Is Rwanda Losing What It Has Gained Since 1994?

By Eleneus Akanga (reposted)

The script most of the world has about Rwanda is of a nation on the verge of losing what it has gained since 1994. Not surprising. Sixteen years ago, Rwanda, many will agree looked a complete write off. The mess that was the genocide had left the country on its bare minimum, with no clean water, no hospitals, no justice system or infrastructure and a people who saw themselves as either victims or perpetrators.

So much needed fixing. The marauding Interahamwe had been defeated, the killings halted and a new government promised so much in terms of development and getting the country back on track. At the centre of all this, a certain Maj. Gen Paul Kagame, was pulling the strings. After successfully leading the force that took over Kigali, he embarked on forming an inclusive government, with the aim of uniting Rwandans. Not to credit him for trying or at least for the economic progress that Rwanda has witnessed during this period, would be unfair.

There is going to be the argument about the time spent in power. People can rightly argue that he has had so much time to do what he has done, and that with as much aid that Rwanda has received during his tenure, any fit-for-purpose human being would have performed.

This may be true but you still would have needed someone with character. While President Kagame has the character, has had the luck, agility and steady fastness, he truly is no saint. So often, he has been discovered as wanting in statesmanship, democracy and ability to engage perceived enemies.

Mr. Kagame is from the school of thought who consider dissent as being irrational, uncalled for, and therefore, something which must be fought. To Kagame, leaders are meant to be respected and any divergent views must be expressed directly through stipulated channels (in most cases, composed of his most trusted lieutenants) and on which he has ultimate control. In doing so, he has centralised power, creating or promoting a circle of top trusted friends, who many see as the inner circle, that is out to make or break Rwanda. Remember, this is a government, which accused their predecessors of promoting the infamous “Akazu” a top circle grouping of Juvenile Habyalimana’s trusted cadres, believed to have executed the genocide.

So, when Hilary Clinton, says that “We really don’t want to see Rwanda undermine its own remarkable progress by beginning to move away from a lot of the very positive actions that undergirded its development so effectively,” she has a point.

Culture of Silence

Rwanda’s problem has been and continues to be the inexplicable silence embraced by her citizens who despite having mixed feelings about what is going on inside their country choose to either pretend that everything is right, or keep numb about all. Silence in Rwanda, is a virtue. Anything said, risks being misinterpreted for the bad and after years of experience, Rwandans have learnt to gag themselves, or control their speech. It is a culture not only of silence but self censorship as well.

While silence insulates some of the prevalent anger from some members of society at say such things as governance issues, imbalance in power, lack of political space or a not very fair policy, some say, on unity and reconciliation, it encourages pretence. In Rwanda today, there are people who believe that the government should have borrowed a leaf from South Africa’s handling of apartheid, when dealing with genocide and its effects. But because such rhetoric risks being interpreted as a way of inciting public anger, a possible crime under the genocide ideology law, many choose to stay silent and instead moan about it to friends and relatives under closed doors. The government then, gets the feeling that the policy is working when in actual fact, it is the silence and the fear of persecution or being wrongly misinterpreted, which are keeping argument, at bay.

Normally, when members of the public are so afraid to speak out, the onus falls on the media to express people’s views. But the media in Rwanda remains dysfunctional. Weeks after a critical journalist was shot under circumstances that we may never establish, another, Saidati Mukakibibi, has been arrested for comparing Kagame to Hitler. The state maintains her writings would have incited public disorder and promoted divisionism. I asked a government minister if Kagame has become so incomparable that trying to find a comparison amounts to a criminal offence. On top of insisting that I don’t quote him, the minister believes “the police should not have over reacted to someone’s personal opinion although the president deserves respect”. Hitler, the minister added, “can not be the best comparison you can have”.

If Hitler is worse a comparison, then who is, I asked?  He hung up before answering. My chat with the minister goes to explain what many struggle to see with Rwandan politics. In Rwanda, you either, dance to the melody of “Kagame is Lord”, “the best we ever had” and keep your bread, or challenge his views and risk being done for either corruption, genocide or immorality. If a minister finds it hard speaking to journalists, even when he is giving a plain statement, imagine how it must feel being a local and standing out to challenge the establishment, inside Rwanda?

