As the dust settles and the excitement surrounding the otherwise expected and lawful arrest of Gen. Karenzi Karake (KK) evaporates, let me hope that everyone is now resigned to accepting the reality that the tables are finally turning.  The hunted are turning into the hunters and vice versa.  Let’s all try to make sense of all the hullabaloo that surrounded the arrest using a sober, and objective mind as what at the time appeared un real becomes real as times pass.  We will approach the situation from four dimensions to try and make sense of the underlying key issues.

The first dimension will be from the legal perspective.   Sentiments aside, I believe by now that everyone agrees that there was a Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.  I also strongly believe that it is by now apparent to everyone that during, and long after that genocide many Rwandan Hutus were killed by both the Interahamwe, who committed the mentioned genocide, and also the force (Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)) that was fighting to take power from the then Hutu regime(s). I hasten to add that to some, RPA, was a liberating force while to others it was an invading force.  Even the main cheer leaders of the RPA/F junta, like Andy Michell MP and Cherie Blair QC, have finally succumbed to reality that RPA/RDF might have committed crimes.  They are both categoric in their responses on the recent BBC Radio4 programme.  Whereas the Interahamwes who committed the genocide have and continue to be tried in courts around the world, many having been tried in the so called ‘kangaroo’ Gacaca courts, the RPA force that killed many Hutus, Tutsis and foreigners, Spanish Nationals in this particular KK case, and continue to brutalise any Rwandan with a dissenting voice, has never been brought to justice.

 

Legally one would expect at least the key leaders in the RPA force to be brought to justice for Command responsibilities in the crimes.  This is not for what happened in Rwanda during the mentioned genocide only but also for what happened in The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), that “if tested in a competent court could also amount to genocide”, as stated clearly in the 2010 DRC Mapping Report.  Gen. Karake was the boss of RPA/RDF intelligence, the notorious DMI, that is notoriously implicated in the killings and therefore his Command responsibility.  Ironically there are some five or six other Rwandans who continue to appear before the same Court 1, since 2006, on extradition cases for allegedly playing a part in the Tutsi genocide and there is no finger raised.  This raises the question why all the hullabaloo since KK is not the first Rwandan to appear on such allegations.

 

The second dimension will be the reaction of Rwandans and in particular the Rwandan regime in all this.  As mentioned above the Rwandan regime has been pursuing an extradition case of five or six  British citizens of Rwandan origin for about ten years in the same court.  According to the regime it is fine that these Rwandans are pursued for what is still allegations.  Everyone thinks if, including those being pursued, that if they had confidence in the impartiality or professionalism of the Rwandan regime’s Justice system these  individuals would have, even willingly, been extradited to Kigali long time ago to prove their innocence or otherwise.   Like Gen Karenzi Karake, they are innocent until proven guilty.  Everyone, including the Rwandan regime, understands this principle.  After all it is very clearly stated in the Rwandan Constitution.  My simple question therefore is, if the Rwandan regime is using the same court and judicial system, that is Court One, Belmarsh Prison and using the Tagging system, to try and extradite these individuals, why does the Rwandan junta with its fanatics think the same process and system should not be used for the case of many Hutus, Tutsis and Foreigners that were victims of the RPA force under the command of Gen Karake?  If this is not DOUBLE STANDARDS, then what is it?  Would I be wrong if I loudly said that, “shame on everyone who has stupidly or blindly joined the regime to try and deny justice for those many victims to take its course”?  Everyone deserves justice, be it Hutu or Tutsi, and we are all equal, at least in United Kingdom, in front of the Law. Something very clear in the Rwandan Constitution too.

 

Whether one is an RDF General to whom there are allegations that he has Command Responsibilities to answer or an ordinary Rwandan to whom there are allegations that they played a role in genocide, one would expect the reaction of the stakeholders to be the same.  Unlike in the Kagame’s kangaroo justice system, UK’s justice system is independent and fair to a great extent.  Like President Obama has rightly put it, “… but the law is the law.  And no one person is above the law.  Not even the President.  ….”.  We should all give the UK justice system a chance in the  confidence that it is impartial and independent.  Unlike the current Rwandan regime’s system.

 

The third dimension is the overt deceit of the regime and its fanatics.  Most people have chosen to refer to this dimension ‘reverse psychology’.  I will begin by trying to make sense of the few individuals that stupidly responded to the crocodile tears and shouts of the Kagame junta’s tantrums.  I call them tantrums because as mentioned earlier the law is the law, period, and the junta knows this very well.  However just as the junta has mastered the skill of reverse psychology to shy from any responsibility, their deceit by always playing the ‘victim card’, makes them play on the stupidity or naivety of some individuals to nudge some into the junta’s bandwagon.  Some of these individuals demonstrated in front of Westminster Magistrates Courts, where KK was paraded in front of Court 1 and others have ‘struggled’ to pay money in the so call “ishema ryacu”.  I will shed light on the former who kicking the same plate that they are fed on.

