse moments in life and who was to lose his life in 1990 on the first day of the war to dislodge the Habyarimana regime.
The abilities of Kagame, who began his military career in Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army, were to come fully to the fore when he took over the RPF, reorganised it and led it to a bloody victory against Habyarimana's army and stopped the 1994 genocide.
In the aftermath of the war and the genocide, Rwanda was a corpse-filled shell of a country and few doubted it would be anything more than a Somalia-style basket case. But President Kagame has proved his leadership abilities extend well beyond the war front. His government has transformed Rwanda into a place of optimism.
The president's birthday party therefore was something more than that: it was a celebration of a life dedicated to serving one's people.
7 January 2008
Posted to the web 7 January 2008
Shyaka Kanuma
RWANDAN PRESIDENT, Paul Kagame, turned 50 last month. The event was celebrated at Jali club in the country's capital, Kigali.
Various personalities in Rwandan politics, business and industry, journalism and other professions attended the ceremony after being invited by the president's family.
Even though the nature of the audience gave the impression that it was a public event, the Kagames - the president, First Lady Jeannette and their four children - did not allow it to turn into that. TV Rwanda and Radio Rwanda did not air the event.
President Kagame has a notable aversion to using public resources to turn personal affairs into grandiose public events. Everything at the birthday party - all the food, drinks, entertainment and hiring of the marquee - were paid for from personal resources, according to sources close to the First Family.
Not many people whose life has taken twists and turns like the Rwandan president's live to mark 50. When Kagame was a toddler in 1959, marauding Hutu militants almost killed him, his parents and siblings.
That year was when modern Rwanda's violent history began. It was the time of the "Hutu Revolution," a spate of bloody upheavals that were much less a political revolution than a violent transfer of political power from Tutsis to Hutus instigated by the Belgian colonialists.
What saved the young Kagame and the other members of his family is that one of his aunts was Queen Gicanda, wife of King Mutara Rudahigwa. She sent a car that evacuated her beleaguered relatives in the nick of time, the pursuing Hutus just a few metres behind.
Long after the late Deogratius Rutagambwa, President Kagame's father, had taken his family to exile in neighbouring Uganda (a situation that befell hundreds of thousands of other Tutsis), the young Kagame, who was always restless, kept asking about Rwanda, wondering when they would return home.
As a teenager in the early to mid 1970s, Kagame the future revolutionary would, according to his own account, cross over into Rwanda dressed in a shirt, shorts and rubber shoes and go all the way to Kigali without arousing suspicion. This was a daring move since in those days being a Tutsi was enough reason for one to be hauled into a police station for questioning.
The people Kagame visited in Kigali were relatives who had remained in Rwanda. Once in Kigali, the young Kagame, still clad in his schoolboy outfit, would hang around public places such as bars, drink a soda, and listen in to conversations around him while making mental notes and learning.
During the day, the boy would walk along the street across former president Juvenal Habyarimana's State House.
After he did this a couple of times, one of the presidential guards noticed him and called out to him to come over.
"I ran away very fast!" Kagame says.
Was what he learnt during those forays in Kigali useful in his future role as leader of the Rwandese Patriotic Front guerrilla movement? No doubt it was.
It takes an unusually courageous, resourceful and intelligent man to lead movements to dislodge entrenched oppressive systems. President Kagame proved from an early age to be that kind of person. But these personality traits were understated because he was not a charismatic public figure like his close friend Fred Rwigema, the RPF's first leader, with whom he shared many adverse moments in life and who was to lose his life in 1990 on the first day of the war to dislodge the Habyarimana regime.
The abilities of Kagame, who began his military career in Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army, were to come fully to the fore when he took over the RPF, reorganised it and led it to a bloody victory against Habyarimana's army and stopped the 1994 genocide.
In the aftermath of the war and the genocide, Rwanda was a corpse-filled shell of a country and few doubted it would be anything more than a Somalia-style basket case. But President Kagame has proved his leadership abilities extend well beyond the war front. His government has transformed Rwanda into a place of optimism.
The president's birthday party therefore was something more than that: it was a celebration of a life dedicated to serving one's people.
FRANCE-AFRIQUE
Last year when the French presidential elections were on everyone's mind, the organisation SURVIE published the follwing statement
POUR UNE POLITIQUE DE LA FRANCE EN AFRIQUE RESPONSABLE ET TRANSPARENTE
Nous demandons aux partis politiques de s’engager :
• en faveur d’une politique de coopération avec l’Afrique respectant :
l’état de droit et les aspirations démocratiques,
les droits économiques, sociaux et culturels des peuples,
de la souveraineté économique, politique et militaire des États reconnus par leur population,
les dynamiques régionales et continentales afrcaines ;
• en faveur d’un contrôle parlementaire et citoyen de la politique française en Afrique afin qu’elle ne puisse plus être confisquée par une minorité d’acteurs politiques et économiques. Nous demandons que soit mise en place une commission parlementaire chargée de réaliser un bilan des politiques françaises en Afrique en auditionnant experts, responsables politiques, économiques et associatifs ;
• pour que la France défende plus activement les intérêts africains au sein des institutions internationales.
LE CONTEXTE
Plus de quarante ans après les indépendances, le bilan de la politique de la France en Afrique, tant au plan économique, politique que militaire, est contesté par ses bénéficiaires supposés. A part quelques expériences positives (notamment certaines réalisations dans le domaine de la coopération technique) et bien qu’ayant fait l’objet de réformes institutionnelles, cette politique n’ pas toujours servi les objectifs de développement, de soutien à la démocratie et à la paix, affichés parfois ostensiblement. Décidées dans l’opacité, sans contrôle parlementaire et citoyen, les interventions de l’Etat français en Afrique (financées par les contribuables) ont surtout servi les intérêts, parfois contradictoires, de minorités économiques ou politiques, en France comme en Afrique (les « réseaux de la Françafrique »). Du fait de son manque de cohérence et de transparence, il apparaît aujourd’hui nécessaire de refonder cette politique sur des bases plus conformes aux aspirations des populations africaines et des citoyens français.
