A Candle For Remembering
May this memorial candle lights up the historical past of our beloved Country: Rwanda, We love U so much. If Tears could build a stairway. And memories were a lane. I would walk right up to heaven. To bring you home again. No farewell words were spoken. No time to say goodbye. You were gone before I knew it And. Only Paul Kagame knows why. My heart still aches with sadness. And secret tears still flow. What It meant to lose you. No one will ever know.
Why did Kagame this to me?
Can't forget. He murdered my mother. What should be my reaction? FYI: the number of orphans in Rwanda has skyrocketed since the 1990's Kagame's invasion. Much higher numbers of orphans had and have no other option but joining FDLR fighters who are identified as children that have Lost their Parents in Kagame's Wars inside and outside of Rwanda.If someone killed your child/spouse/parent(s) would you seek justice or revenge? Deep insight: What would you do to the person who snuffed the life of someone I love beyond reason? Forgiving would bring me no solace. If you take what really matters to me, I will show you what really matters. NITUTIRWANAHO TUZASHIRA. IGIHE KIRAGEZE.If democracy is to sell one's motherland(Africa), for some zionits support, then I prefer the person who is ready to give all his live for his motherland. Viva President Putin!!!
RPF committed the unspeakable
The perverted RPF committed the UNSPEAKABLE.Two orphans, both against the Nazi world. Point is the fact that their parents' murder Kagame & his RPF held no shock in the Western world. Up to now, the Rwandan Hitler Kagame and his death squads still enjoy impunity inside and outside of Rwanda. What goes through someone's mind as they know RPF murdered their parents? A delayed punishment is actually an encouragement to crime, In Praise of the ongoing Bloodshed in Rwanda. “I always think I am a pro-peace person but if someone harmed someone near and dear to me, I don't think I could be so peaceful. I would like to believe that to seek justice could save millions of people living the African Great Lakes Region - I would devote myself to bringing the 'perp' along to a non-happy ending but would that be enough? You'd have to be in the situation I suppose before you could actually know how you would feel or what you would do”. Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana, Libre Penseur
Hutu Children & their Mums
Look at them ! How they are scared to death. Many Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi, Foreign human rights advocates, jounalists and and lawyers are now on Death Row Waiting to be murdered by Kagame and his RPF death squads. Be the last to know.
Almighty God :Justice for US
Hutu children's daily bread: Intimidation, Slavery, Sex abuses led by RPF criminals and Kagame, DMI: Every single day, there are more assassinations, imprisonment, brainwashing & disappearances. Do they have any chance to end this awful life?
Killing Hutus on daily basis
RPF targeted killings, very often in public areas. Killing Hutus on daily basis by Kagame's murderers and the RPF infamous death squads known as the "UNKNOWN WRONGDOERS"
RPF Trade Mark: Akandoya
Rape, torture and assassination and unslaving of hutu women. Genderside: Rape has always been used by kagame's RPF as a Weapon of War, the killings of Hutu women with the help of Local Defense Forces, DMI and the RPF military
The Torture in Rwanda flourishes
How torture flourishes across Rwanda despite extensive global monitoring
Fighting For Our Freedom?
We need Freedom, Liberation of our fatherland, Human rights respect, Mutual respect between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Saturday, May 15,2010
Hutu children are forced to attend ethnically segregated schools accross Rwanda.
There is no place for Hutu children in the New Rwandan society.
Hutu children are forced to attend ethnically segregated schools accross Rwanda.
There is no place for Hutu children in the New Rwandan society.
The bloody RPF dictatorship culminates in ethnic ideological purgings as the signs of the RPF fascism emerge.
Hundreds of vagrants, thieves and street kids, some as young as 14, have been sent, without a trial, to the remote island of Iwawa - an extreme example of the levels of repression in Rwanda.
 RPF JIHAD THEOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY |
When children disappear : Falcified documents are provided to those children who often don’t know or lie about their age, anyone found to be younger than 18 is immediately transferred to the center for children. more than 50 Mothers hide their anger to see their children disappearing.
IWAWA BRAINWASHING CAMP : HUTU CHILDREN BRAINWASHED TO FIGHT FOR PRESIDENT KAGAME. SHAMING SESSIONS - RPF governement is using sophisticated techniques to brainwash Hutu children.
