Five signs of racism in Rwanda
If in Rwanda there are laws against divisionism, revisionism or genocide ideology, it is because there are people with divisionism out there. I have noticed signs of racism during my last visit home or from messages and discussions I have with my fellow country people online. Listen carefully, you will notice too.
One: Reasoning in terms of two camps
You will always spot a racist in Rwanda easily because they all use words like “mwe” or “mwebwe” versus “twe” or “twebwe” especially in every political discussion you engage with him or her.
The divisionist always reason in terms of two camps and tend compares one side from the other. It’s very hard to reason such individual in terms of unity of the people.
Early sign of racism is when you hear someone having trouble accepting differing opinion. Our racist takes no one else’s point of view. In fact, most of them think that having a different idea is an attack on their “camp”.
The racist always thinks the “other” side is bad, inferior, useless, lost or with bad intentions. Belittlement of members of other ethnic groups can be done without explicitly making mention of the ethnic group of the other person or persons. Racist will constantly criticize the opinions of others or even ridicule them.
Two: Denial of victimhood
Very often in Rwanda, when discussing issues of reconciliation and justice, conversation concerning victims of Rwandan tragedy comes at the centre. This is mainly because many Rwandan families lost their members in the past. We all want to honour all of our loved ones regardless of why, where and by who they died. We must refuse to select whom to morn and whom to forget.
Surprisingly, I hear people emphasizing their lost ones as the only victims of Rwandan conflict. It is a sign of racism when someone shows lack of sympathy towards other lost ones.
Only in Rwanda you will hear people publicly deny in front of the victims that lives of other family members were lost or giving reasons or justifications as to why innocent people had to die. History of genocide in Rwandan community is a result of extreme and institutionalised racism of some.
Another sign of worst racism is the attempt to counterbalance or to minimise the impact of the lost of lives in “other” communities. Universally, it is common for racists to have no insight into their own prejudice. This is because they believe their prejudice to be based upon objective grounds.
What racist people forget is that often families of the victims are well aware in full details of what happened to their own people.
Three: Collective blame
In Rwanda, racists don’t mind blaming someone for crimes that they know they never did. The blame is given because they are of same ethnic group with those who committed ethnic violence. Instead each individual involved should be accountable for his or her own actions.
Crimes begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all members of same ethnic group. Unfortunately, racists tend to hold others of the same ethnicity “collectively” responsible for crimes that took place in Rwanda.
From collective blame springs presumed thought crimes in Rwanda. This is when someone is charged with the crime of thinking like someone else. One can get suspected of having the same “imitekerereze” [thinking] with bad intent.
Four: Indifference
Pretending or staying indifferent to the plight of members of society who are of other ethnic group when they suffer injustices is also a sign of racism. You can easily sense when someone feels no sympathy whatsoever towards other people’s suffering, poverty, hardship, injustice or disadvantage. It is typical of the racist to see or seek pleasure in the “other” group’s suffering.
Five: Denial of ethnic group existence
A racist is someone who believes that mentioning names of our ethnic groups is a crime (In Rwanda it is punishable to 20 years in prison). On one hand, Hutu, Tutsi and Twa are an integral part of us, our culture, our identity, our tradition and history. For some reasons, today some people find it an offense for others to feel and express who they think they are.
On the other hand, a constant reference to someone’s ethnic background is also an unmistakable pattern of racism.
In Rwanda, many people find it extraordinary or a miracle that Hutu and Tutsi are living side by side in Rwanda today. But peaceful cohabitation is not new in our country. Rwandans have lived together side by side, in same hills for centuries. They intermarried, shared farms, harvests, wells, schools and problems. So it is not an achievement of the any regime. Peaceful cohabitation was and is still enshrined in our culture.
In conclusion, we should “celebrate both our commonalities and differences, because if we had nothing in common we could not communicate, and if we had everything in common, we would have nothing to say.” as said Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi
Not surprisingly, it is rare, today, for a person to admit to being a racist.
The important thing to keep in mind when looking at Rwanda is that the mass killing started with the 1990 invasion of Rwanda by Tutsi troops of the U.S.-backed Ugandan military with new uniforms and the name ‘Rwandan Patriotic Army’. In fact Paul Kagame was in the U.S. getting advanced military training when he was flown back to Rwanda to take over command after the original leader of the invasion was killed.
In the intervening two decades, the U.S. imperialists have gotten their money’s worth out of Kagame, especially through his and Ugandan dictator Museveni’s armies’ looting of the resources of the Congo in collaboration with U.S. and other Western mining interests, and at the cost of millions of Congolese lives.
I am in no way justifying the tragic mass killing of mostly-innocent Rwandan Tutsis in response to the impending victory, in early 1994, of the Tutsi-supremacist invasion. But saying that it was unjustified is not the same as saying that it was not understandable, given the long history of Tutsi oppression of the Hutu majority before around 1959.
Although racism is horrible in many African countries, I think there will always be a bit of racism wherever you go. There will always be a certain percentage of people who are ignorant and therefore, racist. Hopefully we can lower this number in the future but I still believe that there will always be the bad apples in the batch.
You either don’t understand those terms, or you are trying to confuse people who don’t know that you are a genocide denier of the highest level. Some of us know and your love of FDLR, Ingabire and Rusesabagina. We know you how you disguise yourself as an activist while we all know you are just a genocide denier who goes around with Peter Erlinder to spread your message. With regard of what you wrote these is what I think:
1. You said that there is racism in Rwanda because “they all use words like mwe or mwebwe versus twe or twebwe in every political discussion you engage with him or her.” Don’t the terms you mentioned above mean them and US respectively? What would be wrong saying us republicans or them democrats? Is there anything wrong saying us or them? Does the difference of opinion mean racism to you. You should save that type of reasoning for Rwanda National Congress and your fellow FDU- Inkingi followers because other people you sound really stupid.
2. You also said, “Victims of Rwandan tragedy”; “This is mainly because many Rwandan families lost their members in the past.” “We all want to honour all of our loved ones regardless of why, where and by who they died.” “We must refuse to select whom to morn and whom to forget.” Surprisingly, I hear people emphasizing their lost ones as the only victims of Rwandan conflict to honour. It is a sign of racism when someone shows lack of sympathy towards other families’ lost ones.” Just say what you wanted to say Mr. Genocide denier. People who understand your language know that you are trying to say that there was double genocide. Shamelessly, you also said, “victims of Rwandan conflict”.Remember genocide is not a conflict.
3. You said “Collective blame, “many Rwandan families lost their members in the past different periods of ethnic violence.” As I said before, what happened in Rwanda was not ethnic violence but rather government engineered plan to finish off Tutsi ethnic group. They coerced people to kill, they motivated Rwandans by There is no any collective blame anywhere in Rwanda and that’s why there are Hutus in Rwanda including those who returned from neighboring countries after they were forced to flee by Ex-FAR and Interahamwe currently know as FDLR. As an advocate of Rusesabagina and Ingabire and yourself being an FDLR hardcore supported should know that it is a matter of time before you answer for your actions. As you can see your bosses are under ICC custody.
4. Denial of ethnic group existence: Please do your research. Rwandan government doesn’t forbid anyone to say their ethnicity. All the government is saying is that ethnicity can’t be used to anyone’s advantage or disadvantage. As a nation people will be judged as Rwandans and not based on their ethnic background. No more Hutu power or people from Gizenyi or north being treated with favoritism. National identity has already taken over a flight and you are welcome aboard. We know that you are used to FDLR which has all Hutu extremists, Rwanda is a nation where every Rwandan deserve opportunity to achieve their dream.
5. You said “Indifference pretending that nothing is wrong or staying indifferent to the plight of members of society who are of other ethnic group when they suffer injustices is also a sign of racism.”