LES ARGUMENTS
LA DIPLOMATIE FRANÇAISE A SOUVENT BLOQUÉ L’ÉMERGENCE DES SOCIÉTÉS CIVILES AFRICAINES en soutenant sans modération des régimes contestés par leurs peuples, favorisant de nombreuses situations de crises politiques et de guerres. Le soutien au régime génocidaire au Rwanda, la crise de succession au Togo ou la dérive du clan Déby au Tchad ont montré la situation d’impasse à laquelle mène une « diplomatie de la stabilité » qui ne fait qu’aggraver les facteurs de tensions. La France doit réellement conditionner son appui au respect de l’État de droit et encourager fortement les États mettant en place des systèmes de gouvernance démocratique et investissant dans des programmes sociaux (éducation, santé, eau, logement, transport). Elle doit mettre un terme à une diplomatie fondée sur des amitiés personnelles en instaurant des règles de protocole plus strictes et en révisant la nature et les fonctions des groupes d’amitié parlementaires. Elle doit également contribuer efficacement aux processus démocratiques en ne cautionnant plus des élections organisées sans contrôle efficace et en favorisant une supervision par l’ONU de tout processus électoral « à risque ».
LE DÉFICIT DE SOUVERAINETÉ EMPÊCHE LES RÉGIMES AFRICAINS LES PLUS VOLONTARISTES DE PRÉSIDER EFFICACEMENT AUX DESTINÉES DE LEUR NATION. Il est criant dans le domaine financier (poids de la dette) et monétaire, dans la zone CFA. Le lancement d’un plan de transfert progressif de souveraineté monétaire aux institutions régionales, chargées de se prononcer sur le maintien ou non de cette unité monétaire, devrait donc être envisagé. Au niveau économique, le respect de la souveraineté passe par un encadrement plus strict des interventions des multinationales françaises, notamment en matière d’extraction de matières premières, de délégations de services publics (eau, communications, transport). Cet encadrement doit être formalisé sur la base de règles de procédures et de transparence à valeur contraignante. Sur le plan de la souveraineté militaire, la suspension des interventions armées unilatérales de la France en Afrique sans mandat de l’ONU et la fermeture des bases militaires françaises, à l’exception de celles prévues dans le cadre du renforcement des capacités africaines de maintien de la paix (RECAMP), doivent être envisagées.
L’ENCHEVÊTREMENT DES LIEUX DE DÉCISIONS DE LA POLITIQUE FRANÇAISE EN AFRIQUE AVEC UNE PLACE CENTRALE DE L’ÉLYSÉE (qui en a fait son domaine réservé notamment à travers sa « cellule africaine »), montre l’extrême nécessité que la politique extérieure de la France soit aujourd’hui soumise aux règles élémentaires de démocratie. Cela doit commencer par un rôle accru et effectif du Parlement en matière de coopération économique et financière, mais aussi de coopération militaire.
LA POLITIQUE FRANÇAISE EN AFRIQUE S’INSCRIT AUJOURD’HUI DANS UN CONTEXTE D’INTERVENTIONS CROISSANTES D’ACTEURS MULTILATÉRAUX SUR LE CONTINENT. Grâce à son influence diplomatique au sein de l’ONU, de l’UE et son poids financier au sein des institutions financières internationales, la France est en mesure de défendre des politiques de coopération multilatérales plus efficaces en matière de lutte contre la pauvreté et moins soumises à l’orthodoxie néolibérale, ce qu’elle a très peu fait par le passé. Il s’agit également de permettre aux Etats africains d’acquérir plus de poids dans la défense de leurs intérêts. En matière diplomatique, domaine dans lequel l’influence de la France s’exerce le plus fortement, il est souhaitable de mettre un terme à la politique du « domaine réservé » que la diplomatie française tente d’imposer au sein de l’Union européenne ou de l’ONU dès lors qu’il s’agit de l’Afrique francophone, avec des objectifs souvent éloignés des revendications des peuples africains.
POUR UNE POLITIQUE DE LA FRANCE EN AFRIQUE RESPONSABLE ET TRANSPARENTE
Nous demandons aux partis politiques de s’engager :
• en faveur d’une politique de coopération avec l’Afrique respectant :
l’état de droit et les aspirations démocratiques,
les droits économiques, sociaux et culturels des peuples,
de la souveraineté économique, politique et militaire des États reconnus par leur population,
les dynamiques régionales et continentales afrcaines ;
• en faveur d’un contrôle parlementaire et citoyen de la politique française en Afrique afin qu’elle ne puisse plus être confisquée par une minorité d’acteurs politiques et économiques. Nous demandons que soit mise en place une commission parlementaire chargée de réaliser un bilan des politiques françaises en Afrique en auditionnant experts, responsables politiques, économiques et associatifs ;
• pour que la France défende plus activement les intérêts africains au sein des institutions internationales.
LE CONTEXTE
Plus de quarante ans après les indépendances, le bilan de la politique de la France en Afrique, tant au plan économique, politique que militaire, est contesté par ses bénéficiaires supposés. A part quelques expériences positives (notamment certaines réalisations dans le domaine de la coopération technique) et bien qu’ayant fait l’objet de réformes institutionnelles, cette politique n’ pas toujours servi les objectifs de développement, de soutien à la démocratie et à la paix, affichés parfois ostensiblement. Décidées dans l’opacité, sans contrôle parlementaire et citoyen, les interventions de l’Etat français en Afrique (financées par les contribuables) ont surtout servi les intérêts, parfois contradictoires, de minorités économiques ou politiques, en France comme en Afrique (les « réseaux de la Françafrique »). Du fait de son manque de cohérence et de transparence, il apparaît aujourd’hui nécessaire de refonder cette politique sur des bases plus conformes aux aspirations des populations africaines et des citoyens français.
LES ARGUMENTS
LA DIPLOMATIE FRANÇAISE A SOUVENT BLOQUÉ L’ÉMERGENCE DES SOCIÉTÉS CIVILES AFRICAINES en soutenant sans modération des régimes contestés par leurs peuples, favorisant de nombreuses situations de crises politiques et de guerres. Le soutien au régime génocidaire au Rwanda, la crise de succession au Togo ou la dérive du clan Déby au Tchad ont montré la situation d’impasse à laquelle mène une « diplomatie de la stabilité » qui ne fait qu’aggraver les facteurs de tensions. La France doit réellement conditionner son appui au respect de l’État de droit et encourager fortement les États mettant en place des systèmes de gouvernance démocratique et investissant dans des programmes sociaux (éducation, santé, eau, logement, transport). Elle doit mettre un terme à une diplomatie fondée sur des amitiés personnelles en instaurant des règles de protocole plus strictes et en révisant la nature et les fonctions des groupes d’amitié parlementaires. Elle doit également contribuer efficacement aux processus démocratiques en ne cautionnant plus des élections organisées sans contrôle efficace et en favorisant une supervision par l’ONU de tout processus électoral « à risque ».
