The Christian music gospel   singer Kizito Mihigo and Cassien Ntamuhanga, the director of a Christian radio station, were arrested on Monday, after almost a week of disappearance from their home and families. Their arrest and subsequent parading before the press raises many questions and leaves a lot to be desired.

Why were they picked and kept in a safe house for this entire long? Where were they kept? Why were they kept and later to be produced for the confession before the press?

Even if some one is not a qualified psychologist you cannot fail to read  the mind of Kizito Mihigo and his co accused, the whole circus  is staged meant  to smear Kizito Mihigo for the reasons  we are still investigating  but above all to tarnish the good image of the new Rwandan opposition the Rwanda National Congress (RNC)

But in the unlikely circumstances that its true Kizito Mihigo and his co accused are now followers and members of Rwanda National Congress, then the RPF regime and Kagame in particular should look for the causes of the political anxiety in the country and why these young people are so hungry for the political reform in the country. The tactics of parading these young men and make them confess is not the cure for the political changes the whole country is yarning to achieve.

In the same manner and style while chief of staff of the Ugandan army, under Dr Milton Obote’s civilian government, Amin seized power in 1971. He made himself president, with the rank of field marshal, and after eight years of power left Uganda a legacy of bloodthirsty killings and economic mismanagement. Parliament was dissolved; no elections were held; secret police – most of them in plain clothes – exercised absolute power of life and death; and the courts and the press were subjugated to the whims of the executive. With some economic achievement that in fact is visible on the streets of Kigali owned by the regime and its immediate circle the international community is under illusion that Kagame is the lesser evil to rule the tiny Central African post genocide country.

However, the death toll of the RPF regime will never be accurately known.  While, Idi Amin’s death toll is estimated, according to the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, to be around  80,000 and more likely around 300,000. Another estimate, compiled by exile organizations with the help of Amnesty International, put the number killed at 500,000. There is no doubt that Kagame has surpassed the number which is estimated to be around six million (6.000.000), both in Congo and Rwanda during genocide and post genocide in the neighboring Congo.

This is the song Kizito Mihigo composed which was awaking the Kagame regime (those who died in what is not called genocide should be remembered as well). Some people construe the song’s intention as impartiality in the long political history of Rwanda that culminated in genocide was not welcomed by Kagame and his close political elite who want to use genocide as monetary industry to keep milking money from the international community but equally to silence all political critics of the Kagame brutal leadership.

Again, like Amin, Kagame is neither well educated nor particularly intelligent. But he has a peasant cunning which often outflanks cleverer opponents, including his political opponents  and even his civilian president  Pasteur Bizimungu, who was displaced in the 2000 bloodless coup. Kagame is well gifted with a kind of animal magnetism; a quality he uses with sadistic skill in his dealings with people he wishes to dominate. Indeed, this explains the otherwise bizarre decision by the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to support and accept to be one of the political advisors of the man compared to be the Pinochet of Africa.

While Kagame is killing many Rwandans and of course many more from the neighboring country Congo, Mr. Tony Blair is defending Kagame and his regime in the same manner   Bob Astles  defended and continued to advise President Id Amin Dada while many Ugandans were being butchered. Amin paraded hi opponents and made them confess and some were shot publicly to scare all those who would be challengers but this did not deter his removal in 1979 with the combined force of Ugandans and Tanzanian soldiers but most importantly with some Rwandans like Gen Fred Rwigema. Therefore Kgame’s tactics of parading innocent Rwandans like Kizito Mihigo and force them to confess before the Media will not save Kagame and his regime to fall like his counterparts in the region.

 

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.