Is there hope?

A friend of mine asked me this particular question the other day on Facebook. While I believe in hope being abundant, I know it takes some convincing to tell people it is there when you have pregnant mothers being imprisoned for attending peaceful demonstrations, opposition party members like Bernard Ntaganda, the founder president of PS-Imberakuri being denied their constitutional right to bail and some opposition party activists simply disappearing, as in the case Andrew Kagwa Rwisereka of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.

The future looks not so clear and I am sure there are so many Rwandans out there, who would love to see Clinton, demand freedoms from Rwanda’s iron man, instead of meandering around diplomatic language and deploring the fact that Rwanda is in danger of losing what it has gained since 1994.

America, just like other Western countries should rethink their relationship with Mr. Kagame, not for his sake but that of democracy and Rwandans.  Like Timothy Kalyegira put it the other day, for all the fine wine, decorations and music at a wedding party, it is resolving differences, balancing needs and compromises that are the core of a marriage.

Over to you my little monsters…

The gutter that is Rwanda’s New Times

By Eleneus Akanga

From bomb thrower, incompetent army officer and now petty thief! Rwanda or at least the government mouth piece wants us to believe that Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, the country’s former Army Chief of Staff, now a refugee in South Africa, was always a bad grape.

When news broke in March this year that the general had fled the country, Rwanda was quick to dismiss him as a very incompetent officer, who as they claimed “had always believed in gaining cheap popularity and had at one point abandoned comrades on the battle field”.  Because, Gen. Kayumba’s record was there for many to see, this version of events did not sell. As a counter measure, the government decided to instead accuse him of throwing grenades. That too, did not seem to sell as expected. President Kagame himself decided to step in, branding Nyamwasa, a nobody, with some reports even suggesting he (Kagame) had referred to both Gen. Kayumba and Col. Patrick Karegeya as human excrete! Talk about stooping so low!

That again did not seem to achieve the aim. President Kagame instead, decided this time, to grant an exclusive interview to The Daily Monitor, one of Uganda’s leading English newspapers to shed more light on Nyamwasa – the menace. Why Daily Monitor and not Rwanda’s New Times is something I will explain later.

The exclusive interview seemed to have achieved its aim until Gen. Nyamwasa sent in a rejoinder. It was to reveal much more than everyone else knew. And it is this well written and clearly thought out response from the general that according to a close source, Kigali is still wondering whether it should have ruthlessly pursued Nyamwasa in the papers like it did.

I am going into all this just to get you my readers into the reason I have decided to come up with this short piece.

Just like technology has saved the world from all the hustles of everyday life, The New Times has saved the regime in Kigali all the hustle, except, in technology’s case, the technicians have been wise enough to realise where to put stops and where not to.

In case you are wondering, read today’s opinion in The New Times. The writer “Mr. Anonymous” or if you may, a retired RDF officer, is trying to tell the world the truth about Gen. Nyamwasa.

He begins by telling readers that besides working closely with Nyamwasa, he actually lived with him. He is not shy to even reveal that he got involved in dubious deals with the exiled general transporting looted merchandise from Northern Uganda where they were based, to Nyamwasa’s flat in Bugolobi.

The retired RDF officer goes on: “Between 1988 and 1990, I participated in dirty deals in which Kayumba used to loot Wanainchi property ranging from maize milling machines to large sums of money from the North”. Not enough confession to press charges? Wait and see!

“These milling machines would later be sold to Vendors in Owino market in Kampala,” he goes on arguing that “a share of some of the proceeds from the loot would be given to some NRM/NRA cadres and senior commanders especially those who were involved in the operations in Northern Uganda, to earn Kayumba remarkable cheap popularity within the senior NRA command and staff officers despite the fact that he was just a Second Lieutenant (2Lt)”.