LE DÉFICIT DE SOUVERAINETÉ EMPÊCHE LES RÉGIMES AFRICAINS LES PLUS VOLONTARISTES DE PRÉSIDER EFFICACEMENT AUX DESTINÉES DE LEUR NATION. Il est criant dans le domaine financier (poids de la dette) et monétaire, dans la zone CFA. Le lancement d’un plan de transfert progressif de souveraineté monétaire aux institutions régionales, chargées de se prononcer sur le maintien ou non de cette unité monétaire, devrait donc être envisagé. Au niveau économique, le respect de la souveraineté passe par un encadrement plus strict des interventions des multinationales françaises, notamment en matière d’extraction de matières premières, de délégations de services publics (eau, communications, transport). Cet encadrement doit être formalisé sur la base de règles de procédures et de transparence à valeur contraignante. Sur le plan de la souveraineté militaire, la suspension des interventions armées unilatérales de la France en Afrique sans mandat de l’ONU et la fermeture des bases militaires françaises, à l’exception de celles prévues dans le cadre du renforcement des capacités africaines de maintien de la paix (RECAMP), doivent être envisagées.
L’ENCHEVÊTREMENT DES LIEUX DE DÉCISIONS DE LA POLITIQUE FRANÇAISE EN AFRIQUE AVEC UNE PLACE CENTRALE DE L’ÉLYSÉE (qui en a fait son domaine réservé notamment à travers sa « cellule africaine »), montre l’extrême nécessité que la politique extérieure de la France soit aujourd’hui soumise aux règles élémentaires de démocratie. Cela doit commencer par un rôle accru et effectif du Parlement en matière de coopération économique et financière, mais aussi de coopération militaire.
LA POLITIQUE FRANÇAISE EN AFRIQUE S’INSCRIT AUJOURD’HUI DANS UN CONTEXTE D’INTERVENTIONS CROISSANTES D’ACTEURS MULTILATÉRAUX SUR LE CONTINENT. Grâce à son influence diplomatique au sein de l’ONU, de l’UE et son poids financier au sein des institutions financières internationales, la France est en mesure de défendre des politiques de coopération multilatérales plus efficaces en matière de lutte contre la pauvreté et moins soumises à l’orthodoxie néolibérale, ce qu’elle a très peu fait par le passé. Il s’agit également de permettre aux Etats africains d’acquérir plus de poids dans la défense de leurs intérêts. En matière diplomatique, domaine dans lequel l’influence de la France s’exerce le plus fortement, il est souhaitable de mettre un terme à la politique du « domaine réservé » que la diplomatie française tente d’imposer au sein de l’Union européenne ou de l’ONU dès lors qu’il s’agit de l’Afrique francophone, avec des objectifs souvent éloignés des revendications des peuples africains.
Françafrique in brief
(Text by François-Xavier VERSCHAVE, president of Survie from 1995 to 2005)
This brief summary is based on an article published in a special dossier of the review Mouvements ("Movements", May 2002), "De la Françafrique à la mafiafrique" ("From Françafrique to mafiafrique"). My main works on the subject are La Françafrique (Stock, 1999), Noir silence ("Black silence") and Noir Chirac ("Black Chirac") (les arènes, 2000 and 2002), and L’envers de la dette ("The other side of the debt", Agone, 2001).
At the beginning of 1994 I coined the term "Françafrique" to describe the tip of the iceberg that is Franco-African relations, and went on to develop this concept in approximately twenty books and special reports. Here, briefly, I shall explain what the term refers to : the secret criminality in the upper echelons of French politics and economy, where a kind of underground Republic is hidden from view.
In 1960, events forced De Gaulle to grant independence to the French colonies of black Africa. This newly-proclaimed international legality was the unsullied tip of the iceberg : France as the best friend of Africa, development and democracy. Meanwhile, Jacques Foccart, "the man in the shadows", was given the task of maintaining dependence, using inevitably illegal, secret and shameful methods. He selected heads of state who were "friends of France" - through war (more than 100 000 civilians massacred in Cameroon from 1956 on ; the Madagascan resistance was broken in 1947 by carnage of a similar magnitude), assassination or electoral fraud. To these guardians of the neo-colonial order, Paris offered a share of the income from raw materials and development aid. Military bases, the CFA franc which could be exchanged in Switzerland, the secret services and the outwardly-innocent businesses acting on their behalf (Elf and numerous supply or "security" companies) completed the system.
And so began forty years of pillage, support for dictatorships, dirty tricks and secret wars - from Biafra to the two Congos. Rwanda, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Togo and others will bear the scars for many years to come. Gorged, burnt-out dictators, up to their eyeballs in debt, could no longer promise development, and so they brandished their final weapon, the ethnic scapegoat : "If I prolong my power, by using my clan and playing on ethnic divisions, it’s only to stop your enemies from the other ethnic group replacing me. Let’s exclude them as a preventative measure." We know what happened next, in many countries : a headlong flight into political criminality to consolidate economic criminality.
"Françafrique", also means "France à fric" (1). Over the course of four decades, hundreds of thousands of euros misappropriated from debt, aid, oil, cocoa... or drained through French importing monopolies, have financed French political-business networks (all of them offshoots of the main neo-Gaullist network), shareholders’ dividends, the secret services’ major operations and mercenary expeditions.
Undermined in 1990 by the growth in democracy and "Sovereign national conferences", Françafrique very quickly came up with an arsenal of constitutional manipulation and ballot rigging which enabled it to transform the massive electoral rejection of dictatorships into approval. This double talk (French aid finances the elections ; French networks reverse the results) had a profoundly debilitating effect and resulted in the legitimisation of dictatorships in Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Guinea, Mauritania, Djibouti, the Comoros and the Congos...
