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The Mainstream Media Continues to Ignore Rampant Republican Fuelled Racism

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It should not be difficult to quantify or define racism, but curiously, scholars have not come to a consensus on what does and does not constitute discrimination based on race. However, in general terms racism is views, practices and actions reflecting the belief that human beings are divided into distinct races that share attributes which make that group less desirable, more desirable, inferior, or superior. America is a racist nation despite the people elected an African American man as President twice and civil rights groups’ diligence to give people of color equality. The concept that the white race is superior has plagued this nation since its inception, but over the past four years it has increased in part because of Republican pandering to race-based opposition to President Obama, and in part by the media and Democrat’s reticence to address the racial animus toward people of color. Recently, there were two reports of blatant racism in so-called Christian churches that demonstrate the efficacy of teaching that the white race is superior, and belies their namesake’s commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

Last week a pastor in a North Carolina church, Freedom House, sent an email to church members who act as greeters for Sunday morning service asking that only white people stand at the front door to greet the congregation. The pastor’s email was a reminder to volunteers that since fall is one of their busiest times of the year, first impressions matter and that the church wanted the cream of the crop manning the front doors to “bring the racial demographic pendulum of the church back to the mid-line.” The email also acknowledged the sensitive nature of the request, but contended that quality trumps quantity and it was more important to have fewer greeters at the door if it meant those welcoming visitors represented the congregation’s best.  The revealing part of the story is that the pastor is African American. Her intent was to reflect the church’s racial diversity, and because African American congregants were not the “moneymakers” the church needed the pastor was trying to attract a more affluent (read whiter) membership.

The idea that an African American preacher felt the need to signal Black members they were inferior and that the “best of the best” of the congregation is defined by the white race is blatantly racist and informs the preacher’s acceptance of generations of white supremacists inculcating the population to believe the white race is inherently superior to people of color. That it is being advanced in Christian churches is despicable to say the least, but it is a recurring theme evidenced by another report that white churches in the South are teaching people that voting anything other than Republican is a one-way ticket straight to the proverbial Hell and white Southern Christians are buying the propaganda in large numbers.

An Alabama legislator described a call from a white Republican church member who shared an experience in church related to a local school district applying to be an independent segregated school. The caller explained that during the Sunday service congregants were “bullied into supporting the school district” separating itself from the county to “minimize the number of blacks that are in our school district.” The Republican was disheartened because as a longtime educator supporting integrated schools, she had never considered that the Republican perspective included white supremacy or that is was propagated by so-called Christians. The Alabama legislator confessed it is a regular occurrence in many local Baptist churches.  Obviously, the Republican woman has not been paying attention to the rise of racial animus and white supremacy permeating the party since the election of Barack Obama as President.

Slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King once noted that the most segregated hour in America is at 11:00 on Sunday during church services that provides a perfect opportunity for white supremacists to indoctrinate and incite fear of the “the other” that conservative talking heads and Republicans parrot in their assaults on the President and people of color in general. The failing of the media, and Democrats, to cite dog whistle and blatant racism inherent in Republican ranks contributes to the problem and it is an important aspect of Republican tactics to promote white supremacy with impunity. Americans who are not infected with racial animus have bought into the idea that calling out racism makes them a racist and it contributes to Republican success at spreading their blatantly racist messages unopposed.

Conservative media and Republicans are not reticent to inject racism into every news story, political campaign, and opposition to social programs affectin all Americans, and they proceed with confidence knowing full well their racist machinations will never be challenged. President Obama has adhered to Dr. King’s policy of connecting the plight of people of color with America’s economic opportunity inequities, and it is a valid approach. However, it does nothing to identify Republican’s advancing the cause of poverty on the back of racial animus and fear that people of color are robbing them, even poor white Americans, of their “hard-earned success” and the American Dream.

That the white race is superior to people of color is the social contract conservatives have made with their supporters, and libertarians, Republicans, and tea baggers expand the supremacists reach by opposing issues such as healthcare for all, food assistance, social programs, and immigration reform because they tie them to rewarding people of color at the expense of the white race. It explains why poor white Americans who support Republican policies consistently vote against their own self-interests, and reveals the depth of hatred many white people harbor for people of color. In fact, despite his success and rise to the highest office in the land, President Obama has become the face of “the other” that besides being reviled as un-American is often accused of hating white people.

White supremacists labored in society’s shadows after the limited success of the Civil Rights movement, but that changed with the election of Barack Obama. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented the alarming rise of racially motivated hate groups since 2008, and few Americans have spoken out against the sheer brazenness of groups calling for race war or blatant racism targeting African Americans. Two weeks ago in a former Confederate state, South Carolina, 25 African Americans were evicted from a restaurant after waiting two hours to be seated because one white bigot felt threatened by a group of paying Black customers. Instead of a public outcry against blatant racism, main stream media failed to report the story on every evening newscast across the country because if there is one thing Republicans and conservative-biased media will not allow, it is citing the racism and white supremacy plaguing America and it is why it continues to grow unabated.

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Urutonde rw’abadepite bemerewe kujya mu Nteko nyuma y’amatora yo muri Nzeri 2013

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Umuryango FPR Inkotanyi n’indi mitwe byifatanyije (PDC, PPC, PDI na PSR)

1. UWACU Julienne
2. MUTIMURA Zeno
3. MUKANDUTIYE Spéciose
4. SEMASAKA Gabriel
5. KANKERA Marie Josée
6. KAYIRANGA Alfred
7. KAYITESI Libérata
8. MUKAMA Abbas
9. KAYITARE Innocent
10. MURUMUNAWABO Cécile
11. MUSABYIMANA Samuel
12. MUKARUGEMA Alphonsine
13. KABONEKA Francis
14. MUKAZIBERA Agnès
15. RWIGAMBA Fidel
16. MUKAYUHI RWAKA Constance
17. MUKAYISENGA Françoise
18. BARIKANA Eugene
19. RUCIBIGANGO Jean Baptiste
20. MUREKATETE Marie Thérèse
21. BAMPORIKI Edouard
22. KANTENGWA Juliana
23. NYANDWI Désiré
24. BWIZA Connie
25. GATABAZI Jean Marie Vianney
26. MUKABAGWIZA Edda
27. RUKU RWABYOMA John
28. MURESHYANKWANO Marie Rose
29. MUDIDI Emmanuel
30. NYIRASAFARI Esperance
31. KAREMERA Thierry
32. MPORANYI Théobald
33. MWIZA Esperance
34. KARENZI Théoneste
35. TENGERA TWIKIRIZE Francesca
36. NYIRABEGA Euthalie
37. SEMAHUNDO NGABO Amiel
38. NYIRABAGENZI Agnes
39. MUKAKARANGWA Clotilde
40. HABIMANA Saleh
41. BEGUMISA Théoneste SAFARI

Ishyaka PSD

1. NKUSI Juvenal
2. MUKAKANYAMUGENGE Jacqueline
3. MUKANDASIRA Caritas
4. BAZATOHA Shyaka Adolphe
5. NIYONSENGA Theodomir
6. NYIRAHIRWA Veneranda
7. RUTAYISIRE Georgette

Ishyaka PL

1. MUKABALISA Donatille
2. BYABARUMWANZI Francois
3. KALISA Evariste
4. MUKAMURANGWA SEBERA Henriette
5. MUNYANGEYO Theogene

Abadepite bahagarariye abagore

Umujyi wa Kigali

1. MUKANTABANA Rose
2. UWAYISENGA Yvonne

Intara y’Iburasirazuba

1. MUJAWAMARIYA Berthe
2. NYIRAGWANEZA Athanasie
3. MUTESI Anitha
4. UWIMANIMPAYE Jeanne d’Arc
5. MUKANDERA Iphigénie
6. MUKARUGWIZA Annonciathe

Intara y’Iburengerazuba

1. NIKUZE Nura
2. MANIRORA Annoncée
3. MUKANDEKEZI Petronille
4. NYINAWASE Jeanne d’Arc
5. UWAMAMA Marie Claire
6. MUKABIKINO Jeanne Henriette

Intara y’Amajyaruguru

1. NYIRAMADIRIDA Fortunee
2. UWAMARIYA Devota
3. MUKAYIJORE Suzanne
4. KABASINGA Chantal

Intara y’Amajyepfo

1. MUHONGAYIRE Christine
2. MUKANYABYENDA Emmanuelie
3. IZABIRIZA Marie Mediatrice
4. GAHONDOGO Athanasie
5. NYIRARUKUNDO Ignacienne
6. UWANYIRIGIRA Gloriose

Abadepite bahagarariye urubyiruko

1. UWIRINGIYIMANA Philbert
2. MUKOBWA Justine

Umudepite uhagarariye abafite ubumuga

1. RUSIHA Gaston


Rwanda: Tutsi Genocide and demanding task of compensating the victims

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By Jean-Paul Mugiraneza

The 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda is a tragedy in human history which remains hard to understand. The astonishing severity and pace at which it unfolded begs many questions, paramount of which being: how does a country begin to recover after experiencing such an event? Yet 20 years on present day Rwanda serves as an ongoing development success story politically, economically and socially, due to the combined efforts of the Rwandan government and wider society.

The basis for this unexpected development can be traced to both internal and external institutional efforts that focused upon helping Rwanda as a country achieve reconciliation and development whilst also ensuring justice.

At national level, the Rwandan Government created the National Commission for Unity and Reconciliation in addition to special chambers designed to prosecute the most notorious war criminals. Equally, on a community level, traditional Gacaca courts were employed as a tool to provide reconciliation and justice. Upon its completion, it will have been the most thorough process in bringing the rank and file of genocide to justice. Over 100,000 inmates have been indicted for crimes of genocide. Similarly at an international level, the United Nations established the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Rwanda, as a society, has also undertaken many of the non-financial components of reparations in order to assist survivors. These include an annual public commemoration. Additionally, the Rwandan government has established Fonds d’Assistance aux rescapes du Genocide (FARG) and provide health care and tuition for survivors. But does this go far enough?

Financial compensation – an essential component to true justice

Though Rwanda and the international community have valiantly pursued justice, financial compensation for genocide survivors, either individually or as a collective, still hasn’t occurred to date. With this is mind, we must ask; can there be genuine reconciliation without financial reparation? The answer, in my opinion, is no. Reparation plays an important role on a number of levels – both in terms of mending the damage done and in educating society on the consequences of their actions.

This isn’t to suggest that the exercise of financial reparations isn’t challenging, both logistically and morally. To guarantee some degree of fair compensation it requires one to assess the damage caused to both person and property, and subsequently assigning a monetary value to these losses. Some would also argue, quite rightly, that genocide is an irreparable crime due to the sheer scale of psychological and physical suffering.

But irrespective of these logistical and moral challenges – and in light of universal recognition of the horrors of the Rwandan genocide- the silence surrounding the subject of financial reparations is striking.

In the immediate aftermath of the Tutsi genocide, Rwanda was a country in utter disrepair. Genocide had left tens of thousands of orphans and widows, as well as numerous refugees and displaced people, who were forced to flee to various parts of the region. The entire state apparatus was ravaged and the already scant infrastructure which existed previously had vanished.

Initially the issue of financial compensation was understandably placed upon the back burner as resources and attention centred upon formidable task of restoring Rwandan infrastructure. But 20 years on – despite the existence of a strong governing body – dialogue surrounding the issue of financial reparations remains absent from the political arena.

The resistance of the political elite to enforce compensation for victims

In theory, the Rwandan legal framework explicitly provides a framework for genocide survivors to seek and receive compensation. Under this framework prosecutions against genocide suspects have been conducted. According to the Lawyers without Borders, out of the 159 judgements made by the specialised chambers specifically created to prosecute genocide suspects, 50% of them have awarded financial compensation to victims. However, these judgements, though enforced on a criminal level, have yet to be enforced with regards to financial compensation.

In countries around the world – or more accurately those with legitimate and effective legal systems – a judgement made by its courts is considered legally binding. It guarantees inalienable rights to beneficiaries. Survivors of the Rwandan genocide, therefore, have the right to demand the application of these judgements. But this is not the case in practice. This inaction on behalf of the government highlights their lack of clarity, on the issue of financial reparations. And this is far from an isolated case.

Indeed, in some cases the Rwandan government itself has been mandated to pay indemnities to the victims. But instead of implementing the judgement the Minister of Justice at the time wrote a letter to all justice chambers dealing with genocide, ordering them to “suspend all cases in which the Rwandan government is called upon to intervene .” This is clearly in opposition to the process of reparation and the administration of justice. Similarly, in 2001, a bill calling for the creation of a compensation fund was formulated. This, however, never materialised.

If we are to look critically at this general attitude of the Rwandan government, we could interpret this in one of two ways; as simply a demonstration of complete indifference towards the issue of reparations, or, perhaps more sinisterly, a calculated political move.

It has been speculated that at the forefront of government concerns are how financially compensating the survivors of the Tutsi community may affect social cohesion. It could be speculated that to openly provide government financial support to the Tutsi community – a group historically considered to have enjoyed unique privileges in Rwandan society under colonial rule – could risk fostering resentment amongst the Hutu majority community.

Reparations could be detrimental to the already fragile social cohesion in a country where there is still a Hutu majority and in whose name the genocide was committed.

The international community failing the victims – prior and post genocide

It is generally agreed that the UN failed the victims of the genocide. Instead of protecting civilians, the UN military contingent fled the country during the peak of the killings. Many assessments of the genocide have also concluded that, among other factors, the enormous death toll was aided by the fact that people held confidence in the UN peacekeeping troops and remained in Rwanda. Because of this, the reputation of the UN amongst the Rwandan people has suffered. And one would hope that after their failures the UN would take a leading role in compensating survivors. But unfortunately the UN has, so far, only shown an interest in the criminal proceedings and has completely ignored financial reparations.

The UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in the aftermath of the genocide on November 8, 1994. But, parallel to this commitment for criminal justice, the ICTR has avoided dealing with matters of financial reparation for victims (none of judgments issued by the ICTR to date have awarded financial damages). How can an institution like the UN not understand the importance of financial reparation in the rehabilitation of victims and administration of justice?

One could conclude that there is a lack of a will from UN authorities to participate in reparation process. Indeed, initiatives have been taken to encourage the UN to amend the statute of the ICTR to include the creation of a compensation fund, but without success.

Notable is former ICTR prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s statement on the matter: “Every judge agrees with the principle that victims should be compensated…(therefore) we thought we should approach the Security Council of the United Nations to amend the statute, to extend our office mandate so that we can compensate victims.” This, unsurprisingly, has fallen on death ears. It begs the question, how can the ICTR be considered an effective institution of justice if it fails to offer financial reparations to the victims of genocide?

The UN commission created to compensate Kuwaitis following their 1990 invasion by Iraq - as well as the $1.07b subsequently made available to the Government of Kuwait – shows that there doesn’t exist at the UN an institutional opposition to participating in the reparation process. So how can we explain their unwillingness to do so in Rwanda?

Perhaps some of the blame for this lay at the feet of the Rwandan government. Their markedly weak stance regarding financial reparations to the Tutsi people is a perhaps an explanation for the international community’s hesitance to intervene on the behalf of survivors. The solution to this is concrete measures at a national level to encourage other international partners to participate- a compensation endowment, as was originally intended by the draft law in 2001, for example.

Having said that we should recognize the contribution of FARG to improving the living conditions of survivors – every year 6% of the total state income revenue is spent on it. But assisting survivors, as a vulnerable group, is an obligation for any responsible nation. It does not remove the right for financial reparations.

Jean-Paul Mugiraneza is Program Advisor for Interpeace Regional office as liaison officer in Kigali and Insight on Conflcit’s local correspondent for Rwanda.

Posted by Tom Ndahiro from here


Top Ten worst Bible passages: Approval for sexism, genocide and slavery

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Readers of the humorous Christian website shipoffools.com were asked to submit their ‘favourite’ worst verses to compile the list, in a light-hearted project called Chapter & Worse.

Topping it was St Paul’s advice in 1 Timothy 2:12, in which the saint says: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.”

The extract is often used to justify opposition to women priests.

Next was this worrying verse endorsing genocide, from 1 Samuel 15:3: “This is what the Lord Almighty says … ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ “

Third was Moses’s call to kill witches, in Exodus 22:18: “Do not allow a sorceress to live.”

Another gruesome verse to make the list was Psalm 137, which celebrates this terrible revenge: “Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us / He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”

A more controversial inclusion was that of St Paul’s thoughts on homosexuality, from Romans 1:27, currently an extremely divisive matter with the Anglican church: “In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”

Others on the list included God’s test of Abraham in Genesis 22, in which Abraham is made to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice; this endorsement of female subservience in Ephesians 5:22, “Wives, submit to you husbands as to the Lord”; and similar advice for slaves in 1 Peter 2:18: “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.”

This is the top 10 list in full:

No. 1: St Paul’s advice about whether women are allowed to teach men in church:

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)

No. 2: In this verse, Samuel, one of the early leaders of Israel, orders genocide against a neighbouring people:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says… ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:3)

No. 3: A command of Moses:

“Do not allow a sorceress to live.” (Exodus 22:18)

No. 4: The ending of Psalm 137, a psalm which was made into a disco calypso hit by Boney M, is often omitted from readings in church:

“Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:9)

No. 5: Another blood-curdling tale from the Book of Judges, where an Israelite man is trapped in a house by a hostile crowd, and sends out his concubine to placate them:

“So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Get up; let’s go.’ But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.” (Judges 19:25-28)

No. 6: St Paul condemns homosexuality in the opening chapter of the Book of Romans:

“In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:27)

No. 7: In this story from the Book of Judges, an Israelite leader, Jephthah, makes a rash vow to God, which has to be carried out:

“And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt-offering.’ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, ‘Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.’” (Judges 11:30-1, 34-5)

No. 8: The Lord is speaking to Abraham in this story where God commands him to sacrifice his son:

‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ (Genesis 22:2)

No. 9: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)

No. 10: “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.” (1 Peter 2:18)

Posted by Tom Ndahiro from here


People are asking if God Committed Genocide in the Bible

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By Tom Gilson

The God of the Bible is often charged with gross immorality, especially for ordering entire nations to be destroyed in the Old Testament. He commanded Israel to cleanse Canaan of its immoral, idol-worshiping nations after the Exodus, and in 1 Samuel 15 he instructed them to destroy Amalek completely, “man and women, child and infant, oxen and sheep, camel and donkey.” So is there really God-ordained genocide in the Bible?

This post is the first, of at least two I will write on the genocide question. I will begin by working out a more careful definition of the question. We know what genocide is, of course: it is the attempt (successful or not) to eliminate an entire race, tribe, or nation of people. It is murder writ very large, involving many co-participants in evil and resulting in the deaths of many.

There is no hiding what God told Israel to do. The question is whether God or the Bible are free of the guilt we attach to genocide.

I do not propose to answer that question now. I believe there is an answer, but I will save that for the next post (and possibly beyond). The first task is to reflect on what makes genocide the extreme evil that it is, for that sort of definition is essential to the next steps.

For example, one thing that makes genocide so evil is the sheer numbers of deaths that result. In Rwanda, the dead numbered in the hundreds of thousands; in the Holocaust, they totaled many millions. For humans to choose to kill that many is unspeakably wrong. A believer in the Bible must be prepared to say how God could be free of blame for ordering thousands to die.

Genocide is also wrong in that it:

  • Originates from a heart of hate
  • Involves a desire to dominate
  • Ignores justice and mercy toward the victims
  • Targets its victims indiscriminately, without respect to guilt or innocence, age, status in life, sex, or ability to defend themselves or to be aggressors themselves
  • Generally entails taking the law into one’s own hands
  • Is oriented against the ultimate establishment of justice and mercy in the land
  • Provokes severe terror
  • Forces huge hardship (massive displacement, refugee situations, economic hardship that may extend as far as nakedness and famine)
  • Tears apart families
  • Seeks to systematically destroy not only individuals (in large numbers) but also their cultures or ways of living
  • Rends the conscience of the perpetrators

What did I miss? It’s easy to overlook things when one tries to systematize in this way. That is essentially the question for today’s post, and you’re welcome to extend my list by adding comments. Even from this, clearly there is something about genocide that is more wrong, and more obviously wrong, than just about anything else in human experience. Yet we who believe in God continue to hold that he is holy, good, and just. How can we do this?

I am setting up the question today, not answering it, but I will preview the manner in which I’ll be answering by offering a partial response to the first point raised here: the sheer number of deaths. My overall approach will be to treat each of the bulleted points separately first, and then later to integrate those treatments into a combined closing response. Therefore, for now, I’m separating out the matter of the number of deaths from the other listed issues. My first look is not at the way they died, or the terror that accompanied it, or any of the other related aspects, but at just the number of those who died. Can God be free of blame in calling for so many deaths?

Let’s be very realistic about this. On that matter, if God has a problem, it’s far worse than just these genocides. From the very beginning, from the time of the Fall, God has watched over the deaths not of thousands or millions but billions. Some have lived long lives (by human standards); some have been cut off very early by disease, malnourishment, neglect, injury, or violence. Every victim of genocide was destined to die, even apart from such violence, for every human who lives is destined to die.

So we have three options in assessing this. Either:

God is wrong and morally culpable (blamable) for his actions as God concerning all the deaths in history, and genocide is just another instance of this (though possibly a special case due to other factors already named); or

God is not wrong (and therefore not morally culpable) for his actions concerning all the deaths in history, except for genocide, which is a special case for one or more of the reasons named in the bulleted list above; so he remains morally culpable in the case of the OT genocides; or

God is not wrong (and therefore all not morally culpable) for his actions concerning all the deaths in history, and he is also not morally culpable with respect to the other bulleted items in the list above; so God is not morally at fault for the OT genocides.

The three options are very different, yet they have something very important in common; and for today’s purposes, it’s what they have in common that matters. You can take your pick of any of the three, and no matter which one you choose, inevitably you will have to see that the issue is not the same for God as it is for humans.There is no way it could be the same. We have not looked on the death of every human that has ever lived. God has. If we consider God’s role in these genocides the same way we do humans’, then we are virtually guaranteed to get it wrong, for God’s role and relation to the events is not the same as ours.

We need to think through these differences. We humans have an automatic, reflexive reaction toward mass killings. God’s position being different, that reflexive reaction is inadequate to apply to him without at least further reflection.

That last point bears repeating, I think. This whole matter is laden with emotion, and rightly so, based on tragic  experiences around the world over the last century and more. I respect that depth of emotion, and will continue to do so. But I will also lead us to consider whether those feelings tell the whole story with respect to God’s actions in the Old Testament. The question must be asked that way, because as we have seen, the issue for God is not the same as it is for humans. The question is notwhether it’s different for God, but how it is different for God, and whether that makes a difference.

It also bears repeating that I have not yet begun to answer the questions raised here. I haven’t begun to assess God’s culpability with respect to the moral categories on the bulleted list, because I wanted to focus first of all on the fact that if there is a God, then God is not like us and we cannot  treat this issue as if he were. This is hardly special pleading, for God (if there is a God) cannot be like us. In fact, as I have already said, if God is guilty at all, he is even more guilty by reason of presiding over the death of billions.

So I think it may be premature even for commenters to start in with other answers, because it’s so crucial to get the question defined clearly first. I would prefer it if we could all focus our comments on defining the question for now. We’ll start working on answers soon enough. Follow the series links above or below to continue in this investigation with me.

Posted by Tom Ndahiro from here


Samantha Power and a ‘New Commitment’ to Rwanda

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By Joseph A. Klein

Following their visit earlier this month to Africa’s Great Lakes region, which includes the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda, members of the United Nations Security Council met to consider what they learned during their visit. They also heard reports from two high level appointees of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who urged more progress in regional peace efforts in the wake of an apparent deadlock on certain key issues in the so-called Kampala talks between the DRC government and the armed M23 rebel group fighting against the government.

One of the Security Council members reporting on the Africa visit was the United States. The U.S. report focused on the Rwanda portion of the trip, a country whose suffering during the 1994 genocide helped inspire U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power to write movingly about the horrors of that colossal crime against humanity and to speak out against the indifference of the United States and the international community as the genocide unfolded.

Among her accomplishments before assuming her current position in the Obama administration, she was the author of A Problem from Hell, a book on America’s responses to the major genocides of the 20th century, including the Rwandan genocide, for which Power won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. During an interview in December of 2003, she said that even the mildest of measures to help stop the genocide “would have required high-level ownership of the genocide and of the U.S. response. It would have required somebody above a kind of State Department assistant secretary level, preferably somebody of a Cabinet-level post, who simply made it their business to put the issue in front of the president, to put the issue and even the moral stakes in front of his or her colleagues in Cabinet-level meetings, in principals’ committee meetings.”

A decade later, Samantha Power became the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, now with a Cabinet-level post and a global platform to make sure that we do not let the people of Rwanda down again. What has she done to take “high-level ownership” of this moral imperative in the face of a decision by the Obama administration to cut off military aid to Rwanda that increases its risks of instability?

After Ambassador Power and the other Security Council delegates toured the children’s wing of the Gisozi Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, the site where some 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide lie buried, she could barely hold back her tears. Here is what she said in front of the Security Council’s Rwandan hosts:

“We just want to express our thanks to the people of Rwanda for opening their hearts, sharing their photos, their stories of their family members. Nobody who comes to this memorial site is ever the same when they leave. People who come through this site dedicate themselves with new passion and new commitment to the Rwandan people, to the cause of reconciliation and peace in the region, and to the broader cause of preventing genocide forevermore.”

One would think that Ambassador Power would have wanted to address the Security Council herself about her personal experience amongst the Rwandan people whom she had felt were abandoned nearly twenty years ago by the U.S. government and the UN system. But she left that awkward task up to her deputy Jeffrey De Laurentis. She entered the Security Council chamber well after De Laurentis had concluded his remarks. Hours later she tweeted tidbits from his speech and a link to a video of her own remarks at the genocide memorial site.