Rwandan justice system doesn’t care and doesn’t know anyone ethnicity and no one is above the law either. Unless you are speaking for the FDLR, a terrorists group you represent, the rest of Rwandans people inside Rwanda as well as abroad are happy. People are judged for their crimes and according to the law and not their ethnicity. No one cares if you are a general or private as you can see the Rwanda National Congress has a general who run away because he knew what was going to happen for his crimes. You also have your interim chair who did not believe that the justice system could get to him. Your boss took Rwanda government resolve to uproot corruption with contempt and now are outside running their mouth like yourself. The RNC coordinator and a former prosecutor who left our banks financially naked also run away from justice, went and did the same thing to poor East Timor and now is back in Maryland a miserable broke man. These few examples given show you that Rwanda of today is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Rwandans who don’t have other self centered motives are happy that the country cares about them and not the elites who are used to get away with everything.
It is not surprising to see an RPF adherent framing INGABIRE, a heroic woman who is fighting for a rule-of-law democracy, and RUSESABAGINA, a person who saved lives of hundreds of people regardless of their ethnic belonging, of being genocidaires. Habimana’s comments materialize that is one of the persons mentioned in the article. He is only attempting, without success and convincing arguments, to frighten people with integrity and suffocate truth. It is substantial that Habimana and his fellows read the following.
II.1. NO RIGHT TO LIFE
“You can empty slowly a water-full barrel by slowly scooping it with a spoon. Subsequently, no neighbor will yell at you because they will not be any erosion caused by the water from the barrel to attract their attention”:
General Paul KAGAME, President of Rwanda and Chairman of the ruling party, addressing to the army in 1995, a year before perpetrating genocide against Hutu refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Since 1990, RPF has been promoting and implementing policies and practices which aim to take away the lives of innocent Rwandans. RPF continues to resort both to systematic planned killings against Hutu elites and moderate Tutsis, and to mass killings against Hutu population.
II.1.A. Genocidal Mass Killings Against Hutus
a) October 1990 – April 1994
These mass killings were firstly perpetrated by RPF in the northeastern region of Rwanda since 1994 especially in the regions of Byumba, Umutara and Ruhengeri. There, RPF showed its pre-meditated agenda and plan of ethnic cleansing against Hutus in these regions to make a vital space for Tutsis returnees. These mass killings were also accompanied with terrorist bomb attacks on urban areas.
b) April 1994 – Today
While Hutu extremists were genocidally slaying Tutsis and moderate Hutus, RPF continued its agenda to butcher Hutus for the creation of vital space for Tutsis from April 1994. The region of Umutara, Kibungo, Bugesera and Byumba turned into the theater of unspeakable massacres. Every locality under RPF control became forthwith a bloodbath. For example: the massacre perpetrated at Groupe Scolaire of Kirwa, in Save region, at Kabgayi, Rushashi, Gikongoro, Kibuye, Gisenyi, Gitarama, Bugesera, Ruhengeri, Kigali City etc. the victims were massacred during public meetings convened by RPF, during raids on villages or during house to house searches as it was confirmed by the then UNHCR spokesperson, Ruper Colville.
RPF did not put an end on these mass killings against Hutus even after the seizure of power. In response to these killings significant; segments of people fled into hiding in swamps, bush areas, banana plantations and other areas of difficult access to RPA soldiers. RPA soldiers, in some cases accompanied by civilian Tutsi surrogates armed with spears and other manual weapons, actively pursued the hidden populations through;
• Sudden, apparently well-coordinated attacks with gun fire;
• Silent attacks in which hidden groups were killed with manual weapons;
• Burning swamps areas to prompt movements by civilians who were then killed;
• Periods, in which operations were suspended, followed by invitations to the hidden families to return home in peace. Shortly thereafter, the villages were attacked and returnees killed.
Massacres against Hutus in Kibeho IDP Camp on 22 April 1995, on Musanze IDP Camp in November 1994, Ndaba and Rugabano IDP Camps in October 1994, and Nyacyonga, Rubengera, Birambo, Musango and Ndago IDP Camps added a point of contention about RPF hostility against Hutu refugees.
Meanwhile the returnees were not spared.
In order to annihilate Hutu community, for RPF, it was not sufficient to only kill internal people. It was necessary to cross the border and export the genocide against Hutu refugees in DRC (the Ex-Zaire) between 1996 and 2003. Hutu Congolese and Hutu Burundian refugees were not spared.
Back in Rwanda, the regions of Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Kibuye, Cyangugu and Gitarama were the theatre of other genocidal killings against Hutu civilians between 1996 and 2000. And many innocent civilians were killed in Eastern region of Rwanda, only because they were Hutus.
On 17 July 2004, in reprisal to the killing of 4 genocide survivors, 38 Hutus were extra-judicially executed by lethal injection in the military hospital of Kaduha by a group of nurses supervised by Major Dr. Jules Mugabo, also known as Mushingantahe.
The mass killings against Hutus are currently perpetrated through suffocation and harsh health conditions in overcrowded secret dungeons, through starvation, and through poisoning. This has caused the dearth of 20 inmates in Ntsinda prison in 2009. Many of these fatal detention houses are declared military zones not to be accessed by outsiders. And these solitary confinement centers are a hell where the lives of innocent people are lost per diem.
As it was heard from the lips of Colonel Dan Munyuza, these genocidal killings are being perpetrated with the aim to annihilate and exponentially reduce the number of Hutu community in Rwanda.
II.1.B. Planned systematic assassinations against Hutus, moderate Tutsis, human rights activists, journalists and legitimate political opponents
When it comes to potential opponents (in politics, economics, business, etc.) and freedom of expression aspirants, RPF resorts to assassination regardless of ethnic belonging. Even Tutsis and moderate Hutus who are survivors of 1994 genocide are not spared.
In order to keep their oppressive hegemony, RPF is targeting scholars, intellectuals, traders, etc. Every one who could be a potential beacon to call on people to get rid of the dictatorial regime of RPF is eliminated so that the Rwandan people are held in obscurity, ethnic polarization, fear, mistrust to each other, terror and ignorance.
Another targeted group is composed by people who are seen by RPF as:
• Embarrassing witnesses of unspeakable crimes committed by RPF;
• People who are claiming for their properties grabbed by RPF politico-military officers or by RPF-backed people;
• People who are declining RPF proposals to testify concocted charges against RPF opponents;
• RPF soldiers who rebut the orders to kill innocent people.
One of the first victims of this RPF agenda were Mr. Emmanuel Gapyisi assassinated on 18 May 1993 and Gatabazi Félicien assassinated on 21 February 1994. General Paul Kagame remains to be also the suspect number one for triggering the 1994 genocide by assassinating the former President Juvenal Habyarimana as long as Kagame and RPF are continuously rebutting or minimizing and setting up insuperable obstacles to serious neutral investigations into the assassination of Habyarimana.
Among the victims, it figures the former Mayor of Commune Giti, Mr. Edouard Sebushumba, who fought against Hutu extremists in 1994 to save lives of Tutsis. After the seizure of power by RPF, he criticized the atrocities committed by RPF, and the consequence was that he was murdered by RPF.
On 5 March 2000, Assiel Kabera, a genocide survivor, was assassinated owing to his critics to Kagame.
In 2003, Major Augustin Cyiza and Leonard Hitimana were abducted by RPF elements. Until now, the RPF regime has refused to unveil whether they are interned incommunicado or they were slain.
The recent typical examples are the assassination against Mr. André Kaggwa Rwisereka, the vice chairman of the opposition party GREEN PARTY. His corpse was found in Butare with the head almost decapitated on 24 July 2010. In addition of Mr. Semadwinga Ntare who was assassinated on 21 June 2011 in Gisenyi.