With "Angolagate" and such people as Pierre Falcone or Arcadi Gaydamak, we are seeing the beginnings of globalised management of the flows of unofficial money come from the predation of raw materials, from debt fraud and from arms-sales commissions - under the "control" of the secret services. The financial layers generated in this way, sheltered in tax havens, are beginning to interconnect ; the networks and treasures of Françafrique are connecting to those of their American, British, Russian, Israeli, Brazilian, etc. counterparts. In short, we are witnessing Françafrique gradually joining a mafiafrique.
François-Xavier Verschave
(1) "Fric" means "cash".
This brief summary is based on an article published in a special dossier of the review Mouvements ("Movements", May 2002), "De la Françafrique à la mafiafrique" ("From Françafrique to mafiafrique"). My main works on the subject are La Françafrique (Stock, 1999), Noir silence ("Black silence") and Noir Chirac ("Black Chirac") (les arènes, 2000 and 2002), and L’envers de la dette ("The other side of the debt", Agone, 2001).
At the beginning of 1994 I coined the term "Françafrique" to describe the tip of the iceberg that is Franco-African relations, and went on to develop this concept in approximately twenty books and special reports. Here, briefly, I shall explain what the term refers to : the secret criminality in the upper echelons of French politics and economy, where a kind of underground Republic is hidden from view.
In 1960, events forced De Gaulle to grant independence to the French colonies of black Africa. This newly-proclaimed international legality was the unsullied tip of the iceberg : France as the best friend of Africa, development and democracy. Meanwhile, Jacques Foccart, "the man in the shadows", was given the task of maintaining dependence, using inevitably illegal, secret and shameful methods. He selected heads of state who were "friends of France" - through war (more than 100 000 civilians massacred in Cameroon from 1956 on ; the Madagascan resistance was broken in 1947 by carnage of a similar magnitude), assassination or electoral fraud. To these guardians of the neo-colonial order, Paris offered a share of the income from raw materials and development aid. Military bases, the CFA franc which could be exchanged in Switzerland, the secret services and the outwardly-innocent businesses acting on their behalf (Elf and numerous supply or "security" companies) completed the system.
And so began forty years of pillage, support for dictatorships, dirty tricks and secret wars - from Biafra to the two Congos. Rwanda, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Togo and others will bear the scars for many years to come. Gorged, burnt-out dictators, up to their eyeballs in debt, could no longer promise development, and so they brandished their final weapon, the ethnic scapegoat : "If I prolong my power, by using my clan and playing on ethnic divisions, it’s only to stop your enemies from the other ethnic group replacing me. Let’s exclude them as a preventative measure." We know what happened next, in many countries : a headlong flight into political criminality to consolidate economic criminality.
"Françafrique", also means "France à fric" (1). Over the course of four decades, hundreds of thousands of euros misappropriated from debt, aid, oil, cocoa... or drained through French importing monopolies, have financed French political-business networks (all of them offshoots of the main neo-Gaullist network), shareholders’ dividends, the secret services’ major operations and mercenary expeditions.
Undermined in 1990 by the growth in democracy and "Sovereign national conferences", Françafrique very quickly came up with an arsenal of constitutional manipulation and ballot rigging which enabled it to transform the massive electoral rejection of dictatorships into approval. This double talk (French aid finances the elections ; French networks reverse the results) had a profoundly debilitating effect and resulted in the legitimisation of dictatorships in Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Guinea, Mauritania, Djibouti, the Comoros and the Congos...
With "Angolagate" and such people as Pierre Falcone or Arcadi Gaydamak, we are seeing the beginnings of globalised management of the flows of unofficial money come from the predation of raw materials, from debt fraud and from arms-sales commissions - under the "control" of the secret services. The financial layers generated in this way, sheltered in tax havens, are beginning to interconnect ; the networks and treasures of Françafrique are connecting to those of their American, British, Russian, Israeli, Brazilian, etc. counterparts. In short, we are witnessing Françafrique gradually joining a mafiafrique.
François-Xavier Verschave
(1) "Fric" means "cash".
La République centrafricaine
un désastre humanitaire et des droits de l’Homme". Rapport de Survie et Waging Peace, novembre 2007
En Juillet 2007, les organisations Survie et Waging Peace ont organisé une mission commune de recherche en République Centrafricaine (RCA). Les conclusions de cette mission et du travail de recherche effectué en France et en Angleterre sont contenues dans ce document.
Les objectifs principaux du rapport commun de Survie et Waging Peace sont de proposer un aperçu récent de la situation politique, économique, humanitaire et des droits de l’homme en République Centrafricaine, ainsi qu’offrir un analyse des causes et dynamiques de la crise actuelle en RCA. La communauté internationale se concentrant sur la situation au Darfour et au Tchad, le conflit en RCA a été largement ignoré. Présenté par les médias et par la France comme un débordement de la crise au Darfour, le conflit en RCA a avant tout des causes endogènes.
Depuis son indépendance en 1960, la RCA a connu une crise à la fois politique, économique, humanitaire, sécuritaire et des droits de l’homme. La récente instabilité politique a entrainé une dégradation générale de la situation, en particulier concernant la situation humanitaires et des droits de l’homme.
Marginalisées et ignorées par le Gouvernement de Bangui, les régions du nord de la RCA ont particulièrement souffert de la pauvreté, du sous-développement et de violations massives des droits de l’homme. Ainsi, des groupes de rebelles se sont formés dans ces régions, réclamant au gouvernement une amélioration de la situation sécuritaire, une véritable protection de la population civile, le développement d’infrastructures médicales et éducatives et la création de liens routiers et ferroviaires avec le reste du pays.
Au milieu de cette indifférence générale, un pays, la France, s’est particulièrement intéressé à la République Centrafricaine. Ayant exploité les ressources naturelles du pays jusqu’à l’indépendance du pays en 1960, la France a depuis continué à exercer de son pouvoir son ex-colonie. Pour un ensemble de raisons diplomatiques, économiques et stratégiques, les Gouvernements Français depuis 1960 ont prolongé leur influence sur la RCA en orchestrant les développements politiques majeurs du pays et en contrôlant son économie.
