Kagame: Genocide only for Tutsi’s, the whole world turned against us when we need help and they are still helping the militias (FDLR)

Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days. Most of the dead were Tutsis – and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus who accused the Tutsi’s and some Moderate Hutus of being behind the shooting of Habyarimana Official Plane or sympathizers of the   RPF then a rebel group which was fighting the government of President Habyarimana.

The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. The Interahamwe armed Militia and some radical security officers went rampage killing innocent Tutsis and moderate Hutus according to them, they were retaliating against the murder of the father of the nation (Umubyeyi).

Paul Kagame left Juvenal Habyarimana right

Kagame Habyarimana good governance

Some commentators believe that, the Sudden death of President Habyarimana caused a political vacuum and the country was engulfed in lawlessness followed by massacres of innocent people and subsequent exodus of refugees to the neighbouring Congo.  Indeed, what the killers were saying was that the RPF and what they called sympathizers have killed their father (Umubyeyi).

It is appalling that the death of one person however so much he is loved could cause the loss of another life. Because life is equal and sacred, we cannot sacrifice one life for another life.  It’s only Jesus that sacrificed life for the mankind. John 3:16

A major cause of African conflicts and Rwanda in particular has been ethnicity, and it has continued to be played by the successive leaders. The creation of new nation-states at the time of independence was accompanied by urgent calls for nation-building by the new African leaders who were well aware of the difficulty in transcending African ethnic and regional loyalties. The European concept of a nation was exported to Africa. Stephen McCarthy’s definition of a nation as ‘a complex web of common cultural, social and economic interests among people, leading to a sense that what they share in common is greater than their regional, tribal or other differences’ simply reflects features which many African states did not have.

While many causes of African conflicts emanate from ethnicity and Rwanda is not immune from this phenomenon, the Rwandan communities have not yet been identified as having ethnic difference with virtual certainty.  What the Rwandan Communities have is the physical and structural differences exploited by the colonial rulers and post colonial dictators Kagame inclusive.

The Rwandan communities speak the same Language, and even where the Language differs in the dialects, it’s not about Ethnicity but rather regional background that you find all communities share. Rwandan politics has been built on lies and exploitation right from the time of Independence. The post independent Rwandan leaders have not only exploited the Rwandans but they have kept them in abject poverty.

In the midst of poverty, Rwandan leaders like other African ruling classes, or the elite group who happen to hold power at a particular time, have enriched themselves and become the targets of envy or of rivalry by other elite groups or they have used the minority groups they have shared wealth with against the remaining majority who are forced into submission. Politics is a commercial venture in his own right, as Roger Tangri puts it; conflicts arise not so much out of clashes of ideologies or programmes, but for profit – often for just an elite few, for the masses take little part in this part of conflict: nearly all tribal or ethnic conflicts are rooted in competition between individuals, for the scarce resources of wealth, state and power.

Indeed, in 1992, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated as the deepest causes of conflict: ‘economic despair, social injustice, and political oppression. Kagame with his elite class, they have enriched themselves with private jets and commercial Aircrafts, big companies that have dwarfed other business in the country.  For Example Hatari Sekoko a former Security officer in the Kagame notorious Presidential Guards owns a chain of business in Rwanda on behalf of his boss Kagame. The Marriot Hotel and other big companies under the mask of Hatari Sekoko or the Crystal Ventures is a vindication that Kagame has exploited the nation and he holds the power and money.

Amiclar Cabral’s dictum posits that ‘there are no real conflicts between the peoples of Africa and indeed, no conflicts between Rwandans. There are only conflicts between the elites. Rwanda is a good example where a President dies in a plane crush and people are told to kill their neighbours, friends, relatives and they do it without hesitation.  We have another tragedy similar to that of 1994 where a section of Rwandans is now saying that they will commit suicide if President Kagame is not allowed to stand after his constitutional mandate expires in 2017.

I will argue that, Rwanda is likely to go back to its ugly and dark times if the current ruling class does not develop new ways of learning from past, I’m afraid History might be repeating itself.

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.