Slide Show An Island of the Unwanted
Times Topic: Rwanda
Jehad Nga for The New York Times
Hundreds have been sent to Iwawa Island without trial. More Photos »
Gasigwa, 14, now spends his days learning patriotic songs and how to march like a soldier. At night, he sleeps in a huge sheet-metal shed with hundreds of men and boys packed mattress to mattress.
“Please call my father,” he whispered. “He has no idea where I am.”
Nearly 900 beggars, homeless people and suspected petty thieves, including dozens of children, have recently been rounded up from the nation’s neatly swept streets and sent — without trial or a court appearance — to this little-known outpost. They will spend up to three years here being “rehabilitated,” learning skills like bricklaying, hairdressing and motorcycle maintenance.
It is one of the country’s newest self-improvement projects, and it seems a fitting symbol for what many political analysts and human rights groups say Rwanda has become: orderly but repressive.
Under President Paul Kagame, this country, which exploded in ethnic bloodshed 16 years ago, is now one of the safest, cleanest and least corrupt nations on the continent. The capital, Kigali, is not ringed by sprawling slums, and carjackings — a deadly problem in many African cities — are virtually unheard of here. The roads are smoothly paved; there is national health insurance; neighborhoods hold monthly cleanups; the computer network is among the best in the region; and the public fountains are full of water, not weeds. All of this has been accomplished in one of the world’s poorest countries.
“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.”
But while the nation continues to be praised as a darling of the foreign aid world and something of a central African utopia, it is increasingly intolerant of political dissent, or sometimes even dialogue, and bubbling with bottled-up tensions. Recent grenade attacks in Kigali and a shake-up in the army showed that even one of the cornerstones of the new Rwandan state — personal security — might be in danger.
“Kagame’s strategy for stability is a dangerous, long-term gamble,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “By stymieing a political opposition, an independent press or a critical civil society — in short, by not allowing democratic institutions to form — Kagame is leaving people little to identify with but their ethnic group.”
With less than four months to go before national elections, few of the major opposition parties have been allowed to register. Some opposition supporters have been attacked inside government offices; others have been jailed. Several prominent government officials who recently broke ranks with Mr. Kagame defected to other African nations, saying they feared for their lives. The BBC local-language radio service was shut down for a time because the Rwandan government did not like the way it was talking about the genocide of 1994.
That dark period, when death squads from the Hutu majority massacred hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis, as well as moderate Hutus, remains the touchiest subject of all. In the past three years, Rwandan officials have prosecuted more than 2,000 people, including political rivals, teachers and students, for espousing “genocide ideology” or “divisionism.”
Mr. Kagame and his disciplined military quickly restored order after the genocide, and this stability has been the foundation for Rwanda’s remarkable comeback. The foreign minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, says that after all Rwanda has been through, the government has to remain vigilant about ethnic divisions.
“Rwanda will not allow any politician, political party, any individual, to tamper with the reconciliation and unity in Rwanda,” she said in an interview.
Photo: Rwandan youth attend a class (brainwashing Ingando) at Iwawa Island, 193km (116 miles) west of Rwanda's capital Kigali, June 26, 2010. Rwanda says the island camp provides education and vocational skills for some 1704 male petty criminals, but critics say the camp is a penal colony where beggars, homeless and suspected petty thieves, including dozens of children, have been rounded up and sent without trial or a court appearance, according to center authorities. Picture taken June 26, 2010. REUTERS/James Akena [need inquiry]
Instigators of violence have been prosecuted for divisionism, but so have people trying to discuss the country’s past or its current direction. Critics contend that the government wields Orwellian-sounding laws that are intentionally vague to stifle any inkling of opposition.
Even programs like the one on Iwawa Island, which the government says will give street people a second chance, are not exactly what they seem.
As a boatload of officials recently glided onto shore, one police commissioner gestured to the birds, the trees and the young men with uniformly shaved heads fetching water and said, “Welcome to our Hawaii.”
But on the mainland, people describe it as an Alcatraz.
One of the Brainwashing camp for Hutu females. Hutu Women are detained in different Gulag concentration camps across the country.
“We call it the island of no return,” said Esperance Uwizeyimana, a homeless mother of four.
None of the vocational training programs had started by mid-March. Protais Mitali, the youth minister, insisted there were no street children here, just adults. Yet squeezed in with the men were many adolescents like Gasigwa, and employees confided that several dozen boys were incarcerated here.