Ambassador Power’s deputy mentioned the Security Council’s tour of the children’s wing of the Gisozi Genocide Memorial at which Ambassador Power had spoken. He described the memorial as “a permanent warning for the world community.” He said that the “warning has special meaning for our Council, which failed dismally in responding to the slaughter of nineteen years ago.”

De Laurentis praised the “relatively calm and stable environment in Rwanda” today, but said that “the waves created by the genocide continue to disrupt and claim lives.” In addition to the M23 rebel group, he mentioned the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which is a dangerous Hutu rebel group infiltrating Rwanda from bases in the east of the of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FDLR includes among its number the original members of the Interahamwe that carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He noted that during the Security Council members’ visit to Rwanda, they met with former FDLR combatants who have voluntarily returned and, with the help of the UN peacekeeping force in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the Rwandan government, were trying to reintegrate into society.

“In many cases, the FDLR has threatened to retaliate against them and members of their families,” De Laurentis added. “We were pleased to hear of the key role that MONUSCO continues to play in collaboration with Rwandan authorities to ensure that these former fighters can successfully resume their lives.”

In short, Ambassador Power promised a “new commitment to the Rwandan people” on the very site where 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide were buried, while her deputy told the Security Council that the United States was pleased with the support that Rwandan authorities were giving to help former fighters against the current regime “successfully resume their lives.” And he pointed to the “relatively calm and stable environment” that exists in Rwanda today.

Reconciliation and stability should be held up as model behavior for all of Africa to emulate. But not in Obama land. Instead of rewarding the Rwandans for trying to move on with their lives past the devastation wrought by the 1994 genocide and build a more peaceful, stable society, the Obama administration has done the opposite. It decided to punish Rwanda for allegedly providing help to the M23 rebels fighting in the DRC who, among other things, are using child soldiers. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced that the United States intended to cut off International Military Education and Training funds for Rwanda, which supports the training of foreign militaries. Rwanda will also not receive U.S. Foreign Military Financing, which provides money for U.S. army services and arms.

When I asked Rwanda’s UN Ambassador Eugène-Richard Gasana to comment on the aid cut-off by the U.S. government, he diplomatically replied that “It’s their money. They can use their money as they want.” However, he noted that nobody ever bothered to discuss the Obama administration’s allegations directly with Rwandan authorities to learn if they were true.

The fact is that a United Nations report issued last June concluded that any continuing Rwandan assistance to M23 was “limited,” and noted Rwanda’s cooperation in helping to accomplish the smooth surrender of a key M23 leader to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Obama administration has a habit of making bad foreign policy decisions based on incomplete facts and fallacious assumptions. Throwing allies under the bus, such as the Obama administration has done in Egypt, has become its modus operandi. Its destructive decision to apply punitive measures against its African ally Rwanda simply continues this counter-productive pattern.

In cutting off military assistance to Rwanda, the Obama administration is weakening Rwanda’s ability to repel FDLR assaults on targets inside Rwanda launched from nearby bases in the DRC, with some assistance from the DRC army whose troops the United States has helped to train. The UN report described previous attacks by FDLR rebels who managed to infiltrate inside Rwanda. There have also reportedly been over 34 bomb attacks resulting in shells landing on Rwandan soil since November 2012. Just like nineteen years ago, the United States government and the international community has neglected this situation and kept a blind eye, while focusing virtually all of its attention on the M23 rebel forces.

Rwanda remains vulnerable to the same murderers who participated in the 1994 genocide and their successors. The United States owes Rwanda the benefit of the doubt and must remain a reliable ally, not a fair weather friend who is willing to cut off vital assistance on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations.

Samantha Power has the opportunity to make the Obama administration’s wrong-headed decision an issue of conscience for her to directly address with her superiors, including the president himself if necessary. Her talk at the Rwandan genocide memorial of a “new commitment to the Rwandan people” will just be empty rhetoric if this decision is not reversed. Does Ambassador Power agree with the decision, or is she too afraid to voice her concerns? Is she trying to push for a change of policy in private? If so, is she willing to resign her post if she is not successful and go public?

In her 2003 interview, Samantha Power said that standing up for what was right in Rwanda “would have required personal risk, putting your career on the line.” Is Ambassador Power willing to put her own career on the line for the sake of the Rwandan people today?

Posted by Tom Ndahiro from here


DRCongo is the nastiest example of post-independence meddling by a former colonial power

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By Diana Katabarwa

Rarely has interference by a former colonial power in the affairs of a newly independent African nation resulted in such long term devastating consequences that span over 5 decades. Today the Democratic Republic of Congo is a war-ravaged country, which despite its stupendous mineral wealth of cobalt, gold, diamonds, copper, tantalum and a host of other mineral ore deposits,  forests and rivers that have the potential to generate 44,000 MW of electricity, the Congolese population is languishing in poverty, there are no highways leading outside the capital to the far-flung regions beyond, no railways to connect one region to the other, no airports worth the name, no transportation infrastructure, no telecommunication infrastructure, no public services and no health sector.  The dysfunctional government is unable to secure the country’s borders and cannot provide security for the population.

It has become the norm for Western ‘’experts’’ on Central Africa, human rights groups and Western media to author articles blaming Rwanda and Uganda for DRC’s predicament but never referring to the role played by Belgium, the former colonial power, in setting Congo on the path of failure immediately after the attainment of independence in June 1960 and continuously pulling the strings in Congo for the next five decades. Neither do the ‘’experts’’ offer any explanation as to why despite funding for humanitarian interventions reaching an average of USD 1.7 billion annually, DRC  is unable to turn a catastrophic situation around the way Rwanda was able to do after the genocide in 1994.

On 11 July 1960, eleven days after Congo attained independence, Belgian mining interests determined to continue with their colonial exploitation of Congo enlisted 6000 Belgian troops to back Moise Tshombe when he declared himself the Prime Minister of Katanga province rich with gold, copper and uranium. Belgium helped create the Katanga Gendamerie, a military force whose core consisted of hundreds of European mercenaries including the notorious white South African Major Mike Houre.

On 14 July 1960 the UN Security Council in response to Congo’s Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba’s request, adopted Resolution 143 calling upon Belgium to remove its troops from Katanga. However when the UN troops arrived in Congo, UN Secretary General Hammarskjold objected to the deployment of the force to subdue the Katanga rebels stating that the secession of Katanga was an internal Congolese matter. Disagreement over the mandate of the UN force continued throughout its deployment in the Congo.

In August the autonomous State of South Kasai was proclaimed. Patrice Lumumba requested for help from the Soviet Union to subdue Katanga and Kasai and the Soviets responded by airlifting Armee  Nationale Congolaise (ANC) troops and military equipment into Kasai. Lumumba seeking Soviet help greatly angered US President Eisenhower and plans to get rid of him were set in motion by the CIA. The CIA sent Sidney Gottlieb, its top scientist (under the code name ‘‘Joe from Paris’’ to Congo with deadly biological toxins to use on Lumumba but this particular assassination plot was unsuccessful.

On 5 September Congo’s President Joseph Kasa-Vubu dismissed Prime Minister Lumumba. The UN closed all Congolese airports under their control in order to stop the Soviets from airlifting Congolese troops to Kasai. On 12 September Chief of Staff of the Army Joseph Mobutu arrested Lumumba but he was released by troops loyal to him. On 14 September with US, CIA and Belgian support, Mobutu seized power temporarily, suspended parliament and the constitution and rearrested Lumumba.

On 17 January 1961 Lumumba was sent to Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) capital of Katanga where he was publically beaten and later tortured and executed by firing squad led by Belgian mercenary Julian Gat.

On 21 February the UN Security Council passed Resolution 161 which demanded the expulsion from Congo of all Belgian troops and mercenaries. On 28 August the UN force began to disarm Katangese troops and arrest all foreign mercenaries. The Belgian Consul in Elisabethville thwarted the UN operation by persuading the UN officials that Belgium would complete the operation. This turned out to be a trick as only regular Belgian officers left the province but the mercenaries remained and many mercenaries who had been expelled by the UN force were brought back to Katanga by Belgium through Rhodesia.

On 30 December after four months of military campaign, the Congolese Government army recaptured South Kasai ending the South Kasai secession. In December 1962 the UN launched Operation Grand Slam in Katanga and by January 1963 Elisabethville was under full UN control and the secession of Katanga ended.

In October 1963 a Lumumba inspired rebellion was began by fighters who resented the exploitation of Congolese resources by the government and its foreign masters. These fighters led by Soumialot in Kivu and the Mulele in Kwilu formed the Simba Rebellion with an aim to topple the government. The rebels attracted support from the Soviet Union.  By September 1964 the government responded to the insurgency. South African mercenary Mike Houre surfaced again and recruited one thousand white South African and Rhodesian fighters and the US and Belgium lent their support to crush the rebellion.

The Leftist leaders in the African continent were outraged by white mercenaries and neocolonial Western powers intervening on behalf of the regime so they openly supported the rebels. Some of these leaders were Ben Bella of Algeria, Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and especially Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.  As the Congolese government waged war against the Simba rebels, the mercenaries burnt down villages, sprayed villagers with bullets and threw phosphorous hand grenades burning the victims to terrorize and instill fear in the rebels. By December 1964 the Simba rebellion had been crushed with the help of Belgium, the US and other Western nations.

On 25 November 1965 Joseph Mobutu seized power in a military coup from President Kasa-Vubu. Mobutu had the political and military support of the West. He went on to establish a one party state and banned all political organizations except his own Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR) whose membership became obligatory to all Zairians.  With Belgian, French and US support he went on to rule DRC for three decades, his dictatorial and corrupt regime sank Zaire’s population into further poverty while he amassed a personal fortune of USD 5 billion. Under his rule infrastructure decayed and public services were run down. According to the World Bank, 64.7% of Zaire’s budget was reserved for Mobutu’s ‘‘discretionary spending’’.

From 1965 to 1991, Zaire received more than USD 1.5 billion in US military and economic aid. In return, US multinational corporations got a huge share of Zaire’s abundant minerals. In addition to getting a share of Congolese wealth, the US used the country as a base to attack the left-wing MPLA government in Angola after it took power in 1975.

As the cold war came to an end in the 1990s so did US, Belgian and French support for Mobutu.   He was ousted in May 1997 by the AFDL forces and fled into exile in Morocco. His request to travel to France for medical treatment was refused and he died in Morocco four months later,

The new regime under Laurent Kabila had an immense task as Mobutu and his cronies had ruined the country. Since 1998 the economy had contracted by 40%. The foreign debt stood at 141% of GNP and interest repayments were two thirds of the total government expenditure in 1991. Less than 2% of the annual budget was spent on health and education, public services had completely collapsed and agriculture and infrastructure were neglected. The whole economy was oriented to the interests of Western imperialism.

Laurent Kabila could have mobilized the population to break through this economic impasse. He could have involved workers and peasants in the drawing up and implementation of a reconstruction plan as was done in Rwanda after the Rwanda Patriotic Front captured power. He could have started a massive programme of public works. He could have nationalized the key sectors of the economy to enable them to be planned in the interests of the masses. He could have started social projects like schools and hospitals. He could have introduced measures to control the export of wealth. In this way Congo could have kept its independence from imperialism and placed the interests of the population as priority. But instead Kabila tried to rally the support of imperialism and made deals with mining companies such as American Mineral Fields, Anglo American and Belgian companies such as Texaf, George Forrest International, Petrofina and Union Miniere. On 12 May 1997, Tenke Mining announced that it had signed a deal with Kabila confirming the terms of a contract the company had previously signed with Mobutu’s government in November 1996. At this point, Kabila had not yet taken power!

Kabila resorted to the methods of his predecessor and showed that he had no hesitation in stimulating ethnic divisions in order to hang on to power.  After his assassination on 17 January 2001 (on the same day that Lumumba had been executed forty years earlier), Joseph Kabila was hastily installed as president.

Joseph Kabila’s thirteen year rule is characterized by a failure to solve the problem of FDLR militias in the East, failure to curb rampant corruption, failure to provide basic social services, failure to develop infrastructure, failure to provide security and further impoverishment especially of the rural population.  The Congolese army is poorly trained, undisciplined and poorly paid. It earns a living by robbing and terrorizing the population. As a result numerous ethnic militia groups have sprung up and provide protection to their communities against the national army.

To resolve DRC’s problems would require a leader who understands that the search for internal political accommodation must be placed way above the interests of outsiders especially the former colonial power Belgium and France who have their own never ending interests in the DRC. On a recent visit to DRC the Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said ‘’I think the Congolese authorities went beyond what is possible…’’ ‘’We cannot ask the Congolese and I hope they do not do, to reintegrate into the army people who rebelled once, twice, three times..’’. A constructive approach would have been to advise the DRC government to address the deep rooted underlying sources of conflict and respect agreements signed in the Kivu provinces.

International conventions and a permanent peacekeeping force give the illusion that a state called the Democratic Republic of Congo exists, but in reality the government in Kinshasa has no power outside of its external boundary. The DRC failed as a state because of post- independence interference in its internal affairs by Belgium and other Western powers and because successive governments have done nothing in the interests of their people.

Given the country’s huge size, ethnic and resource conflicts, embedded corruption and weight of history, there is ambiguity on whether the DRC should continue to function as a unitary state with a weak central government that has no coherent plan for resolving the underlying issues or whether the better option would be to formalize functional decentralization.

Should the people of DRC continue to live under the existing extreme dysfunctional arrangement which provides neither security nor the basic essentials of life for the country’s long-suffering population or should this gigantic entity be broken up into more manageable states which might provide the catalyst to enable DRC’s people to finally take charge of their destiny wrestling it from foreign interests and their Kinshasa compradors?

Posted by Tom Ndahiro from here


The 1st ethnic massacre engineered by the authorities in the history of Rwanda was sanctioned by Belgium

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By Tom Ndahiro

On 24th October 1995 former Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, delivered a speech at the 50th ordinary session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Today, it is exactly 19 years. Umuvugizi brings you a larger part of his statement as prelude to the 20th genocide commemoration. The unlearnt lessons, international irresponsibility, moral failures …etc.

“As we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Organisation, we pay homage to the founding fathers of this organisation, whose vision has charted the way for humanity. The organisation was founded in the aftermath of two devastating world wars.

The purpose was to save mankind from similar calamities arising from social injustices by providing moral tenets for peoples and nations. Indeed the UN formulated and developed significant basic principles relating to human and fundamental rights, equality of nations and peoples, and promotion of social economic progress for the entire humanity. A lot has been achieved. However, the proclamation of those noble objectives on one hand and their implementation on the other, have reflected on many occasions double-standards.

While the Charter stipulated self-determination and sovereignty of nations, colonised people had to resort to armed struggle to restore their freedom. Even after flag-independence new nations remain burdened by the influence of the dominant powers. If ours were not sham independence, former colonies would no longer be considered as areas of influence, where the strategy of divide and rule is still applied and the traditional relationship is still that between the dominator and the dominated.

Last year’s horrendous genocide that took place in Rwanda and took over a million lives was the direct consequence of the factors I have just mentioned above.

Before the advent of colonialism Rwanda was already a coherent nation. Our ancestors successfully strived to build a nation and a people called Banyarwanda from many kingdoms and peoples.

For centuries, Rwanda had existed without divisions on the basis of ethnic or any of other sectarian tendencies. Colonialism introduced racist theories and ideologies and practiced discrimination. The first ethnic massacre engineered by the authorities in the history of Rwanda, occurred in 1959. Rwanda was still under the colonial rule. It is important to recall that ever since the end of the First World War up to 1962, Rwanda was administered under the Trusteeship of the League of Nations and subsequently the United Nations.

Since that time, Rwanda has had its nationals living in exile as refugees. The plight of those refugees, who numbered about two millions before last year’s genocide, did not get any attention for over three decades. The existence of those refugees is a vivid testimony of discriminatory policy that was pursued inside the country. In actual fact, it is the present government in the history of modern Rwanda that does not prevent its nationals in exile to return home.

Were it not for the external interferences intended to divide our compatriots Rwandese people basing on moral principles and legal instruments set by the United Nations, would easily find solutions to the consequences of genocide and a path towards national reconciliation.

But now, planners and perpetrators of genocide are welcomed in some capitals not only as ordinary, innocent refugees, but as heroes deserving to lead people.

Those same criminals, encouraged by such complacency plan to carry on genocide, are being re-armed while at the same time they forbid refugees to return home.

This is not only a violation of international conventions but also reflects moral decay. How can the world be peaceful when there is no respect for basic principles and morality? It is in this context that President Daniel Arap- Moi of Kenya pretends to serve a good cause by associating with those criminals and protecting them.

…The future of our Organisation, our future, requires of us to strive for unconditional solidarity and more dynamic cooperation between nations and peoples. Mankind should never witness the horrors of genocide that took place in Rwanda, and the current ethnic-cleansing in the former Yugoslavia must be brought to an end. We count on the United Nations to direct and support our efforts in creating a better world for humanity.”



Dr. Murego yavuze ko FPR itazongera kugira ubutegetsi mu Rwanda!

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Na: Tom Ndahiro

Jenoside yakorewe abatutsi yibukwa n’isi yose kugeza ubu n’iyabaye mu mwaka w’1994 ihagarikiwe na guverinoma yiyise iy’abatabazi. Abari bayoboye iyo guverinoma ni Sindikubwabo Theodore nka perezida, na Jean Kambanda nka Minisitiri w’Intebe.

Mu kwezi kwa Gicurasi 1994, kwabaye ukwezi kw’iyo guverinoma y’abicanyi kuzenguruka igihugu cyose gushishikariza abaturage gukaza umurego. Kuwa 3 Gicurasi 1994 Kambanda yahuye n’abayobozi n’abavuga rikumvikana muri perefegitura ya Kibuye ngo abashimire ku bwicanyi bakoraga, banungurane inama. Iyo nama bayise iy’umutekano.

Kambanda yagiye ku Kibuye aherekejwe n’abayobozi b’amashyaka yari muri guverinoma ye n’abaminisitiri bamwe. Havuzwemo byinshi birimo igihe bazakorera amatora ya perezida wa repubulika, igihe cyo guhamba Perezida Juvenal Habyarimana, uko bazakomeza amarondo … etc.

Mubyavugiwe muri iyo nama bikomeye ni ibyavuzwe na MUREGO Donat na KABASHA Tharcise.

Avuga nk’umunyamabanga mukuru w’ishyaka MDR ku rwego rw’igihugu yijeje abari muri iyo nama ngo: “F.P.R. ntizongera kugira ibyitso mu butegetsi bw’u Rwanda kuko bushingiye kuri Repubulika na Demokarasi.”

Mu kigwi cy’abari mu nama, ijambo ryafashwe na Burugumesitiri wa Komini Bwakira KABASHA Tarisisi kuko yari we mukuru mu ba Burugumesitiri ba Kibuye. Yashimiye Minisitiri w’Intebe na Guverinoma y’abatabazi ayoboye “kuba baragobotse igihugu” ko abanyakibuye bayiri inyuma kandi bashyigikiye intego z’iyo Guverinoma,ati: “tubahaye umutima wacu n’amaboko yacu kugira ngo bizayifashe kugera ku ntego yiyemeje, …dushimye uburyo Guverinoma yemeje bwo gufasha abaturage kurwanya umwanzi ati kandi “twizeye gutsinda iyi ntambara kuko amayeri ya F.P.R. atazaruta ubwenge bw’Abanyarwanda bafatanirije hamwe.” Intsinzi yavugwaga ni ukwica abatutsi kuko ibyo ku rugamba bitari ukuri. Intsinzi yari ijyanye n’icyo Kabasha “intego” leta yiyemeje, ariyo “kurwanya umwanzi”.

Nkuko bigaragara mu nyandikomvugo “y’Inama y’umutekano” yasinywe na Perefe Clement Kayishema abari muri iyo nama ni aba:

O01. KAMBANDA Jean, Minisitiri w’Intebe

002. KAYISHEMA Clement, Perefe wa Perefegitura Kibuye

003. NDINDABAHIZI Enmanuel, Minisitiri w’Imali

004. NIYITEGEKA Eliezer,  Minisitiri w’Itangazamakuru

005. KAREMERA Edouard, Vise Perezida wa Mbere w’Ishyaka  rya M.R.N.D. mu  rwego rw’Igihugu

006. Dr MUREGO Donat, Umunyamabanga Mukuru wa M.D.R. mu Rwego w’Igihugu

007.  MUNYAMPUNDU Sipiriyani, Umunyamabanga Mukuru mu Nama y’lgihugu  Iharanira Amajyambere

008.  SEBITABI Alphonse, Depite mu Nama ytIgihugu  Iharanira Amajyambere

009. TWAGIRUMlKIZA Marc, Conseiller A.J.A.  (  Primature 1.

010. HITIYAREMYE Mathias, Responsable  Régional du MIFAPROFE a KIBUYE

011.  BUGINGO Yozefu,  Umukozi wa Perefegitura Kibuye

012. KABANDANA Deo, Umukozi wa Perefegitura KIBUYE

013. MUSHIMIYIMANA  Joram, Directeur Generale d’Air  Rwanda

014. UWIMANA J. Baptiste,  Sous-Prefet  de Sous-préfecture BIRAMBO

015. Dr. HITIMANA  Leonard, Médecin Hôpital Kibuye

016. KABASHA Tarcisse, Burugumesitiri wa Komini BWAKIRA

07  RWAGATARE Albert,  Sous-Prefet de Préfecture  Kibuye

016. BENIMANA Raphael, Burugmesitiri wa KominiRUTSIRO

019. HAKIZIKANA  Froduard, Sous-Prefet de Prefecture Kibuye

020. NDIMBATI ALoys, Burugumesltiri wa Komini GISOVU

021. BAGILISHMA Ignace, Burugumesitiri wa Komini MABANZA

022. NDUHURA André, Président C.D.R.  KIBUYE

023. KAJEGUHAKWA Eliezer, Evangéliste d’Eglise  Apostolique KIBUYE

024. KAYONGA Jean-Baptiste, Visi-perezida M.R.N.D.  KIBUYE

025. FURERE Abel,  Burugumesitiri wa Kominl RWAMATAMU

026. KARARA Augustin, Burugumesitiri wa Komini GITESI

027. MURAGIZI Gabriel, Burugumesitiri wa Komini MWENDO

028. SIKUBWABO Charles, Burugumesitiri wa Komini GISHYITA

029. NGABIMANA Alexis, Chef du Service Central de Renseignement

030. GASHONGORE Fabien, Sous-Prefet de Préfecture KIBUYE

031. MUNYANKINDI Phenias, Umujyanama wa  Rwabisindu RWAMATAMU

032. HABIMANA Joseph, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

033. KABERA Bernardin, Président wa M.R.N.D.  Commune MWENDO

034. NGIRABABYEYI Etienne,  Conseiller Communal GITESI

035. KAMENGERI Dieudonné, Pasteur de LIE.E.P. Commune RUTSIRO

036. NTAVEHO  Etienne, Pasteur Representant Regional wa A.E.B.R./KIBUYE

037. BUREGEYA Froduard, Conseiller Communal GITESI

038. BARAJIGINYWA Barnabé, Perezida w’Ishyaka  Parti-Liberal Commune GITESI

039. KAGEMANA J.M.V.,  Conseiller Communal GITESI

040. UKOBIZABA Emmanuel, Conseiller Communal GITESI

041. MICOMYIZA Evode.  Directeur du G.S.  APAPEGI

042. BAHATI Félix, Encaprejeuma KIBUYE

043. TWAGIRAYESU Tharcisse, Responsable S.  F.  P.  KIBUYE

044. NZABAMWITA  Ézéchiel, Président  du Parti M.R.N.D.  Commune GISOVU

045. RUBERANZIZA Martin, Responsable du CPDFP KIBUYE

046. SEBARERA Théophile, Directeur Centre Scolaire  MUKUNGU (GISOVU

047. NDAMAGE Télésphore, Directeur Centre Scolaire  NYARUTAGARA (GISOVU)

048. NGEMYO  Abidan, Directeur du G.S.M.L.  de GISOVU

049. NTAMATUNGIRO Simon, Umukozi wa Perefegitura KIBUYE

050. KAGABA Enos, Directeur Adjoint de l’ESI MUGONER0

051. HITIMANA Jean, Agent de l’U B P R KIGALI

052. RUZIGANA Michel J. Leonard, Entreprise ECOHYRWA-membre du Conseil Préfectoral de Kibuye

053. NTAKIRUTIWA Esdrasi, Directeur wa E S A P A N

054. NSENGIYUMVA Casimir, Directeur w’Ishuli  rya GASENYI

055. MUNYANEZA J.  Bosco, Agent du S F P K

056. LUBEMBO Christophe,  Directeur du Collège  Evangélique  de la Pair-RUTSIRO

057. KARERA Augustin, Conseiller au MINESUPRES

058. SERUBIBI Soter, Responsable wa Cellule  A I P K

059.  RWARAKABIJE  J.Bosco, Représentant Légale  l’Eglise  Evangélique  de la Paix

060. Dr. Gérard NTAKIRUTIMANA, Médecin, Hôpital MUGONERO

061. KUNYANDEKWE Jeovanis,  Agent du CO.P.P.M.AR

062. KUBWIMANA Jean, Agent SONARWA KIBUYE

063. BISENGIMANA Cyriaque, Président M.R.N.D.  Commune GITESI

064. SIBOMANA  Daniel, Chef du Volet Suivi-Evaluation a  D R S A

065. BUGABO  Hilaire, Chef du Centre de Pèche de Kibuye

066. TWAGIRA Charles, Médecin Directeur de la Région Sanitaire KIBUYE

067. Dr NTEZILIZAZA Eulade, Delegue de l’ONAPO  a KIBUYE

068. IYAMUREMYE Fidele, Receveur  des Douanes KIBUYE

069. RUTABAGISHA François, RWANDATEL KIBUYE

070. NIYONZIMA Nicodème,  I A  de jointeur RWANDATEL  S A KIBUYE

071. NTIYAMIRA François, RWANDATEL KIBUYE

072. UWIZEYIMANA J. Chrysostome, Tribunal de Première Instance Kibuye A  Birambo. Jugistance

073. KWIZERA Aaron, Parquet Birambo

074. MIHIGO Juvénal, Vice-Presidinstance KIBUYE

075. NKUNBWE Apollinaire, Premier Substitut au parquet KIBUYE

076. Pasteur NDUTIYE Bernard, Représentant Légal de l’Eglise Evangélique Luthérienne au Rwanda

077. NKILIYE Ildefonse, Responsable Adjoint de la CAPAD

078. NIZEYIMANA Gabriel, Inspecteur d’Arrondissement  Adjoint

079. KAMANZI Joseph, Responsable de l’Agence  SONARWA KIBUYE

080. NKAKA Ezéchias, Rev. Pasteur  ADEPAR KARENGERA

081. NKUNDIMANA Théophile, Agent des Postes

082. NTIBESHA Fidele, Chef de service statistique  KIBUYE

083. SAFARI Justin, C.S.R.  KIBUYE

084. NSENGIYUMVA  François X.,  Directeur de l’UGZ1

085. RWABUKWISI, Secrétaire Préfectoral M.D.R.  KIBUYE

086. KARUGEMA Jean, Presicanto, MWENDO

087. Pr NTAKIRUTIMANA  Elizephan, Président Association de l’Eglise Adventiste du 7eme jour KIBUYE

088. BUTERA Mathias, Etudiant  l’UNR – CUB/ ING.11 AGIRO

089. NYARUGWIZA Joseph,  OCIR – THE  GISOVU

090. NAMUHORANYE Athanase, Division Gestion du Personnel sec. M1NEPRISEC

091. NDINDABO J. Damascène,  P S D KIBUYE

092. NYANGURUNDI Laurent,  Service  Agricole KIBUYE

093. GAHAMANYI Anastase, Directeur ISAR-GAKUTA-GISOVU

094. MURERA Raphael, Directeur Adjoint Bibliothèque U.N.R.  RUHENGERI

095. MASTAKI Albert, Charge Personnel COLAS

096. HABIMANA Tatien, Gérant du Guest House-KIBUYE

097. HITIYAREMYE André,  Chef Division Domaine MINITRAPE

098. NIYONGIRA Janvier, Inspecteur des Impôts MINIFIN

099. BALIHIMA Jean Damascène, Secrétaire Régional de la C.C.R.

100. HALINDINTWALI Festus

101. UTAZI Martin, Service Verification

102. MUNYANEZA Placide, Technicien RWANDATEL KIBUYE

103. MUHIMANA  Michée,  Conseiller Communal GISHYITA

104. SIBOMANA Philippe, Commerçant KIGALI

105. RUZINDANA Obed, Commerçant Transporteur KIGALI-KIBUYE

106. AHISHAKIYE Odette, Agent de Préfecture KIBUYE

107. KAMPANE Claudette, Agent de Prefecture KIBUYE

108. HATUNGIMANA Theoneste, Agent de Préfecture KIBUYE

109. BANYURWANIKI Mathias,  Conseiller Communal RUTSIRO

110. BATWARE Simon,  Conseiller Communal RUTSIRO

111. RUTAGANIRA Vincent, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

121. SEGATARAMA Simon,  Conseiller Communal GISOVU

113. NYILINDEKWE Aaron, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

114. MUNYANSHONGORE Uzias, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

115. NDUTIYE Etienne,  Conseiller, Communal RWAMATAMU

116. BASENYERUWENDA Elie, Président  M.R.N.D.  Commune RUTSIRO

117. NYIRASAFALI Véronique,  Comptable Commune RUTSIRO

118. GASUMBA  Joseph, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

119. RUGAGAZA Abdan, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

120. MUNYAMPIRWA  Félicien, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

121. RUFUKU Fabien, Conseiller Communal GISOVU

122. MUNYESHAKA Cyriaque, Conseiller Communal BWAKIRA

123. MUGABONAKE Cyprien, Conseiller Communal BWRKIRA

124. NKULIKIYINKA, Conseiller Communal BWAKIRA

125. NSHOGOZA Emmanuel

126. SEMUHUNGU Gérard, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

127. MUKOTANYI Martin, Conseiller Communal GITESI

128. NGEZENUBWO Fréderic, Conseiller Communal GITESI

129. HAVUGIMANA Athanase,  Président P.L.  MWENDO

130. NAMBAJIMANA François, Umujyanama wa  Komini GITESI

131. MBANDANYI Enias,  Conseiller Communal BWAKIRA

132. NDESHAMANZI Phénias,  Inspecteur de Secteur Scolaire GITESI

133. NZABAMWITA Charles, Gérant B.C.R.  KIBUYE

134. REBERO Joseph, Surveillant des P 6  CH KIBUYE

135. TUMUSIFU Pater,  Inspecteur des B C H  U.  KIBUYE

136. HAKIZAMUNGU Emmanuel, Chef du réseau ELECTROGAZ KIBUYE

137. NSANZIMANA Emmanuel, Etudiant

138. HARELIMANA Simon, Chef de Poste KILINDA  (ELECTROGAZ)

139. NTAHONTUYE J.M.Vianney,  Dirprison KIBUYE

140. HAKIZIMANA Thomas, Chef adjoint-Garage MINITRAPEE

141. HISHAMUNDA Charles, Conseiller RUTISRO

142. KANYEMANZA Anastase, Agent de Recensement RUTSIRO

143. HAVUGIMANA Hesron, Chef de Poste ELECTROGAZ KARONCI

144. NYOMBAYIRE François, Contrôleur des Finances Publiques KIBUYE

145. NGAMIJIYAREMYE Janvier, Directeur a.i.  D S A KIBUYE

146. NTAMUKUNZI Joué,  Professeur a  1′ESI  KILINDA

147. RWABUKERA Manassé,  Conseiller Communal RWAMATAMU

148. HATEGEKIMANA Emmanuel- Enseignant

149. NGILIMANA Chadrack, Conseiller Communal RWAMATAMU

150. MURWANASHYAKA J. Bosco, Gérant B L RWAMATAMU

151. MYANDAGARA Éliam – Prudent, Agent de cadre B C R

152. NAYABO Ildefonse, Professeur  1′E.D.A.  BIRAMBO

153. REBERO Théophile, Professeur &  Evangéliste au Groupe Scolaire  KARENGERA

154.  IYAMUREMYE Aaron, C/O  COBRA SECURITE KIGALI

155. MAJYAMBERE, MAS0

156. RWABAGINA Boniface, Mwalimu wlItorero  rya Pantecote ku Kibuye

157. MBERABAGABO  Léopold, Nikorera ku giti cyanjye

158. MUNYWRAZA Faustin, M.R.N.D.  Segiteri Kagunga MWENDO

159. UKOBIZABA Aminadabu, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

160.  SEUHAGO Damien, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

161.  SEBASHI Célestin, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

162. SEKABWA Samuel, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

163. URAYENEZA Boniface, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

164. MUGENARUGAMBA, Conseiller Communal MWENDO

165. NIYIBIZl Emmanuel, Inspecteur des Secteur Scolaire MWENDO

166.  NSANZIMANA André,  Intendant de 1′Ecole Secondaire de GASENYI

167. NAMBAJIMANA Martin, Responsable Programme ALPHA au Projet Lutte contre la famine

168.  BAVAKURE Marc, Pasteur E.M.L.R.  KIBUYE

169.  Padiri MAINDRON Gabriel, Cure de la Crète Nil

170. NZARORA Raphaël, F A B/ASC RWAMATAMU

171. MUGAMBIRA Aphrodis,  Commerçant

172. NSENGIYUMVA Marcellin, Directeur E S I  KILINDA

173. MURINDANGWA Vincent, Umuhinzi

174. UZAMUKUNDA Prudence, Secrétaire Cellule A I  P K

175. KAREMANCINM Alexis.  Conseiller Communal RWAMATAMU

176. GASAGARA Elie, Directeur  Adjoint des Projets IDA Education

177. MUGANGA Salathiel, Agent de Banque  BACAR

178. MURENZI RUREMESHA Éphrem, Commerçant  BIRAMBO

179. SEMIRINDI Moise, Commerçant BWAKIRA

180. BANKUNDIYE Ismaël, conseiller Communal RWAMATAMU

181. GASHUMBA Jean Baptiste, Conseiller Communal BWAKIRA

182. RULIKIBAYE Simon, Représentant M.D.R.  BWAKIRA

183. NTAWIRUKANAYO Fidel, Directeur de 1′I.P.K. KIRINDA

184. Dr KAMANZI Antoine, Directeur de l’K6pital  KIRINDA

185. A.M.  NSENGIYUMVA Leonard, Responsable du centre de Transfusion  Sanguine de KIBUYE

186. RWABUKERA Ephraem, Agent de 1′Etat GITESI

187. HABIYAMBERE  Naphtal, Pasteur de 1′E.M.L.R.  GITESI (KIBUYE)

188. SINDIHOKUBWABO  Léon Fidele, Conseiller Communal BWAKIRA


FDLR : Ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside ntigombera imyaka y’amavuko, irigishwa

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Na: Tom Ndahiro

Intangiriro

Mu kiganiro cyayo, Imvo n’Imvano yo kuwa 8 na 15 Kamena 2013, Radio BBC Gahuzamiryango yagihariye impaka zijyanye n’uko leta y’u Rwanda ikwiye gushyikirana n’umutwe uzwi ku izina rya FDLR. Umwanya icyo kiganiro cyamaze ku maradiyo ni iminota magana abiri na mirongo ine kuko buri munsi cyahise kabiri (120X 2).

Muri icyo kiganiro humvikanyemo abatemera ko iyo mishyikirano ikwiriye kubaho n’abavuga ko ikwiriye kubaho. Numvaga ibyo biganiro ndi ku ruhande rw’abatemera ko iyo mishyikirano ikwiye kubaho kubera zimwe mu mpamvu batanze muri icyo kiganiro kirekire cyanamaze hafi iminsi 14 kuri murandasi (internet). Kubera ko ukiyobora, ariwe Mugenzi Ally Yusufu, asanzwe yishimira guhitisha ibitekerezo bishyigikira cyangwa byamamaza ibisa na FDLR, umwanya munini wahariwe abavuga ko leta y’u Rwanda ikwiye kwemera iyo mishyikirano ikabaho.

Abakurikiranye icyo kiganiro bazibuka ibyavuzwe na ba Dr. Gasana Anastase, Dr. Kambanda Charles, Jenerali Kayumba Nyamwasa, Emmanuel Habyarimana, Enock Ruberangabo n’abandi nk’abo harimo n’umuyobozi w’ikiganiro ubwe.  Muri icyo kiganiro Imvo n’Imvano, byarumvikanaga ko Mugenzi yari yarafashe umwanya uhagije wo gushakisha impamvu zishinjura FDLR ko atari umutwe w’iterabwoba ariko akaba yarabuze umwanya wo kubona ko ari umutwe ugendera ku ngengabitekerezo ya jenoside n’iterabwoba n’ubwo kuri murandasi ubuhamya n’ibyemezo bihagije bihari.

Iyi nyandiko ntitanga impamvu nshya, ahubwo irasobanura ku buryo bwimbitse, biturutse ku bushakashatsi, igituma FDLR ikwiye gukomeza gufatwa nk’umutwe ushingiye ku ngengabitekerezo ya jenoside.

Iyi nyandiko kandi ntiyibanda ku bikorwa by’iterabwoba bya FDLR, kuko ari uburyo bumwe gusa ikoresha bwo kuzuza imigambi yayo. Cyakora haranagaragazwa ko mubyo FDLR yigisha abasirikare bayo n’abasivili bari munsi y’ubutegetsi bwayo, birimo ibinyoma bigamije gutera ubwoba abashaka kwitandukanya nayo. Iyi nyandiko inagaragaza ko ingengabitekerezo ya FDLR atari umwihariko wayo ahubwo ifite aho ishamikiye.

1 Kubaho kwa FDLR

Nyuma yo gutsindwa kwa guverinoma y’abajenosideri mu 1994, aho bari mu nkambi mu gihugu cyahoze cyitwa Zaire, abayobozi ba Ex-FAR bashyirishijeho umutwe wiswe Rassemblement pour le Retour des Réfugiés et la Démocratie au Rwanda/ Ihuliro Liharanira Itahuka ry’impunzi na Demokrasi mu Rwanda (RDR)[1] ukaba waraje guhinduka Rassemblement Républicain pour la Démocratie au Rwanda/ Ihuriro Rishingiye kuri Repubulika Riharanira Demokarasi mu Rwanda. Uwo mutwe ukaba warashinzwe ugendera ku matwara n’ingengabitekerezo yo gusoza umugambi batashoje wa jenoside. Nyuma yo gusenywa kw’inkambi zo mu ntara za Kivu y’Amajyepfo n’iy’Amajyaruguru haje gushingwa umutwe wiyise Peuple en Action pour Liberer le Rwanda (PALIR)[2] ukagira n’umutwe wawo w’ingabo witwa ALIR[3]. Uwo mutwe ukaba waragabye ibitero byinshi mu Rwanda, ndetse ukaba waranafashwaga na Leta ya DRC yanagize uruhare mw’ ishingwa ryawo. Uwo mutwe wa PALIR, ukaba ariwo waje kwiyita FDLR.

1.1. Jenoside igizwe n’Ingengabitekerezo kandi irigishwa

Mu bavuganira FDLR, benshi bagaragaza ko ntaho ihuriye na jenoside, ngo kubera ko benshi mubayigize ari bato cyane ku buryo nta ruhare baba baragize mu kurimburwa kw’abatutsi mu mwaka w’1994. Ibi ababivuga ntabwo bumva ko kuba muto, uyoborwa n’abantu bakuru bagize uruhare muri Jenoside ari ikibazo gikomeye kandi gikwiye kwitabwaho by’umwihariko.

Kugirango umenye FDLR icyo aricyo ni ukumenya ingengabitekerezo ishingiyeho, ukanamenya ibyo abayobozi bayo bigisha abayoboke babo. Byabaye ngombwa gukora ubushakashatsi bwo kumenya uwo mutwe n’icyo ari cyo umuntu abivuye imuzi, hibandwa ku nyandiko n’ubuhamya.

 

1.1.1. Ingengabitekerezo iranga FDLR n’imitwe yakomotseho

a. PALIR

Ubushakashatsi bwahereye kuri PALIR. Muri Kanama 2000, Komite nyobozi ya PALIR yashyize ahagaragara imfashanyigisho ku ngengabitekerezo yayo yise “TUMENYE KANDI TURWANYE UMWANZI WACU”.[4] Iyi nyandiko ikaba itanga imirongo migari y’ibitekerezo byaranze uyu mutwe n’iyawusimbuye mu nyito gusa.

Muri iyo mfashanyigisho harimo igice kinini bise “Uburyo abatutsi bakoresheje ngo basubirane ubutegetsi”.  Havugwamo ibitero by’inyenzi muri za 1960, aho ibitero byaturutse n’abo byahitanye, bakavuga ko byibasiraga “abahutu bakomeye” bakicwa urubozo.

Banigisha n’icyo bise “Ibindi bikorwa abatutsi bakoresheje byo kwunganira intambara zabo.” Ibivugwa muri iyi nyandiko ni:

  • Guhindura ubwoko: abatutsi bihindura abahutu mu mpapuro z’ubutegetsi nk’amarangamuntu, bityo ngo bahabwe imyanya yiyongera ku y’abandi batutsi, maze babe benshi mu butegetsi, babone nko kubucengera babuneke;
  • Gushyingira abahutu abatutsikazi (kugira ngo babaneke);
  • Gucengera amadini kugeza ubwo biganza mu bihayimana;
  • Kwinywanisha n’abahutu bakomeye mu butegetsi bwa gisirikare n’abanyapolitiki bakoresheje cyane cyane igitsina gore n’amafaranga; [5]
  • Gucengeza irondakarere mu bahutu n’irondakoko mu batutsi;
  • Gusebya ubutegetsi bw’abahutu mu mahanga n’ibindi byinshi.

Banavuga ko abatutsi bigwijeho umutungo bakanaba ibikoresho by’amahanga ya mpatsibihugu. Ngo mu Rwanda abatutsi bategekana n’abagande, abanyamerika, n’abandi benshi. Banavuga ko hagamijwe gushinga icyo bita Empire Hima-Tutsi. Bati abatutsi n’abahima bafite mu migambi yabo mibisha, kwigarurira uturere twa Karagwe na Buha two muri Tanzaniya.

Muri icyo gice kandi bavuga iby’intambara yo kuva muri 1990, bita iy’Inyenzi-Nkotanyi. Muri make bakavuga ko Inkotanyi zashakaga ibi bikurikira:

  • Kwigarurira abahutu kw’abatutsi bagafata ubutegetsi ku ngufu kandi bakabwikubira;
  • Gutsemba abahutu ngo kugeza ubwo umwana w’umututsi azajya abaza ngo “umuhutu yasaga ate?”;
  • Kugarura mu Rwanda ingoma ya Cyami n’ibijyanye nayo;
  • Gusibanganya ibikorwa by’umuhutu mu mateka y’u Rwanda;
  • Kwigarurira ku ngufu imitungo y’abahutu; no
  • Gupyinagaza abahutu n’abatwa.[6]

Muri izo nyigisho bigishaga ko hari uburenganzira abahutu batagira: uburenganzira ku mutungo,[7] uburenganzira bw’umwenegihugu,[8] uburenganzira bwo gushinga amashyirahamwe n’uburenganzira ku burezi ku buryo ngo nta burenganzira abahutu bagira bwo kujya mu mashuli.

Ku bijyanye n’Ubutabera bigishaga ko: Abahutu bafungirwa ubusa bafungirwa ahantu habi, imfungwa zikicishwa kubura umwuka; hashyizweho Gacaca igamije kurimbura abahutu benshi mu gihe gito, bikorewe mu mirenge yabo; Abanyururu b’abahutu bategekwa kurya imyanda bitumye no kunywa inkari zabo; kandi ko hari uburetwa bushya bwahawe intebe (servitude légalisée).

Iyo mfashanyigisho isobanura ko mu Rwanda nta demokarasi iharangwa, kandi ko igitugu kiri mu Rwanda kirenze ibindi byabaye kuri iyi si. Bati: “Nta handi hantu habaye inzibacyuho y’imyaka icyenda! Inzibacyuho ya mbere y’imyaka itanu yarangiye umugambi wo kumara abahutu utaragerwaho, maze ngo zibone gukoresha amatora zizeye ko abatutsi bari gusigara ari bo benshi. Niyo mpamvu Inyenzi-Nkotanyi zahisemo kongera iyo nzibacyuho, ngo zibanze zisohoze uwo mugambi wazo mubisha wo kumara abahutu.” Ngo hari “umugambi wo guheza abahutu bose mu nzego z’ubutegetsi, cyane cyane abashyira mu gaciro”.[9]

Mu rwego rw’ubukungu, imibereho myiza y’abaturage n’umuco, PALIR yigisha ibi bikurikira:

Ubutegetsi bw’Inyenzi-Nkotanyi burangwa no gucunga nabi ibya rubanda: … kwangiza ibikorwa by’amajyambere, ibihingwa ngandurarugo n’ingengabukungu ntibigitezwa imbere; Abahinzi babujijwe guhinga ngo inzara ibamare; Leta igusha igiciro cy’umusaruro (w’abahutu) ikazamura igiciro cy’ibikorwa by’abatutsi (nk’inyama n’amata) kugira ngo umuhutu akene maze umututsi azamuke; Gutwika amazu y’abaturage, ibigega by’imyaka ndetse n’ibihingwa ngandurarugo mu mirima…

Muri ayo mateka ya PALIR, Inkotanyi zitirirwa urupfu rwa ba Gapyisi, Rwambuka, Bucyana, Gatabazi, Habyarimana, n’abandi. Bakavuga ko urupfu rwa Habyarimana zabukoresheje ngo zigere ku butegetsi. Ngo zikaba zaranakwirakwije ibikoresho mu gihugu, harimo:  Bisesero na paruwasi ya Nyange.

b. RDR

Muri uwo mwaka hasohokaga imfashanyigisho ya PALIR ntatindaho cyane muri iyi nyandiko, hari hanasohotse igisa nayo cyandikiwe i Burayi na RDR. Iyo nyandiko ni igitabo cyitwa UMURAGE W’AMATEKA cyanditswe kikanatangazwa na RDR mu mwaka w’2000.[10] Iki gitabo cy’impapuro 127 gikubiyemo byinshi biranga ingegabitekerezo y’abajenosideri. Igitabo kigaragaza ko cyateguriwe kuba inyigisho y’amateka.

Imirongo migari y’ibiri muri iki gitabo, ndetse n’interuro nyishi zikirimo bikomoka mu nyandiko zanditswe mbere. Zimwe muri izo nyandiko ni iyakozwe n’Ubuyobozi bukuru bw’ingabo (ex-FAR)-Ibiro bya kabiri (G2)[11] mu mwaka w’1995[12]. Hari n’indi nyandiko yakozwe n’abari mu ishami rya RDR mu gihugu cya Cameroun muri Kamena 1996.[13]

Gahunda yo guhindura Amateka no gukwirakwiza ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside byanakozwe na Sindikubwabo Theodore na Jean Kambanda bamaze kugera muri Zaire biyitaga ko ari ‘leta y’u Rwanda ikorera mu buhungiro’. Iyo ngirwa lLta yashyizeho amatsinda agomba gutegura izo nyigisho. Rimwe muri ayo matsinda riyobowe na Nkurunziza Charles ryakoze inyandiko yashingiweho na RDR bandika UMURAGE W’AMATEKA.[14] Ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside kandi iboneka mu nyandiko ya FDLR y’impapuro 83 mu rurimi rw’igifaransa.[15] Iyo nyandiko inafite n’indi mu ncamake mu cyongereza [16], zombi zikaba ziri kuli internet.

Ijambo ry’ibanze ry’ UMURAGE W’AMATEKA ryanditswe n’umucengezamatwara wa jenoside witwa Charles Ndereyehe Ntahontuye.[17] Ndereyehe yabaye perezida wa RDR asimbuye Nzabahimana Francois, hanyuma aza gusimburwa na Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza. Ibitekerezo byabo ni ubwo bavuga ngo ni “Ukutavuga rumwe na FPR-Inkotanyi”, muby’ukuri ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside niyo ibaranga nkuko inyandiko zabo n’amateka ya RDR bibigaragaza.[18]

Benshi muri abo bitwa ko batavuga rumwe na Leta y’u Rwanda nasanze izina ryabo ryari rikwiye kuba “abatavuga ukuri”; “abashyigikira ubugome”; “abatavuga rumwe n’abashyira mu gaciro”; “abashuka rubanda”; “abanga ukuri”… n’andi mazina yaba akwiranye n’ibyo bakora cyangwa bavuga.[19]

Icyo gitabo ni ibitekerezo bya RDR bemera kandi bemeye gutangaza kuko ibikubiyemo ilyo huliro “ribyemera, kandi mu bacyanditse hakaba halimo n’abayoboke ba RDR.”[20] Mw’ijambo ry’ibanze barashishikariza abantu gusoma ikinyamakuru cyabo “Forum Rwandais”cyacapwaga kandi kikanaba kuli internet.

Ibyanditswe muri ako gatabo n’ibyo bashishikariza abasomyi “iby’ingenzi” bigaragaza ingengabitekerezo ya RDR n’aho ihuriza na FDLR. RDR yifuza ko abasoma ako gatabo babikora bitonze, bakagacengera, bakakaganiraho, maze ibitekerezo birimo bikabafasha mu nzira yo “gutunganya politiki y’igihugu cyacu mu bihe bizaza.”[21] Iyo ugereranyije ibyandikirwaga mu mashyamba ya DR Congo n’ibyandikirwaga i Burayi byumvikanisha icyo ingengabitekerezo mbi ikora mu mitwe y’abayifite. Baririmba imwe kandi batari kumwe.

Mu gitabo cyabo bagira bati: “Twibutse ko FPR…yahimbwe n’abana b’abatutsi bahunze muri 1959 bagamije kwisubiza ubutegetsi bambuwe na Revolisiyo yabaye uwo mwaka bahunzemo iyobowe n’abahutu. Muri uko gushaka gufata ubutegetsi FPR ikagira imigambi yo gutsemba abahutu ihereye ku b’ingenzi, cyane cyane abize kuko itashobora kubategekana igihugu ngo bayemerere. …Uko kurimbura abahutu bagasigaza bake batize bo kubahingira no kubakoresha imirimo y’uburetwa nka mbere ya 1959, binagaragarira cyane ku bantu batahutse, abize bose baricwa bagasigaza abasaza n’abakecuru rukukuri, n’abandi bahutu bake batazi gusoma no kwandika. Biraboneka cyane kandi no mu byaro aho FPR yamaze abantu bose bize, batayiyobotse kuva kera.”[22]

Urebye ibitekerezo bya INGABIRE Victoire Umuhoza n’abandi bitwa abanyapolitiki bahora bahabwa urubuga na BBC-Gahuzamiryango, nta soko yindi y’ibitekerezo uretse ingengabitekerezo yigishijwe muli RDR, PALIR n’icyo yaje guhinduka cyitwa FDLR. Mubyo bavuga usangamo kwigereranya n’abategerejweho agakiza, no kwibonamo abantu bashyira mu gaciro.