On 24 June 2010, Mr. Leonard Rugambage, the deputy editor of the bimonthly “UMUVUGIZI” was assassinated fallowing his investigation into the murder attempt against Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa who is a refugee in South Africa.
On 15 September 2011, an agent of Criminal Intelligence Department attempted to assassinate the chairman in Kicukiro District of an opposition party, Parti Social Imberakuri (PS Imberakuri), Mr. Eric Nshimiyimana.
These kinds of extra-judicial executions, abductions, assassinations or forced disappearances are being committed in every sector and almost every month . In many cases family members including children are also murdered immediately or at a later date.
Furthermore, foreign nationals, who are viewed as by RPF as embarrassing witnesses, are not spared. It is in this context that on 17 October 1997, Father Claude Simard was killed and Father Guy Pinard on 2 February 1997, three Spanish employees of the non government organization Medicos del Mundo were killed by RPF on 18 January 1997, Father Curick Vjechoslav from Croatia assassinated in Kigali in 1998, and Father Duchamp, a Canadian. On 31 October 1996, RPF Soldiers killed 4 Spanish religious, namely; Servando Mayor Garcia, Julio Rodriguez Jorge, Miguel Angel Isla Lucio and Fernando de la Fuente. On 29 October 1996, Mgr. Christophe Muhinzirwa was murdered after being tortured by RPF Commandos because he criticized and denounced the genocide that was being perpetrated by RPF in Zaire.
II.1.C. RPF TRICKS TO HIDE AND/OR MINIMIZE ITS CRIMES
The corpses of the victims are crammed in mass graves and burned with petrol. Later, the remains of bones and ashes are made vanish.
The cadavers are crammed into trucks and carried away to secret places. These bodies are either buried in mass graves or dumped in lakes and rivers.
Sometimes, the remains are exhumed and then buried in dignity after passing them out to be of Tutsi victims of 1994 Genocide.
To pose insuperable obstacles to serious investigations.
To kill and imprison the witnesses of these crimes.
II.2. ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HUTU COMMUNITY
II.2.A. Exclusion from governance, decision making and security bodies
Rwanda is tightly ruled by an ethnocentric clique, from the Tutsi Minority Community. This callous clique makes up an informal cartel which possesses real power. Then, few figureheads from the Hutu Community are recruited to form the formal fictitious government which has no real power to lure the International Community. It is very common to see or hear members of this clique condescending to Hutus and humiliating Hutus by calling them (Hutus) “pigs”. This condescending clique recruits Hutus on basis of unquestioning and blind loyalty, rather than on the basis of merit and competence.
The RPF, under General Paul Kagame, has failed to expand its popular base. The Hutu Community is marginalized from a meaningful share of power. The Hutus who serve in government are only surrogates of the RPF which lack legitimacy in their community. They are kept in office, often for very brief periods, for the sole purpose of giving the government an appearance of embracing political pluralism. The Hutu Community perceives the RPF as an instrument of political domination by the minority. The government is not considered legitimate.
The ethnic breakdown of the current Rwandan government shows Tutsis hold a preponderant percentage of senior positions. Hutus in very senior positions often hold relatively little really authority and are twinned with senior Tutsis who exercise real power. The military and security agencies are fully controlled by Tutsis. These armed forces are misused to oppress and kill Rwandans.
RPF regime has many tools to persuade Hutus to unwilling to serve high positions for fear of being, one day, brought low, kicked out of office and then thrown in dungeons. Among these tools there are Gacaca Courts and the Genocide Ideology Law. The latter, by definition, is only manifested by Hutus. These discriminatory tools are also used to stifle really opposition parties led by Hutus or moderate Tutsis. Once again Hutu identity and its association with genocide are being used as a tool of ongoing political repression and imposition of collective punishments. Notwithstanding of the rhetoric of moving beyond ethnicity, it is clear that ethnic identities continue to be manipulated: “tribal issues are even much stronger than before, and RPF regime is encouraging it.
Kagame’s ravenousness for the presidency and RPF callous ethnocentric ilk doomed the RPF’s fictitious faltering attempts to expand its base and to build a constituency in the Hutu Community and they condemned the RPF to the status of a party representing the interests of a minority ethnic group that can only stay in power through discrimination, brutal coercion and violence. This is also epitomized by the mass killings, reflecting genocide and ethnic cleansing against Hutu Community, perpetrated by RPF and the systematic harassment of legitimate Hutu leaders, who were part of the post-genocide transitional Government and/or of the RPF founding days during late 1980s, resulted in most of them fleeing to exile. The unlucky ones were assassinated and a few are marginalized and banished to obscurity in Rwanda.
If the RPF regime is ever to surmount the challenges and divides of Rwandan society it must put an end on all dehumanizing mistreatments against Hutus and commence to share really authority with Hutus at a much greater degree than it does now. This agenda of lowering and intimidating Hutus, who are holding ostensible senior positions without authority, is also muting them over the exactions committed at the hands of RPF politico-military officers against Hutus who are being reduced to second stratum citizens in general.
II.2.B. Annihilation and Elimination
a) Mass Killings and Selective Assassinations
Since October 1990, RPF has been perpetrating both mass killings and selective assassination against Hutus. Moderate Tutsis are murdered only in the context of selective assassinations.
For mass killings, the list is long. Massacres by RPF soldiers and cadres against Hutu population in the former commune of Muvumba in October 1994 epitomize the RPF agenda of ethnic cleansing against the Hutu community with the aim to reverse the numeral composition of Rwandan population. These killings continued to be perpetrated in the communes of Bwisige, Cyumba, Kivuye, Kigombe, Mukarange, Ngarama, Butaro, Cyeru, Mutura, Kirambo, etc. That is why RPF put insuperable obstacles in the way against the conduct of investigations by international human rights team across the area under RPF control in 1993 and against the publication of the report elaborated by United Nations Mission in Rwanda in early months of 1994.
In 1994, while Hutus extremists were genocidally slaying Tutsis and moderate Hutus, RPF was indiscriminately massacring innocent Hutu civilians in regions of Umutara, Byumba, Ruhengeri, Bugesera, Gitarama, Kigali etc.
These mass killings continued after the seizure of power by RPF. This bellicose ethnocentric politico-military organization continued to massacre Hutus en mass throughout the country. These massacres were perpetrated during meetings convened by RPF, during house-to-house searches, during attacks on villages, during ambushes on returnees, during raids on IDPs, during slaughters and during extra judicial executions in detention centers.
In 1995, RPF massacred an estimated number of 8 000 Hutu IDPs in Kibeho. Then in 1996, as it was not sufficient for RPF to only slaughter internal Hutus, RPF troops crossed the borders inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to genocidally decimate at least 200 000 Hutu refugees.
While perpetrating genocide crimes in DRC, RPF simultaneously committed mass killings against Hutus in Rwanda; especially in the regions of Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Cyangugu, Kibuye, and Gitarama.
Given the RPF hate campaign to sow ethnic animosity, hatred and suspicions between Hutu and Tutsi Communities, given the brutality and bellicose ilk of RPF in order to maintain power, given the current covert operations to cow every major male Tutsi into possession of fire arms and given the coercion of RPF and IBUKA to Tutsis to spy and enlist all Hutus; there are conclusive evidences that RPF regime will commit other genocidal mass killings in the future.
Regarding selective and targeted assassinations and murder, Hutus are not only the victims, but also moderate Tutsis as it is enlightened in Chapter II.1.B. of this petition.
b) No Justice for Hutus
The ruling regime is setting up all possible barriers to prevent Hutus from accessing to equal justice. This injustice has resulted into the lack of a legal mechanism for Hutus to pursue cases against RPF-backed perpetrators who murdered their relatives. These perpetrators are instead rewarded by President KAGAME with powerful positions. The judicial system has consequently become a discrimination and repression tool to silence Hutus who are complaining for the prosecution against RPF-backed perpetrators who slew and continue to slay innocent Hutus.