Unless Mr. Anonymous thinks we are all stupid, it would be foolhardy of him/her to believe anyone is going to fall for this bunkum.  Even if it were true, is it possible, leave alone logical that proceeds from milling machines could buy the loyalty of NRM/NRA cadres and senior commanders for as he /she says “remarkable” cheap popularity?

Even if it were true, Mr. Anonymous and Gen. Nyamwasa would have had to ferry trucks and trucks of milling machines, to be able to raise enough money to bribe senior cadres and officers and hope too that everyone at Owino be in demand of milling machines!

If Rwanda or President Kagame is what he claims to be (a no nonsense disciplinarian who does not tolerate corruption and hates working with crooks) he should order the arrest and immediate detention of Mr. Anonymous. For, not only is this fellow a criminal and an accessory to a crime, he, having been privy to this information for so many years and served in the RDF with this kind of spirit, tells much of who actually RDF is composed of.

And for The New Times, to have allowed to publish this piece by Mr. Anonymous as its main opinion piece reveals much. Many a time, The New Times has been rightly referred to as Kagame’s mouth piece much to the annoyance of those who support it. If this had been a story, published in say, Umurabyo, Umuseso or Umuvugizi, the High Council of the Press would be up in arms against the publishers demanding that either the publication reveal the name of the author or risk being suspended for good. Sadly, because it is The New Times, no one will be summoned or even questioned. The New Times can gladly mystify and demonise people, including officers and men who gave half their adult life fighting for Rwanda, and nothing happens. Why? Because it is well insulated.

This is a newspaper, that Rwanda and Kagame’s government will want you to take seriously, believe as a model publication and an authoritative source of news on Rwanda. As the only remaining newspaper in Rwanda or one of the few remaining ones (they arent many left) in the run-up to elections, the government will want you to believe  its stories on the forthcoming elections.

But if this is a publication that very clearly has shown itself as lacking in both professionalism and content, why should anyone really care or believe what it writes?

Is it any wonder then that President Kagame, himself shuns it, and chooses instead to grant his exclusives to the likes of The Daily Monitor, Jeune Afrique and SABC?

You can fool the world for sometime but you cannot fool the world forever.

There are not many people who were so close to Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa while still a junior officer both in Northern Uganda and later in Rwanda. There can only be 2 or three. And these would include the current head of state. Are we not to believe that President Kagame or one of the few other high ranking officers under his command today would be Mr. Anonymous?

And what happens if it is later found out that one of our senior officers oversaw and participated in the looting of milling machines and chose to conceal the info until July 2010?

Yet another reason to fear for Rwanda. Be very afraid my friends. Over to you my little monsters…

The politics of genocide in Rwanda

Geoffrey York

The Globe and Mail/Blogs

With an election looming in a few months, Rwanda’s authoritarian government has made an astounding claim: democracy leads directly to genocide.

The claim is made in an article this week by Jean Paul Kimonyo, an advisor in the office of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He argues that Rwanda has only had “plural politics” for two brief periods in its history, and both times it “led to mass killings.”

He also makes the sweeping statement that “political parties and independent media” were a big reason for the killings. All parties and all media, in his view, are just as dangerous as the hate-spewing radio stations and politicians that fuelled the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

His conclusion, apparently, is that Rwanda needs to suppress its political parties, restrict its independent media and tightly control its elections, even though it’s been 16 years since the genocide. Democracy – or “confrontational politics,” as he prefers to call it – would “almost certainly lead to renewed violence.”

This is a very convenient argument for those who are currently in power. But what about everyone else? Opposition political parties are already finding it almost impossible to get registered for the August election. Independent journalists are harassed and threatened.

In Kigali recently, I had an interesting chat with Didas Gasana, editor-in-chief of an independent weekly newspaper called Umuseso – one of the few sources of independent information in Rwanda.

Mr. Gasana (pictured below) has been a target of the authorities for years. Twice he has been prosecuted for “criminal defamation” for his investigative articles about corruption and wrongdoing. He was forced into exile for a year in 2005 after police warned that he could be killed for what he was reporting in his newspaper. A government media council has recommended the banning of his newspaper. Even now he gets anonymous calls from people accusing him of working for “negative forces” – code words for the armed rebels in neighbouring Congo, and a veiled threat that he could be killed.