Uwitwa Nkiko Nsengimana, wari wungirije Ingabire Victoire muri FDU-Inkingi arabaza ngo: “Ni nde Munyarwanda waba ufite udusigisigi twa Muntu mu mutima we no mu mibereho ye ya buri munsi ushobora guhunza amaso, agaterera agati mu ryinyo, akavunira ibiti mu matwi, maze akaruca akarumira imbere y’amaganya, amarira, iminiho n’imiborogo by’Abanyarwanda muri iki gihe?”

Akisubiza ngo “Ni yo mpamvu mbararikiye impinduramatwara nshya FDU-INKINGI ibereye kw’isonga. Niba Revolisiyo ya 59 yarashobotse, ingoma ya cyami igahirima hakimikwa Repubulika yashimangiwe na Kamarampaka, ni uko abari kw’isonga ry’iyo Revolisiyo banze kwemera akaje bagahitamo kwitanga ngo barengere inyungu za Rubanda.”[23]

c. Isano hagati y’ubukangurambaga bwa PALIR, RDR na FDLR

Mu mfashanyigisho ya PALIR handitsemo ko bigisha bifashishije uburyo bukurikira: Inama zateguwe; ubutumwa bugenewe abaturage; na taragiti. Banigishiriza kandi mu biganiro bisanzwe: mu miryango, hagati y’inshuti, mu bitaramo, mu rugendo n’ikindi cyose gishoboka; mu binyamakuru cyangwa no ku maradiyo (mu gihe byaba bishobotse).[24] Nkuko byatangajwe n’ikinyamakuru The Economist (27 March 2003) FDLR yanakoresheje Radio Sun binyuze k’uwahoze ari umuvugizi wayo Alexis Nshimyimana[25] uba muri Austria, mu kiganiro cye cyo mu rurimi rw’Ikinyarwanda cyitwa ‘Izuba ry’Ibiyaga bigali’. Uwo Nshimyimana, kimwe na Ndereyehe bari mu bantu batangije CRP.

Mw’iriburiro ry’iyo nyandiko, bavugamo ko uwo PALIR igomba kurwanya ari FPR bita “nkoramaraso” bakongeraho “n’undi wese waza agamije gupfobya revolisiyo ya rubanda ya 59 n’ibyiza byayo…”[26] Bakongeraho ko “ubwo butegetsi buriho muri iki gihe mu Rwanda, bwagiyeho mu nzira zinyuranye na demokarasi, hafi miliyoni yose y’abahutu ibanje kwicwa kuva mu Ukwakira 1990.”[27]

Muri izo nyigisho PALIR ivuga ko uwo yahagurukiye kurwanya ari, “umututsi ugitekereza ko ari we nyir’u Rwanda wenyine …abishingiye ku bwibone, ubwirasi, kwikuza, n’ubugome bye, kugira ngo akandamize, kandi atsembe abo badahuje ubwoko … ashaka kugera ku migambi ye yo gufata ubutegetsi, atsembye abahutu.”[28] Ari mu nyigisho ya ex-FAR[29] na FDLR[30] babisuramo.

Iyo mfashanyigisho isobanura ko umututsi ari we uhoza abantu mu ntambara, ko ari we gashozantambara, kubera amayeri n’ibinyoma,[31] icyo PALIR igamije kikaba ari “uguhagarika itsembabahutu, rubanda rukishyira rukizana mu gihugu cyabo”.

Umuyobozi wa PALIR agasoza iryo riburiro agira ati: “Tumenye byimazeyo umwanzi wacu, duhaguruke tumurwanye twivuye inyuma. Intwaro yacu ibe KWIZERA IMANA – KUNGA UBUMWE – GUHARANIRA AMAHORO N’UBUTABERA.”[32]

Mu ncamake y’Amateka, bavuga uko abatutsi bambuye abahutu ubutegetsi, “bahereye ku mayeri yo kubacengera, biha gusa nabo, babashyingira abakobwa babo b’abatutsikazi, babaha inka n’amata, bananywana nabo.” Banavuga ko ngo bamaze kubacengera, babasubiranishijemo.

Bavuga ko ubutegetsi bw’abatutsi bwaranzwe n’ubwicanyi n’ubugome,[33] ngo ku buryo abahutu bakomeje kwicwa, hagasigara abemeye kuba abacakara n’ibihungetwe. Ngo umuhutu yari yarambuwe uburenganzira bwose, uhereye ku burenganzira bwo kubaho, ngo akicwa nk’ikimonyo ashinyaguriwe.

Muri ayo mateka, bavugamo ko ngo ku bw’abazungu, revolisiyo ya rubanda, icyayiteye n’ibyo bayikesha, harimo amatora, Repubulika n’ubwigenge. Mu byaranze u Rwanda nyuma y’1959, ntaho bagaragaza iyicwa ry’ibihumbi by’abatutsi n’abandi bakaba impunzi, bavugamo gusa ko ibyiza abanyarwanda bagezeho “baje kubivutswa n’Inyenzi-Inkotanyi zateye u Rwanda zigafata ubutegetsi ku ngufu muw’1994.” Kwumva icyo bashimira ibyabaye mu 1959 ni ibisobanuro bya RDR mu UMURAGE W’AMATEKA.[34]

Mu ijambo ry’ibanze ry’akanyamakuru gashya ka RDR kitwa Rwanda Rwacu Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza, nk’umuyobozi mushya w’uwo mutwe, abwira abasomyi ngo: “FPR ibereyeho gutegekesha igitugu no gusahura …RDR ibereyeho kuba ijwi rya Rubanda!”[35] Ibyo ngo bikaba ari byo byatumye RDR yiha inshingano yo ‘kuzafata ubutegetsi mu gihugu’ kugira ngo ‘ubutegetsi bw’abaturage busubizwe abaturage babe ari bo bigenera ababayobora. Ingabire ati: “Ubu RDR ifite inshingano zo gusobanurira amahanga ukuri kw’ubwicanyi bwabaye mu Rwanda.”[36]

Ubwo bwicanyi Ingabire atavuga ko ari jenoside, ngo “ FPR irabwitwaza, kugeza magingo aya nibwo ntwaro yayo mu mahanga, ikirengagiza uruhare runini ifite muri ubwo bwicanyi no mu guhungabanya umutekano w’ igihugu kuva m’Ukwakira 1990 ubwo yagabaga igitero ifashijwe n’ ingabo za Uganda.”[37]

Umwanditsi mukuru wa Rwanda Rwacu, Eric Bahembera, yamamaza UMURAGE W’AMATEKA  ko ari “igitabo cyanditswe mu Kinyarwanda n’ impuguke mu by’ amateka kigasohorwa na RDR. Kandi kikaba “kigenewe cyane cyane kwigisha urubyiruko rwo “Rwanda rw’ ejo” amateka y’ igihugu cyababyaye.”[38] Uku kwandika amateka agoretse yuzuyemo urwango, ni uburozi batanga bagamije guhumanya abato kugirango ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside ikomeze. Ibi ni nabyo bikorwa muri FDLR ku ngengabitekerezo bakwiza mu rubyiruko rutagize uruhare muri jenoside.

RDR ishinja FPR ko ngo yirengagije ugucyura impunzi nkuko byateganywaga n’amasezerano y’amahoro ya Arusha ngo bikorwa ‘mu kaduruvayo’. “Aho kubyitaho, FPR yahubuje impunzi hose zititeguye, ngo nizize zibohoze amazu n’ ibintu by’abahutu baciwe mu gihugu. Muri uwo muvundo hivanzemo abanyamahanga ngo bo kugwiza umubare. Bapfaga gusa kuba ari abasore b’intarumikwa zo kwica no kurwanira Kagame. Muri iryo tahuka ritizwe neza abana bakuwe mu mashuli baza kuba ba mayibobo i Kigali, inka zikurwa mu nzuri zitoshye ziza kwicwa n’inzara na tsetse mu Mutara wiswe “Tutsiland”(agahugu k’abatutsi ).[39]

1.1.2 Ubuhamya bw’ababaye muri FDLR ku miterere no ku nyigisho zayo

a. Uburyo ubuhamya bwafashwemo

Ku itariki 15 Mutarama 2005, nagiye i Mutobo gutanga inyigisho mu ngando ireba uburenganzira bwa muntu, no kurwanya ivanguramoko.  Abari muri iyo ngando ni abanyarwanda basubizwaga mu buzima busanzwe baza baturutse mu mitwe itandukanye ikorera mu mashyamba ya Kongo (DRC). Iyo mitwe ni FDLR/FOCA, Ingabo z’igihugu cya Kongo (FAC), uwitwa MAYI MAYI, n’abandi.

Kwigisha byonyine ntibyari bihagije, nashatse kumenya ko ibyigishijwe guhera mu mwaka w’2000 byari bigikomeza kuko byari no kumfasha kumenya aho mpera mvuga uburenganzira bwa muntu. Bose nababajije ikibazo kimwe: “Mu mitwe mukomokamo, mwari mufite iyihe ideology” (iyihe ngengabitekerezo)? Ibisubizo nabibasabye mu nyandiko, nanababwira kudashyiraho amazina yabo, kuko bidakenewe. Ibyo byampaye ibisubizo byinshi kandi bigiye bihura, n’ubwo byavuzwe mu magambo anyuranye.

Mu mibarize, nakoresheje ijambo ideology kubera ko nari nzi ko baryumva kandi barizi. Bampaye ibisubizo bitandukanye ariko ibyo nibanzeho, ari na byo nandika ubu, ni iby’abantu bo muri FDLR.

Byinshi mu bisubizo nabonye mu buhamya nabyumvise mu kiganiro IMVO n’IMVANO mu kiganiro cya Radiyo BBC-Gahuzamiryango cyo ku wa 15 Gicurasi 2005 iyo radiyo yagiranye n’abanyarwanda bo mu Majyepfo bari barahungiye i Burundi. Amakuru nahawe na bamwe bari mu nkambi barimo i Burundi, yerekanaga ko FDLR ariyo yabagumuye. Ibyavugiwe muri icyo kiganiro, kimwe n’aho bishamikira birigaragaza.[40]

Ku itariki 24/10/2005, hongeye kubazwa ikibazo nk’icyo, ariko mu buryo buziguye gato. Hari hateguwe urupapuro rufite ahateganijwe izina, hananditseho ko ryandikwa n’ubishatse, hari ibibazo bitatu:

Mu Rwanda ndetse no mu karere k’ibiyaga bigari haba hari abantu/imitwe bafite ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside, ivangura n’amacakubiri? Yego/Oya. Nanababajije ngo: Wari mu wuhe mutwe? Politiki mwarwaniraga cyangwa mwaharaniraga ni iyihe?

Ibisubizo nitayeho byari iby’abakomoka mu mutwe wa FDLR/FOCA. Bikaba ari ibisubizo bigaragaza ko koko ingengabitekerezo yigishwa muri uwo mutwe ari iya jenoside.

Iyo ngengabitekerezo benshi bandikaga ko ari yo bigishwa kandi ikaba ari yo yatumaga bemera no kuba abasirikare bakarwana. Ibitekerezo byatanzwe mu bisubizo, sinashatse kubihina kuko uko biteye bikwereka imyumvire y’ababitangaga, ugasanga abantu baravuga bimwe mu buryo butandukanye.

b. Ubuhamya bw’abanditse amazina ku bisubizo batanze

Mpereye ku bisubizo byatanzwe n’abiyanditse amazina ku mpapuro bahawe. Mbonigaba Eliel yavuze ko intambara barwanaga ari iyo kwitabara. Uko kwitabara, uwitwa Mulindabigwi ati: “Twaharaniraga kurwana ngo twongere tube mu Rwanda, tukarwanya akarengane k’abavandimwe basigaye mu Rwanda,  gufungura imfungwa zari zifunzwe, guhindura ubutegetsi rubanda nyamwinshi ikabona ijambo, kuzemerera abana bacu bakiga ku buntu no kwongerera abakozi imishahara. Kigage Rwesa we yashubije ko ngo bagombaga gufata igihugu kubera ko “ubutegetsi buhari budakunda abantu”.

Habyarimana Innocent yanditse ko ibyo babigishaga “bigaragaza ivangura n’ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside”. Ngo bagendaga basobanurira urubyiruko ko bagomba kugarura ubutegetsi batakaje, ko mu gihugu hagaragaramo ivangura, amacakubiri n’irondakoko ku buryo bukurikira: ko ubutegetsi bw’u Rwanda bugizwe n’abatutsi; ko bagomba guhaguruka bagahirika ingoma ntutsi, ko nta na kimwe bemera cyiza Leta y’Ubumwe yagezeho, no kutazarongora umututsikazi.

Kuli Demokarasi Benoit, politiki barwaniraga ni iyo kubohoza igihugu cyabo ku ngufu. Ati: “Ideologie baduhaga (abahoze ku buyobozi ku ngoma ya Habyarimana no mu rwego rwa gisirikare), batubwiraga ko tugomba kurwana kugeza ku wa nyuma tukibohora, tukabohoza na bene wacu b’abahutu bakandamijwe n’ingoma iri ku butegetsi”.

Uwitwa Maniragaba ati: “Twarwaniraga guhagarika guhora kw’abacitse ku icumu, natwe tugashaka kwihorera; no guha rubanda nyamwinshi ubutegetsi, kwanga ubutegetsi bwa cyami n’ubusa nabwo bwose, no kurenganura abarenganye.”

Ibyo kubohoza u Rwanda kubera ko hari abantu barenganye yabihurijeho na Nzabonimpa Pie. Bakanabihuza n’uwitwa Sadi wavuze ko baharaniraga “gutaha no gutahukana impunzi mu cyubahiro cyazo, gusubizwa uburenganzira, kwiga, kuvuzwa, gusubizwa umutungo, …Gushyiraho ingabo zibereye abaturarwanda bose, kwunga abanyarwanda kuko bahemukiranye, no gusaba amahanga kuba yabibafashamo”.

Sadi akomeza avuga ko intambara yabo kandi yari iyo kugaragariza amahanga ibyabaye kubera amateka y’intambara havutse akajagari, gasenya ibintu, hagira abatakaza ababo muri jenoside, hagira n’abandi bagira umutima udatuje …”

Abitwa Kaparata Edmond na Bizimana Anastase kimwe n’abandi benshi bavuze ko utashye wese bamwica, akaba ari nayo mpamvu abenshi bakiri mu mashyamba, cyane cyane abasivili, kubera ibyo abategetsi ba FDLR babashyiramo. Bizimana Anastase we ahamya ko abayobozi bababuzaga gutaha ari “abazi ibyo bakoze mu Rwanda.” Bakanabigisha ko ngo “Imana yavuze ko igihugu ari icya FDLR n’abanyarwanda.”

Kayitare Lambert, Nkundanyirazo Eugène, Munyaneza Alphonse na Nsanzimana Liberat ngo barwaniraga kurwanya ubwoko Tutsi. Uwitwa Liberat we akongeraho ko “ubutegetsi buriho ari ubw’abicanyi, budatandukanye n’ubwa kera bwa Cyami, abahutu bakaba barabaye abaja”[41].

Uwitwa Nshimiyimana Deo, ngo bigishwaga ko abahutu nta burenganzira bafite, “n’ibindi byinshi bisebya ubuyobozi bw’u Rwanda.” Bakagomba kurwana “Kurenganura imbaga nyamwinshi yarenganye …no Kubohoza igihugu kuko abahutu ari bo bene cyo;[42]

Abdu nawe yunze mu rya bagenzi be ko bagombaga kubohoza igihugu, kandi ko “nta muhutu ugomba kubana n’umututsi, ko nta kurongora umututsikazi … ko hari ingoma ya Cyami, ikiboko cya buri munsi, imirimo y’uburetwa” Ngo bakaba barigishijwe ko Habyarimana yari umubyeyi, FDLR ikaba ari imfubyi ze.

Masumbuko Felicien  we avuga ko abayobozi n’abakangurambaga babo babumvishaga ko “abari mu Rwanda bose ari abanzi bacu, bakatwumvisha ko tugomba kurwana kugira ngo twirukane abanzi bacu mu Rwanda, bakanatubwira ko ubutegetsi bwo mu Rwanda bushinzwe kwica, no gukandamiza umuntu wese utari umututsi, ngo uwo batishe bakamugira umucakara.”

c. Ubuhamya bw’abataranditse amazina ku bisubizo byabo

Ibisubizo by’abatariyanditse amazina, akaba ari nabo bari benshi, byasobanuraga cyane ibyavuzwe n’abiyanditse amazina. Hari abavuga mu mvugo yo gutsinda n’abadaca iruhande.

Umwe mubabajijwe mbere yo gusubiza yabanje gusobanura ingengabitekerezo icyo ari cyo mbere yo kuvuga iyo yize. Ati: “Ideologie: “Umurongo ngenga bitekerezo abantu bari mu muri Parti imwe bagenderaho ndetse n’amatwara yabo. Ati ideologie ya FDLR ni ukurwanya umuntu wese batavuga rumwe, by’umwihariko uwitwa umututsi aho ava akagera. Ati kumurwanya ni: “ugufata intwaro izo ari zo zose, maze umuhutu aho ari hose akitabira urwo rugamba rwo kurwanya uwo mwanzi. Si ibyo gusa: no kubiba mu Banyarwanda, ari bo Bahutu, ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside, kutavuga rumwe n’umututsi, kutabarongoramo, kubanyaga ibyabo, kongera kwisubiza igihugu no kugitegeka uko bishakiye.”

Hari undi nawe wanditse ibyo bigaga mu buryo bw’ingingo zikurikirana nk’uko zanditse.

Ati: Ibyo muri FDLR batwigishaga, bimwe ni ibi:

Abantu batatu batandukanye bavuze ko hari ibyo babigishaga “kwanga” bakabivuga mu buryo butandukanye: “igihugu cy’u Rwanda”; “abaturage bakirimo” na “Leta iriho n’abayigize bose”.

Bigishwaga kutumva ko abo banyarwanda bari mu gihugu ari nkabo kandi ko nta munyarwanda uri mu gihugu, bose ari abanyamahanga, bivuga ko “habaye intambara dushobora kubica abo banyamahanga.” Banabigishaga “Kwanga izina umututsi aho ava hose, kandi tukaguma ku ivanguramoko rya mbere”[43].

 

2. Ubuhamya bwatanzwe n’miterere yihariye

Ibindi bisubizo nabishyize mu byiciro bibiri gusa. Ibivugwa ku Umuhutu uhagarariwe na FDLR n’ibivugwa ku Umututsi uvugwa ku giti cye kandi uhagarariwe n’ubutegetsi.

2.1. Ibivugwa k’Umuhutu

Aho bandika abanyarwanda, nyamwinshi, abarengana n’abantu baba bavuga abahutu. Iki gice kirimo ibyo FDLR yigisha ko iharanira kandi impamvu ikaba ari ukurengera umuhutu berekana ko yahindutse nyiramukubitwa.

Babigisha ko umwanzi ari umututsi kandi uwo mututsi akaba adashobora kwihanganira ko umuhutu agira umutekano, uwo mwanzi bakaba bagomba kumurwanya bakamuvana mu Rwanda. Umwe ati: “Tugomba kurwanya umwanzi (umututsi) twivuye inyuma”. Guhashya umwanzi u Rwanda rukagira amahoro, kandi, ubumwe bwabo akaba ari ngombwa ngo bigerweho. Hari uwanditse ko banigishwaga kumenya ko “umubare munini w’abasigaye mu Rwanda ari abanzi bacu, n’iyo yaba uwo muva inda imwe, cyangwa umubyeyi wawe.” Ku rugamba babaga bavuga ngo “kubita umututsi umusubize iyo yaturutse”;

Ibindi ngo barwanira ni:

  • “Kubohoza u Rwanda no kurenganura abanyarwanda bakandamizwa n’ubutegetsi bw’agatsiko k’abatutsi;
  • “Umuhutu utashye  bamujyana mu nkambi ntagere iwabo ngo amazu bayatuje mo abatutsi”;
  • “Nta munyarwanda kavukire ukiri mu Rwanda, abatishwe bari muri prisons (gereza)”;
  • “Utashye agerekwaho ibyaha atakoze, harimo no kumwandikaho ubwicanyi;”
  • “Nta muhutu upfa kubona akazi, n’abagafite ngo barirukanwa;
  • “Umuhutu ufite akazi mu Rwanda aba ari kimwe n’abatutsi, ariko ko adahembwa nkabo ahembwa make;
  • “Nta muhutu ufite uburenganzira ku gihugu cye;
  • “Nta muhutu wiga muri secondaire cyangwa muri université     ( Kaminuza );
  • “Igihugu gitegekwa n’ubwoko bumwe bw’abatutsi, ari nabo bonyine biga, akaba ari nabo bonyine bagize igisirikare;
  • “Nta muntu ugira uburenganzira bwo gutembera;
  • “Leta ya Kigali ikora genocide intellectual… bashyiraho amashuri ahenze, kandi ntibahe abahutu faveur zo kwiga, bakaziha abatutsi gusa;[44]
  • “Nta muhutu uzi ubwenge uri mu gihugu;
  • “Abategeka u Rwanda baje bagambiriye kwica abahutu kugira ngo babarangize cyangwa babakoronize”;
  • “Iyo umuhutu atashye avuye muri Kongo cyangwa mu kindi gihugu, bahita bamwica, ariko bakabanza kumushyira kuri radio ngo avuge, ahamagarire abandi gutaha, yarangiza kubahamagara bakamwica”;
  • “Iyo umuhutu atashye atemererwa kugera iwabo, ngo n’iyo ahageze bamwicirayo cyangwa bakamufunga, bakamucira imyaka 200 kugeza apfiriyemo;
  • “Uwahoze ari umusoda wa Habyarimana iyo atashye ntibatuma n’ab’iwabo bamubona, bahita bamwica. …n’iyo ashoboye kugera iwabo baramwirukana cyangwa bakamujyana mu karere ka kure, cyangwa muri prison centrale ( gereza nkuru )”;
  • “Intambara barwana ni iy’abahutu bagomba kurwana n’abatutsi bishe abahutu cyane;
  • “Iyo ukwezi kwa kane kugeze, hicwa abahutu basaga ibihumbi magana abiri (200,000);[45]
  • “Iyo abahutu batashye, ufite umugabo bica umugabo, umugore agasigara, niyo mpamvu abagabo bashize bakaba bake;
  • “Bagomba kurwanya agatsiko k’abatutsi babakuye mu gihugu cyabo, kuko bashaka kubagira abakozi babo nk’uko byahozeho kera;
  • “Umuhutu wese uzi ubwenge iyo abonye ibitagenda muri Leta y’Ubumwe akabyanga, bahita bamuhindura interahamwe kugira ngo afungwe burundu cyangwa yicwe;
  • “Umuhutu utahutse bamufata amajwi, bakazayashyira kuri radio bararangije kumwica;
  • “Ingoma ya gihake na gikoronize izatugarukaho;
  • “Bagomba kubohoza abanyarwanda bose bafungiye jenoside;
  • “Barwanira gukuraho ingoma y’abatutsi kuko nta wundi mwanzi abahutu bagira;
  • “Iyo tudakora (Abahutu) jenoside, abatutsi bari kutumara;[46]
  • “Nta muntu wigeze akora jenoside mu Rwanda, ko ari uburyo bwo gufunga no kwica abahutu kugira ngo igihugu gisigare ari icy’abatutsi gusa;[47]
  • “Mu buzima bwose bw’umuhutu atagomba kurongora umututsikazi kuko ngo abyarana n’abandi batutsi kandi yitwa umugore wawe;
  • “Umututsi abarusha amayeri, ku buryo badakoze uko bashoboye yazabarimbura akoresheje amayeri;
  • “Guverinoma iriho ubu idashaka umunyabwenge w’umuhutu;
  • “Kubohoza u Rwanda n’abanyarwanda nyamwinshi;
  • “Politiki twarwaniraga ishinzwe kurwanya abantu abo ari bo bose, cyangwa agatsiko k’abantu bake, baba abo mu Rwanda cyangwa mu karere k’Ibiyaga bigari …
  • “Igihugu cyose cyuzuye indwara ya Sida, bityo uwashaka yakomeza akarwana kuko bene wabo banduye;
  • “Hari inshinge ziterwa abahutu zibanduza icyorezo (cya Sida);[48]
  • “Abahutu bimuriwe mu midugudu kugira ngo bazabone uko babica bitabagoye;
  • “Abari mu gihugu batari abatutsi bose bakora imirimo y’uburetwa kuko nta burenganzira busesuye babona;
  • “Imana yavuze ko u Rwanda ari urwa FDLR n’abanyarwanda;[49]
  • “Kugarura ubutegetsi bwanyazwe na FPR -Inkotanyi mu w’1994;[50]
  • “Guhagarika icyo bise itsembabahutu rikorwa na FPR – Inkotanyi, cyane cyane ngo ryaba rikorerwa mu midugudu;
  • “Guharanira amahoro arambye mu Rwanda, mu karere k’Ibiyaga bigari, ndetse no muri Afrika muri rusange.[51]

 

2.2 Ibivugwa ku Batutsi n’ibindi

Hari ibisubizo byatanzwe byerekeza ku izina Mututsi n’undi batavuga ariko utari umuhutu. Ibyo bisubizo ni uko ngo:

  • “U Rwanda rutegekwa n’abatutsi gusa;
  • “Abategeka (u Rwanda) ni abanyamahanga, si abanyarwanda;[52]
  • “Abatutsi bashishikariza abahutu gutaha, bashaka ko bashira mu mashyamba kugira ngo abahutu bongere kujya baheka abatutsi; cyangwa ngo babatsembatsembe;
  • “Abategeka  u Rwanda ni bo bishe Perezida Habyarimana;[53]
  • “Abatutsi bose babatuje mu mujyi wa Kigali, abandi mu Mutara, kubera ko ari ho heza, kandi babatuza hamwe ngo babone uko babarinda;
  • “Abatutsi bagambiriye kumara abahutu aho bava bakagera, bahereye Uganda, u Rwanda, Kongo-Kinshasa, Kongo-Brazzaville, Kameruni, Centre Afrique, … Aho hose hagaturwa n’ubwoko bw’abatutsi, ahandi bakaharagira inka zabo;[54]
  • “Nta jenoside yabayeho;[55]
  •  “Abatutsi baturutse i Burasirazuba, ari nayo mpamvu mu ibendera ryabo harimo izuba, bisobanura yuko batazibagirwa ibyo abahutu babakoreye;
  • “Kuba abatutsi barashyizeho IBUKA ni ikibazo;[56]
  • “Abatutsi ni ubwoko bubi, butifuza ubumwe n’ubwiyunge mu Rwanda;
  • “Abatutsi   bacaga imigani, bayicira abahutu, ngo Harabaye ntihakabe, hapfuye imbwa n’imbeba, hasigaye inka n’ingoma. Ubwo ngo imbwa n’imbeba ni abahutu, naho kuvuga inka n’ingoma ngo babaga bavuga abatutsi. Ubusa bwaritse ku manga, umuyaga urabwarurira, bati ni ubutegetsi bw’abahutu bugomba kuvaho, kuko ari ubw’igihe gito. Kandi bati Bihehe yagiye i Nyanza isanga basinziriye, ifata ingoma, igeze ku manga irayicika, ngo ubwo bivuga ko ari ubutegetsi bw’abatutsi bwibwe n’abahutu muri 1959.[57]
  • “Amarangamuntu ariho ubwoko bayakuyeho, ariko abatutsi bafite ibya ngombwa byabo bagendana bihariye;
  • “Imisoro mu Rwanda iteye ikibazo, ni abatutsi bishakira amafaranga yo kuzahungana FDLR ifashe u Rwanda;
  • “Abatutsi bateganya kumara abahutu muri 2020;
  • “Urebye umututsi (ubwoko) ni mubi mu buryo asuzugura andi moko atuye u Rwanda yishyira hejuru;
  • “Umututsi ni mubi, kuko yica abantu b’ababyeyi, akabaca amabere, ubundi akabatunga ku biti bisongoye;
  • “Umututsi yavuye muri Ethiopia na Somaliya na Eritrea, ko ngo yababujije uburenganzira bwabo kandi ari umucakara, naho umuhutu akaba yaraturutse muri Tchad;
  • “Abatutsi ni abanyamwanda ku buryo bukabije;
  • “Umuco w’abatutsi ni uguhekwa gusa;
  • “Indirimbo yubahiriza igihugu iririmbwa gitutsi;
  • “Iyo urebye, u Rwanda abarurimo ni abagande, abarundi, abakongo, nta munyarwanda kavukire ukiri mu bye, uwo batishe baramufunga;
  • “Umwami iyo yashakaga guhaguruka yafataga inkota ebyiri mu biganza byombi, agahamagaza abana b’abahutu, imwe akayishinga uw’iburyo indi uw’ibumoso akabona guhaguruka. Bati abatutsi bongeye kutwica n’abariyo barashize;
  • “Umuntu yagemuraga inzoga i Bwami, akamara ibyumweru bine mu nzira yikoreye, adasomaho, yagerayo aho kumuha bakamukubita ibiboko munani ku kibuno;
  • “Bagomba gukuraho ubutegetsi bw’u Rwanda, ngo hari ingoma y’abami;
  • “Imitungo yose ya Leta yaragurishijwe, nk’imihanda, ibiyaga, amahoteli, …;[58]
  • “Umututsi ntahinga, atungwa no gutegeka gusa;
  • “Abatutsi bafite umugambi wo kwigarurira Afrika, ko n’iyo hasigara umwe tugomba kumurwanya;[59]
  • “Mu mashyamba iyo, bigishwaga ko batagomba kwumva andi maradiyo, ko ibyo Leta y’u Rwanda ivuga byose biba ari ibinyoma;
  • “Abatutsi banze imishyikirano, akaba ari bo bica Habyarimana bigatuma abatutsi bapfa ari benshi kubera inyota y’ubutegetsi;
  • “Abahutu ni abere, naho abatutsi ni inkoramaraso;
  • “Jenoside yatewe n’abatutsi, ko ari bo bahanuye indege ya Habyarimana;
  • “FPR irigisa abantu, kandi igakoresha jenoside kugira ngo iheze abantu hanze;
  • “Kubera jenoside yabaye mu Rwanda, umututsi n’umuhutu ntibazigera bizerana;
  • “Abari mu ngando i Mutobo, buri wese akubitwa inkoni mirongo itanu ku kibuno buri gitondo;
  • “Umuntu wese utashye iyo ageze ku mupaka bamwambika ikanzu yanditseho ngo “URISHA CEREWA”;[60]
  • “Uwinjiye mu gihugu wese, iyo ageze ku mupaka, bamuha umwenda umuranga aho ari hose.

Ibi bisubizo byose biri mu buhamya, ubisanga mu magambo ahinnye yanditswe na RDR mu UMURAGE W’AMATEKA. RDR ishinja FPR ngo kuba “yaragaruye mu Rwanda ingoyi n’ikiboko byari byarasezerewe na Revolisiyo yo muri 1959 ndetse yongeraho n’agafuni.”[61]

Icyo gitabo gitinda cyane ku kababaro ngo umuhutu afite: “Umuhutu wese uri mu Rwanda ubu arugarijwe. Iyo atazize ubwoko bwe gusa azira inzu ye cyangwa isambu yigaruriwe n’umututsi wahungutse bakica nyirabyo kugirango hatazagira ubiburana.” “Iyo batakwishe baragufunga. Bakagufunga ariko bakugize intere. Ubu gereza zaruzuye kandi imfungwa ntizigaburirwa. Ufite uwe aramugemurira, atamugemurira akicwa n’inzara, ubwo akaba ahaye umwanya undi waraye afashwe. Ahubwo agafata iposho ry’ikiboko buri gitondo. Abanyamakuru b’imiryango mpuzamahanga irengera ikiremwa muntu bamaganye ibyo bintu FPR yiyica amatwi. Ng’uko uko FPR-inkotanyi yahinduye u Rwanda “Umuriro utazima”; bamwe bivugira icyongeleza, abandi igiswahili, igifaransa n’ikinyarwanda kigoretse.”[62]

Ingabire Victoire asobanura ingoyi mu buryo burambuye, agakoresha amagambo asa neza neza n’ari muri iki gitabo cya RDR ayobora. Atangaza ko atashye mu Rwanda yavuze ko aje “atabaye.” Ingabire avuga ko yaje gukiza abantu bakigobotora iyi ngoyi “Cyane cyane ubwoba, ubukene, inzara, igitugu, ubuhake, ruswa yahindutse inkuyo, …ubusumbane, ivangura, kwirukanwa mu byabo, gusembera,  kubundabunda, kugenda bubitse imitwe…etc[63]

3 Ubuvugizi bwa FDLR na RDR: Kuva muri DRC kugeza i Burayi

Ku itariki ya 1Gicurasi 2013, urubuga rwa African Arguments rwasohoye inyandiko y’ubuvugizi kuli Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza, imubyinirira nka ‘Lady in Pink’[64], bisobanura “umugore mw’iroza”. Iyo nyandiko yanditswe n’umugabo w’umubiligi witwa Kris Berwouts wari umaze imyaka ayobora ihuriro rya za ONG z’Ibulayi ziyita ko zikorera ubuvugizi Afurika yo hagati.[65] Mu magambo ahinnye iryo huriro rizwi nka EurAc.

Berwouts wiyita ko ari impuguke ku bibazo bya Afurika yo hagati yanditse avuga ko ibyaha Ingabire Victoire (yita Inshuti ye) aregwa bijyanye n’ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside, amacakubiri no kurema/cyangwa gukorana n’imitwe y’iterabwoba ari ibihimbano na politiki yo kubuza amahwemo “abatavuga rumwe na leta”.

Iyo nyandiko yerekana ko Berwouts aziranye bihagije na Ingabire Victoire, kuko avuga ibyo uwo avugira yakoze n’ibyo yatekereje.[66] Uwo muvugizi n’inshuti ya Ingabire avuga ko ku itariki ya 13 Ukwakira 2010 bavuganye imbona nkubone. Ngo bamaze kuvugana bwarakeye Ingabire arafungwa. Muri iyo nyandiko Berwouts akibutsa ko bavuganaga kenshi bihagije amezi 18 mbere y’uko Ingabire atahuka mu Rwanda.

Berwouts aburanira Ingabire Victoire kubijyanye no gukorana na FDLR ugasanga atari ukumenyana gusa ahubwo harimo no gukorana. Berwouts atanga amakuru agaragara ko atari ay’inkuru mbarirano ahubwo ari ibintu yahagazeho ubwe cyangwa se yaba yaragizemo uruhare. Berwouts yemeza ko ari byo koko ko muri Nyakanga 2009 Ingabire yabonanye n’abayobozi ba FDLR i Kinshasa bahagarariwe na Jenerali Majoro Ntiwiragabo Aloys.[67]

Berwouts asobanura ko mu byumweru bike mbere y’uwo mubonano wa Ingabire na FDLR, Minisitiri w’itangazamakuru wa DR Congo, Lambert Mende, yagiye mu ruzinduko rw’akazi  mu gihugu cy’Ububiligi. Ngo muri urwo ruzinduko Minisitiri Mende aboneraho umwanya wo gusura Ingabire iwe mu mujyi wa Zevenhuizen mu gihugu cy’Ubuholandi kugirango amugezeho ubutumwa bwa Perezida Joseph Kabila.

Ingabire bamwingingiye kujya i Kinshasa ngo kubafasha kwinginga FDLR kureka intambara. Nyuma y’urwo ruzinduko rudasanzwe rwa Lambert Mende, Ingabire yagiye i Kinshasa abonana na Perezida Joseph Kabila wamuhuje na Jenerali Ntiwiragabo.

Berwouts agasoza avuga ko ikibabaje ari uko FDLR yanze kwumvira Ingabire none ubu akaba abiregwa mu rukiko. Aho ipfundo riri, Berwouts ntiyerekana impamvu habaye uwo mushyikirano, n’inshingano Jenerali Ntiwiragabo afite muri FDLR n’impamvu FDLR yagombaga kwumvira Ingabire nk’umuyobozi wa RDR na FDU-Inkingi.

 

3.1 Ibitumvikana mu cyubahiro Ingabire na FDLR bahabwa na Perezida Kabila

Umukuru w’igihugu atuma minisitiri we ku muntu ukomeye cyangwa ufitiwe icyizere cyane. Perezida Kabila yashoboraga gutuma Ambasaderi we mu Bubiligi cyangwa mu Buholandi ubwo butumwa bukumvikana. Ingabire yaherewe iki ako gaciro? Ububasha yari afite ni ubuhe Perezida wa Kongo atagira?

Perezida Kabila ubwe mu bubasha afite nk’uyobora igihugu cya DRC yari gufata iya mbere akabwira abayobozi ba FDLR ati nimureke intambara mutuze cyangwa mutahe, cyane ko mu gushingwa kw’uwo mutwe leta ye yabigizemo uruhare rukomeye!

Bivugwa ko mu 2006-7 Ntiwiragabo yigeze guhunga akajya muri Sudan atinya kuzafatwa kimwe na ba Col. Renzaho Tharcise bajyanywe Arusha bavanywe kwa Kabila. Berwouts ntavuga igihe Ntiwiragabo yaba yaragarukiye muri DRC n’inshingano yari afite muri FDLR cyangwa se muri leta ya DRC. N’uko abana na Kabila nabyo ntibivugwa.[68]

Umuvugizi w’Ingabire na FDLR, Kris Berwouts, yagombaga kubwira abasomyi be ko Ingabire yahabwaga icyubahiro kubera ko yari perezida wa RDR guhera mu mwaka w’2000. Kandi ko Jenerali Aloys Ntiwiragabo ari mu basirikare batanu[69] bari mu nama yatangije RDR ku wa 3 Mata 1995, akanakomeza kuba mu buyobozi bwayo. Icyo gihe RDR ishyirwaho, Ntiwiragabo yayoboraga Division ya ex-FAR/Interahamwe muri Kivu y’amajyepfo, afite icyicaro i Bukavu.

                                              

 

Ni Ugushishoza

Abafite ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside nka FDLR n’abagira icyo bahuriyeho nayo, igihe cyose bereka abo bashakamo abayoboke ko Umututsi n’umushyigikiye wese ari abantu babi cyane, ko ari abanzi kandi ko nta muntu ukwiye kubizera. Banagerageza kwerekana ko Abatutsi ari bo ntandaro y’ibibazo byose by’u Rwanda ndetse n’akarere k’ibiyaga bigari;  bakanabatwerera kuba aribo bateguye bakanakora jenoside n’ubugome bwose bwajyanye nayo.

Iyo urebye ibyo bigisha birangwa n’ikinyoma hiyongeraho n’ubugome budasanzwe. Umuntu abona budasanzwe kubera ubukana burimo. Ariko kandi ubwo bugome ni ubusanzwe ahakozwe jenoside hose ku isi. Mw’itegurwa rya jenoside, abayitegura bitirira abazakorerwa jenoside ibizabakorerwa,[70] na nyuma y’aho bakazabatwerera n’ibyabakorewe mu cyiciro cyo guhakana no gupfobya icyo cyaha.[71]

Ukurikije ibyakozwe hategurwa jenoside yakorewe abayahudi mu ntambara ya kabiri y’isi, ukanareba ibyabanjirije jenoside yakorewe abatutsi mu mwaka w’1994 na mbere, ni bwo ubona igisobanuro cy’ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside. Iyo ngengabitekerezo ni urusobe rw’ibitekerezo cyangwa umurongo ngenderwaho byigisha cyangwa byereka igice kimwe cy’abaturage ko bagomba kwikiza abandi badahuje ubwoko, idini, akarere, imyumvire n’ibindi. Ibyo bitekerezo bishobora kuba biri mu magambo cyangwa mu nyandiko.

Urwo rusobe n’umurongo kenshi bitangizwa n’abantu cyangwa agatsiko k’abantu bishyiraho bakabicengeza mu bandi (abize n’abatarize) kugirango bafatanye gutsemba abo badahuje. Ibyo bitekerezo bibi n’ubugome byigishwa igihe kirekire abantu babigenewe bakagera aho bumva ari ukuri. Kugirango babigereho bakenera imbaraga z’ubutegetsi. Habyarimana na Hitler barabikoze babufite, FDLR n’abo ikomokaho (RDR/PALIR) babigaragaza babushaka.

Abategura bakanakwiza iyo ngengabitekerezo, bahora bashakisha bakanahora bigisha impamvu zo kurimbura abagambiriwe gukorerwa jenoside. Icyo bashakisha cyane ni ikinyoma cyaba impamvu zituma abantu banga abandi “urunuka”. Ibi ni nabwo buryo bukoreshwa hategurwa abazakora icyo cyaha, jenoside igakorwa n’abantu bumva babyishimiye.

Iyo ngengabitekerezo yacengejwe ituma abicanyi biyumvamo ubutwari, bakica bumva ari ukwitabara n’igikorwa kigaragaza gukunda igihugu. Ibyo byishimo n’imbaraga zo gukora ikibi bikomoka mu magambo arimo urwango rukabije n’andi ashishikariza kutihanganira kubona abo bantu. Bitangira bavuga mu marenga bigasozwa no kudahisha ibyifuzo byo gutsemba ubwoko.

Ibi bitekerezo bya RDR, PALIR na FDLR iyikomokaho, nk’uko bigaragara, birasa. Byanditse uko byakiriwe ngo uzabisoma azabone isano ihari. Ibaye itari ingengabitekerezo ya jenoside yaba iki? Ingengabitekerezo iyo ariyo yose ntivukanwa irigwa. Mu mwaka w’1992, muri disikuru Mugesera Leon yavugiye ku Kabaya ashishikariza abahutu kwica abatutsi, yagaragaje akababaro ko kuba hari abatutsi baretse bagahunga mu mwaka w’1959.

Abivuga, Mugesera nawe yishyira mubaretse abo batutsi bagahunga. Icyo gihe Mugesera yari afite imyaka 6 gusa y’amavuko. Urwango yavugaga icyo gihe ni urwo yigishijwe. Izo nyigisho yahawe ntaho zitandukaniye n’abana bagiye muri FDLR ubu bigishwa urwango rwa kirimbuzi. Mugesera yigishijwe n’abateguye cyangwa abagize uruhare mu bwicanyi bwo mu 1959, yigisha abakoze jenoside yo mu 1994 ubu bigisha abari mu mashyamba ya DRC.

Nkurikije ibyo nabwiwe n’abari muri FDLR bagatahuka ku bushake, ingengabitekerezo bize bakanigisha, hari abo yagiriye akamaro cyane. Ababyungukiyemo ngo ni abayobozi babo kuko babona abakomeza kubaba hafi. Ariko ngo izo nyigisho zanagize uruhare mu guca intege uwo mutwe. Ngo abenshi mu rubyiruko bagiye bayicikaho aho baboneye ko ibyo bigishwa byose ari ibinyoma bitabafitiye inyungu. Benshi muri bo byarabadindije, babura amashuli ngo nta muhutu wiga mu Rwanda, batinda mu mushyamba ngo baraharanira uburenganzira butabuze mu gihugu cyabo. Urebye ibyo bigishijwe, ababihimbye n’ababikwizaga, bagendera ku ihame ry’uko abo bigenewe bose ari ibicucu, kuko bandika ibintu nabo bazi ko atari ukuri. Abanyarwanda benshi bazi icyo bashaka. Icyo bashaka ni u Rwanda rutarangwamo ibyarushenye n’ibyarusenya.


[1] Reba: Tom Ndahiro, “Genocide Denial and the Case of the Rassemblement Républicain pour la Démocratie au Rwanda (RDR)” muri Phil Clark and Zachary D. Kaufman, eds, After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction” by C. Hurst and Co. and Columbia University Press (2008). Reba kandi kuli: http://friendsofevil.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/genocide-laundering-historical-revisionism-genocide-denial-and-the-role-of-the-rassemblement-republicain-pour-la-democratie-au-rwanda-rdr/

[2] Nshingiye kuli STATUS z’uwo mutwe mfite muri archives, washinzwe ku itariki ya 31 Ukuboza 1997.

[3] Ushingiye kuli status za PALIR, mu Kinyarwanda ALIR yiyitaga “INZIRABWOBA” kimwe n’uko ingabo z’igihugu za mbere no mu gihe cya jenoside (FAR) zitwaga.

[4] Iyi nyandiko yatanzwe n’umwe mubitandukanyije na PALIR kandi haza no kuboneka izindi nyandiko harimo na za taragigiti/tracts (inyandiko zitagaragaza uwazanditse zakwitirirwa)  zerekana ibyo bigishaga.

[5] Barabishimangira ko ariko byanahozeho …“Pour gagner la confiance des monarques et des chefs coutumiers hutu, ils (les Tutsi) entreprirent un long travail de séduction en leur offrant des cadeaux en vaches ainsi que des filles en mariage et pour finir, par conclure avec eux un pacte de sang avec le seul objectif final: les pénétrer et les dominer par la suite. Ils imposèrent alors aux Hutu de Gasabo un roi tutsi auquel tous donnèrent leur obédience” (FDLR Drame… p.2)

[6] Inyigisho ya PALIR ngo: “Abihayimana b’abahutu baratotezwa, ndetse benshi barishwe, abandi bafungiye mu magereza bategereje kwicwa; kandi ngo ababikira b’abahutu bafatwa ku ngufu, abanze bagashinjwa itsembabwoko.”

[7] Ngo abahutu bamburwa amazu yabo ku ngufu, maze bagacirwa mu midugudu.

[8] Ngo Abahutu ntibagira uburenganzira busesuye bwo gutembera mu gihugu, no mu mahanga… abana babo b’abakobwa bafatwa ku ngufu, bahohoterwa na local defense, bitwaje ko barinda umutekano.

[9] Muri iki gice ndetse n’ahandi harimo amagambo “kurimbura” no “kumara”. Uko akoreshwa akwiye kumvikana nka jenoside, kuko anakurikirana n’izina ry’abantu (abahutu) bagomba kurimburwa n’abatutsi. Kurimbura igiti, biba birenze kugitema kuko ubikora aba ashaka ko kitazashibuka. Binanumvikana ko ari jenoside kuko haba hari “umugambi” wo gukora icyo cyaha kandi kikaba ari kimwe mu biranga jenoside.

[11] Icyo bita ibiro bya kabiri cyangwa G2 mu mvugo y’igisirikare cyabo byavugaga ubuyobozi bushinzwe ubutasi n’iperereza.

[12] TUBOHOZE IGIHUGU CYACU. AMAHAME-SHINGIRO Y’UGUTSINDA KWACU, Bulengo, Gicurasi, 1995, p.4.

[13] Reba iyo nyandiko kuli: Tom Ndahiro, ‘RDR and Genocide Ideology’ (2010) kuli http://friendsofevil.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/document-3/

[14] Groupe Charles Nkurunziza, LES ASPECTS ESSENTIELS DU PROBLEME RWANDAIS, Bukavu, Mai 1995

[15]Iyo nyandiko nini ya FDLR yitwa ‘DRAME RWANDAIS’ yasohotse bwa mbere ku kuwa 17 Mata 2001. http://www.fdlr.org/comm/dramerwa.html Iyi nyito ikomoka ku gitabo cyanditswe na RDR-Section Cameroun ‘LA VERITE SUR LES DRAME RWANDAIS, Mai 1995.

[16] Iyo mu cyongeleza ifite umutwe MEMORANDUM ON THE RWANDAN PROBLEM CRISIS. Iyo abanyamakuru nka Mugenzi Ally Yusuf bashaka kumenya FDLR icyo ari cyo iyi nyandiko yabafasha bakareka kuroga abantu bababwira ko FDLR ari umutwe wa politiki usanzwe.

[17] Charles Ndereyehe ni umwe mu basivili bake cyane bagize uruhare mu ishingwa rya RDR. Ni umuntu wakomeje kuba umucengezatwara ya Hutu-Pawa kuko ari nawe wabaye Perezida w’abashinze Cercle de Republicain Progressiste (CRP). Iri huriro ry’abahezanguni niryo ryagize uruhare mu gushingwa kw’ishyaka CDR

[18] Reba: Tom Ndahiro, “Friends of evil (Chapter 4): The RDR or disguised genocidaires” (2013) kuli http://friendsofevil.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/friends-of-evil-chapter-4-the-rdr-or-disguised-genocidaires/

[19] Reba: Tom Ndahiro, “Abaha agaciro Abahakana jenoside, ntaho bataniye nabo” (2011) http://umuvugizi.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/abaha-agaciro-abahakana-jenoside-ntaho-bataniye-nabo/

[20] Ibid. (p.2)

[21] Ibid. (p. 125)

[22] Ibid. (UMURAGE p. 108-9). Iyi nteruro kandi uko iri yose uyisanga mu “(AMAHAME.. p.32)

[24] Nk’uko bakoreshaga amaradiyo BBC-Gahuzamiryango na Voice of America (VOA).

[25] Uyu Alexis Nshimyimana yagiye muri Austria mu 1992 amaze gutangiza CRP ubu akaba ari umwenegihugu waho yiha izina rya Alexis Neuberg. Yabaye mu buyobozi bwa PALIR na FDLR guhera mu 2000-2004. Icyo kiganiro yagikoresheje abwira abantu mu mashyamba ya Congo ko badakwiye gutaha  ngo kuko mu Rwanda nta mahoro

[26] Aya magambo yose ni incamarenga y’aho bakavuze umututsi kuko ari we mu ngengabitekerezo yabo bavuga ko atemera demokarasi (Ubutegetsi bwa nyamwinshi) na Repubulika (Ubutegetsi bw’abahutu butari ubwa Cyami)

[27] Aha jenoside yakorewe abatutsi irahakanwa ahubwo bakayisimbuza iy’abahutu. Ubu ni uburyo busanzwe bukoreshwa cyane n’abahakanyi ba jenoside. Kubera ko badashobora guhakana ko hari jenoside yabaye, izina ry’uwayikorewe rirahinduka rigasimbuzwa iry’uwayikoze.