Any Hutu who challenges the ruling regime for the justice implementation in favour of Hutus who were genocidally slain by RPF is branded a “genocide negationist” or “genocide revisionist” by Kagame’s regime, and they are castigated as “killers of remembrance”.
One of the serious failures of the judiciary is its failure to provide equal justice to all victims of serious crimes committed since October 1990 up to date. RPF political-military officers killed hundreds of thousands of people since October 1990. They also carried out other horrible killings, inside and outside the country after the RPF had gained full control of the country. Conventional tribunals, including Gacaca Courts, have not prosecuted RPF crimes. Initially, in 2001, gacaca courts had jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and war crimes, in addition to genocide crimes. But the following year, as Gacaca courts began their work, General Kagame stepped in and acted against prosecution of crimes committed by RPF politico-military officers and explained that RPF crimes were merely isolated incidents of revenge, despite evidence to the contrary which is continued to be substantiated by the ongoing discriminatory and oppressive persecutions committed at the hands of RPF. Amendments to the Gacaca laws in 2004 protected perpetrators attached to RPF from being dealt by the jurisdiction of the courts and a national campaign by RPF followed to make sure that these crimes were not discussed in Gacaca. 17 years after the 1994 genocide, Rwandans who suffered or lost relatives at the hands of the RPF are still waiting for justice.
This regime is only using the judicial system as an instrument of political white wash over serious crimes against humanity, over war crimes and over genocide crimes perpetrated by RPF against Hutus. The system is increasingly vulnerable to manipulation by those on power. With inadequate procedural obstacles and the overly politicized courts, people are living under constant threat of being falsely accused.
The judiciary is continuing to be managed and controlled by people who are therefore responsible of several crimes. Moreover, due to this culture of impunity, the army and police are perpetuating to commit extrajudicial executions and they are covered up by the ruling regime which is interfering in judicial activities.
This non-independent partial judicial system has no goal of combating the impunity regardless of ethnical affiliation. Instead, it has the goal of misusing law provisions and abusing power to dragoon opponents of Kagame’s regime in particular, and Hutu ethnic group in general. Undoubtedly, our reasons of flight are still justifiable because there are surely no prospects of rebuilding trust and justice at any level unless forces of law and order, and authority are in democratic neutral hands.
There is no broadly credible independent adjudicator to determine and implement the neutrality in ethnical motivated and sensitive trials. There is neither transparency nor honesty in the environment within which the judiciary functions.
The overseeing of Gacaca by RPF, through IBUKA, has weakened the system. Gacaca is no longer a community-based conflict-resolution mechanism, but part of a centrally-organized state machine, which puts the investigative power of the state at the service of the prosecution while prohibiting legal assistance to the accused. The accused is restricted from openly and freely defending themselves as any comment to prove the truth is referred by the manipulated judges as stirring up divisions or as espousing the genocide ideology or revisionism. Trials are seriously flawed, private individuals and RPF Regime authorities manipulate the course of justice: Gacaca has become politicized over the years. Real miscarriages of justice, corruption and procedural irregularities, substantiated by the manipulation of Gacaca to settle personal and political scores, are worsening ethnic animosities. In addition, there is no room for appeal and the courts are just ruled by personal hate and RPF envy to annihilate Hutus.
The Gacaca process is reinforcing the notion of collective assumption of guilt, of second class citizen and of inequitable justice on Hutus. The defendants (all Hutus) are not given adequate legal protection. The untrained manipulated judges are neither entirely impartial nor free from political influence; and that without robust rules of existence, accusations of involvement are used to settle personal vendettas and to exacerbate the haunt against Hutus in general.
These courts can never reconcile the Rwandan society; they will continue to radicalize ethnic polarization and tensions as far as the crimes committed against Hutus are excluded from the procedures.
c) Internment
Internment is one of the machinations of RPF to accelerate decimation of Hutu Community. This RPF regime is always resorting to concocting genocide-related crimes in order to keep as many as possible people of this community behind the bars.
To culminate this murky tokenism by pretending that it is for justice implementation, Gacaca Courts are misused as a shortcut to cramp Hutus in overcrowded detention houses. Many of the victims are subjected to pre-trial detention of 17 years. In many dungeons people are forced to stand all the time to the point it was necessary to mutilate their lower limbs. It is during these detentions that they are fed with food mixed with glass debris or with lead residues to cause their death at a later date. At the end of the day people are losing their lives or simply disappear while incarcerated in jails. It is after being ensured that the victims are at the verge of death that the presidential amnesties are declared or Gacaca Courts acquit them.
Accusations of being in connections with rebel movements are also fabricated to eventually imprison people who were too young in 1994 to have participated in the Rwandan Genocide. Another tokenism to keep Hutus in jail is the famous “Genocide Ideology” where the victim is thrown behind the bars for a period of at least 10 years.
The genocide and the swirl of guilt, heart-searching and recriminations that have surrounded it have provided a ready context for the marginalization of Hutus. Intrinsically, the essence fueling the killing of RPF against Hutus is not only vengeance, but also mainly the RPF purpose to reduce Hutu to minority community as it was heard from the mouth of Gen. Kagame in a speech written on the beginning of Chapter II.1. That is why RPF commenced mass killings against Hutus as early as 1990. This new form of genocide is different of 1994’s. This one consists of killing quietly in silence as one woman said:” genocide like the one happened in 1994 but there is another happening. It is the one of imprisoning people and then they disappear, and employing people and not paying them, which is a form of slavery. Like Gacaca, they convict you for 30 years, which means you have no rights left; and Hutu is the only target.”
d) Enslavement and impoverishment
d.i) Institutionalized slavery
One of the strategies of RPF to annihilate Hutus consists in to force them to be enrolled in military service. After receiving minimal training, they are sent to the front into RPF international wars where they are used as human shields. Hutus, who survive, are poorly paid and the families of the deceased ones are receiving no compensation.
Another group of able bodied Hutus are subjected to forced labor in Congolese mines where the transit camp to that hell is Iwawa Island.
The last group is subjected to the slavery inside the country into physical exhausting works known as Works for Public Interests: a kind of institutionalized slavery where the victims have to work either for the state or for the Tutsi families. After being sentenced in an unfair trial tainted with intimidating coercion, the victim is impelled to concede and to entreat for forgiveness. Even those who have satisfactorily completed their forced labor are kept in forced labor camps for a longer time continuing to be working as slaves. Several victims of this institutionalized slavery told Human Rights Watch that they regarded the so-called community service program as a form of forced labor and that they felt exploited by the RPF Regime. Others complained about the conditions in camps and, in particular, that they do not receive enough food to sustain them in carrying out the long hours of exhausting manual work. In the course of one interview in a camp, an interviewee revealed that he had completed his so-called community service sentence but had not yet been released. As Human Rights Watch tried to follow up with the interviewee, a high-ranking government official who had overheard the remarks promptly escorted the Human Rights Watch researchers away from the camp.
d.ii) Impoverishment
This stratagem is used in different form to forbid Hutus from accessing to self-reliance. The overwhelming number of Hutus is discriminated against in the sector of employment. It is impossible for a Hutu to be employed in public or private sector for a well-paid post without being, at a later date, humiliated and kicked out fallowing an unfair trial consisting in concocted charges.