Jusqu’à présent, l’indifférence de la communauté internationale et la présence Française en RCA ont participé à la détérioration graduelle de la situation politique, économique, humanitaire et des droits de l’homme en RCA. A moins que les Nations Unies et l’Union Européenne adressent les cause principales de la crise en RCA en protégeant la population civile, en encourageant une réforme démocratique, en poursuivant ceux qui violent les droits de l’homme et en soutenant le développement du pays, la situation de la RCA ne fera que s’empirer, mettant la vie de milliers de civils en danger et risquant de déstabiliser la région entière.
En Juillet 2007, les organisations Survie et Waging Peace ont organisé une mission commune de recherche en République Centrafricaine (RCA). Les conclusions de cette mission et du travail de recherche effectué en France et en Angleterre sont contenues dans ce document.
Les objectifs principaux du rapport commun de Survie et Waging Peace sont de proposer un aperçu récent de la situation politique, économique, humanitaire et des droits de l’homme en République Centrafricaine, ainsi qu’offrir un analyse des causes et dynamiques de la crise actuelle en RCA. La communauté internationale se concentrant sur la situation au Darfour et au Tchad, le conflit en RCA a été largement ignoré. Présenté par les médias et par la France comme un débordement de la crise au Darfour, le conflit en RCA a avant tout des causes endogènes.
Depuis son indépendance en 1960, la RCA a connu une crise à la fois politique, économique, humanitaire, sécuritaire et des droits de l’homme. La récente instabilité politique a entrainé une dégradation générale de la situation, en particulier concernant la situation humanitaires et des droits de l’homme.
Marginalisées et ignorées par le Gouvernement de Bangui, les régions du nord de la RCA ont particulièrement souffert de la pauvreté, du sous-développement et de violations massives des droits de l’homme. Ainsi, des groupes de rebelles se sont formés dans ces régions, réclamant au gouvernement une amélioration de la situation sécuritaire, une véritable protection de la population civile, le développement d’infrastructures médicales et éducatives et la création de liens routiers et ferroviaires avec le reste du pays.
Au milieu de cette indifférence générale, un pays, la France, s’est particulièrement intéressé à la République Centrafricaine. Ayant exploité les ressources naturelles du pays jusqu’à l’indépendance du pays en 1960, la France a depuis continué à exercer de son pouvoir son ex-colonie. Pour un ensemble de raisons diplomatiques, économiques et stratégiques, les Gouvernements Français depuis 1960 ont prolongé leur influence sur la RCA en orchestrant les développements politiques majeurs du pays et en contrôlant son économie.
Jusqu’à présent, l’indifférence de la communauté internationale et la présence Française en RCA ont participé à la détérioration graduelle de la situation politique, économique, humanitaire et des droits de l’homme en RCA. A moins que les Nations Unies et l’Union Européenne adressent les cause principales de la crise en RCA en protégeant la population civile, en encourageant une réforme démocratique, en poursuivant ceux qui violent les droits de l’homme et en soutenant le développement du pays, la situation de la RCA ne fera que s’empirer, mettant la vie de milliers de civils en danger et risquant de déstabiliser la région entière.
zondag 6 januari 2008
the Rwanda genocide and the catholic church (III)
The mystique of the genocide is clearly demonstrated in a broadcast by the Rwanda radio station Milles Collines: Those people, (the Tutsi) really are a dirty race. I do not know how God will be able to help us to exterminate them. We must get rid of them.. this is the only solution.... God will be on our side and Jesus will help us to win. Those of you at the front (???) be strong, Our Lady (Mary) is with us.". Jesus is "the Christ of the Hutu".
Was it this kind of mysticism that prompted the white fathers to display such a great amount of zeal in making the religious genocidaires look innocent. First of all the white fathers together with a couple of organisations in france had managed to get the two nuns from Sovu out of Rwanda. Lateron the belgian white father Comblin went to Rwanda, to the Sovu benedictines convent, to ask the sisters there who were willing to testify against sisters Gertrude and Kizito to retract. He wanted them to sign a paper in wich they declared they had given false testimonies. Fortunately the sisters had the courage to tell him to go to blazes (my words!!).The Rwandan police could lay their hands on the reverend Comblin's documents. The Rwandan Goverment threw him out.
This Comblin had "worked" in Burundi where he was notorious for his anti-Tutsi agitations. One of these sisters who had stood up against Comblin later testified how she was subjected to pressure by sister Gertrude and the abbot of the benedictine abbey of Maredsous near Namur (reported by Le soir on May 15 2001).
The belgian tribunal got a letter by a catholic priest Nicolaus, in which he pointed out that the attorney of the Rwandan state, Beauthier, was "a suspect character, who displays a great deal of anti-patriotism and his nihilistic leftism....who insults the whole catholic church and the Pope..we therefore claim that this trial is a tric, a grand comedy, originating from the free-masons and notorious ennemies of the church".
And the white father Guy Theunis in the magazine Dialogue: "I do not believe the accusation that priests were participating in the genocide. What is clear is that a number of hutu priests have ventilated opinions disagreeable to the RPF. They have a right to have their opnions"
On April 2 2004 African Rights wrote another open letter to Pope John Paul II: "since our last letter to you numerous goverments and institutions have set up public enquiries into their reactions to the genocide, and have, at least a great deal of them, admitted their mistakes and have offered their apologies for it. We are unable to imagine why the catholic church has not started an examination of conscience and has refused to identify those members of the clergy who have not done their duty as christians." Again there was no reply.
A former student at the major seminary that was run by the white fathers makes mention of the racism there that even went so far as to blackball those european priests, fellow-white fathers, who did not share their racist ideas. He mentions the case of father Robert Defalque, marginalised and treated with disdain as a "gatutsi"
by his confreres. The torch of those white fathers has since been taken over by their confrere Jault at Lyon, who refuses to acknowledge there ever was a genocide and in stead speaks of a "civil war" and of "the events of 1994".