[28] Tract ya ALIR yo ku wa 6 Kanama 1999, ivuga ngo “Turwanye ubwibone bw’abatutsi”; “Tugomba gukuraho agatsiko k’abatutsi”;  “Ubumwe bw’abahutu niyo ntwaro izatuma dutsinda abanzi b’igihugu (ABATUTSI)”

[29] “Biragaragara rero ko abatutsi kuva kera na kare barangwa no kwibona, kwikuza no gukurura intambara bagamije gukandamiza no gutegeka abandi (AMAHAME p.4) Bashingiye ngo kubyabaye ku Rucunshu baranzura ngo “Ibi birongera kugaragaza ubutiriganya, amayeri, ubugome bukabije, ubugambanyi n’umururumba w’ubutegetsi by’abatutsi iteka bashaka kugeraho bakoresheje intambara aho gukoresha inzira z’amahoro” (AMAHAME p.6)

[30] Pour d’autres, le drame rwandais provient de la “philosophie politique et et de l’idéologie” : la philosophie politique des monarques tutsi dont « les caractéristiques les plus marquantes sont l’esprit sanguinaire, les pratiques génocidaires, l’hégémonisme et l’expansionnisme” (FDLR Drame… p.2)

[31] FDLR yarabikomeje“Le mensonge fait partie de la culture Tutsi. La fabrication et la propagation du mensonge sont considérées comme des qualités et sont hautement appréciées chez les populations Tutsi. Un homme qui sait mentir est considéré comme habile et bon artiste ». (FDLR Drame.. p.32)

[32] Ibi nabyo ubisanga muri Art. 5 ya statuts za PALIR

[33] Na FDLR ngo: “Le régime du FPR-INKOTANYI est un régime sans base populaire, sanguinaire, dictatorial et fasciste, fondé sur l’arrogance, le mensonge et l’hypocrisie ainsi que sur l’idéologie d’hégémonisme et d’expansionnisme.” (FDLR Drame…p.73)

[34] “Akarengane rubanda rugufi rwagiriwe imyaka n’imyaka ni ko kaje kurutera kwivumbagatanya mu wa 1959 baharanira kwigobotora mbere na mbere ingoyi ya gihake n’ubutegetsi bw’igitugu bw’Abazungu n’Abatutsi ngo babone uko baharanira ubwigenge bw’igihugu cyabo. Revolisiyo yo mu wa 1959 rero yaje mbere na mbere irwanya ingoma ntutsi yari yarakandamije rubanda rugufi. Abari bayoboye rubanda rugufi muri iyo Revolisiyo basanze ari bwo buryo bunoze bwo gutsinda. Nguko uko Repubulika yavutse mu Rwanda isezerera ingoma ntutsi ishingiye ku bwoko na gikolonize yari yifashishije, maze demokarasi yinjira mu gihugu cyacu.” (UMURAGE p.119-20)

[35] Rwanda Rwacu No. 00, cyasohotse mu Ugushyingo 2000

[36] Ibid.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Inyandiko y’uwiyise J.C. Rutikanga yise “Ikinamico ry’amatora mu Rwanda“ muri RWANDA RWACU No. 03 Gashyantare 2001

[40] Ibyari muri icyo kiganiro biri mu ibaruwa ifunguye nandikiye abayobozi ba ORINFOR na Radio 10 kuwa 18 Mata 2008. Reba ‘BBC-Gahuzamiryango cyangwa BBC- Gakwizarwango?’ (Kanama 2011) http://umuvugizi.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/bbc-gahuzamiryango-cyangwa-bbc-gakwizarwango/ . Icyitwa ‘Gahuzamiryango’ bari no kucyita ‘Gasenyamiryango’ ushingiye ku mikorere yabo imaze igihe ikora nk’ibyo.

[41] Inyigisho ya PALIR igaragaza ingingo cumi n’eshatu ngo z’aho ingoma ya cyami ihuriye n’ubutegetsi bw’Inyenzi-Nkotanyi, bagasoza bavuga ko ari yo mpamvu umuryango wa PALIR n’abandi barwanira kwibohora iyo ngoyi y’ubutegetsi bw’abatutsi; hagatangwa intego cumi n’ebyiri za PALIR, n’izindi ndwi z’ibyo PALIR imaze kugeraho.

[42] Iyi ni inshingano igomba kuba ariyo yarashingiweho ingabo za FDLR ziyita ABACUNGUZI. Guverinoma ya SINDIKUBWABO na KAMBANDA ikiyita ABATABAZI

[43] Ibi ni no kwemeza ko abategura amasomo bemera ko urwango ku batutsi atari urwa vuba ahubwo ari ikintu kimaze igihe, kuva kuri PARMEHUTU, MRND/CDR na HUTU Pawa n’ibyayikomotseho birimo RDR na FDLR.

[44] Muri ya nyigisho ya PALIR bavuga ngo: “Abarimu b’abahutu mu nzego zose barishwe, abandi barafungwa, abashoboye gucika ku icumu barahunga. Ngo ibyo bituma abigisha bari barabyigiye baba bake cyane, bityo inyigisho zitangwa zikaba nta reme zifite.Ngo amashuli menshi yarashenywe, andi ahindurwa ibigo bya gisirikare; abana ntibiga kubera kudahabwa imyanya, gushyirwa mu gisirikare ku ngufu, no gutinya kujyayo kubera umutekano muke wabo…. Abanyenshuri b’abahutu (abashoboye kujya mu ishuri) n’abatutsi ntibafatirwa ku manota amwe mu kwimurirwa mu mashuri yisumbuye; Ihuzabitsina hagati y’abantu b’igitsina kimwe ryagizwe amajyambere; Umuco mubi w’ikinyoma wahawe intebe; Abahutu bambuwe imitungo yabo ihabwa abatutsi…”

[45] Nabajije umwe mu bari muri iyo ngando uko kwica byatangiye asubiza ko ngo bababwiraga ko byahereye mu mwaka w’1995 kwibuka jenoside bitangiye. Ukurikije iyo mibare kugeza ubu mu 2013 haba harishwe 3,600,000!

[46] Musangamfura Sixbert umwanditsi mukuru w’ikinyamakuru ISIBO yanditse aburira abahutu mu Rwanda ko nibatamara abatutsi aribo bazashira. Ibyo biri mu nyandiko ye ifite umutwe “AHO BUKERA ABATUTSI BARATUMARA mu ISIBO N° 27 (p.8) cyo kuwa 14-21 Ukwakira 1991.

[47]Ku bantu bafite iyi ngengabitekerezo kuvuga ko hari jenoside yakorewe abatutsi mu Rwanda ni ikinyoma.

[48] Ibindi biri mu nyigisho ya PALIR ni uko: amavuriro ya Leta atagikora kubera ko yahindutse ibigo bya gisirikare, abaganga badahagije kubera ivanguramoko mu gutanga akazi, ngo n’abahari (abatutsi) ntibita ku barwayi b’abahutu; kandi ngo Abatutsi babiba SIDA mu bahutu.

[49] Mu gihe cya PARMEHUTU hari indirimbo y’Abanyuramatwi (yari Korali y’i Gitarama) yitwa “TURATSINZE” baririmba ngo ‘Turatsinze ga ye….Gahutu aho uri hose Rwanda ni iyawe… Impaka zirashize, dore Rwanda ibonye beneyo gahutu ganza nta mpaka …Loni yindi izava he?’

[50] Kunyaga ni ugutwara ikitari icyawe cyangwa kwisubiza icyo wari waratanze.

[51] Kurwanya abatutsi aho babasanze mu bihugu bindi ni umugambi umaze igihe kandi bigakorwa byitwa guharanira amahoro arambye. Icyo gitekerezo cy’amahoro arambye ni ‘FINAL SOLUTION’, kimwe n’uko Hitler yabikoze ategura jenoside yakoreye abayahudi mu ntambara ya kabiri y’isi.

[52] Ibyo kwemeza ko abari mu Rwanda, by’umwihariko abategetsi n’abatahutse ari abanyamahanga byakomotse no kuli RDR bakanabisobanura ku buryo burambuye. (UMURAGE  p. 103)

[53] Iyi ni imvugo ikoreshwa n’abajenosideri bose, abahakana n’abapfobya jenoside. Ari abanyarwanda n’abanyamahanga. Icyaha kiba cyarakozwe, kugihakana gusa bamwe bagasanga biruhanyije bagahitamo gushakisha impamvu yatumye abantu bica abo batagira icyo bapfa. Kwiyumvisha ko icyaha umuntu yakoze gifite impamvu byorohereza mu mutima abagiteguye n’abagikoze.

[54] RDR igaya ingabo za FAR ngo kuba zitarababuriye hakiri kare “tukitegura, kuva Museveni afatanije n’impunzi z’abatutsi b’abanyarwanda gufata Uganda akanabasezeranya kubafasha gufata u Rwanda bataretse akarere kose k’ibiyaga bigari ngo kose “gatutsikazwe”.” (UMURAGE p. 101)

[55] Mu nyandiko y’ishingwa rya RDR yo ku itariki ya 3Mata 1995 bavuga ko bagomba guhakana bagatsemba ko nta jenoside yigeze ikorwa. Ngo banayemeye hakavugwa jenoside yakorewe abahutu. Mu mwaka w’2000 babisubiramo aho kuvuga jenoside hakoreshwa “Intambara y’indunduro” na jenoside ebyiri. (UMURAGE p.98)

[56] Kwibuka no kwibutsa jenoside bibabaza kandi bikabangamira abateguye, abashyigikiye, n’abashyize icyo cyaha mu bikorwa. Aho kubona ko kwibuka ari ngombwa kandi ari urukingo rwo gutuma icyo cyaha kitakwongera.

[57] Ibi ni ibitekerezo byahimbwe na Joseph Habyarimana Gitera mu nyandiko yise ‘PAR QUI ET COMMENT RECONCILIER LES TWA, LES HUTU, LES TUTSI DU RWANDA ENTRE EUX!!!’ Ngo Gitera yanditse agamije gutanga umusanzu w’icyo yise ‘Protocole de la Réconciliation nationale entre les Rwandais’ (7 Gicurasi 1976) igenewe Perezida Juvenal Habyarimana. Bimwe mubyari muri iyo nyandiko byandukuwe muri Kangura No 6 Ukuboza 1990 (p.12-15). Gitera yandikiye Perezida Habyarimana ngo ari igisubizo ku kibazo yari yaramubajije ngo “Abahutu n’Abatutsi bapfa iki?”. Igice cy’iyo nyandiko ya Gitera cyanandukuwe mu kinyamakuru ITABAZA No 01 cyo muri Mutarama 2010 (p.8-10) Iyo propaganda ya jenoside yari yarahawe umwanya mu ndirimbo ya Simon Bikindi yitwa INTABAZA abantu benshi bazi nka “Sebahinzi”. Muri iyo ndirimbohari aho bavuga ngo: “Bene Sebahinzi tugomba kumenya ko Inkotanyi ziramutse zitsindishije amasasu, uretse ko bidashoboka, amashyaka yose barimo bose yazima burundu abayarimo bose bagashirira ku icumu. Nk’uko abahinza b’abahutu bashiriye ku icumu mu gitondo umututsi agacyuza imihigo agira ati: “Harabaye ntihakabe, hapfuye imbwa n’imbeba, hasigaye inka n’ingoma”. Uyu Bikindi ari mu bantu baburanishijwe n’Urukiko Mpuzamahanga Mpanabyaha rukorera Arusha, akaba yarahamijwe ibyaha, akatirwa igifungo.

[58] RDR ishinja“Abanyamerika n’abongeleza gufasha abatutsi babinyujije muri perezida Museveni umugambi wo gushyira kuri ako karere k’Afurika yo hagati (Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi no mu burasirazuba bwa Zaïre) ingoma HIMA-NTUTSI ngo izafasha Abanyamerika kurwanya ab’ISLAM.” (UMURAGE…p.107) Hanavugwamo “umugambi wo kugurisha u Rwanda”

[59] Imfashanyigisho ya PALIR yigishaga ko abatutsi bigwijeho umutungo, no kuba ibikoresho by’amahanga ya mpatsibihugu. Ngo mu Rwanda abatutsi bategekana n’abagande, abanyamerika, n’abandi benshi. Banavuga ko hagamijwe gushinga icyo bita Empire Hima-Tutsi. Bati abatutsi n’abahima bafite mu migambi yabo mibisha, kwigarurira uturere twa Karagwe na Buha two muri Tanzaniya.

[60] Iyi mvugo ni igiswayire banditse mu kinyarwanda bishatse kuvuga ngo “warakererewe”. Bikomoka ku nshinga ebyiri: “Kuisha” (kurangiza/kurangira ) na  “Kuchelewa” aribyo gukerererwa.. Aha ni nko gushaka kuvuga ko utahutse bamwandikaho ko nta mwanya afite mu gihugu kuko yatinze gutahuka…

[61] Ibid. (p.104-5)

[62] Ibid p.105-6

[63] Reba “NDATASHYE – Mme Victoire INGABIRE UMUHOZA YASESEKAYE I KANOMBE – Kigali (16.01.10)  http://www.victoire2010.com/view/article/communique-ingabire-victoire-va-exercer-ses-droits-politiques-au-rwanda/index.html

[64] Kris Berwouts, Lady in Pink: Victoire Ingabire faces her judges in appeal (May 1, 2013) on http://africanarguments.org/2013/05/01/lady-in-pink-victoire-ingabire-faces-her-judges-in-appeal-%E2%80%93-by-kris-berwouts/

[65] Izo za ONG akenshi zivugira abantu n’amashyirahamwe ashyigikiye abatekereza nka Ingabire Victoire. Hafi ya zose muzo nasomye ntaho ubona bavuga ikibazo cy’ubwicanyi n’iyicarubozo bikorwa na FDLR muri DR Congo.

[66] Reba ‘Perezida Joseph Kabila yabaye umuhuza wa Ingabire Victoire na FDLR-Berwouts’ http://umuvugizi.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/736529/

[67] Muri iyi nyandiko ipeti rya gisirikare rya Ntiwiragabo Berwouts ntarivuga cyakora akavuga uko byagenze.

[68] Abakorera propaganda abajenosideri, kimwe n’abajenosideri ubwabo, barabeshya cyangwa bakavuga amakuru ibice kugirango ababumva cyangwa abasoma ibyabo batamenya ukuri.

[69] Abo basirikare ni ba Jenerali Augustin Bizimungu na Gratien Kabiligi, ba Koloneli Aloys Ntiwiragabo na Renzaho Tharcise na Major Aloys Ntabakuze.

[70] Ibi nibyo byitwa ‘Accusations in a mirror’ bikaba byarasobanuwe bihagije na Des Forges, A., Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, New York, NY, USA, 1999 (p.65-6)

[71] Ari RDR, PALIR na FDLR n’abayobozi babo, bafata ibyakorewe abatutsi mu 1994 ndetse na mbere yaho bakabyitirira abatutsi cyangwa FPR-Inkotanyi.


L’IDEOLOGIE PARMEHUTU ou le refus de vivre ensemble

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Un débat d’actualité

L’idéologie du Parméhutu ( ou parti du mouvement de l’émancipation des Bahutu) est l’objet d’un débat national d’actualité. Certains dissent que ce débat aurait dû avoir lieu dès la fin du génocide. Ils ont peut-être raison. Quoi qu’il en soit il ne suffit pas qu’une idée soit juste, elle doit  aussi trouver son moment approprié. En outre la sagesse populaire dit  qu’il n’est pas trop tard pour bien faire.

Le compromis d’Arusha faisait passer tellement de choses et le génocide peu après en avait perturbé tant d’autres que, pour sauver l’essentiel, il fallait être prudent afin de savoir ce qu’il était urgent de sauver, jusqu’où ne pas aller trop loin et jusqu’à quand attendre ; bref, assumer la délicate tâche d’établir la hiérarchie des urgences et des priorités.  En toute hypothèse, le fait de n’avoir pas vidé l’abcès du «parméhutisme» aussitôt après le génocide et même d’avoir gouverné avec le Mouvement démocratique républicain ( MDR), son incarnation politique, ne peut être un signe dapprobation de son idéologie.
Plus perfidement  daucuns, plus portés sur la polémique, sen vont disant à qui veut les entendre que le Front patriotique rwandais (FPR), à la veille des élections, veut faire place nette sur le chemin du pouvoir en se débarrassant dun concurrent réputé crédible et donc redoutable. En réalité, le débat est plus fondamental. Le rapport de la Commission ad hoc de lAssemblée nationale de transition (ANT) ramène la question du « parméhutisme » sur le devant de lactualité et nous rappelle, en même temps, quelle est en discussion au sein du monde politique, sinon dans tout le pays, depuis au moins 1998, lors des entretiens connus sous le nom d « entretiens du village Urugwiro» sous la direction de lancien président Bizimungu. La question sensabla ensuite dans des procédures brumeuses et les non-dit, portant lattention sur les relations tumultueuses entre les leaders du mouvement et beaucoup moins sur la nature et les implications de l’idéologie.

Les origines

Lorsque, en juillet 1959, Grégoire Kayibanda refusait de fonder avec Prosper Bwanakweri  un parti démocratique et préféra fonder un parti voué à lémancipation des Hutus, il ne se doutait pas en quelles difficultés il mettait ses héritiers politiques et, pour tout dire, en quell enchaînement de malheurs il jetait le peuple rwandais. Il faut dire, en effet, que si la source la plus haute ( pour parler comme les géographes) du mal rwandais se trouve dans les années 30 quand Mgr Léon Classe, dans une lettre du 21.9.27, recommandait au Résident Mortehan de réserver le pouvoir à « la jeunesse mututsi » dans « lintérêt vrai du pays », le mal rwandais prit sa forme concrete en 1959 avec la fondation du Parméhutu.

La décision fut dailleurs surprenante. Lors de rencontres et de discussions franches qui se sont étalées sur plusieurs années, de 1950 à 1958, Grégoire Kayibanda navait parlé que de sa volonté de mettre fin à linégalité criante entre les Rwandais. La séparation des ethnies, idéologique et géographique, lui aurait-elle  été suggérée par ses patrons dont Mgr Perraudin était le plus important ? On le croirait dautant plus volontiers que Pierre Tabara, dans son livre (Afrique : la face cachée. La Pensée universelle, 1992), évoque une rencontre danciens séminaristes où le prélat catholique aurait recommandé le modèle suisse pour résoudre le problème rwandais.

Dans la diaspora daprès le génocide de 1994 il existe un courant dopinion  qui place les racines des choses au 1er Octobre 1990 quand le FPR attaqua la frontière rwandaise, sinon au 6 Avril 94, quand lavion de Habyarimana sécrasa dans son jardin. Cest, à lévidence, à bon escient, pour écarter de soi-même ou des siens toute responsabilité proche ou lointaine dans le génocide des Tutsis qui fut laboutissement dune idéologie plus ancienne, l’idéologie du Parméhutu.

Un héritier variable.

Le point précis qui oppose de front Faustin Twagiramungu  à la Commission de lANT  est clair. Twagiramungu  affirme quil existe trios MDR : le MDR-Parmehutu, le MDR-« Pawa » (power) et le MDR tout court qui est le sien et naurait rien à voir avec les deux autres. Le MDR qui est le sien serait exempt didéologie ethniste et meurtrière (ubwicanyi). Au contraire, la Commission de lANT affirme avoir constaté au cours de son enquête quil y a une continuité attestée par documents entre le MDR-Parmehutu de 1959 et toutes les forms quil a prises jusquaujourdhhui.

Dans son entretien avec Tito Rutaremara le 19.4.03, à la BBC, Faustin Twagiramungu affirme que si on voulait voir dans son MDR une continuation du MDR-Parméhutu il faudrait de même considérer le FPR comme une continuation de lUNAR (Union nationale rwandaise). Largument nest pas convaincant au moins pour trois raisons : (1°) le FPR na pas repris le nom de lUNAR, (2°) na pas repris son programme politique et (3°) a été considéré comme un adversaire et combattu par un prétendant (le fils de François Rukeba, président de lUNAR) qui considérait ce parti comme un bien familial ( comme Twagiramungu considéra le MDR-Parméhutu). A supposer même que Twagiramungu ait raison de dire que son MDR na pas eu ou na pas  lidéologie ethniste et séparatiste du Parmehutu, il y a, pour le moins, provocation et indécence à vouloir conserver une dénomination qui évoque, pour un grand nombre de Rwandais, lexclusion intérieure, lexil et le génocide.

Faustin Twagiramungu affirme aujourdhui que son projet politique nest pas fondé sur les ethnies. Il lui reste à lexpliciter davantage et à se débarrasser de tout ce qui favoriserait le soupçon du contraire.  Je songe notamment à un article publié dans un journal canadien (La Presse ) dans lequel il disait que la vie politique rwandaise devrait sorganiser autour de la majorité hutu.

On aura peut-être lu son témoignage au Tribunal dArusha (TPIR) pour le procès de Gérard Ntakirutimana: au sujet du genocide rwandais bien des gens ont été troublés par un raisonnement plus proche de la prestidigitation que de la logique ordinaire.

Toutefois ne boudons pas le plaisir que procure le stade devolution où se trouve aujourdhui un héritier variable. Même en létat, il faut se féliciter dune telle déclaration. Elle touche  le fond du mal rwandais, à savoir le duel entre lethnie et le citoyen pour sapproprier le champ du politique

La nature du mal rwandais.

Aux origines, le Rwanda était un pays égalitaire : les Rwandais étaient les enfants du même père (bene mugabo umwe). Linscription du label ethnique sur la carte didentité et le monopole du pouvoir réservé aux Tutsis mirent fin au Hutu et au Tutsi frères et consacrèrent laffrontement et lirruption de lethnie dans le champ du pouvoir politique. Le chemin était ainsi grand ouvert pour larrivée du Parméhutu. Le « manifeste des Bahutu » de 1957 refusait le monopole des Tutsis institué par une administration coloniale mal conseillée par un prélatcatholique. On ignore encore quelle secrete alchimie transforma cerefus en une idéologie ethniste au profit des seuls Hutus, le Parméhutu.

Dans le cadre dun tel projet de société, lEtat et la Nation sont fondés sur les « ethnies » (amôko) au lieu dêtre fondés sur le citoyen, comme base de lunité nationale ; dans cette perspective les « ethnies» ne sont pas égales, surtout pas en nombre. Et ici le contact de l’Occident, avec sa notion de majorité politique, vient semer la confusion dans les idées en semblant  fournir une apparente légitimité  au système construit sur lethnie majoritaire (rubanda nyamwinshi). Une fois exclu tout danger et toute menace qui viendrait du côté de l’ethnie « twa » trop faible et trop peu nombreuse, le conflit rwandais se réduit à un duel hutu-tutsi. L’idéologie parméhutu va sengager sur un chemin qui va de la recherché de séparation dans loccupation de lespace national (cest le sens du télégramme de Kayibanda à lONU, le 13 Novembre 1959, demandant que le « pays tout entier » soit divisé « en zone hutu et zone tutsi ») à  lexclusion des Tutsis (de la fonction publique, de larmée, de la considération sociale, etc), en passant  par son éloignement (par lexil forcé) pour aboutir, quand lexclusion et léloignement savéreront insuffisants, au projet de sen débarrasser définitivement par le génocide. Cest le sens de lavertissement solennel de Grégoire Kayibanda quand, le 11 mars 1964, il annonce dans un discours « la fin totale et précipitée de la race tutsi ».

De 1973 à nos jours, sans jamais disparaître, lidéologie parméhutu aurait connu différentes appellations:  MRND, Pawa, CDR ; même,selon un député MDR, tous les  groupuscules en « DR » comme le PDR, le RDR, lADR, etc..nen seraient que des variantes. Elle aurait, dans la région, une diffusion certaine et connaîtrait aujourdhui au Rwanda une renaissance (ubuyanja)  fouettée par la proximité des élections pour la reconquête du pouvoir.

Sil faut en croire la Commission ad hoc de lANT, lidéologie du Parméhutu comme « refus de vivre ensemble » renaît aujourdhui avec tous les ingrédiens des origines : la primauté de lethnie, linégalité ethnique, la différence « essentielle » entre les ethnies (par les origines, les époques darrivée au Rwanda, le nombre) et, potentiellement, la séparation dans la vie quotidienne et le séparatisme géographique, et, enfin, de façon prégnante, le meurtre de lautre dont on naura pas pu se débarrasser par la marginalisation,lexclusion ou lexil.

Sil est incongru davoir des partis politiques groupés autour d’une croyance religieuse, quelle quelle soit, amenant ainsi la vie privée dans la vie publique, cela na pas de commune mesure avec lethnisme politique au Rwanda ni les mêmes résonnances historiques pour un Rwandais daujourdhui. Dailleurs, le projet de Constitution pourvoit à de telles dérives.

La démocratie comme nouvelle frontière.

Où donc trouver remède et protection contre le fléau de lethnisme véhiculé par le Parméhutu? Nous croyons sincèrement que, pour le Rwanda, hors de la démocratie il ny a point de salut. Il ne sagit pas dengoûment qui fait chanter la chanson du jour. Il sagit de sincere conviction. La nouvelle frontière du conquérant rwandais sappelle la démocratie.
La démocratie, en effet, ne reconnaît de pouvoir légitime que celui du citoyen, à lexclusion du pouvoir des ethnies, des chapelles, des familles ou des régions. Elle reconnaît par le fait même que tout citoyen est égal à tout citoyen ( en droits, en devoirs) et que la distribution du pouvoir et son exercice ne relèvent que de la decision souveraine des citoyens.

La démocratie comme nouvelle frontière est une idée forte qui se trouve, à la fois, en tête du projet de constitution rwandaise et au centre du programme politique du FPR. Le projet de constitution, en effet, souvre sur « les droits fondamentaux de la personne » et prohibe les partis politiques basés sur lethnie; quant au projet politique  prôné par le FPR, sil se décline autour de trois pivots (un nouvel art de gouverner, un nouvel art de créer de la richesse, un Etat de droit), cest en vue dassurer à la personne humaine ( au citoyen) le bien-être, cest-à-dire ( pourquoi pas ?) le début du bonheur.

Le devoir de l’homme politique : rendre les citoyens heureux.

En remontant aux origines grecques de la démocratie occidentale, on rencontre le philosophe Platon (4è s. av.JC) qui compara lhomme politique à un tisserand dont le métier est dentrelacer les homes pour produire lunité de la cité (imbaga yinyabutatu) ; lhomme politique, pensait-il, doit persuader les hommes de croire à leur parenté en dépit de tout ce qui les oppose, de se croire liés par la part éternelle de lâme. Pour son plus fameux disciple, Aristote, l’homme politique na quun seul devoir : rendre les citoyens heureux.

La nouveauté du projet dans le paysage politique rwandais mérite dêtre soulignée. A lépoque de la monarchie le citoyen sen orgueillissait dobéir et devait ses biens et son bonheur à sa docilité et à la bienveillance de son maître ; à lépoque de la république ethnique, le citoyen recueillait les retombées de la richesse ambiante, en fonction de sa proximité avec le représentant éminent de la famille et de lethnie.