The overwhelming of majority Hutus is jobless owing to the discrimination against them in the sector of employment. It is extremely difficult and even absolutely impossible for a Hutu to obtain a well-paying job. Hutus are running petty and informal businesses, which are therefore hindered by numerous heavy taxes imposed by RPF. Public services jobs and educational scholarships are allocated with reference to ethnicity, rather than competence and merit
Another category of Hutus are farmers who are impelled to sell their produces through RPF-controlled and Tutsi-managed co-operatives. These co-operatives set levies without allowing Hutu farmers to bargain. After selling produces, these farmers are also compelled to financially contribute for the profit of RPF. In many cases, the weights of the produces are lowered by the cooperative management on the day of payment. The victims have their backs on wall because they have nowhere else to sell their produces due to the tokenism politics of monoculture. Many Hutus have seen the lands requisitioned because they have refused to pay the impelled contribution.
By adopting the policy of abandoning grants of scholarship, the heavily affected community is Hutu’s as long as they are the ones who are impoverished. Schooling needs of Tutsis students are paid either by the government or by their own families which are financially stable.
Always in this line of impoverishing Hutus, RPF is making sure that many Hutus are interned for a period of at least of 5 years without trial. This is a subtle straitjacket of preventing victims from working for their financial needs and inducing their families to extreme poverty since family members are impelled to spend much time in affairs related to the arbitrary detention without working. The regime is continuously refusing to compensate the victims as it is recommended by the Article 9 (5) of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 5 of African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR)
Hutus have not rights on their properties. They are particularly victimized by the current policy of kicking out of Kigali City. After demolishing their houses, they are evicted prior to be poorly indemnified. This is what has been happening from 1994, especially in the eastern region of Rwanda where Hutus were stripped of their lands and then murdered once they attempt to complain for their properties. This agenda is being currently implemented throughout the country. The arable lands are seized by Tutsis and there are extralegal confiscations of these lands by RPF officials or their supporters. This is the case of the Hutu farmers in Gikongoro. They were evicted out of their lands and their lands were forcefully confiscated by RPF and allocated to a Tutsi tycoon for tea plantation. The farmers never received any compensation. Also in Bugarama valley, Hutu farmers of rice saw their fields being confiscated by General Wilson Gumisiriza since July 2011. Farmers who dare to complain are currently abducted and go missing.
The agriculture sector which is employing 90% of Hutu population (80% of national population) is only allocated 3% of the national budget. The Hutu farmers who are surviving on agriculture, their efforts are hindered by the stealth taxes compelled to them.
The RPF inner circle is making sure that Hutus are excluded from lucrative and extensive portfolio. There are grafts in the use of development assistance, and there is no transparency to regulate or make public the RPF’s vast revenues. Ethnicity, favoritism, and mixing of public and private funding flows are the factors that are making Rwanda’s economic base to be tiny because the overwhelming majority is impoverished and is not benefiting from these voodoo economics. This kind of discriminatory impoverishment and economic benefits which are skewed toward an ethnic segment are stirring resentment, funding local tensions, increasing economic vulnerability, polarizing mutual suspicion and feeding fear along ethnic lines.
This RPF agenda of deliberately impoverishing Hutus is making part of RPF policy to reduce them in permanent poverty so that it could be easy for RPF to maliciously and easily manipulate them for its political tokenism.
In-essence, for the attention of UNHCR; “ where a person is systematically and absolutely prevented from providing for his or her basic economic needs owing to their race, to their political opinion or to their desire for freedom of expression; that person should be considered to be in need of international protection.”
e) Incrimination
Another bone of contention in RPF agenda is to make Hutus live in permanent guilt conscience. That is why the “Rwandan Genocide” was renamed “Tutsi Genocide” in Rwanda to make all Hutus feel perpetrators.
Always with this aim to stifle Hutus, genocide-related crimes are daily invented to haunt Hutus. In addition of the “genocide ideology”, there are also crimes of revisionism and of divisionism whose definitions emphasizes that are Hutu’s born breath crimes as it was quoted in one pro-RPF newspaper when they wrote: “By tribalists let’s be clear what we mean – we mean Hutu tribalists within and outside Rwanda. And of course we do not mean that every Hutu is a tribalist, just like we know there also are Tutsi tribalists; but for the purposes of this editorial we are talking about Hutu tribalists.”
Stigmatization of Hutus, collective attribution of guilt to Hutus, marginalization of Hutus and heart-searching against Hutus are symptoms of the exacerbating fragility of national unity. Ethnicity is being used as a basis for repression. The genocide ideologies, legacy of guilt, collaboration with rebel movements, collective conjectures of guilt and recrimination -that are surrounding ethnicity- are being used by RPF as a smokescreen for ethnic discrimination against Hutus, particularly through the association of Hutu identity with genocide and through the promotion of anti-Hutu stereotypes.
Hutus are not only victims of collective incrimination in regard of trumped up genocide-related charges; they are also victimized by the current attitude of RPF to falsely accuse all Hutus of being responsible of any suffering inflicted to a Tutsi. The subsequent punishments are always humiliating and aiming to demonstrate to Hutus that they are of lower stratum than Tutsis.
Although evidences collected by impartial observers cast serious doubts on each of these assertions, the more important point to stress is the aim on the side of Tutsi extremists who are ruling the country, to substitute collective guilt for individual responsibility, and to affix the label “Genocidaire” to the whole Hutu Community.
f) Second stratum citizens
It also evolves the question of citizenship. Whilst in Rwanda, Hutus are marginalized to the point of being a second-hand citizen. This is evidenced by elimination and exclusion from political process. Also by negligent legal system that only safeguards the interests of Tutsis due to the institutionalized refusal to handle the cases of Hutus that have been and that are being slain.
Any Hutu who questions and challenges the ruling regime over their wrongdoings perpetrated by RPF is directly at potential risks of being charged with concocted genocide-related crimes. This is falling also into the policy of RPF of stratification by suffocating all young promising Hutus so that there is insurance of ruling many years without threat.
A sort of caste system is definitely there and those who have been accustomed to being on top are ready to do anything, including killing, to maintain the social and political order as it is.
For Hutus there is imposed resentment of the inferior social status. The current regime is essentially dominated by Tutsis and all positions of real power in military and administrative institutions are held by Tutsis who are making sure the benefits are favoring Tutsis over Hutus.
The current RPF Regime places also less value on the lives of the many moderate Hutus who died in 1994 genocide. The term “Tutsi” has replaced the term “Rwandan” in the naming of the 1994 genocide. It means that Tutsis are the only valued victims of the tragedy that took away the lives of both Tutsis and moderate Hutus. On this bone of contention, the president of SOS Racisme, Mr. Dominique SOPO, was quoted saying that to invoke the blood of Hutus is dirtying the blood of Tutsis.
The genocide survivor fund (FARG) especially has provided valuable assistance to many genocide survivors. However, it has a narrow definition of who qualifies as a “survivor.” It excludes Tutsi women who were married to Hutu before the genocide and children of such marriages, as well as Hutu widows who lost their Tutsi husbands during the genocide. Hutu men and their wives or children who were injured or killed do not qualify as survivors, even if they were killed trying to protect Tutsi.
One Tutsi widow married to a Hutu man who died during the genocide lamented the fact that she could not receive medical care even though she was handicapped as a result of injuries suffered during the genocide. Another Tutsi widow with children remained homeless after being denied of FARG assistance for the same reason. FARG officials refuted Human Rights Watch’s claim that it fails to assist those who qualify. However, Human Rights Watch and local NGOs working with these vulnerable groups documented a number of such cases. Allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds in FARG have left many genocide survivors disillusioned by the government’s promises to assist them.
Likewise, IBUKA, the main genocide survivors’ organization does not provide assistance to Tutsi women married to Hutu, and does not provide assistance to Hutu at all. One Tutsi woman said:
“IBUKA will not help me because my children are Hutu. They refuse to give me the certificate of a survivor because I was married to a Hutu. Now I am sick with HIV as a result of being raped during the genocide, and I do not have money to continue to get medicine. My children find the situation unfair. Their father was killed because of their mother and yet they are not seen as victims of the genocide.”