“This isn’t a good place for children,” one employee said in hushed tones because the minister was nearby. “They could get abused.”
Rwandan officials are prickly about complaints. President Kagame lashed out at foreign critics this month, saying, “Who should be giving lessons to Rwanda’s 11 million people about what is good for them?”
He called opposition leaders “hooligans” and said Rwandans were “as free, as happy, as proud of themselves, as they have never been in their lives.”
Several leading opposition figures, like Victoire Ingabire, say it is impossible to challenge the government, arguing that it is controlled by a cabal of Tutsis who were refugees in Uganda before the genocide and now unfairly dominate the economy.
Mrs. Ingabire, a Hutu, was an accountant living in the Netherlands until she returned in January to run for president.
The RPF regime has imported and implemented the South African Apartheid called :
Vision 2020 Estate
- Denial of Political Rights
- Denial of Citizenship (Citizenship is granted to the Hutus who acceptes the RPF card membership and monthly pays his membership fees (pre-condition to do any business).
- Restrictions on Movement
- Economic Discrimination
- Public Health
- Education: Separate and Unequal, Hutu children have no right to State financial aid
- Sex and Marriage
- Politics & Culture
“There’s no space to talk about what happened in our country,” said Mrs. Ingabire, who has been charged with genocide ideology, being a “divisionist” and collaborating with rebels. It is not just Hutu politicians who feel persecuted. Charles Kabanda used to be a leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi-dominated ruling party, but split with it in the late 1990s, he said, because “they were ruthless.”
He recently worked with the Green Party, but said it had been repeatedly blocked from competing in the elections. Government officials said the Green Party failed to meet requirements like getting 200 valid signatures from all over Rwanda. Mr. Kabanda simply shook his head.
“ ‘Enemy, enemy, enemy’ — that’s what they call anyone who thinks differently,” he said. “This government’s record is dreadful.
It’s only you, the international community, who is showering them with flowering praise.”
Josh Kron contributed reporting.
Related articles
Interview With the Foreign Minister
Rwanda's Island prison
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Saturday, May 8, 2010
08/05/2010
Posted by Imanirakiza Charles
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron hand, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.=>ASIF]
Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza
A Mother & Rwanda Presidential candidate
A Mother & Rwanda Presidential candidate
August 2010
***
The bloody RPF dictatorial regime has been following the policy of imprisoning all the genuine leaders of the Rwandan people who challenge it and then making deals with so-called "Hutu de service" appointed by it - such as Rucago and Rwarakabije - and claiming that it is making "reconciliation". However, the oppressed people of Rwanda will never accept the traitors foisted on them and give up their demand for freedom and equality. They insist that their true and tested leaders be freed to lead their nation to a democratic future.
Rwandans need nothing but Human Rights
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Posted by One World.nl
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron hand, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), and mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.=>ASIF]
Persvrijheid in Rwanda zwaar onder druk
Is het gerechtvaardigd persvrijheid te beknotten in een land waar de ene bevolkingsgroep, opgehitst door de radio, de andere zestien jaar geleden heeft uitgemoord? Of gebruikt de Rwandese overheid de genocide als excuus om een monopolie op de media te behouden, en elke vorm van oppositie de mond te snoeren?
Rwanda weet als geen ander land wat de kracht van media kan zijn. In kranten, maar voornamelijk via de radio Libre des Mille Collines, werden de Hutu's tijdens de genocide in 1994 opgehitst Tutsi's te vermoorden. Meer dan 800.000 Tutsi's en gematigde Hutu's vonden de dood. Vandaag de dag is er veel mediarepressie in het land. De overheid stelt dat te veel persvrijheid etnische groepen tegen elkaar op kan zetten.
Wolkenkrabbers
Wie de afgelopen tijd in Kigali, de hoofdstad van Rwanda is geweest, moet zich hebben verbaasd over de eindeloze rijen wolkenkrabbers, glanzende jeeps, mobiele telefoons en strakke pakken. Westerse donoren bewonderen Rwanda om de economische vooruitgang die de laatste jaren is geboekt. Velen hebben daarbij een oogje dichtgeknepen als het gaat om het democratisch gehalte van het Afrikaanse land. Onder leiding van de huidige Tutsi President Paul Kagame lijkt Rwanda niet meer naar het verleden, maar vooruit te kijken. De realiteit is anders.