Dans le nouveau projet de société du Rwanda, la personne humaine, ( lindividu, le citoyen) est appelée à être la source des lois et des biens ; elle en est la justification et laboutissement, la bénéficiaire finale. La décentralisation et la privatisation sont un hommage rendu à sa mâturité; la bonne gouvernance, aujourdhui reconnue au leadership rwandais, témoigne de  lestime et du respect quon doit bau citoyen; la  personne humaine est la seule source indispensable de la prospérité nationale .                                                                            .

Le domaine du choix et du débat.

Dans les trois piliers de lidentité rwandaise (kuba, kubaho, kubâna : être, être là, être avec), le choix et le débat politique ne peuvent porter que sur les modalités. Nous sommes ici aux frontières où prend fin lempire de la liberté sans limites et commence la liberté responsable et organisée. Il serait fou de choisir de ne pas être ; il serait fou et illusoire de choisir de ne pas être ici-maintenant; il serait suicidaire pour les Rwandais de choisir de ne  pas vivre ensemble : le Rwanda nexisterait plus.
La compétition politique et le débat qui laccompagne ne portent pas sur le fait de savoir si le Rwanda doit exister ou non, ni sur le fait de savoir si les Rwandais doivent vivre ensemble ou non ; ils  portent surla meilleure façon de vivre ensemble au Rwanda.

Cest pour cela que le Rwanda combat toute idéologie, comme l’idéologie parméhutu, qui cherche à saper les fondements de son existence comme nation de citoyens égaux.

Servilien M. Sebasoni–24 Avril 2003

Nota Bene : SMS serait selon une source digne de foi Directeur de l’Information au secrétariat du Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR au pouvoir), nous ne savons pas si c’est en cette qualité qu’il nous propose son point de vue.


Rwanda’s Gacaca performed better than ICC

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Press TV in its Africa Today program has conducted an interview with Dr. Phil Clark, lecturer in international politics, SOAS, Rwanda about Africa’s determination to control her own destiny and the issue of continued acceptance of ICC rule in favor of regional courts is under the spotlight.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Do you feel that the ICC (International Criminal Court) essentially is a token representation of the balance of power internationally and really has got nothing to do a fair play of justice across the board?

Clark: Yes I think there is some very legitimate concerns about the power differentials that the ICC represents.

I think in Africa in particular there are some very legitimate concerns that some of the major powers on the UN Security Council for example that are wielding the ICC as a legal tool particularly the US, Russia and China are themselves not subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC and so I think that that’s a concern for many African leaders and also many people at the popular level in Africa as well.

Press TV: Do you feel that really the ICC if it can be reformed should stop calling itself an international criminal court with this huge absence of such big-power players who could potentially come under its wing should they decide to go crazy like they did during the Iraq war?

Clark: I think this is the challenge for the ICC over the next five or ten years to make itself a truly global institution.

I think it’s been a serious strategic error by the court in its first ten years of operation to focus solely on Africa and African leaders. But the problem I guess that’s facing the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda at the moment is that she’s inherited this enormous Africa case load from her predecessor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and it’s going to take Bensouda I would say at least the next five to seven to eight years to clear this backlog of Africa cases.

But the court is completely log-jammed with the African cases at the moment and so until it has actually dealt with that backlog it is not going to be able to focus its attention on the rest of the world.

So there are serious… on the court at the moment, but then nevertheless that is the challenge for the court to get out of Africa and to be as a truly global institution and particularly to go after I think leaders of some of the major powers.

Until the court does that I think it is going to be seen largely as an illegitimate institution.

Press TV: What are your thoughts about the potential for this actually being a blessing in disguise with regard to African countries finally focusing in a very fine-tuned way on how they deal with the injustices across the continent.?

Clark: I’m not sure if we can thank the ICC for this renewed African interest in dealing with serious crimes because in many ways African countries were already dealing with the atrocities of the past long before the ICC emerged on the scene.

You can think of countries like Rwanda that has prosecuted hundreds and thousands of genocide cases through a community court.

Perhaps most importantly in the case of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo the local judiciary in fact was already dealing with the cases of the very same warlords that the ICC then whisked off to The Hague. And there has been enormous frustration about the fact that the ICC has basically stolen these cases from right underneath their own nose.

So I think we have to recognize that there was already enormous momentum around prosecuting genocide war crimes and crimes against humanity in many African countries before the ICC emerged on the scene and I think that that’s something the court and its supporters ignore all too readily.
Press TV: Do you think there is potential for this momentum to keep building up because some people argue like Desmond Tutu does that the people who are actually seeking to remove themselves from the ICC should actually be in front of it?

Clark: I don’t thinks it’s as straight forward to think that it’s the ICC or no justice whatsoever.

I think we need to shift the whole debate to focus on what African States themselves can do in terms of prosecuting these very serious crimes.
It is true that some African states are more willing to do this than others and I think that there needs to be more pressure on some African states to deal with their own problems, but I think by the same token we need to recognize that there is an enormous amount of domestic momentum in many, many African countries to hold their own leaders and other perpetrators of serious crimes accountable.

And so I think we should shift the whole debate not so much to talk about international justice, but in fact to talk about African justice and the things that are already very productively being done in many African court rooms as we speak.

Press TV: Can they escape justice with the existence of an African court of justice because this debate is going to force the AU to discuss a potential existing solution.

You know, it’s OK to be against the ICC, but what about justice for those people who are clamoring for justice and are not getting any?

Clark: Yes I would agree with that. I think that it’s fine for the AU to express these very important concerns about the ICC, but the pressure is now on the AU itself to set up a viable regional body and unfortunately the Africa Court of Justice on human rights at the moment is basically a skeleton of an institution – it exists on paper, but it has very little momentum and activity around it.

So the press is on the AU to firstly make that a functional body. The second that I think that needs to be done is that there needs to be much more international attention paid to the possibility of prosecuting cases through domestic courts in Africa.

I’ve already mentioned Rwanda, where I am currently, and north eastern Congo as places where here have already been important justice processes happening.

But there are also important processes happening in places like Senegal, which is prosecuting the former president of Chad; we’ve seen use of the South African courts to deal with human rights cases from Zimbabwe; and we’ve also seen an important development in South Kivu province in Congo, which has been the use of mobile courts to deal with sexual violence cases. Those mobile courts have been a combination of domestic Congolese judges working in concert with external experts.

And so there are these very important domestic justice processes that are happening in Africa and I think that much of the international debate would benefit from focusing on that potential and whether the billions of dollars that are being spent on international criminal justice could in fact be better spent in terms of judicial reform within African states themselves.

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Travailleurs et étudiants congolais se sentent chez eux au Rwanda

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Par Déo Namujimbo

Fuyant la misère, la corruption généralisée et le manque de travail en République démocratique du Congo, des milliers de Congolais se sont installés dans les pays voisins, notamment au Rwanda. Étudiants, travailleurs manuels et intellectuels, commerçants et «hommes à tout faire», le pays des Mille collines devient ainsi petit à petit leur nouvel eldorado.

Comme tous les jours, l’atelier de menuiserie d’Abel Mufungizi ne désemplit pas. Les clients se marchent pratiquement sur les pieds, s’invectivant bruyamment tout en riant parfois aux éclats dans un climat plutôt bon enfant. La plupart sont des Rwandais, ce qui est normal, l’atelier se situant à Nyamirambo, l’un des quartiers les plus populaires de Kigali, la capitale du Rwanda.

Population abandonnée, travailleurs exilés

Le Congolais Abel Mufungizi, surnommé «le roi des meubles», explique sa notoriété tout en ponçant une énième fois un ravissant buffet : «Mes clients trouvent que nous autres Congolais excellons plus dans les métiers manuels que nos confrères rwandais, mettons plus de cœur à l’ouvrage et surtout respectons les délais convenus». Et d’ajouter que depuis plus de vingt ans qu’il s’est installé à Kigali, jamais il n’a manqué de commandes ni connu de problème pour avoir manqué à ses engagements. Ce que soutient son jeune frère Louis-Paul, depuis treize ans garagiste à Butare, dans le centre du pays : «Quand les Rwandais ou même les Blancs nous passent une commande, ils savent qu’ils peuvent compter sur nous, que le travail sera bien fait et que nous ne leur ferons payer que le juste prix».

De fait, la grande majorité des travailleurs manuels des grandes villes rwandaises sont des Congolais. De Kigali à Cyangugu et de Ruhengeri à Kibuye, la plupart des garagistes, artisans, électriciens, menuisiers ou encore plombiers et couturiers ont traversé le lac Kivu ou la rivière Ruzizi pour s’installer définitivement ou pour un temps limité au Pays des mille collines. «Ici au moins nous sommes payés pour notre travail, se confie Alexandre, un jeune étudiant devenu coiffeur à Kamembe. Chez nous au Congo, non seulement les autorités ne s’intéressent nullement à l’avenir de la jeunesse, mais en plus même les agents de l’État ne sont pas payés, d’où le dicton qui dit que tous les fonctionnaires congolais souffrent du sida, le ‘Salaire impayé depuis des années‘».

Le Rwanda, un modèle de développement en Afrique

Loin de le contredire, l’infirmier Chrysostome appuie : «Comment peut-on continuer à exercer mon métier dans mon pays où les soins aux malades sont monnayés à la tête du client, les médicaments de l’hôpital vendus au marché, en assistant à la fatale agonie de malades qu’on aurait pu sauver et qui meurent sous nos yeux aussi longtemps que leurs familles n’auront pas glissé un billet au médecin ?». C’est pour ces différentes raisons qu’il s’est installé au Rwanda depuis 1999, d’abord dans les camps de réfugiés rwandais rentrant au pays après le génocide de 1994, puis à son propre compte, après avoir créé un dispensaire privé au quartier Kimisagara de Kigali.

Ancienne colonie belge comme ses voisins le Burundi et la République démocratique du Congo, le Rwanda a adopté l’anglais comme langue de l’enseignement et de l’administration, il y a une dizaine d’années. Dirigé de main de fer depuis 1994 par le général Paul Kagame, sa politique économique fait du pays un modèle de développement en Afrique et dans le tiers-monde en général, selon les appréciations des institutions de Bretton Woods que sont le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) et la Banque mondiale. Ce qui explique en partie que les jeunes Rwandais se tournent plus vers les hautes études que les métiers manuels, les moins instruits se dirigeant naturellement vers l’armée et les domaines de la sécurité nationale, l’autre cheval de bataille du gouvernement de Kigali. «Les autres domaines se trouvant ainsi délaissés, explique un prêtre expatrié sous couvert de l’anonymat, les Congolais se sont rués en masse sur cette manne qu’ils ne peuvent pas pour le moment trouver dans leur pays».

Un pied dans chaque pays

Plus loin à Gisenyi, ville frontalière de celle congolaise de Goma au pied du volcan Nyiragongo, la plupart des enseignants sont Congolais. L’un d’eux, Pierrot Muhindo, professeur de mathématiques, chimie et physique dans une école technique, soutient que son salaire lui permet d’entretenir le petit commerce de sa femme qui, comme plusieurs centaines d’autres habitantes de Goma, fait quotidiennement le commerce de vivres entre les deux pays. «Mon épouse traverse chaque matin la frontière pour venir vendre des chaussures, de la vaisselle et de la friperie au Rwanda. Le soir elle rentre à Goma avec des légumes, des fruits et de la viande que nos deux filles revendront le matin sur le marché».

Il n’y a pas que les travailleurs et les commerçants qui travaillent ou vivent au Rwanda. De plus en plus de jeunes et d’hommes d’affaires ont pris l’habitude de s’installer plus ou moins durablement dans ce pays récemment devenu membre du Commonwealth pour y apprendre la langue anglaise. «Depuis que mon père a appris l’anglais, assure Jean-Népomucène, 24 ans, il a plus de facilités lors de ses voyages d’affaires au Nigeria, en Thaïlande ou à Dubaï. C’est lui qui m’a incité à venir pour un temps au Rwanda apprendre l’anglais avant d’aller poursuivre mes études en Australie ou en Afrique du Sud».

Les métiers de l’art et du spectacle ne sont pas délaissés si l’on considère les nombreux bars et boîtes de nuit où évoluent des musiciens congolais au son de la tonitruante musique congolaise tant appréciée outre-Ruzizi. Ou encore les églises de réveil dirigées par des pasteurs congolais qui foisonnent dans les innombrables villages et collines du pays. N’empêche que d’autres jeunes Congolais ne sont pas au Rwanda pour ce qu’on appelle «la bonne cause», à l’instar de nombreuses prostituées venues vendre leurs charmes aux blancs expatriés et autres jeunes gens venus s’y installer «dans l’espoir de séduire l’une des innombrables veuves riches du génocide» comme affirment les mauvaises langues.


On UN’s “100 Days of Kobler,” LRA Dodged, FDLR Vague, Minova Rapes Ignored

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By Matthew Russell Lee
  
But when the UN’s envoy in the DRC Martin Kobler held a grand(iose) infomercial on UN Television on Thursday, using the Twitter hashtag #Kobler100Days, he downplayed that and almost all other less than positive news. 

  At least he took the LRA question, or part of it. Inner City Press asked: “What has MONUSCO & the DRC government done amid the increased LRA attacks in Orientale Province?”

  The word “increased” was dropped from the read-out, and Kobler immediately claimed that there are a lot of actions against the LRA in the neighboring Central African Republic. That is not true: action against the LRA has been suspended in CAR since the Seleka coup.

Kobler came off as if he is running for office in the DRC, or is an appointed viceroy. He said things like “educate our children,” and essentially bragged about the victory over the M23. He put no timeline on going after the FDLR.

There were translation problems, some seeming intentional. Kobler in English conceded that MONUSCO is the UN’s most expensive mission; the French translation called it only the most “important” mission.

  A question on the UN supporting an illegitimate government drew a blank from Kobler; finally he insisted there those in prison in the DRC are rightfully there. He claimed that impunity is a thing of the past — “dans le passe” — despite for example no one being jailed for the 135 rapes in Minova year ago, and only lower level army members even being charged.

While Kobler took at least four questions from the UN’s own Radio Okapi — and thanked Okapi for them at the end, North Korea style — here are some questions Kobler didn’t take or answer:

So UN believes no one higher placed is responsible for 135 rapes in Minova?

From DRC, who will have access to the info from Ladsous’ drone?  [Kobler said "December," but nothing on who'll get the information.]

What did MONUSCO find when, as UN said, it went to check in “reprisals” in Bunagana & Kiwanja?

What does UN say to critique that members of Intervention Brigade have economic & political interests in #DRC?

What has UN done about links between DRC officers & FDLR militia cited in UN’s own Group of Experts report? [Kobler's UN Peacekeeping boss Herve Ladsous should really answer this one, given his history.]

These will have to be answered. Watch this site.


France, Rwanda and the ICC- Something shady

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By Collins Wanderi

THE United Nations Security Council recently rejected the African Union motion for the deferral of the two cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto before the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was not surprising. Time and history show that the United Nations is not about the furtherance of justice, democracy or human rights. It is an organisation designed to further the political, economic and commercial interests of the five permanent members of the UNSC and other major economies of the world which fund the UN and its specialised organs.

A few facts will illustrate that the UNSC often functions to promote the political and economic interests of its five permanent members rather than foster world peace and security. Between April and July 1994 the UNSC failed Rwanda. It failed to intervene to save over a million of lives even when information available was clear that mass murder was happening in an unprecedented scale in recent history. Historians and commentators have suggested that the UNSC was acting at the behest of France, a permanent member of the UNSC.

Of the five permanent members of the UNSC, France is the most anomalous. Between 1990 and 1994 the French government supported and propped up the regime of President Juvenal Habyarimana in Rwanda. It provided a safe haven for the Akazu or the War Council that was the power behind Habyarimana’s government.

The French also gave funds and logistical support for the training and arming of the Force Arme Rwandaise (FAR), the gendarmerie as well as the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militia groups which eventually executed genocidal attacks against the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus.

When the murderous Hutu regime fell to the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), the FAR and huge populations of their sympathisers crossed into Eastern Congo DRC with the tacit logistical support of the French government. In those camps the FAR organised the refugees into some form of a government in exile where they were fed and catered for the by the UN which had completely ignored the victims of their atrocities back in Rwanda.

Interestingly it is the UNSC which allowed France to send its forces to Rwanda in 1994 under the guise of Operation Turquoise to essentially provide a safe passage to enable the genocidaires cross into Eastern DRC and eventually escape justice. As a result of this inflow of armed groups into its Eastern Provinces, the DRC experienced massive political instability and endured two non-international armed conflicts in 1996 and 1998.

The situation almost turned catastrophic in 1999 and to forestall fresh genocidal attacks in the Great Lakes Region, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in conjunctions with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched the Great Lakes Operation (GLO) in early 1999 with the sole aim of resolving the issues relating to the Rwandan refugees case load in Eastern DRC.

Eligibility officers based in Nairobi recorded horrendous accounts of extreme suffering from the survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Almost all the survivors of genocide blamed the French government for supporting, training and arming the perpetrators of genocide and for sending its forces to provide a safe passage for the perpetrators to flee into Congo and escape justice.

It is no secret that most of the political leaders who fanned the ideology of genocide in Rwanda fled to Belgium and France after the collapse of the Hutu regime.

Currently, reports from New York suggest that French envoy and economic strategist Béatrice Le Fraper du Hellen is leading the onslaught against the African Union’s motion for the deferral of the Kenyan cases before the ICC.

Being a member of the French government’s delegation to the United Nations she must have the express support of her government. It is paradoxical that a country that would readily host and protect genocidaires is now lecturing the African Union on matter relating to human rights, justice and democracy.

One of the key tenets of President Kenyatta and his Deputy Ruto’s campaign was ethnic reconciliation and harmony. The two leaders used the campaign platform to promote peace and harmony among communities that had hitherto been warring particularly in the Rift Valley. They managed to convince these communities to vote on one side and won the election.

The two are the chief sponsors and guarantors of the peace and calm that is currently being enjoyed in the Rift Valley and many parts of Kenya.

It would be naive for anybody to imagine that Kenya will remain peaceful if any of the two leaders is removed from the country by the ICC. Renewed ethnic strife in the whole or part of Kenya would definitely be a threat to national and regional peace and stability.

But the French see things differently. Their behaviour is not surprising. It is symptomatic of their attitude towards Africa where they support weak regimes and exploit fragile ethnic differences between opposing groups thereby gaining a political hold over fledgling regimes and a chance to advance their commercial interests.

It is no wonder that most of the countries that have experienced political upheavals and inter ethnic conflict in Africa are from the Francophone sphere. Rwanda, Burundi, Congo-DRC, Congo-Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Chad, Mali, Madagascar and currently Central Africa Republic easily come to mind. It is no secret that a number of companies from France have expressed interest in some of these infrastructural projects.

Kenya seems to be leaning towards the East precisely China thus denying France and other members of the European Union a chance to partake in these multi-billion dollar projects. This begs the question; is France using the ICC cases and its permanent membership in the UNSC to arm-twist the government of Kenya in order to obtain preferential treatment in matters relating to international trade?

Time and space will eventually answer this question. Is France ready to risk the security of millions of Kenyans just to obtain a comparative economic advantage? Do the French care for the safety of Kenyan citizens who look up at the presidency to guarantee their peace and security?

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Africa’s Next Generation of Leaders and Technocrats

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A new wave of policy makers has arrived in governments across Africa, with a growing cohort of women taking charge.

For decades, government jobs across much of Africa were allocated according to patronage, kinship or social network. At the top, strongmen dominated politics from the end of colonial rule to the 1990s, with barely any rulers peacefully ousted at the ballot box.

Today, things look very different. The Organisation of African Unity worried little about undemocratic practice. Its successor, the African Union, is less tolerant. Most of the continent’s dictators are either out of government or out of touch.

A new generation of leaders is entering politics, their outlook more cosmopolitan than their predecessors. “Globalisation has brought what is happening around the world into our living rooms and so people no longer feel as if our part of the world is so secluded and we can carry on at our own pace,” says Kingsley Moghalu, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. “They see what is happening all over the world and people want to enjoy the stability, economic growth and other positive attributes they see in other societies.”

Nigeria’s trade and industry minister, Olusegun Aganga, points out that, along with a change in consciousness, there is also a shift in skill sets, with managerial experts increasingly powerful within his government. “When you look at the different portfolios in Nigeria, in the most critical ones you have technocrats,” he says.

The same is true in Kenya, where several key posts are now occupied by technically skilled policy makers with diverse global experiences. At 47, Phyllis Kandie, cabinet secretary for East African Community affairs, commerce and tourism, was previously an investment banker, and an adviser to the World Bank and European Union. Henry Rotich, at 44, is cabinet secretary at Kenya’s Treasury, and has previously worked for the country’s central bank, and for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And Harvard graduate Adan Abdulla Mohammed is cabinet secretary for industrialisation, having previously been chief administrative officer at Barclays Africa.

The old guard stands down

Liberia’s Ellen John Sirleaf, aged 74, stands out as a leader intent on ushering in a new guard. Since coming to power in 2006, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning president has sought out promising young Liberians at home and abroad, and offered them training and government work. “The president is consciously trying to put the younger generation in leadership positions,” says Steven Radelet, a government adviser.

Amara Konneh, the 41 year old finance minister, is one of Africa’s most impressive young leaders. His nouse was evident in his early twenties when, displaced by civil war and living in a camp in Guinea, he convened an administrative committee, opened a school and worked with the United Nations to meet the needs of refugees. After emigrating to the US, he returned to Liberia in 2006 and in a short space of time has made remarkable headway.

As planning minister, Mr Konneh led the implementation of Liberia’s first poverty reduction strategy, which connected 10,000 households in Monrovia to the power grid and restored basic government services including health, education and policing to all 15 counties. As finance minister thereafter, he implemented an action plan for the first 150 days of the president’s second term, which saw the rebuilding of the container terminal at the port of Monrovia, and the completion of a new highway from the capital city to Buchanan, which cut in half a four hour journey.

Lessons learned

Policy makers in their 30s and 40s do not remember Africa’s jubilant independence, but they did witness as youngsters its worsening economic fortunes as the 1970s wore on. Now, they are eager to change that story.

Sierra Leonean economist Omotunde Johnson, a former IMF official, says the woeful economic trajectories of post-independence Africa influenced how today’s leaders think about governance. “Countries had seen the consequences of overvalued exchange rates, governments’ excessive borrowing from central banks, non-concessional foreign borrowing, producer prices of state-owned marketing boards that resulted in huge taxation of agricultural commodities, subsidies and price controls for grain and fuel, and mismanagement of government budgetary revenue, especially from natural resources,” he says. “These made them sit up and re-think their whole budgetary management as well as other aspects of their macroeconomic management.”

In several resource rich nations, leadership changes have been accompanied by more responsible management of revenues. “The government framework surrounding resources extraction; the knowledge surrounding the various resource curse types from yesteryear; and the level of transparency that envelopes resource extraction are so much improved,” says Goolam Ballim, Standard Bank’s chief economist, referencing the development of sovereign wealth funds and more robust petroleum development bills, which attempt to share resource revenues more equitably between investors, the state and its citizens.

Poverty and economic crisis are not the only reasons today’s leaders seek a root-and-branch reform of government. Conflict has also been a catalyst. Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president, references his country’s 1994 genocide as the starting point of today’s developmental success. “Our tragic history, and many of the problems we have faced, bad as they are, also constituted a lesson. [It] had its own silver lining in the sense that people have internalised it, they have felt pain. We are there to say: ‘No, you can’t keep like this, we don’t deserve to be like this. There is a way out of this’,” he tells This is Africa. “[Success] also has to come from a mindset that nobody is going to come and take you out of [trouble] without your participation.”

Nigeria’s new cadre

In Nigeria, a combination of greater skill sets and younger perspectives are coming together to improve a broken system.  A power privatisation programme, the first attempt in half a century, promises to improve catastrophic energy supplies.

Anti-corruption efforts are starting to bear fruit in the extractives industry, albeit from a low base. “Nigeria is an example par excellence of the resource curse. And [they are] now working away at getting the figures out, and doing audits, and making things more transparent… They have revealed some very considerable money that hasn’t been paid over, giving some ammunition to parliamentary inquiries,” says Clare Short, chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The overhaul of banking regulations has seen the country’s financial services sector emerge from a state of mass fraud and inefficiency, under the leadership of the soft-spoken central bank governor Lamido Sanusi. Appointed in the midst of a debt crisis in 2009, his bold moves to fix Nigeria’s corruption-stricken banks toppled eight local chief executives and ushered in sweeping reforms aimed to protect depositors’ cash, recapitalise banks, boost financial inclusion, and curb illicit financial flows. His prudent monetary policy has brought inflation down to single digits and steadied the exchange rate, protecting jobs and growth along the way.

Making those changes in one of Africa’s most notoriously opaque economies is no easy task, but Mr Sanusi has stuck to his guns. “Throughout my tenure of governor I’ve had a very clear sense of who I am there to serve. I have no doubt in my mind that my primary constituency is the poor, uneducated, unenlightened depositor,” he explains. “But since you are standing on the side of the weak against the rich and powerful you end up with opposition every single step of the way. It’s faceless largely, but it’s really about groups and classes who continue to benefit from the status quo who don’t like the change.”

The governor is proud of the reforms. “In 2009 there was a sense that certain people were untouchable; if you have enough money and enough political connections you can do what you want to do. And I think that just being able to remove those CEOs and prosecute them was a great achievement,” he says.

There is still work to be done, and there are inevitable risks of back-tracking when Mr Sanusi steps down in 2014. “Who is chosen as governor will be important in terms of the belief in the reform and how it will continue,” he concedes. “[But] I have tried to get the board of the central bank involved. I have tried to get everybody to own these policies… I am hoping that, having carried the institution along with me, that they really do believe in it, and that whoever comes in will find an institution that is already wired in a particular way.”