Any independent newspaper would struggle for survival in such an environment, but the government has further squeezed Mr. Gasana by prohibiting public agencies from advertising in his newspaper. Only one private company – along with some foreign embassies and organizations – is daring to advertise in the weekly. He estimates that his total advertising revenue is barely $300 a month.

“It’s part of a broader pattern of intimidating us, silencing us and suffocating us financially,” he says. “I try to shrug it off. But the situation is getting more tense as the election approaches.”

In the last election in 2003, President Kagame claimed to have captured the election with nearly 95 per cent of the vote. This year the election will be even more lopsided, Mr. Gasana says. “People are afraid to make themselves heard. We are far from having a free election.”

People like Mr. Gasana are crucial to the country’s future if Rwandans want to learn the truth about the shadowy events that drive the political agenda here. In recent weeks, Rwanda has been shaken by a series of mysterious grenade blasts and the equally mysterious defection of a former army commander who fled to South Africa. The government was quick to blame the defector for the grenade blasts. But the reporting by Mr. Gasana suggests another possible explanation.

Mr. Gasana was at the scene of the first grenade blast within minutes of the explosion. An eyewitness told him that a man on a motorcycle had flung a grenade and raced on. The witness also noticed a police car parked nearby. Instead of following the motorcycle, the police car drove off in a different direction, the witness told Mr. Gasana.

Although he cannot prove it, he believes there is a possibility that the grenade attacks were orchestrated by state intelligence agencies to justify a crackdown on electoral politics. It’s an uncomfortable question, but without the independent media in Rwanda there would be nobody to raise such questions.

Gov’t now links fugitive General to Col. Karegeya

RNA

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of ex-army chief Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa took another twist Tuesday when the Rwandan government suddenly blamed him for the recent grenade attacks in Kigali, which killed 3 people and injured dozens, RNA reports.

Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga told an impromptu press conference that Lt. Gen. Nyamwasa has been in “constant contact” with Col. Patrick Karegeya – a former head of intelligence. The two have now linked up in South Africa, Ngoga said, reading from a prepared statement.

No questions were allowed at the press briefing, with Mr. Ngoga claiming that the prosecution was setting the record straight to stop “unfounded rumours” being published by the media.

“Security and judicial officials have evidence indicating that Lt. Gen. Kayumba and another officer who fled before called Col. Patrick Karegeya, working together, have planned and started implementing acts aimed at creating state insecurity,” Ngoga said.

“Among these acts includes hurling grenades in Kigali city and other places,” Ngoga added.

The country’s top prosecuting authority said Col. Karegeya has not been interrogated on the accusations because he has not been around. “Gen. Kayumba was interrogated once, but fled before he could respond to the second summons,” Ngoga told listening reporters, in a mixture of English and Kinyarwanda.

Announcing the sudden fleeing of Gen. Kayumba on Friday evening, the Foreign Affairs Ministry statement did not say the charges on which he is being pursued. The government claimed the General was in Uganda, but it emerged on Tuesday that he only used Uganda as transit route – heading to Kenya, where he flew to South Africa on Sunday.

Mr. Ngoga confirmed that Gen. Kayumba was indeed in South Africa, affirming that he had linked up with Col. Karegeya. A combination of judicial, security and diplomatic efforts are underway to have the two men extradited to Rwanda to face justice, according to Ngoga.

Col. Karegeya was the head of the External Service Organisation (ESO) before he fell to the wrong side of the law in 2005. The following year saw him battling insubordination and desertion charges which resulted in him being stripped of his rank and he was jailed for about two years.

In November 2007, it emerged that Col Karegeya had fled the country, but there has not been any information about his whereabouts.

When three grenades exploded in Kigali two weeks ago, the Police claimed Rwandan rebels in eastern DR Congo – the FDLR, were behind the blasts. Three people are already in detention over the blasts – and they have apparently confessed. The accusations ended there.

Meanwhile, information available to RNA claims that on Monday, another grenade was found at the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC) headquarters in Kacyiru before it exploded. The MINALOC office is located in the same area with several other ministries and government departments. A few meters away are the US Embassy and the Office of the President.