Avond van de persvrijheid
Wat is persvrijheid eigenlijk? Wie hebben het wel en wie hebben het niet? Press Now presenteert vanavond in samenwerking met FreeVoice en RNTC De Avond Van De Persvrijheid. Een avond vol interviews, debat, expertmeetings, muziek, kunst en het laatste nieuws. De verworvenheden van persvrijheid worden deze avond in de schijnwerpers gezet.
Vanaf 19:00 in het Compagnietheater in Amsterdam
Op de site van World Press Day kun je alle activiteiten over de hele wereld volgen.
Bekijk ook de video Youtube als spreekbuis tegen onrecht, over mensenrechtenactivisten en nieuwe media.
Zo zijn dit jaar verscheidene Rwandese journalisten, die kritiek hebben geuit op de overheid, in elkaar geslagen of in de gevangenis gezet omdat zij de 'ideologie van de genocide zouden hebben verdedigd'. Dit argument wordt gebruikt voor iedereen die een andere visie heeft dan die van de officiële staat over wat er precies gebeurd is in 1994. Naast Rwandese journalisten worden ook mensenrechtenorganisaties en politieke tegenstanders beschuldigd van het 'opzetten van bevolkingsgroepen' en het 'zaaien van haat'.
Kranten geschorst
De enige twee overgebleven onafhankelijke kranten, Umuseso en Umuvugizi, zijn aangeklaagd door de staat wegens het 'verspreiden van valse beschuldigingen' en het 'verstoren van de eenheid'. Beide kranten zijn voorlopig voor zes maanden geschorst. Gevolg is dat de bevolking tijdens de verkiezingen in augustus geen berichtgeving van onafhankelijke media tot haar beschikking heeft. Persvrijheid en vrijheid van informatie zijn fundamenteel voor een gezonde democratie. Maar volgens de overheid is het land, gezien het verleden, nog niet toe aan een open democratie.
Persvrijheid als gevaarlijk wapen
Een jaar geleden zei de directeur van de Hoge Raad van de Pers, Patrice Luanda, tegen OneWorld: "In westerse landen heerst het idee dat persvrijheid absoluut moet zijn. Onze eigen geschiedenis heeft ons geleerd dat de media een gevaarlijk wapen vormt voor de vernietiging van een samenleving. Persvrijheid stopt daar waar het een gevaar vormt voor de eenheid van een land."
Tegenstanders van deze gedachte zullen stellen dat het niet aan de overheid is om te bepalen wat wel en wat niet gezegd of geschreven mag worden. En ondanks de repressie gaat Rwanda met kleine stapjes vooruit; voor het eerst mochten oppositiepartijen zich inschrijven voor de verkiezingen in augustus. Maar wie die gaat winnen, is voor niemand een geheim.
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron hand, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), and mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.=>ASIF]
On April 30, 2010, Rwandan President Paul Kagame delivered the commencement address at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond, Oklahoma. Demonstrators held up signs outside, and inside, a team of lawyers and process servers attempted to personally serve Kagame with an eight count lawsuit, until university officials asked them to leave.
The lawsuit alleged that Kagame and nine of his current and former military officers and officials are guilty of the assassination of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira and subsequent acts that caused the 1994 massacres that came to be known as the Rwanda Genocide.
They filed the suit on behalf of Agathe Habyarimana, widow of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, and Sylvana Ntaryamira, widow of Cyprien Ntaryamira
KPFA Radio News reported this story on 05.01.2010. To listen, click "KPFA Radio News: Lawsuit alleges Rwandan President is guilty of Rwanda Genocide."
The lawsuit's sixth count alleges that Kagame and the other defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in order to acquire and control the resources of neighboring D.R. Congo. Specifically:
"From not later than 1990 to the present, Kagame et. al, and his agents, and their co-conspirators formed a "RICO" enterprise within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. §:1961(4) engaged in foreign and interstate commerce."
. . . and
"Over a period of years and continuing to the present, through a pattern of racketeering activity, have acquired and maintained an interest in resources in the eastern Congo to their own benefit."
Kagame avoided personal service, by leaving the commencement ceremony early, surrounded by bodyguards. However, as Law Professor Peter Erlinder explained to KPFA News, it is arguable that he intentionally avoided service. An Oklahoma judge will decide.