Was it this kind of mysticism that prompted the white fathers to display such a great amount of zeal in making the religious genocidaires look innocent. First of all the white fathers together with a couple of organisations in france had managed to get the two nuns from Sovu out of Rwanda. Lateron the belgian white father Comblin went to Rwanda, to the Sovu benedictines convent, to ask the sisters there who were willing to testify against sisters Gertrude and Kizito to retract. He wanted them to sign a paper in wich they declared they had given false testimonies. Fortunately the sisters had the courage to tell him to go to blazes (my words!!).The Rwandan police could lay their hands on the reverend Comblin's documents. The Rwandan Goverment threw him out.
This Comblin had "worked" in Burundi where he was notorious for his anti-Tutsi agitations. One of these sisters who had stood up against Comblin later testified how she was subjected to pressure by sister Gertrude and the abbot of the benedictine abbey of Maredsous near Namur (reported by Le soir on May 15 2001).
The belgian tribunal got a letter by a catholic priest Nicolaus, in which he pointed out that the attorney of the Rwandan state, Beauthier, was "a suspect character, who displays a great deal of anti-patriotism and his nihilistic leftism....who insults the whole catholic church and the Pope..we therefore claim that this trial is a tric, a grand comedy, originating from the free-masons and notorious ennemies of the church".
And the white father Guy Theunis in the magazine Dialogue: "I do not believe the accusation that priests were participating in the genocide. What is clear is that a number of hutu priests have ventilated opinions disagreeable to the RPF. They have a right to have their opnions"
On April 2 2004 African Rights wrote another open letter to Pope John Paul II: "since our last letter to you numerous goverments and institutions have set up public enquiries into their reactions to the genocide, and have, at least a great deal of them, admitted their mistakes and have offered their apologies for it. We are unable to imagine why the catholic church has not started an examination of conscience and has refused to identify those members of the clergy who have not done their duty as christians." Again there was no reply.
A former student at the major seminary that was run by the white fathers makes mention of the racism there that even went so far as to blackball those european priests, fellow-white fathers, who did not share their racist ideas. He mentions the case of father Robert Defalque, marginalised and treated with disdain as a "gatutsi"
by his confreres. The torch of those white fathers has since been taken over by their confrere Jault at Lyon, who refuses to acknowledge there ever was a genocide and in stead speaks of a "civil war" and of "the events of 1994".
the Rwanda genocide and the catholic church (II)
In 1997 the belgian White Father Guy Theunis, formerly professor at the Nyakibanda Major Seminary in Rwanda, declared before a Parliamentary Committee of the Belgian senate that the rwanda genocide was "inimaginable" Yet when he was in Rwanda he had very close connections with the genocidal regime of Habyarimana and it's hard to believe he was unaware of what was going to happen. As a matter of fact, lateron he confessed that about three weeks before the start of the genocide he knew of the aims of the ruling party CDR: to repeat the 1959 massacres of Tutsis and this time do not make the mistake of letting some people live. According to the catholic magazine GOLIAS the italian priest Carlisquia had been active at the various massacres ( 1959, 1961,1963,1965). In 1994 he was again deeply involved in the massacres at Rusumo in particular the killing of his own parishioners. In he sermons he encouraged his listeners to hate the Tutsis, to hunt them down. In 1994 once the genocide had started (april)he put up roadblocs and guarded them with his rifle, accompanied by the killers he had personally trained in the use of weapons.
The only one protesting against these early killings was the bishop of Nyundo, but the killers did not allow him to intervene in favour of the victims.
After the Lenten letter by archbishop Perraudin (1959) the catholic hierarchy got ever deeper involved in the sort of racist rhetoric we hear from bishop Nikwigize of Ruhengeri (in an interview by a flemish paper in 1995) "A hutu is simple,and straightforward, but a Tutsi is cunning and hypocritical. He shows himself well, polite and charming, but when he gets a chance, he will come down on you. a Tutsi is by nature wicked." Indeed the kind of rhetoric that stimulates hatred. And the following enlightening piece of prose can be read in "Bulletin d'information africaine ANB/BIA" of the white fathers (1 May 1994): "in Europe people get passionate about defending minorities, rubbing out the extermination of the majority..The Tutsis have managed to subject people, to get a foot within international organisations. Even Radio Vaticana and the Vatican press have been infiltrated by them, by getting tutsi priests to work there who spread lies and false information with an extraordinary skill, they are masters of "intriges". Young and pretty Tutsi girls have infiltrated humanitarian organisations "conquering terrain" with their charm." The Hutu propaganda in a nutshell in a missionary magazine.!!! The author of the text is the white father Walter Aelvoet, the same one who rejoyced at the 1959 massacres. He belongs to that caste of militant christian (?) flemish sponsoring the "hutu cause" against the well-spoken Tutsi who are like the "loathsome walloons".
The white fathers were the godfathers of the magazine "Dialogue", one of the most important catholic publications in Rwanda. The founder of dialogue was abbé Massion, a priest very close to the racist Parmehutu political party. After the genocide Dialogue got a restart in Brussles due to the afore-mentioned father Theunis. The magazine's tone was clearly ethnocentric and negationist (denying that a genocide ever took place); typical is what the white father Desouter wrote: "The RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front, the Tutsis returning from exile in Uganda), is at the origin of the genocide. It was a suicidal action of the RPF against its own people. By its offensive (1990) it instigated the desperate hutu masses to commit those massacres. There have never been more Tutsis in Rwanda than after the massacres". If one does not know the truth one might easily fall for such an explanation. The reality is however that the RPF never permitted its fighters to kill hutu or other civilians. And they did not.
After the genocide a group of hutu priests who had fled to DR Congo wrote to pope John Paul II in a similar strain: "the massacres that have taken place in Rwanda are the result of provocation and harrassment of the Rwandan people by the RPF.
The explanation of the Osservatore Romano (vatican newspaper) (in1999) chimes in nicely with all this: " In Rwanda a campaign of diffamation of the cathiolic church is on the way, so as to make it co-responsible for the genocide in 1994. The arrest of bishop Misago 5 years after the genocide must be considered as the most recent act of the Rwandan government to elimnate the conciliatory role of the catholic church in the history of Rwanda...to stain the church's image in every possible ways..One should remember that there was question of a double genocide, one directed at the Tutsis and one directed at the Hutu. The genocide of the Hutu took place in the Conga forest, where the Hutu had sought shelter against the RPF, without the least protection by the international community (???!!!????). About 1 million Hutuwere massacred (!!!??? !!!!!)"