Kutesa says General Nyamwasa fled through Kenya

Daily Monitor

Reports emerging from Uganda claim the Rwandan government has thrown the net to catch Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa wider after a reliable source said the renegade former military chief, initially reported to be hiding in Kampala, had escaped to South Africa.

Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa was however noncommital about the whereabouts of the general.

“He left through Malaba (Uganda’s eastern border post with Kenya) at 14:00 hours (2p.m.) on February 27 [Saturday]. That is what I know,” Mr Kutesa told Daily Monitor on Monday, without stating the general’s destination.

He, however, did not divulge the source of his information nor did he provide details on whereabouts of the wanted general during the hours since he fled Kigali on Friday and his reported exit through Malaba, nearly a day later.

No official of the South African High Commission in Kampala was available to comment on reports that the general might have fled to that country
Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister, in a reply to our e-mail enquiries, indicated that Uganda had kept them in the dark about the latest development regarding the runaway officer.

“The government of Uganda has not yet given us a feedback, but we’re in touch,” she wrote, “We are seeking extradition, whatever country he is in.”

Gen. Nyamwasa is one of the highest ranked Rwandan military officers and a key player in the Rwanda Patriotic Army/Front guerilla movement that brought President Paul Kagame to power in 1994, although it is reported that he has since fallen out with Gen. Kagame over varying political ambitions.

Before his escape, authorities in Kigali had been investigating the general on a range of suspected misdeeds that officials there are reluctant to disclose.

“Prior to his defection, Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa was questioned by Rwandan investigative authorities on serious criminal charges,” Kigali said in a statement on Friday.

The statement issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, a copy of which Daily Monitor has obtained, confirmed the fugitive officer was being sheltered in Kampala, something Ugandan officials denied.

Unconfirmed media reports linked the wanted military chief to the opposition Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, launched on August 14, 2009 to try to wrest power from President Kagame in elections due in August.

It emerged yesterday that Gen. Nyamwasa, who up until Friday was the country’s High Commissioner to India, would be prosecuted if efforts to have him extradited to Kigali succeed.

“Charges would depend on the outcome of the prosecutorial process,” Minister Mushikiwabo, also Rwanda government’s spokesperson, said in yesterday’s email.

She also said the general had already been stripped of his diplomatic status, which would otherwise have offered him cover of immunity from prosecution, following his defection four days ago.

In Kampala, a press conference called by the government to calm the gathering diplomatic storm over Gen. Nyamwasa was yesterday abruptly cancelled and Minister Kutesa said he will now hold one today.

Mr Richard Kabonero, Uganda’s Ambassador to Kigali, and his Rwandan counterpart, Mr Frank Mugambye, were due to give a briefing on tomorrow’s meeting in Kampala to members of the Joint Permanent Commission, a security clearing house for the two countries to resolve thorny issues.

FIFA to grant Ireland replay after cheat Henry’s antics?

 

 

The Irish Justice Minister demanded a rematch today after a blatant Thierry Henry handball put France into the finals of the World Cup.

Dermot Ahern, a passionate football fan, called for the sport’s world governing body, Fifa, to be called to account in the interests of fair play.

“They probably won’t grant it as we are minnows in world football but let’s put them on the spot,” said Mr Ahern, the former Irish foreign minister.

“It’s the least we owe the thousands of devastated young fans around the country. Otherwise, if that result remains, it reinforces the view that if you cheat, you will win.”

But here is the real deal.

The contribution of the officials and governing bodies does nothing to try and retain the concept of fair play anymore than do the players. Last night the referee denied Anelka his bid for a penalty, deeming that the player had dived. That is also cheating, but there was no sanction against the player, not even a yellow card, yet had the officials been fooled or in the wrong place for that incident too, the goal-keeper would have been sent off. The less said about Henry and his uncontrollable hand the better, shame about his reputation.

So long as people continue to consider soccer to be sport and soccer players to be sportsmen, they will continue to be disappointed. It’s business and big business at that.