The eight counts in the complaint are:
1.Wrongful Death - Murder,
2.Crimes against Humanity,
3.Violation of the Rights of Life, Liberty, and Security of Person,
4.Assault and Battery,
5.Intentional Infliction of Emotional Stress,
6.Violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act,
7.Torture, and,
8.Conspiracy to Torture
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Posted by ColoredOpinions
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron hand, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), and mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.=>ASIF]
In february Richard Durbin, Senator from Illinois (D) suggested
"Rwanda should publish the names of FDLR fighters accused of violating human rights."
Sofar Paul Kagame has not delivered such a list.
Mrs. Victoire Ingabire latest interview focuses on this lack of political will on the part of the RPF to solve the FDLR question.
This week Illinois Governor (D) Patt Quinn invited Paul Rusesabagina ( Rusesabagina supported Quinn for Governor and is also a long time critic of Kagame's regime) to a prayer breakfast:
Rusesabagina said he hopes to “raise awareness for equal rights and equal justice” throughout Rwanda and other areas being oppressed by government officials. This is all about democracy,” he said.
“We need teachers who believe that.” Rusesabagina also will discuss how freedom of speech is disappearing in Rwanda – publication of two weekly newspapers was recently suspended – and he also will talk about the continuing war in the Congo, which started in 1996. About 45,000 people are killed in the conflict every month, and about 7 million people have died since the war began.
At the end of 2008 Victoire Ingabire visited the US where she met the future US President, Barack Obama. who assured her personally that he would monitor the situation closely.
Kagame endorsed Mccain in 2008 (he apparently even sent his minister, probably Louise Mushikiwabo to the Republican National Convention), why wouldn't Obama return the favor?
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
05/05/2010Mrs. Ubgabire Victoire Umuhoza
Chair FDU
Rwanda Presidential Candidate
Kigali, May 3, 2010
Fellow Rwandans, p
It is almost 4 months back to my homeland after 16 years in exile. It was unbearable to hear the pain and the misery of my people at thousands of miles away. Upon my arrival, the regime, the state machinery and partisan media launched unrelenting demonizing campaign. The harassment and intimidation paved the way to endless police grilling. There has been no relief at all. The reason is just to repress my political rights, to fabricate criminal records, to derail the registration of my political party UDF INKINGI and to deter my presidential eligibility.
1. CaptivityYou may all recall that on 21st April 2010, the Rwandan government arrested me. I spent one night in jail. My home was violently searched the same night and up to date the state police have never returned our two computers, one computer of a visitor, computer programs, digital camera, disks, flash drives, cell phones, contracts, business cards, party flyers, flags and logos, passport, driving license, and all paper documents. The following day upon my request to be granted a bail, I was provisionally released from the jail. Since then, I can neither travel abroad nor go beyond the capital city of Kigali. Held under "extended" house arrest, I also have to report to the Prosecutor’s office twice a month. In reality, as it was shortly after my return, I have no freedom of movement. The only difference is that this time it is “legal”. I am in captivity.
I know many of you are eager and thirsty to hear live our freedom message. In this attempt to freeze our political activities and to thwart the road to democracy, the government has decided to put me “in chains” but my determination is still intact.
Even though being imprisoned is something any democratic opposition leader, who is peacefully fighting against a dictatorial regime, should expect and be aware of, nobody should give up the individual liberties. I would like therefore to thank all the people who played a role in my release from jail. Particularly, I would like to thank my dear fellows UDF-Inkingi’s members, who provided me with all the necessary means I crucially needed in order to stand a trial in court. I would also like to thank the Rwandan people who came massively to my court hearing.
I am writing to thank you all for your support and your prayers, to inform you about the circumstances of my captivity and about my trial, and to strengthen you in the hope for a democratic and better Rwanda.2. My trial is politically motivated
Fellow Rwandans, Friends of Rwanda,
This trial is trumped-up on false accusations because the prosecutor knows well that I am innocent. However, because I am engaged in a political fight, my opponents relied on media lynching of my person using public and private media and government institutions. I was even physically assaulted within the premises of an administrative building. As the time went on, my opponents came to realize that such acts of harassment and intimidation did not deter my determination. Instead, I continued to visit the Rwandan people nationwide. My opponents finally brandished the wall of laws, their own laws with their own reading. I was repeatedly summoned, almost every week since February, by the Criminal Investigation Department until my arrest and jail on 21st April 2010.