It's a good thing the Osservatore Romano is not infallible for there is not shred of evidence of a massacre of Hutu.!!
Who was this bishop Misago? He was (and is again) the bishop of Gikongoro in western Rwanda. During the genocide he systematically refused to protect the Tutsi christians in his diocese, avowing that "the Tutsi are a damned race anyway". Bishopo Misago cooperated closely with the prefect Bucyabaruta and major Bizimungu commander of the gendarmerie, who together organised the killing of Tutsis in their district. Misago sent the Tutsis who had come to him for protection to Murambi where they (150 000 0f them) were slaughtered. He knew that hutu militias had set up roadblocks all over the place, nevertheless he sent two Tutsi from Gikongoro parish who had sought refuge with him, on their way, who were subsequently dragged out of their car and killed on the spot. Neither did His Excellency lift a finger to save the lives of 90 school children at Kibeho collage; he came to visit them on May 4. They begged him to protect them. Three days later 82 of them were brutally massacred. No reaction from the Right Reverend (testimony: an letter to John Paul II from Rakyaa Omaar, the school director, dated May 19, 1998)
Bishop Misago was put in jail in 1999 accused of complicity in then genocide. During his trial the so-called affair of the machetes came up: witnesses testified that the catholic church had purchased a great number of machetes and had these distributed among the killers. On the basis of his research in Rwanda Pierre Galant estimated that there had been at least 100 000 machetes with a total value of over 725 000 american dollars. A number of these machetes so it transpired had been used to kill Tutsi priests in Misago's diocese who had sought shelter with their bishop and had been handed over to the militias. At a part of the trial behind closed doors, Sister Milghita had shouted at the bishop "If I had been you I would have turned myself in to the judicial authorities much earlier." One of the most bizarre things about Misago is that the vatican, Pope John Paul II, has interfered directly in the trial, sending Misago even a letter of encouragement (!!!!???) "hoping that he would soon be released from jail" with a special Apostolic Blessing into the bargain. After considerable "apostolic" pressure on the Rwandan President Misago was indeed released (to the dismay of many banyarwanda!) from prison in 2000 and has (with a particular display of vatican sensitivty) been reinstated as bishop of Gikongoro. The reaction mr Mutagwera, president of the association IBUKA (remembrance): "Misago had participated in meetings in which statistics of Tutsis already killed and of those still to be kiled were handed out" .
Unfortunately for Rwanda the catholic church is still a formidable power bloc in the country. A refusal to set Misago free would undoubtedly have resulted in severe political and even economical repercussions due to the international power of the catholic church.
One of the worst scum-priests, the parish priest of Nyange, the reverend Athsanase Seromba had the 2000 Tutsi who thus far escaped the genocide, buried alive in his church by having the church demolished by bulldozers. African Rights have found witnesses who stated that Seromba after the demolition of the church entered what was left over of the building and personally shot any survivors. This character Seromba has for a while been active as a priest in Italy, in the chiesa dell'Immacolata near Florence. After his escape from Rwanda, via Congo and Nairobi. From there he had been smuggled out by the white fathers, and been taken in by the Marist Brothers. In Italy he lived there under a false name Sumba Bura He has since been on the wanted list of the Rwanda Tribunal in Arusha. It is not unlikely that under pressure of the Vatian Italy has not extradited him to Arusha. It was only due to international pressure that he finally gave himself up in february 2002.
Sadly there were many more priests like that. The reports of African Rights on these priests are clear enough about that. So is its letter to Pope John Paul II in which it names a number of priests and their atrocities. The Pope never bothered to reply.
Apart from this bishop and the many priest-genocidaires, there were also nuns involved.
Two benedictine nuns from Sovu, sisters Gertrude and Maria Kizito, have been accused of sending 7000 (!)tutsis, who had sought refuge in the convent, to their death. Many nuns have abandoned their Tutsi co-sisters to the interahamwe, who raped them and then murdered them. These two nuns lateron found refuge in Belgium, where eventually they were tried and condemned (2001) to 13 and 15 years respectively in a belgian jail. Here too, when the trial was being conducted, the Vatican through the OPUS Dei figure Navarro-Valls interfered, asking himself whether 'the two accused nuns had been given an opportunity to tell their views of the facts in a strange country ever so far from Rwanda...Awaiting the outcome of the trial the vatican cannot but express its surprise.."" (!!!???)
One of the things sister Kizito had done (22 april 1994) was to provide petrol to set fire to a gararage where a dozen Tutsi families had hidden. They were all burned alive. Witnesses have even stated that sister Kizito herself had lit the fire. Brothers of these 2 nuns were members of the Interahamwe.!
(to be continued)
The only one protesting against these early killings was the bishop of Nyundo, but the killers did not allow him to intervene in favour of the victims.
After the Lenten letter by archbishop Perraudin (1959) the catholic hierarchy got ever deeper involved in the sort of racist rhetoric we hear from bishop Nikwigize of Ruhengeri (in an interview by a flemish paper in 1995) "A hutu is simple,and straightforward, but a Tutsi is cunning and hypocritical. He shows himself well, polite and charming, but when he gets a chance, he will come down on you. a Tutsi is by nature wicked." Indeed the kind of rhetoric that stimulates hatred. And the following enlightening piece of prose can be read in "Bulletin d'information africaine ANB/BIA" of the white fathers (1 May 1994): "in Europe people get passionate about defending minorities, rubbing out the extermination of the majority..The Tutsis have managed to subject people, to get a foot within international organisations. Even Radio Vaticana and the Vatican press have been infiltrated by them, by getting tutsi priests to work there who spread lies and false information with an extraordinary skill, they are masters of "intriges". Young and pretty Tutsi girls have infiltrated humanitarian organisations "conquering terrain" with their charm." The Hutu propaganda in a nutshell in a missionary magazine.!!! The author of the text is the white father Walter Aelvoet, the same one who rejoyced at the 1959 massacres. He belongs to that caste of militant christian (?) flemish sponsoring the "hutu cause" against the well-spoken Tutsi who are like the "loathsome walloons".
