While the RURA officials were appearing before the BBC Documentary probe commission, Mr Evode Uwizeyimana one of the members of the Commission asked the RURA officials the legal basis of closing the BBC FM Gazuzamiryango. He argued that RURA did not only have no powers to close the BBC but it acted disproportionately and over reacted simply because the BBC Documentary exposed the President of Rwanda.

Evode Uwizeyimana defending RPF interest

This implies that, if BBC Documentary had not attacked the President, it is likely the reaction and action of RURA would have been different. According to Evode Uwizeyimana an institution like RURA should not abuse the law or usurp the powers of Rwanda Media Commission for the purpose of pleasing President Kagame.  Another person who appeared before the Probe Commission said that the Documentary indented to humiliate the Rwandan President, if this is the case, then subjective analysis of whether the BBC Documentary humiliated the Rwandan president would be not constitute a crime.

The Probe Commission also invited Mr. Tom Ndahiro  who claims to be a Researcher in genocide but very controversial because of his extremist views , he narrated how the BBC have been  all along harboring the genocide ideology and he mentioned some names of individuals who according to him are genocide sympathizers

The essence of intellectual terrorism is to: demonize what the RURA calls the enemy, and concurrently silence them; what we see in Rwanda is typical character of dictators e.g. the Idi Amin of Uganda and other former African Dictators like Gen. Sani Abacha of Nigeria. Dehumanizing the enemy makes it easier to silence them, although one can wash the blood stained hands with previously issued excuses, but not the stains from a guilty mind. Apart from hurling abuse, intellectual terrorists also hide behind promoting ideals like, peace, human rights, freedom etc. In the name of peace they initiate war; they lecture about human rights while engaged in inhuman tortures; they crave for freedom by taking the freedom of others, by bombing them to incineration.

Evode Uwizeyimina is remembered to have been very instrumental in attacking the abuses of power in Rwanda on the same BBC he is now probing, he said that the RPF and Kagame in particular are like armed bandits that terrorize people without a recourse to the rule of Law.

Democracies project intellectual terrorism as means of attacking free speech by the state using its institutions; many legal theorists go further to claim it as a prerequisite for the survival of totalitarian regimes. Therefore, the crux of their argument is: if you cannot terrorize media freedom , then you will not have absolute power; and you are unable to exercise the power over your subjects! So Media house, please line up to endure further abuse, because the Kagame regime  and his commissions or courts  will be used in the same away  a drug addict needs a fix, in order to maintain their conviction that they are free souls capable of exercising power.

It goes further, Kagame’s regime does not only demonize some individuals in the media simultaneously in the name of dignity (kwihesha agaciro), but he even claims to do it on behalf of Rwandans. This is a man who boasts of killing the refugees in Congo and at the same time claims to have saved them by bringing them back home.

It is like telling the inmates at Camp-X-Ray that their incarceration is in fact a gift from the benevolent US to educate them about human rights! As Kagame said and demonstrated in Kibeho massacre or when asked on the shooting of the plane of the former Rwandan President, he said “that I don’t care or I don’t give a damn” Kagame attacked Congo and later killed its president Laurent Desire Kabila.

The victory flag that overthrew Mobutu and later installed Kabila was a victory over the dead carcasses of people who have permanently lost their freedom. But never mind, Kagame does not want anybody to mention that , once upon time, he ordered an invasion of a sovereign  state, overthrew its president, killed many people and even its president Laurent Kabila

Kagame argues that he stopped genocide but if he is asked about the people who were deliberately killed or war crimes committed by RPF, he hurls abuse at a particular people, intimidates all those who question him, the mouth of all the individuals are sealed with masking tape, then he lectures about the sacred value of self reliance or dignity; this is the reality of the Kagame regime that the Western democracies should not succumb to, Kagame is political con ruler.

At present intellectual terrorism is almost exclusively applied to BBC as it has been applied to other local and international media. Certainly, there is a freedom of speech or assembly for those who wish to demonize the BBC and any independent media in Rwanda. Anyone can write the next book, or find new ways to hurl insults at BBC or any independent media but not those who support BBC. The Chairman of Rwanda Media Commission (RMC) Fred Muvunyi, criticized the way RURA reacted and acted but he has been labeled unpatriotic by some RPF inner circles.

If there is a freedom of protesting against the BBC, why there is no freedom for supporting BBC? To demonstrate that equal opportunity in Rwanda does exist? Intellectual terrorism is also used to turn the victim into the perpetrator. For example, Kagame and most of his Western backers view the Kagame’s actions as justified although illegal in the name of development and stability in Rwanda.

Unknown to the Western countries Kagame has become a disgrace to Rwandans but also to them, how could they stand by when BBC is being closed because a documentary picked what the international community and the international reports have already reported?

Are they saying that Kagame should punch Rwandans in their faces, and muzzle their freedom and Rwandans fold their hands? So Rwandans don’t deserve the freedom to punch the faces of their abusers and should not react? This implies that we as Rwandans should accept to be killed, intimidated, otherwise we shall be accused of denying the genocide or the threatening the state security, or humiliating the person of the President. These are no more crimes in the democracies of the World, Draconian laws that Kagame imposes on his own people or freedom of speech and assembly constitute the intellectual terrorism.

Jacqueline Umurungi