It is important to note that those who denounce such discriminatory machinations are also subjected to concocted charges of Genocide Revisionism, Genocide Ideology or of Genocide Minimization.
The issue of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide crimes committed by RPF is excluded from the proceedings of any courts. Even those Hutus who are currently killed are not receiving any form of justice, once it is found out that the perpetrator is a Tutsi. There is no burial in dignity for Hutus massacred by RPF. Their bones are nowadays buried after being passed off as Tutsi’s. In several times, Hutus are being flogged to force them drink the waste water used to wash the unearthed bones.
By law, those who are falsely convicted by Gacaca are also stripped of certain civil rights, including the rights to vote, the rights to engage in military or public service, and the rights to be a teacher or work in the medical profession.
It is also substantial to note that it is not only Hutus who have suffered discrimination. Moderate Tutsis are also victimized, especially when they refuse to join hands with RPF in its agenda to annihilate Hutus as a whole community. Another group which is victimized is made up of people who crossed the lines laid by RPF between two communities to marry a spouse from a different community. Their offspring are also not tolerated.
In practice, while Hutu community makes up the country’s numerical majority, RPF has an agenda to reduce Hutus to social, economical and political minority with the aim to eventually reverse the numerical composition of Rwandan population.
To sum up, there is a subtle form of apartheid against Hutus to circumvent foreign attention.
II.3. NO NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
The lingering and deep-seated ethnic tensions and prejudices are fed by the discriminatory stratifying policies of RPF against Hutus, and in some cases against moderate Tutsis. This discrimination is implemented by the rogue and ethnocentric RPF politico-military officials as well as the callous clique around Gen. Kagame.
The ambiguous laws on “genocide ideology” and on “divisionism” are having a corrosive effect on mutual trust in a society already fragile after the interethnic killings and these practices run counter to the RPF regime’s ostensibly stated commitment to national unity.
General Kagame and RPF, under his leadership, are very polarizing figures. RPF’s policies continue to divide Rwandan society along the lines of the ethnicity and to fuel conflict. The likelihood of a recurrence of violent conflict, including even the possibility of genocide, is very high. Rwanda’s failure to-date, to find a fair and peaceful settlement of the issues that divide our communities, has grave domestic and foreign implications. RPF is sowing ethnic animosity whereas Rwandan society is not composed by ethnic groups, our society is instead composed by communities which share the same culture, customs and sophisticated language and which lived together for centuries. Unfortunately, all regimes (monarchic, colonial, republican) that ruled our motherland to date have resorted to use ethnicity as a tool of control and of maintaining hegemony. And RPF is also resorting to this ethnic notion in attempt to maintain hegemony by platform of “DIVIDE AND RULE”.
This ethnic polarization is systematically sowed by RPF and openly practiced throughout high circles and hill community levels; notwithstanding of the ostensible campaign for national reconciliation which is turning a blind eye on Hutus plights, and which is also failing to openly address the deep-rooted grievances of both sides and to equitably put an end on mutual suspicion and fear along ethnic lines. As Dr. Nkiko NSENGIMANA said; there are victims on both sides, the necessity is to reconcile the victims on both sides and to prosecute masterminds perpetrators on both sides and re-educate the executioners-perpetrators who have committed crimes without thorough pre-meditation.
The ethnicity is being used –directly or implicitly- as a functional and tangible means of creating polarization within communities and as an instrument of control.
The Gacaca Courts did nothing else out of fueling and exacerbating ethnic animosity. According to one judge, people were reluctant to speak out in response to false testimonies for fear of being accused themselves. Hutu whose relatives were killed and property destroyed by RPF soldiers and cadres are unable to raise these cases, which left them frustrated and disappointed with the process. Consequently, there have been implicit pact among some Hutus not to denounce other Hutus as a response to perception and consideration that some Tutsis are also making a pact to suffocate claims of Hutus over the atrocities committed by Tutsis against Hutus and also by the fact that there is a dearth of Tutsis who defend Hutus who are falsely accused owing to fear of subsequent social ostracism and of persecution by RPF.
Another thorn in the throat of reconciliation; it is the way memorials are conducted in Rwanda by promoting collective assumption of guilty and discrimination against Hutus, by preventing Hutus from mourning for theirs massacred by RPF and by fueling ethnic divisions. The type of remembering only on Tutsis and looking down on the deaths of Hutus, either caused by Hutus extremists or Tutsi extremists, is more tantamount to an open wound that is slowly going septic. Memorials are an important part of any recovery and reconstruction process in the aftermath of mass atrocity. However it should be done in such a way to heal and prevent the same thing from happening again.
The RPF Regime refusal to compensate victims of 1994 Genocide, who lost their relatives or who were injured and/or raped, is also polarizing Rwandan society. RPF Regime is instructing Tutsi survivors of 1994 Genocide that the only way to get compensations is to testify trumped up charges against Hutus as a trick to extort money from them (Hutus) under the cover of compensation of destroyed properties.
Further more you cannot predict reconciliation as long as the genocide is misused as a smokescreen for RPF to promote discriminatory repressive measures against not only Hutus, but also moderate Tutsi. In addition, reconciliation cannot come about where there is neither truth nor justice, or worse still, when the judiciary is intended to reflect the ambitions of one of the perpetrators, who is currently the ruler. Hence, the more RPF is misusing the courts to reduce Hutus to second stratum citizens, the more the Hutu-Tutsi divide is getting unbridgeable and the more the menaces of inter-ethnic violence are knocking on the door.
RPF is sticking on fuelling ethnic tensions for the purpose of “Divide and Rule” in an attempt to ensure the hegemony and precarious control of a minority. It is important to bear in mind that the long term stability of a country depends upon a governing system of a government that eventually shares really authority with the majority, and works for the nation and for the protection of the minority.
While RPF regime ostensibly presents itself as a champion of national unity and equal opportunity, by de-emphasizing ethnic identity and opening position throughout society to those of skill and merit; its tokenism is well known in Rwanda. RPF is responsible of the lingering feeling of ethnic identity as we, bona fide Rwandans, are aware that the policy in practice is that RPF is keen to ethnicity and is yet to abandon this politics. Consequently, many Rwandans continue to see each other through ethnic lenses and to distrust persons of different community.
It is shocking to see the very disdain ethnocentric Tutsis, backed by RPF, have for Hutus, and how RPF reads the riot act to every Hutu for even the most mundane infraction. These RPF extremists still relish talking about how the former Deputy Mayor of Kigali City, Mr. Rutabayiru Anastase, violently compelled his daughter to have abortion because her fiancé was a Hutu.
The constituency of RPF of trusted Tutsis, the current covert distribution of firearms in Tutsi’s households, and marginalization and condescension against Hutus are factual conclusive evidences that the regime of General Kagame is a polarizing figure, whose continued hegemony is only certain to lead to potential inter-ethnic risks of generalized violence, even recurrence of genocidal killings in years to come.
For a sustainable and durable reconciliation, it should be truth about all crimes perpetrated regardless of neither political nor ethnic affiliation. Hence, the perpetrators, including those under RPF wings, should be brought before independent effective tribunals. Until this happens, the potential for ethnic aligned violence to be reignited will remain, and our motherland is likely to once again erupt into violence if RPF and General Kagame are continuing to stick on their egocentric short-sighted visions based on ethnicity.
II.4. POLITICAL OPPRESSION
There is more to Rwanda and General Paul Kagame than new buildings, clean streets, and ostensible efficient RPF Regime than what General Kagame’s foreign backers and paid lobbyists care to admit. Rwanda is essentially a hard -line, one-party, secretive police state with a façade of security. The ruling party, RPF, has shut up space for political participation. The RPF does not tolerate political opposition or open competition for power. The RPF Regime ensures its monopoly of power by means of draconian restrictions on the exercise of the fundamental human rights of citizens. The press, civil society and opposition parties are deprived of freedom to operate freely. General Kagame and RPF depend on repression to stay in power. The consolidation of the dictatorship is achieved through highly rigged and manipulated “demonstration elections” that are widely known to have been undemocratic and unfair.
