As Rwanda –slowly but surely– moves towards the end of General Kagame’s rule, the anxiety around the ethnic divide remains at a standstill. The bad blood between “Hutus” and Tutsis is still a worrying reality. Ethnicity remains a sore subject among Rwandans and it will continue to be so as long as the issue of slavery and the failure of emancipation fail to be addressed. Recognition of the crime of slavery in Rwanda is as paramount as recognition of what a failure it was not to give the Hutu the right to revert to their indigenous identities thereby cultivating the inferiority complex and stigma condemning generations to the status of perpetual slave or second class citizen under the threat of his ” master’s” return.

The creation of a new ministry in charge of national unity is a very good step in the right direction because, under the guise of democracy, the Rwandan conflict remains a struggle between two distinct post-colonial mentalities.

Uniting Rwanda under a constitution and rule of law that acknowledges our equality under the same banner is a tremendous task that more than ever requires audacity, determination, and bravery.

Our society needs to be redefined. Our biases and stigmas should not be swept under the carpet with the usual quick-fix propaganda techniques. Rwandan ethnic social constructs carry deep anguish and scars that need to be healed. The litany of wounds to the soul- including the issue of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi and the horrendous war crimes on “Hutu” populations that to this day have not been regretted by our leaders should not be shied away from any longer.

History is written by the victor but let us not forget that there is no victory where there is no magnanimity. It is not enough for President Kagame to stop at the acknowledgment of the many Hutus lives lost to the 1990-94 liberation war.  ln the name of lasting peace,  Rwanda needs to hear him regret the loss of those lives; and if, as a military man, this proves to be too complicated a task for him, perhaps his successor can take upon herself to offer our people this long-awaited crucial regret.
Similarly, the deplorable hypocrisy around the war crimes perpetrated in DRC should also be addressed in the context of the reality of what happened and not as an antagonizing political tool.

There is a question of shared responsibility in the deaths of Rwandan refugees in the post-1994 catastrophe in the DRC. While it is no secret that RPA is responsible for war crimes and population displacements during the 1990-94 war, the defeated MRND-CDR and its army are responsible for the mass mobilization of Rwandans into the DRC. It was criminal to herd an entire population into a mass exodus for the sole purpose of retaining relevance in the eyes of the west! Rwandans know of the cruel fate of those who tried to return to Rwanda or that of some of the Tutsi who were weeded out among those refugees. 

Why is it that the role and crimes of these power-hungry leaders of the defeated MRND-CDR government remain uncondemned by the activists concerned with what happened in DRC?

Why did they not declare defeat when they realized they were losing the war if they were truly concerned with those Rwandans instead of using them as a last bargaining card after making sure their families were safe in Europe !? 

It would be brave of all the men behind the exodus of these refugees to acknowledge their part in the horror of what happened to our nation rather than continuously hiding their guilt behind the very refugees they used as human shields and behind the crimes of the RPA, the ADFL, the UPDF, the ADF, the ALIR, the FDLR Maimai, the Raia Mutomboki and later on the M23… and all the other forces present in Mobutu’s Zaire at the time for the mineral bounty! 
Rwanda’s post 94 leadership has clearly decided to follow the path of China and Singapore to economic development, complete with the authoritarian in the driver’s seat. We would certainly benefit from apolitical prosperity but while we wait for success on the lagging economic front, it would not hurt if  –with the help of respected, attentive, even-tempered community leaders– we could be led to the path of deliverance from the mistrust and uncertainty that centuries of enmity have bound us to. 

  
Noble Marara