Mr Sanusi leaves a meaningful legacy. Standard Bank’s Mr Ballim argues that his reforms have influenced central bank governors across the continent. “You have a leadership influence emanating out of the better policy makers and positive externalities emerging from Lamido Sanusi,” he says. “He has taken the financial services sector, riddled with instabilities, and transformed it. The type of zeal that he has shown to central banking and broader citizenship has created a sense of competition amongst African central bankers, who show him enormous regard.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s agriculture reform agenda – led by Akinwumi Adesina, a young agricultural economist and former vice president for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa – has been equally impressive. When Mr Adesina arrived in post, Nigerian farming was in a pitiful state. A longstanding national input subsidy programme was rampant with corruption, with government-supplied fertilisers and seeds failing to reach farmers and much produce going missing along the way. “It was a very corrupt system, one of the most corrupt systems that I’ve ever seen,” recalls Mr Adesina. “My job was to clean that up and it took us 90 days. In 90 days we ended the corruption of 40 years.”

His ministry and the central bank launched an electronic wallet system to distribute subsidy coupons which helped farmers purchase seeds and fertiliser directly from companies rather than the government. In the first year, around 1.5 million farmers were involved. With an average of five people per household, that means around 7.5 million people would have directly benefited from the programme. “Taking the government out of buying and selling seed also saved the government $158m a year,” he claims.

Last year, companies sold $10m worth of seed for the first time in Nigeria, directly to farmers. “In one year, the number of seed companies went from 11 to 70 because they could see that the government is out of the way and the farmers are getting the inputs,” says Mr Adesina. The withdrawal of government from fertilisers has encouraged major capital investment, including bold plans launched by Aliko Dangote to build a major fertiliser plant. He says his efforts are working in the long-term favour of Nigeria by reducing the import bill. “When you import something from a country you are creating jobs over there, and creating poverty in your own local domestic market, because you are not producing what you consume,” he warns.

Women in charge

African governments feature a growing constituency of women, who across the continent are filling posts traditionally dominated by men. Among the most senior are the likes of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in 2006 became Africa’s first female head of state. Last year Joyce Banda became president of Malawi, and in September Aminata Touré was named prime minister of Senegal. Women have also taken power in the most senior ministry of all – finance – in Uganda and Nigeria, where the indefatigable Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala keeps a lively roster of male ministers in check.

“Africa is very progressive, more progressive than other continents. What I find is that I have come into office and I am only one of two [female] presidents, but you find our African men have created space for women to participate in leadership,” Malawi’s President Banda says. “I have been gender minister, foreign minister, vice president, I am president now. I can’t remember a day in those 10 years when I saw anything from a man that suggested to me that I was being undermined.”

This isn’t just a question of playing catch up; Africa has made greater gender gains than many other regions. The average representation for women in sub-Saharan parliaments stands at 21 percent, compared to 9.8 percent in 1995, figures from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) show. That’s enough to make many more developed Western nations blush: female MPs make up 22.5 percent of the UK’s House of Commons, and 17.8 percent of the US Congress. In fact, of the 36 global lower houses of parliament that have reached the 30 percent threshold considered necessary for women to have an impact on decision-making, 11 are in Africa. Those include some of the continent’s lower-income nations, such as Burundi and Mozambique.

“A lot of these [African] countries have emerged in their recent past from conflict and have used the opportunity of reconstruction to address discriminations that have afflicted them. For many of them ensuring that women were part of the political process was a priority,” says Kareen Jabre, head of the IPU’s gender programme. “It was a way of acknowledging the role that women played in liberation movements; that they took on responsibilities during the civil conflict and that they are part of the solution now.”

The most impressive gains have come from Rwanda. After parliamentary elections in September, the proportion of women in the country’s lower house reached an unprecedented 64 percent – the highest rate globally. Many of the country’s female politicians put that down to the inclusiveness of the reconstruction process. “In Rwanda we were for a long time a society in which women were not given political space even if they had the education,” explains Marie Josée Kankera, an MP and former deputy speaker.

But the war changed those possibilities. “We had so many widows, and those widows were mobilised to work hard, to travel, to get enough income to feed their kids,” she says. “We were mobilised to contribute to the redevelopment of our country, to increase our economic capabilities, to finalise our education. After the war, women, girls, boys, and men worked together to rebuild the country.”

Those changes were institutionalised in 2003, when President Kagame engineered a new constitution for Rwanda, which mandated that 30 percent of all decision-making positions must be held by women. “We are aware that historically the ground has not been level, so we had to create some kind of balance by really trying to uplift women,” he explains. That shift has catalysed more equitable legislation, impacting in turn on discrimination. In 2012, a poll by Gallup showed that Rwanda is now considered the safest place for females to live in Africa by its residents.

In Malawi, too, President Banda notes that her gender has influenced her policy decisions. “I saw it as a calling where as a mother, as a grandmother, and as the first woman president in Sadc [the Southern African Development Community], I had a duty not to fail, otherwise I would have failed all the women,” she explains. “I saw myself as a pioneer and a role model who should set the pace for good governance, poverty eradication, the fight against waste and corruption, and bringing issues of gender equality, girl child education and maternal health to the forefront of the development agenda.”

Limits of technocrats

While better governance requires a more diverse demographic in government, one thing is clear: in a nation’s early days, or its most troubled hours, the head of state position remains critical. The qualities of those leaders go further than technical skill or a stint at Citibank.

“There has been a certain generation of leadership which began to have very specific visions of where they wanted to lead their countries,” says the Nigerian central bank’s Mr Moghalu. “You have people like Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia and Paul Kagame in Rwanda. Everyone may not agree with their style of leadership and their actions, but there is no question when you study them closely that these are leaders who have something that Africa needs: a world view. You absolutely need to have a very conscious world view.”

There is an inconvenient truth here; those two countries heralded as the most ‘developmental’ in contemporary Africa both receive criticism for their weaker democratic credentials, at least as measured by the political space and the competitiveness of elections. Even Africa’s best-governed state, Botswana, has never seen a transfer of party power.

Mr Kagame is under fire by those who say Rwanda’s politics are highly authoritarian and without strong and free opposition, but many Rwandans support him because they don’t think another leader would bring the same reforms. Is he vital to Rwanda’s development trajectory, or could the changes continue without him? Asked how long is too long to retain power, the president doesn’t give a firm answer. “I can’t effectively answer that, in a sense of saying: ‘At what point’. It is a bit complicated. Is five years enough? Is it 10, 20?” he responds.

Mr Kagame says countries have a range of democratic settlements, from those enforcing term limits on incumbents, such as the US, to those who do not, such as the UK. Either way, the noise around his position in government has become a distraction, he claims. “I think the debate has been too simplified and we run the danger of saying: ‘No, the stroke of a pen matters more than the circumstances or even what people want or say’,” he says. “In my mind, let’s grapple with the problems and with these questions that we must answer. Are we sticking to the democratic principles of accountability, of transparency and, at the end of it, of delivery?”

There is no doubt that Mr Kagame has been a driver of Rwanda’s accelerated development. But in the end, he acknowledges that institutions are more important than people and that a reform programme can only be deemed a success when its momentum outpaces its original architects. China’s key reformer, Deng Xiaoping, left government just as his changes were taking effect. George Washington, the founding leader of the US, refused to run for a third term – thereby setting a two-term limit only once broken, by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Africa has its own example in Ghana. Many pleaded with Jerry Rawlings not to leave government back in the early 1990s, fearing his reforms would fall apart, returning the country to its dismal state. Mr Rawlings was not worried; he assumed his vice president, John Atta Mills, would win. But as it happened, he lost to John Kufuor, leaving nascent reforms in the hands of the opposition. Yet, far from falling apart, Ghana was strengthened, and has enjoyed six peaceful elections since to become one of the strongest democracies, and best governed countries, in Africa.  “You need to move from power invested in a person into creating the institutions,” says Liberia’s Mr Radelet. “That transition is really critical.”

This article is based on research and interviews carried out by This is Africa, a publication from the Financial Times, for its November project Africa’s Reformers, supported by the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative.

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Tanzanians take Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to Court over Tripartite Meetings

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Three Tanzanian nationals have lodged a case against Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) in Arusha.

According to the 3, who have been identified as Ally Hatibu Msanga, David Mataka and John Adam Bwenda, the tripartite meetings held by the accused nations in June, August and October this year contravenes the EAC’s founding Treaty.

The plaintiffs are therefore requesting that the EACJ issues a ‘stop-order’ preventing the group from effecting agreements reached during these meetings.

The governments of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya are reported to have held the meetings in the absence of Tanzania and Burundi because of what has been described as differences in their approach to the EAC union. According to pundits, while Tanzania and Burundi propose a more calculated approach to the union with an eye on their territorial and economic interests, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya advocate a fast-track approach to the union.

This difference in approach is reported to be the reason why the tripartite meetings were held in the absence of representatives of Tanzania and Burundi, during which the EAC trio reached agreements on numerous cross-border projects including the creation of a single tourist visa.

Jimmy Obed, lawyer of the plaintiffs is reported to have remarked that the actions of the trio jeopardize the very foundations of the EAC, noting that their actions were irresponsible.

“Those meetings were against the EAC protocol, as the three states were discussing some of the issues which are within the EAC framework,” he said.

At the EACJ yesterday, Judges ruled to postpone the case to February 14th, citing that the plaintiffs provided insufficient evidence for a judgment to be reached. The postponement of the trial is reportedly to allow the appropriate authorities gather evidence and summon representatives of the accused nations to the trial.

Despite their historical co-cooperativeness, the creation of the EAC has revealed deep differences among member states. Only 13 years into its existence, many fear the EAC may follow the path of its predecessor, which was dissolved in 1977 after just 10 years of existence.

Recently, the Freedom Unity Front (FUF) a newly formed opposition party in Uganda, accused President Yoweri Museveni of sabotaging the EAC. According to the group, President Museveni is at the forefront of the move to isolate Tanzania and Burundi from the EAC, which is allegedly why he failed to invite representatives from both nations to the EAC meeting at Entebbe, Uganda in June.

Meanwhile, President Musuveni has explained that his reason for not inviting these nations to the meeting was that the projects under consideration did not directly affect them. He reasoned that these nations were to be briefed on the proceedings of the meeting.

Amid these claims of an impending disintegration of the EAC, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania has reiterated his country’s commitment to the union. According to him, the union is still healthy despite reports that representatives from his nation and Burundi have been excluded from EAC meetings.

He revealed that the move by the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to fast track the EAC integration process goes against the founding protocol of the EAC Treaty–which called for the creation of a single customs union, a common market and a single tourist visa before the establishment of a single monetary unit.

This notwithstanding it was recently reported that the EAC’s sectorial council on Legal and Judicial affairs have given their approval to a draft legal protocol for the EAC’s monetary union. The heads of states are expected to sign the protocol at the EAC Summit this November in Uganda, after which the process will take effect.

According to pundits, the difference in approach does not have the potential to cause a disintegration of the EAC. However, if the union should ever disintegrate, it is likely to be held as a principal proof of incompatibility.

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With M23 Gone, Will MONUSCO’s Ally FDLR be disarmed like Other Armed Groups in Eastern DRC?

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BY CHRISTOPH VOGEL

Currently, there is a lot going on in terms of disarmament and demobilisation of armed groups in the Eastern DRC since the surrender of M23 two weeks ago.

While the situation around Makenga’s rebellion remains unclear – most of the état-major and the rank and file seem to be under Ugandan custody in Kasese – newswires and twitter feeds have been flooded by mushrooming announcements of other armed groups across eastern DRC.

However, so far there is no indication that a majority of militias will be laying down their arms. Most of the 50 or so armed groups still swim likes chillies in the Congolese soup. Media reports suggesting otherwise, for example on Voice of America and Radio Okapi, should definitively taken with a pinch, or two, of salt. There are a variety of reasons for this, some of which will be discussed here.

First of all, the accuracy of such reports remains highly questionable as long as they are based on a mistaken or misleading representation of the facts. Voice of America, for instance, based its piece on statements quoted out of context. Mayi Mayi Kifuafua and the Raia Mutomboki of Bakano sector, two armed groups that confronted each other a few months ago in areas connecting Walikale, Masisi (North Kivu) and Kalehe (South Kivu) territories, signed their ‘acte d’engagement’ to cease hostilities in mid-August. This was more than two months before M23′s demise and prior to the first heavy defeats inflicted by the FARDC-MONUSCO coalition. Describing a correlation between these events is not only tentative, it is simply wrong. Neither of the two militias has had any particularly friendly or bellicose ties to M23.

Similar to this is the Radio Okapi report on the impending downing of arms among a key part of the Raia Mutomboki in South Kivus’s Shabunda territory. While it is true that some major protagonists of Raia Mutomboki – more precisely of the ‘Coalition Raiya Mukombozi’ – have announced they would lay down their arms and possibly present a ‘cahier de charges’ to President Joseph Kabila during his upcoming visit to the eastern DRC, there is little indication of a causal connection with the end of M23.

Moreover, the branches of this nebulous militia were grossly misrepresented in this article. Daniel Meshe, the acting president of the coalition, is not in conflict with Albert Kahasha (aka Foka Mike), the latter is his deputy ‘chef d’état major’. In personal communication, a spokesperson of the movement confirmed the coalition’s will to end armed opposition. Beyond Meshe and Kahasha, it seems probable that other influential chiefs and commanders, such as Donat Kengwa, Ngandu Lundimu, or Mabala Mese, will join in while others may stay in the maquis.

While the M23 factor may have partly shaped this evolution, it is premature to argue that it is the main factor. Being generally hostile to all ‘foreigners’ (meaning all rwandophone populations, regardless of whether they are Congolese or Rwandan), Raia Mutomboki’s/Mukombozi’s operations have been directed against FDLR rebels and rwandophone army regiments and not against M23. Even in their ‘acte constitutif’, M23 was not named as an enemy, while the ADF, FNL, and FDLR were. In addition, strong allegations of alleged M23 support to some Raia Mutomboki elements, notably Foka Mike, have never been completely eliminated.

Second, the motivations of those militias that are said to have laid down arms since the M23 surrender remain, at best, fuzzy. Mayi Mayi Sheka, or NDC, is just such a case. For several reasons, Mayi Mayi Sheka is not a typical Mayi Mayi group: It was created by Sheka Ntabo Ntaberi, a Nyanga businessman from Walikale territory, in order to protect his mining rackets from other conflict actors. While several FARDC defectors and commanders have been instrumental in setting up the group, Sheka is among the few militia bosses without his own military record. His armed resistance is based both on grievances – the protection and representation of Nyanga people – and greed: interests in Walikale’s copious mining areas. His links to various (in-)famous protagonists such as Bosco Ntaganda, with whom he engaged in business cooperation, and members of Makenga’s M23 faction too, make it unlikely that M23′s disappearance will greatly impact the operations of his own militia. His ‘cahier de charge’ puts much more emphasis on the nuisance potential of the FDLR, depicted as invaders pillaging and looting from the Congolese (there is no mention of M23 at all).

In Sheka’s case, another factor may play a bigger role: MONUSCO’s intervention brigade, the so-called ‘FIB’. It should not be forgotten that recent military success against M23 was not only down to the FARDC, but also MONUSCO’s first battlefield win (EUFOR Artemis was not a UN mission). The fact that Sheka was named as a potential future target for the intervention brigade – including by MONUSCO’s head Martin Kobler – has most probably been transmitted up to Walikale’s forest panoplies.

A third point: militia politics in eastern DRC remain extraordinarily complex. The defeat of one rebellion – even one as important as M23′s – cannot be seen as a panacea for all rebellions. Most of the militias in eastern DRC have at no point been engaged in direct clashes against M23. Some have emerged in actual opposition to M23 and, more or less independently, engaged militarily with Makenga’s faction.

Others have been used as proxy forces by the FARDC – either as a buffer or to open up additional fronts. These include Mayi Mayi Shetani (a Nande militia in Northern Rutshuru), the MPA (a Nyatura surrogate in Rutshuru), the FDIPC (another Nyatura surrogate in Rutshuru); the FDLR splinter formerly led by the now deceased Colonel Sok and some core FDLR (FOCA) and FDLR-RUD. Among the proxies, the most notable appearances are Masisi-based parts of Nyatura and parts of APCLS.

To add to that, some militias’ trajectories show that also within a certain group, strongly diverging wings can emerge – either within the military part or between military and political branches. The case of FDC-Guides is illustrative: Founded as ‘Guides’ that allegedly helped carry out targeted killings of FDLR commanders in Masisi, the formation became FDC-Guides with strong ties to M23. Disenchantment led to parts of the group leaving and creating the Guides-MAC, while the remaining part became FDC. Despite M23 being an important factor in this militia’s evolution, neither of the two parts have so far publicly reacted to M23′s defeat.

Based on these three points, a few remarks:

Of course, some groups have declared their self-demobilisation as a consequence of M23′s surrender, and more precisely the disappearance of a direct enemy. The most obvious example is that of the aforementioned FDIPC-part of the Nyatura; a militia based on a Congolese Hutu membership (many of them ex-PARECO). For some others this may hold true as well.

Others may also demobilise as a direct consequence of that, but for the opposite reason – because their main ally has now collapsed. There is a little room for this kind of speculation in the Sheka case, but their ties to M23 have been much weaker lately.

There are also groups that may lay down arms as a indirect consequence of what happened with M23. Different motivations may be involved here: First of all, the dissuasive impact of both improved FARDC performance and MONUSCO’s increased involvement. Second, the observation that the FARDC may be turning into an army capable of fulfilling its duties (many militia creations are partly a response to being threatened or neglected by the FARDC).

While every dissolution of an armed group in eastern DRC is a reason to be cheerful, it is premature to talk about disarmament and demobilisation. At the FARDC level, there is ongoing patchwork integration (the examples of Mayi Mayi Yakutumba, Mayi Mayi Nyakiliba, and others are telling… ) which is some sort of DDR-into-regular-army. Remarkably though, the FARDC has impressive data on the myriad of militias – a wealth of knowledge that is needed to run an effective demobilisation project.

Currently no disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programme is in place in the DRC. There is a MONUSCO-led DDRRR (adding repatriation and resettlement to the acronym) for foreign combatants and a few remnants of DRC’s former DDR programme conducted by the ‘Unité d’Execution du Programme National DDR’.

The near future may well change that: Both the DRC’s national DDR programme and the United Nations are busy working towards a new comprehensive DDR approach for the DRC. First rumours are promising, but optimism should not belie the meagre accomplishments of previous DDR efforts; both the Congolese ones and those led by the international community through MONUC, UNDP, or the World Bank.

In conclusion, current “waves” of demobilisation need increased scrutiny. Instead of resting on one’s laurels and attributing such developments to the M23 story, much more needs to be done to both encourage and compel all the other armed groups to demobilise. This is mainly a political challenge. Without addressing underlying causes (land, insecurity, governance, Big Men politics, instrumentalised ethnicity, and so on… ), even actual self-demobilisation of some groups may turn out to be a mere chimera. And without accelerating the setting up a of new comprehensive DDR programme – protected from donor ignorance and local manipulation and working in the areas it is most needed – the whole array of combatants will not be effectively guided from military to civilian life.

Christoph Vogel is a Mercator Fellow on International Affairs. He tweets in personal capacity @ethuin and blogs at http://www.christophvogel.net.

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President Jacob Zuma’s ‘Jokes’ are offensive and not African!

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By Takura Zhangazha

South African President Jacob Zuma is generally a man who harbours little fear of the negative consequences of his words or actions. Or if he does, he exhibits a certain confidence that he will overcome any such problematic effects of what he says or does.

His reported utterances at a meeting organised by his party, the African National Congress (ANC), about what was essentially a domestic matter, however went on to betray his unfortunate attitude toward Africa.

As reported in the City Press newspaper, he jokingly advised the meeting that on the matter of ‘e-tolls’ in his country, South Africans must not “ think like Africans in Africa generally, we’re in Johannesburg.” He is reported to have further added that the Gauteng highways are “not some national road in Malawi” to further buttress his distasteful humour.

If these statements were attributed to an ordinary citizen of any African country, they probably would not have made any headlines. But coming as they are from South Africa’s president, they cannot be swept under the carpet.

Being a Zimbabwean, I am acutely aware that humour has a general role in politics, particularly where it is used for comparative assessment of progress between countries. Or, even domestically, as it relates to freedom of expression.

I however do not agree with humour being used to connote false stereotypes of others let alone being used in such an abrasive and far-reaching manner by a sitting head of state and government. More so, by an African one at a time when the continent remains on an international back-foot due in part to the perpetuation of uninformed stereotyping of some countries as being “more equal than others”.

Mr Zuma’s regrettable comments have the specific import of implying two issues. Firstly that he believes that his country is ‘exceptional’ and therefore cannot be viewed from the prism of being a sister African country.

He may be correct in the eyes of his supporters but the premise of this argumentation is however politically misplaced. South Africa is indeed an exceptional country but not by way of narrow, self-serving comparison to the status of the development of other African countries.

It is exceptional in the sense that it owes its liberation not only to the current ruling party but the contribution of many African countries and peoples that its current president finds fit to deride.

Furthermore, assumptions of any economic/development superiority of South Africa must also be premised on the knowledge that due to the colonial development of forced (political and economic) circular migration in Southern Africa, contributions to its current status are also historically grounded in the peoples of the sub-region.

This is why some of the most tragic colonial institutions were the Native Labour Associations, inclusive of the notorious but heavily utilised Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (commonly referred to as Wenela by us, the African locals.)

In singularly claiming a specific un-African uniqueness to his country, President Zuma is being dishonest to himself and the legacy of African liberation struggles that his own party, the ANC, proudly lays claim to.

His utterances are borderline disheartening confirmation of the unfortunate myth that the more an African country was colonised, the better it turned out in development/modernisation.

If that were to be true, we might as well thank the settler colonials for getting us to where we are, a development that would be a treasonous betrayal of the liberation struggles whose challenges and objectives we are still trying to overcome and achieve in contemporary time.

A second and final effect of the statement attributed to Mr. Zuma is its import on xenophobia in his own backyard. The consistent and violent “othering” of fellow Africans by poorer South Africans cannot have found better endorsement than in the utterances of its head of government.

Because there is a misconception that citizens from other African countries come to take local jobs, any insinuation, particularly at the highest leadership level, that South Africa is rich beyond the imagination of the rest of the continent does not serve to promote peaceful co-existence in volatile communities.

Instead it gives wrong nationalistic premise to poorer and disadvantaged South Africans to want to falsely but violently gate-keep wealth that they do not control anyway.

Indeed South Africa is exceptional (as is any other country) and its roads are not like those of Malawi. It however is an African country on the African continent and with its historical umbilical cord in Africa. While we can forgive the ignorance of musicians and other artistic celebrities, President Zuma’s unfortunate attempt at humour is not funny.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity. This piece comes from his blog takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com. Our regular columnist will return next week.

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France politics and the rise of Racism

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By Nancy Ing, Producer, NBC News

PARIS – A 12-year-old girl waves a banana at a black government minister and shouts: “Who’s this banana for? It’s for the monkey!”

Such slurs – and a generally muted official response to them – have caused a bout of soul-searching in France. The question at the heart of the debate: is racism rampant in a country with revolutionary roots and a motto boasting of “equality” and “liberty”?

The issue has dominated discussion since the same politician, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, was likened to a monkey by a candidate for the right-wing National Front. The candidate was forced to withdraw, but the tensions lingered.

Last week, extreme-right weekly magazine Minute ran a photo of Taubira and the headline “Clever as a Monkey. Taubira reclaims the banana” on its cover.

Some critics allege the government has been slow to respond. When it did condemn the acts of racism against Taubira in the National Assembly on Nov. 12, only half the lawmakers left their seats for a standing ovation as she entered the chamber.

All this adds up to one thing, according to Harry Roselmack, the first black journalist to host nightly news on French television.

“A racist France is on its way back,” he wrote in an editorial in Le Monde newspaper.

“They are not slips of the tongue; they are the unvarnished expression of a world view widely shared in the National Front,” Roselmack said, referring to the far-right political group.

The National Front has become a political force to be reckoned with. A recent survey found that 42 percent of voters polled had a positive opinion of the party’s leader, Marine Le Pen.

Taubira, who was born in French Guiana in South America and has been a French citizen since birth, spoke out about the attacks in an interview with the Liberation newspaper.

“Millions of people are affected when I am treated as a monkey,” she said. “Millions of kids know that someone can treat them as monkeys in the schoolyard.”

She called the remarks “violent” in another interview on evening newscast France 2. “I absorb the shock but it’s violent for my children.”

Meanwhile, the country that is notorious for its strikes and protests has seen no organized demonstrations to condemn the insults. This may have something to do with the fact that the term “multiculturalism” is often seen as a shameful reminder of the country’s darkest period during World War II when it ghettoized Jewish citizens and handed them over to the Nazis.

Squeamishness about discussing multiculturalism and compiling statistics on minorities comes as the country’s troubled relationship with marginalized groups — including those who trace their ancestry to former colonies or protectorates like Morocco and Algeria — periodically tips into violence.

In 2012, there was a 23 percent rise in racist acts in France, according to the National Consulting Commission of Human Rights.

In typical French style, the country’s artists and intellectuals are speaking out in support of Taubira and against what they perceive to be a growing wave of racism.

“We are all French monkeys,” declared a full-page ad in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper bought by intellectual and artistic luminaries on Sunday.

Taubira was also invited by France’s world-famous philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy to a gathering of writers, filmmakers and intellectuals.

“We are here, madame, to express our anger, for sure, to confront this rise and return of infamy and racism, and to confront all these remarks that are in the process of gently justifying or explaining or excusing partially what was done to you,” he said.

Levy also suggested Taubira be the next model for the statue of France’s revolutionary heroine, Marianne. The statue, which symbolizes freedom and the patriotic mother who protects the children of the republic, has been modeled on figures like Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Latetia Casta.

“It’s time that Marianne reflected the face of minorities who proudly represent France,” Levy said.

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