 

The irony of this situation is that most, if not all, of these individuals came to UK seeking asylum from the brutality of the Kagame’s regime.  Some of them in the picture, like one Kalemera, the brother of Peterson Sentenga who resides in Reading, shamefully carrying the placard that reads “Double Standards = Injustice” in the photo, has been trying to use the same UK system, that he appears to be demeaning now.  The fella has been using the same justice system to challenge his deportation for a rejected asylum claim from the junta.  Surely who has double standards?  The individuals who claimed to have run away, for their lives, from KK and his cohorts in the regime and sought protection in UK where they are guaranteed the rule of Law and therefore justice OR the same individuals who are now claiming that trying the same people group (the likes of KK and the regime) from whom they run in the courts of law is injustice?  Surely if this is not reverse psychology of the regime at work, where the victim has been manipulated to the extent of cheering the villain and the callous acts, then it proves deceit on the likes of Kalemera.

 

 

Why run to a country like the UK  from your own country, Rwanda, and turn against the very values that guarantee your protection and rights in that country no matter the immigration decision?  This chap Kalemera was incarcerated in Rwanda apparently on corruption charges and had to flee to here in UK soon after release.  He claim was rejected but was not kicked out or treated inhumanely, managing to live underground for quite sometime now.  His pay back to UK for allowing him to stay despite the rejected claim is to kick the system in the ‘teeth’.  If it was not for the rule of law and respect for human rights here in UK, the abuse of which KK is being held responsible for, many of these demonstrating individuals would most likely be languishing in Lake Rweru, 1930 or any other prison, if at all they are genuine asylum seekers.  So please let all fanatics of the regime be aware that this is UK where the Justice system is a central and key pillar of its society and values.  Much as we appreciate that they have a right to demonstrate, we expect them to understand and appreciate that you don’t kick, or step or even despise the plate on which you are fed.   Those of them who are already British citizens, please go back and revise your notes on “Becoming a British Citizen” or naturalisation process.

 

 

The fourth dimension is on the timing of all this.   Conventional wisdom has always held that ‘time is the best judge’.  Swahili puts this even more clearly that, “Siku za mwizi, ni arubaine”.  Literally meaning that a thieves days are forty or numbered.  That at the fortieth day the thief will be caught.  As mentioned above the Rwandan regime had managed to perfect reverse psychology to its advantage.  They have created a situation of playing the ‘victim card’ while everyone else who raises a finger or eyebrow to the prevailing reality the ‘villain’.  Anyone or anything that raised a finger would quickly be blackmailed as a genocide denier, no one should pressurise the regime after all, “the whole world abandoned us during genocide”, genocide apologists, or even branding dissenters as criminals “running away from accountability”, referring to Tutsis who once were part of the regime.   I think and feel the world has had enough of this and the veneer that shrouded reality is first wearing off.

 

Like the forty days in Swahili, twenty one long years feels like a life time to those on the receiving end.  However everyone should be comforted by the fact that just last week some of Gen Pinochet’s accomplishes  were brought to book.  Kagame and his henchmen wouldn’t be any different.  Actually their fate will even be soon since we live an Information Age where all their atrocities are easily accessed.  The role being played by the real opposition groups like Rwanda National Congress, RNC, FDU – Ikingi and Amahoro Peoples Party, and the ongoing creation of serious activist groups like Democracy in Rwanda Now (DIRN), Greatlakes Human Rights Link and Global Human Rights Rwanda within the Rwandan diaspora is steadily tearing the veneer.  This is enabling and obligating in some instances authorities around the world to take note of the reality.  So KK’s arrest is just the beginning of many more actions against the Kagame regime as the world and region get to see beyond the now being torn veneer the veiled the junta’s deceit.

 

 

For Rwandans and the victims on the receiving end of the actions of the junta’s actions it might be too little to late.  However although nothing can compensate life or repair broken livelihoods enough, we should all expect the international community and all those that have cheered Kagame on to humbly accept responsibility for taking all this long time to take notice.  It should be a lesson that the benefit of doubt should always be given to the oppressed rather than the dictators.  As for the Rwandans like Kalemera mentioned above , the shame that has engulfed Interahamwes for last twenty one or so years should have been a point of awakening.  They owe Rwandans, all victims of the junta’s brutality and Britain, a country that hosted them humanely whether their claims were genuine or not a big apology.  Cheering wrong doing and abuse of human rights is as good as being an accomplice yourself.  So let us all not be fooled by a fool who in a matter of days will fool himself to the gallows.  You are either on the side of Light or your are on the side of Darkness.  You can’t be on both sides but rather should make a choice between the two.

 

Let’s light up our souls and spirits!!!!

 

Christopher Ntare