RPF is using its repressive brutal tactics to silence all Rwandans, to stifle open constructive debate and to persuade them to only peddle RPF-instructed propaganda. This is aiming to narrow political space and leaving outsiders believing that Rwanda is a stable country. This authoritarian regime is both unable and unwilling to manage or to allow genuine political competition and debate. And this is leading the country to collapse as it may ultimately radicalize opponents, who will find other means to challenge the regime if not open discourse is not an option.
In the midst of the state poor performance and bad governance policy, there is the totalitarian nature of the regime which wants to control and dictate everything and everyone. RPF is constraining and controlling the legislature, the judiciary, the media and the civil society. These institutions are unable to fulfill their potentially stabilizing role as formal channels for national debate and peaceful political competition. This controversial goes even to other political parties that are allowed to operate, but only provided that they comply uncomplainingly with RPF. Otherwise they face dissolution. And then all parties must belong to the forum which in practice is under the control of RPF and RPF dictates its deliberations.
General Kagame is ethnocentric, corrupt and authoritarian. He uses repression and ethnic discrimination against Hutus to ensure his continued monopoly of power. To keep the President Kagame in power, state institutions violate the most fundamental human rights of the people, including the right to life and the integrity of the person. State security institutions enjoy impunity for grave human rights violations against critics and opponents of the regime. President Kagame’s abuse of the institutions of the state to support his greed for absolute power and monetary gain is criminalizing the fabric of the Rwandan state.
Since 1994, RPF has resorted to all possible repressive means to suppress all genuine and efficient political opponents to ensure itself the monopoly. RPF has been imprisoning, assassinating and forcing into exile all political opponent figures and the rest of Rwandans have become cowed and quiescent. The list of political figures who were subjected to this cruelty is endless. We only comment on the recent cases that are therefore preventing us from returning.
• Mr. André Kaggwa Rwisereka: the late Vice President of the Rwanda Green Party was found dead on 14 July 2010 in Butare with his head almost decapitated.
• Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa: the former Chief of Military Staff narrowly survived assassination attempt in the country of asylum, South Africa, on 19 June 2010. On 22 September 2011, at the time we were writing this petition, the South African Police foiled another ploy to assassinate Gen Kayumba. Gen. Kayumba is hunted down by Gen. Kagame and his intelligence apparatus after they (General Kayumba and colleagues) released a scathing critique, Rwanda Briefing, decrying Kagame’s ruthless authoritarianism and describing a state apparatus controlled by a small clique of ethnocentric loyalists drawn exclusively from the Tutsi minority group.
• On 15 September 2011, at the time we were garnering ideas for this petition; the chairman of Parti Social Imberakuri in Kicukiro District, Mr. Eric Nshimyumuremyi, narrowly survived assassination attempt by a DMI agent when he was deadly shot in the chest. None knows the aftermath of the victim as police denied anyone to get access to the ward where it was said that he was receiving medical treatments.
• On 20 October 2011, the Interim General Secretary of United Democratic Forces-INKINGI (UDF-INKINGI), Mr. Sylvain SIBOMANA, was abducted by State Intelligence agents, a short time after being harassed by some agents in addition of harassments by the Police Chief, Superintendant Bertin MUTEZINTARE, who therefore declared that Ms. INGABIRE UMUHOZA deserves to be gunned down.
• Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza: the chairperson of United Democratic Forces-INKINGI is currently serving an internment since 14 October 2010 in Kigali Maximum Prison. RPF Regime is interfering in her judicial case as there are conclusive evidences that Mrs. Ingabire is interned because her political agenda outstrips the RPF’s and is likely to be popularly embraced by the overwhelming majority of Rwandans for the desire of national reconciliation, of political freedom and of economic development evenly distributed between the country’s composing groups.
• Mr. Bernard Ntaganda: the founder and chairperson of PS Imberakuri was also interned since 11 February 2011. During the internment, he was inflicted to all kind of torture and inhuman treatments to the point he is currently losing his eyesight as the RPF regime refused the detainee right to medical treatments. Since 27 November 2011 up to date, authorities of Kigali Central Prison refused the family of Mr. Ntaganda and other people to visit Mr. Ntaganda. The leaked information proves that Mr. Ntaganda is currently under torture of three-piece tying.
• Mr. Deo Mushayidi: the chairperson of People’s Progress Party-Imanzi. This survivor of Rwandan Genocide is interned fallowing his heroic fight for genuine national reconciliation and unity as an effective way to prevent cycles of inter-ethnic violence.
It is also substantial to bear in mind that the list of the political activists, who are being killed, imprisoned or forced, is endless for this year alone. This is the proof of how the record of human rights in Rwanda remains poor and how the rights of citizens to change the government are violently restricted as potential effective leaders are assassinated, interned or forced into exile.
It is also worthy to comment about the plaguing coercion to join RPF where RPF is extorting money from every working citizen. To avoid being sacked from their jobs, stripped of properties, overtaxed in their businesses, abducted, interned, murdered or forced into exile; every Rwandan swear allegiance to RPF. The political parties that participate in the RPF-dominated government do not have any slight power or decision making in government. They are merely appointed for the purposes of lending legitimacy to RPF Regime by giving the appearance of political plurality and competition. The RPF power to control the population, through army and police, exceeds the people’s power to control the ruling regime. These armed forces are misused in a way which is undoubtedly leading to the collapse of the nation.
This brutal and egocentric nature of RPF is making also the country surviving on voodoo economics which are misperceived and misinterpreted to be spectacular. The base of the economy is tiny because the overwhelming Rwandans are impoverished. Rwandans, who have already misquoted these voodoo economics, are impoverished as the economic benefits are skewed toward a tiny segment of population based on political and ethnic favoritism.
With the conduct of the current government and its dictatorial standpoint, it is unlikely that anything will change soon as far as people who remain committed to fighting for dignity, justice and equality before the law in our motherland are continuously targeted by RPF. The explicitly violent and repressive way by which RPF deals with legitimate opposition and sincere critical civil society has turned Rwanda into one part totalitarianism. This Ongoing repression in Rwanda is not only preventing us from returning, but also it is generating new refugees.
II.5. NO DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS
“In the period leading up to and fallowing the 2010 elections, key opposition parties were outlawed or prevented from registering and their leadership, their supporters along with journalists were arrested on concocted charges, including divisionism, promoting genocide ideology, and threatening national security. André Kaggwa Rwisereka, the vice president of Rwanda Green Party, was assassinated less than a month before the election, which Gen Kagame offered himself a stalinian score of 93%”:
Dr. Nkiko Nsengimana, the Coordinator of the Political Platform RNC-UDF INKINGI
Prior to any elections; the police, security services and the army increase oppression against any genuine potential opponents of the RPF. Genuine opposition parties get denied of registration and security and administrative agencies make it difficult for independent candidates to register. In addition, the RPF monopolizes the government-owned media during the elections. The RPF regime uses intimidation, smear campaigns and insults to silence opponents, whether they are international NGOs, civil society, newspapers or political parties. Intimidation against government opponents go to the extent of making threats of physical violence including death. In one speech, the RPF President, General Paul Kagame, threatened that those opposed to the government would be “wounded” and “ground to dust.”