The white fathers were the godfathers of the magazine "Dialogue", one of the most important catholic publications in Rwanda. The founder of dialogue was abbé Massion, a priest very close to the racist Parmehutu political party. After the genocide Dialogue got a restart in Brussles due to the afore-mentioned father Theunis. The magazine's tone was clearly ethnocentric and negationist (denying that a genocide ever took place); typical is what the white father Desouter wrote: "The RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front, the Tutsis returning from exile in Uganda), is at the origin of the genocide. It was a suicidal action of the RPF against its own people. By its offensive (1990) it instigated the desperate hutu masses to commit those massacres. There have never been more Tutsis in Rwanda than after the massacres". If one does not know the truth one might easily fall for such an explanation. The reality is however that the RPF never permitted its fighters to kill hutu or other civilians. And they did not.
After the genocide a group of hutu priests who had fled to DR Congo wrote to pope John Paul II in a similar strain: "the massacres that have taken place in Rwanda are the result of provocation and harrassment of the Rwandan people by the RPF.
The explanation of the Osservatore Romano (vatican newspaper) (in1999) chimes in nicely with all this: " In Rwanda a campaign of diffamation of the cathiolic church is on the way, so as to make it co-responsible for the genocide in 1994. The arrest of bishop Misago 5 years after the genocide must be considered as the most recent act of the Rwandan government to elimnate the conciliatory role of the catholic church in the history of Rwanda...to stain the church's image in every possible ways..One should remember that there was question of a double genocide, one directed at the Tutsis and one directed at the Hutu. The genocide of the Hutu took place in the Conga forest, where the Hutu had sought shelter against the RPF, without the least protection by the international community (???!!!????). About 1 million Hutuwere massacred (!!!??? !!!!!)"
It's a good thing the Osservatore Romano is not infallible for there is not shred of evidence of a massacre of Hutu.!!
Who was this bishop Misago? He was (and is again) the bishop of Gikongoro in western Rwanda. During the genocide he systematically refused to protect the Tutsi christians in his diocese, avowing that "the Tutsi are a damned race anyway". Bishopo Misago cooperated closely with the prefect Bucyabaruta and major Bizimungu commander of the gendarmerie, who together organised the killing of Tutsis in their district. Misago sent the Tutsis who had come to him for protection to Murambi where they (150 000 0f them) were slaughtered. He knew that hutu militias had set up roadblocks all over the place, nevertheless he sent two Tutsi from Gikongoro parish who had sought refuge with him, on their way, who were subsequently dragged out of their car and killed on the spot. Neither did His Excellency lift a finger to save the lives of 90 school children at Kibeho collage; he came to visit them on May 4. They begged him to protect them. Three days later 82 of them were brutally massacred. No reaction from the Right Reverend (testimony: an letter to John Paul II from Rakyaa Omaar, the school director, dated May 19, 1998)
Bishop Misago was put in jail in 1999 accused of complicity in then genocide. During his trial the so-called affair of the machetes came up: witnesses testified that the catholic church had purchased a great number of machetes and had these distributed among the killers. On the basis of his research in Rwanda Pierre Galant estimated that there had been at least 100 000 machetes with a total value of over 725 000 american dollars. A number of these machetes so it transpired had been used to kill Tutsi priests in Misago's diocese who had sought shelter with their bishop and had been handed over to the militias. At a part of the trial behind closed doors, Sister Milghita had shouted at the bishop "If I had been you I would have turned myself in to the judicial authorities much earlier." One of the most bizarre things about Misago is that the vatican, Pope John Paul II, has interfered directly in the trial, sending Misago even a letter of encouragement (!!!!???) "hoping that he would soon be released from jail" with a special Apostolic Blessing into the bargain. After considerable "apostolic" pressure on the Rwandan President Misago was indeed released (to the dismay of many banyarwanda!) from prison in 2000 and has (with a particular display of vatican sensitivty) been reinstated as bishop of Gikongoro. The reaction mr Mutagwera, president of the association IBUKA (remembrance): "Misago had participated in meetings in which statistics of Tutsis already killed and of those still to be kiled were handed out" .
Unfortunately for Rwanda the catholic church is still a formidable power bloc in the country. A refusal to set Misago free would undoubtedly have resulted in severe political and even economical repercussions due to the international power of the catholic church.
One of the worst scum-priests, the parish priest of Nyange, the reverend Athsanase Seromba had the 2000 Tutsi who thus far escaped the genocide, buried alive in his church by having the church demolished by bulldozers. African Rights have found witnesses who stated that Seromba after the demolition of the church entered what was left over of the building and personally shot any survivors. This character Seromba has for a while been active as a priest in Italy, in the chiesa dell'Immacolata near Florence. After his escape from Rwanda, via Congo and Nairobi. From there he had been smuggled out by the white fathers, and been taken in by the Marist Brothers. In Italy he lived there under a false name Sumba Bura He has since been on the wanted list of the Rwanda Tribunal in Arusha. It is not unlikely that under pressure of the Vatian Italy has not extradited him to Arusha. It was only due to international pressure that he finally gave himself up in february 2002.
Sadly there were many more priests like that. The reports of African Rights on these priests are clear enough about that. So is its letter to Pope John Paul II in which it names a number of priests and their atrocities. The Pope never bothered to reply.
Apart from this bishop and the many priest-genocidaires, there were also nuns involved.
Two benedictine nuns from Sovu, sisters Gertrude and Maria Kizito, have been accused of sending 7000 (!)tutsis, who had sought refuge in the convent, to their death. Many nuns have abandoned their Tutsi co-sisters to the interahamwe, who raped them and then murdered them. These two nuns lateron found refuge in Belgium, where eventually they were tried and condemned (2001) to 13 and 15 years respectively in a belgian jail. Here too, when the trial was being conducted, the Vatican through the OPUS Dei figure Navarro-Valls interfered, asking himself whether 'the two accused nuns had been given an opportunity to tell their views of the facts in a strange country ever so far from Rwanda...Awaiting the outcome of the trial the vatican cannot but express its surprise.."" (!!!???)
One of the things sister Kizito had done (22 april 1994) was to provide petrol to set fire to a gararage where a dozen Tutsi families had hidden. They were all burned alive. Witnesses have even stated that sister Kizito herself had lit the fire. Brothers of these 2 nuns were members of the Interahamwe.!
(to be continued)
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)