The Constitution and other laws make it not just difficult, but in-essence impossible for the opposition to form political parties and to compete for political power, thereby creating a situation of electoral authoritarianism. “Genocide ideology” accusations were levied against leaders of opposition political parties in the lead-up to the 2010 presidential elections, as part of a clampdown on opponents and critics. There were stark parallels with how “divisionism” accusations had been used for similar ends in the 2003 and 2010 presidential elections. Individuals calling for justice for victims of crimes committed by RPF soldiers in 1994 or attempting to challenge the ruling party in presidential elections in 2010 faced public denunciation and, in some cases, formal criminal accusations. RPF Regime officials publicly accused political opponents Victoire Ingabire and Bernard Ntaganda as well as outspoken critic Déogratias Mushayidi of “divisionism” and “genocide ideology.” All were later formally charged with these crimes.
As it is written in Rwanda Briefing; “Rwanda holds regular elections, but their outcome is pre-determined because of the legal, administrative and physical obstacles that the RPF has put in place to deny opposition to compete for power. There is no meaningful competition for political power between the RPF and other political parties and thus no real opportunity to change the government through elections. Elections are systematically manipulated and heavily conditioned by the RPF in order to ensure its victory. Elections are usually rigged so massively at local levels that the RPF is usually compelled to “doctor” the results a second time to give the satellite or proxy parties that serve to give the RPF some legitimacy enough votes to meet the threshold requirements for representation in Parliament. The repression that the RPF has used to entrench itself in power continues to this day. People who are perceived as posing a potential challenge to the RPF in Rwandan politics are subjected to persecution that makes their political activities impossible.”
The co-called election which are taking place in Rwanda are marred with massive fraud, ballot stuffing, manipulation of the process, intimidations etc. On 8 August 2010, the previous day of elections, people were stripped of their voting cards and were ordered to return on the very day of elections as early as 05:00 AM. That was when they retook their cards, but this time the cards were stamped with “Yatoye”. That is why in many parts of the country, the election process have ended before 10:00 am. During the elections period 30 newspapers, radio stations and journals were suspended. All serious challengers for the presidency were prevented from running.
International human rights workers are declared persona non grata in run up to elections periods as the RPF regime diminishes space for freedom of expression and association by continuously clamping down political opponents and journalists.
The process of electing the Rwanda legislature and the legal framework that regulates its operation nature serve to entrench autocratic rule. The Rwandan Parliament does not derive its legitimacy from the electorate. RPF and its allies lack fair, transparent and democratic mechanisms for choosing candidates to represent them. The process by which parties chose candidates is flawed and corrupted. Individuals are put on lists through unclear and undemocratic ways. Because of the corrupt ways in which they are appointed, legislators are not independent. Instead of becoming representatives of the people, legislators act as Kagame functionaries for fear of being dismissed.
During the senatorial elections of 26 September 2011, RPF tightened its control over civic and political bodies by restricting other candidates to have a say or presents their candidature. The government seriously increased restriction on press freedom and party activists, while extralegal violence had a chilling effect on candidates who were not under RPF flagbearership. The fear that was boiling in the hearts of Rwandans in the run up of these senatorial elections can be only explained by the picture of the almost decapitated remains of late A. K. Rwisereka, the gunned down cadaver of J. L. Rugambage and the horrible torture and cruel treatments against interned political opponents.
During the elections people are herded and cowed to legitimize the disguised bloody discriminatory autocratic rule of RPF where the only choice they have on their voting papers is RPF. Hence there is no way to anticipate peaceful and stable political change in a foreseeable future with the current RPF violent rigging and manipulation of the process of elections.
II.6. NO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND OF ASSOCIATION
The RPF has imposed numerous tyrannical legal restrictions and informal controls on the media and the RPF Regime is intimidating independent journalists. Independent news papers are banned. The High Council of the Media – an RPF-controlling machine on the media- is only suspending and closing independent media capable of criticizing the RPF regime. RPF is increasing internet penetration and phone calls interception.
The 2006 Senate Report on “genocide ideology” states that the “genocide ideology” takes the form of a political broadside, “more often than biased and unjust”. For example, the act of criticizing the ruling regime as a totalitarian regime muzzling the opposition, the press, freedom of association and of speech; is accused of divisionism.” This expansive interpretation of “genocide ideology”, when read in conjunction with the 2008 law on “genocide ideology”, criminalizes dissenting voices and speech permitted by international conventions. It restricts debates about freedom of association and expression in Rwanda.
The threats, intimidations and other persecution at the hands of the security services have created a climate whereby journalists exercise straitjacket of self-censorship in order to avoid the wrath of the security services. The law ostensibly guarantees freedom of the press, but the media remains tightly controlled by the RPF Regime. Media outlets are either state-controlled, co-opted or constantly under siege. RPF has used the curbs on the media to suppress criticism or dissent. The security services sometimes co-opt independent journalists by bribing them with money. Journalists who refuse to toe the line or be co-opted have often been subjected to threats and intimidation. The Kagame regime uses trumped up criminal charges to intimidate journalists who express dissenting or critical views.
Recently, for their desire to enjoy freedom of expression, the result is that:
• Charles Ingabire, the Editor of online Inyenyeri News and of the magazine UKURI was assassinated in the night of 30 November to 1 December 2011 in Kampala where he was living as a refugee since 2007.
• Jean Leonard Rugambage, the deputy editor of the bimonthly “UMUVUGIZI”, was murdered on 24 June 2010.
• Agnes NKUSI UWIMANA and Saidati MUKAKIBIBI, journalists of “UMURABYO”, were respectively sentenced to seventeen and seven years on 4 February 2011.
• Didas Gasana, Charles Kabonero, Rwango Kadafi, Robert Sebufilira, Furaha and MacDowell Kalisa of “UMUSESO”; Dominique Makeli; and Jean Bosco Gasasira and Robert Agaba of “UMURABYO” have their lives saved by the way of exile.
The freedom of expression is severely restricted. Any criticism of RPF regime is criminalized and that is why Rwanda ranks 169th out of 178 on the ranking of Reporters Without Borders to prove its place, inter alia, the worst countries in terms of press freedom.
Public workers are not allowed to unionize and the list of essential services in which strikes are not allowed is excessively long. RPF continues to pressure unions in subtle and indirect ways. All rural farmers are imposed to belong to RPF-controlled co-operatives which, in turn, set levies on produces. The farmers are not allowed for bargaining.
The civil society organizations operating in Rwanda are those that submit to the RPF wishes and actively promote its policy. The RPF regime exercises intense control over the non-governmental sector by both overt and covert methods. Civil society as a whole operates under very tight restrictions. Civil society groups which do not toe the RPF line are not allowed to operate freely. Civil society organizations speak publicly and influence decision-making only when their views are in line with those of the RPF and its regime. Independent human rights organizations, in particular, have been a target of the security services. Human rights groups have been subjected to harassment, intimidation and persecution of such intensity that most of them have ceased operations and their members have been driven to exile. Independent human rights organizations -like LOPRODHOR, Human Rights Watch, AMNESTY International etc- have been dismantled, or their officials declared persona non grata prior to be kicked out of the country; other organizations, like UNHCR, have been infiltrated by individuals close to the RPF . Others, worn down by constant threats to their safety, have simply opted out of struggle.
II.7. TYRANICAL AND OPRESSIVE LAWS
RPF regime is continuously misusing, manipulating and modifying the constitution to drive hate propaganda, to exacerbate ethnic tensions, to oppress political opponents and to annihilate Hutu Community and in some extent moderate Tutsis. The UN Human Rights Committee criticized Rwanda in 2009 for excessive restrictions on media freedom through use of “divisionism” laws and stated that Rwanda should cease to punish so-called acts of “divisionism” and ensure any restrictions are compatible with the ICCPR.
The laws on Genocide Ideology, on Sectarianism (Divisionism) and on Denial of Genocide are liberally used by RPF to suppress a wide range of positive performan