Briefly why am I being harassed? What are the charges levied against me?
- Promoting divisionism
- Harboring genocide ideology
- Creating an armed group and collaboration with the FDLR.
2.1. Promoting divisionism
You all know that I am the chairperson of an opposition political party. Compared to the current regime, we see things differently on several crucial issues facing our country. We refuse to be led by a one-man-rule, a state-party system for fear of being accused of divisionism. The Rwandan Constitution recognizes a multi-party system. That means the Constitution gives the Rwandan people the right to conceive and freely express dissenting political ideas.
We attest that the Rwandan people live under the yoke of fear and ignorance. People are kept in perpetual extreme poverty characterized by widespread malnutrition and poor healthcare, especially in rural areas. Government officials are forcing people to destroy their banana plantations even though these plantations represent the principal source of income for the poor. The healthcare system doesn’t guarantee healthcare coverage for all the Rwandan people due to scarcity and high cost of prescription drugs even though every Rwandan is required to subscribe to the universal health insurance coverage (Mutuelles de Santé).
The reform of the education sector should go hand in hand with adequate infrastructures, trained human resources and relevant translated books. How will teachers deliver in languages they don’t speak? This is terrible for the quality of the education. In schools, History teachers are totally confused: the regime’s political manipulations are in total conflict with the facts.
We are not afraid to tell the world that the Rwandans are under the yoke of fear and darkness, the hunger is acute in rural Rwanda. We are against the fact that the Gacaca courts that were traditionally responsible for settling social disputes, consider cases that require special knowledge that the criminal court judges do not have. This is even more serious because it involves crimes as serious as genocide. We are also opposed to the fact that the accused in these courts have no right to be assisted by a lawyer.
Professor Andre Guichaoua, a renowned researcher from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, recently published a reference book titled “Rwanda, from War to Genocide. Criminal Politics in Rwanda, 1990-1994.” In this book, Andre Guichaoua thoroughly analyzed the Gacaca court system and found that nearly all Rwandans who were at least 14 years old and were living in Rwanda before 1994 have been dragged to Gacaca courts.
2.1.2. Some utterances from the President of Rwanda are surprising
The Government machinery recently suspended two independent newspapers, split two political parties while other parties have been denied authorization to hold their constituent congress, a necessary step towards the registration of any political party. They jailed politicians such as Deogratias Mushayidi and senior military officers. If someone says that there is something rotten in Rwanda’s leadership, government officials are quick to brandish the law on divisionism.
We say we need a democratic change, more political space, freedom of speech and the President of Rwanda claims to hold us in contempt, as worthless people, criminals, and hooligans. He even boasted about how it was patriotic to shoot people in the DRC.
When I recently heard such utterances I felt deep sadness. I truly respect the President of Rwanda. I am a mother I will never dare to insult him even thought he insulted me. Such a speech was delivered during the 16th commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsis and a week after before both chambers of the Senate and the National Assembly. Although I was outraged, I did not deem necessary to respond, there was nothing I could say about it. Whoever says this is not acceptable is accused of divisionism. Should we shy to denounce these utterances simply because they are from a head of state or his government? No.
2.1.3. Ethnic problems should not be taboo
In Rwanda, people are afraid of discussing openly the current ethnic problem. To attest that the Rwandan population is composed of three ethnic groups is neither a crime nor a problem. The problem is to be deprived of your fundamental rights simply because you are Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa. It does not make sense to allege that there are no ethnic groups in Rwanda while we all know that Tutsis were decimated simply because of their ethnicity and were slaughtered because they were Tutsis. We attest that we already have a comprehensive plan to deal with this ethnic problem from its root causes in order to protect everybody’s right to life through a legal framework that would guarantee that no Rwandan would be threatened because of his/her ethnic background.
2.2. Harboring genocide ideology
2.2.1. We recognize the genocide
I and the political party I chair, UDF-Inkingi, which was created in 2006, we recognize that in 1994, in Rwanda, there has been genocide against the Tutsis. We also recognize that during that time, before and after, there have been crimes against humanity committed against other groups of the Rwandan population. These are facts we witnessed but also recognized by the United Nations, Resolution No 955 of November 08, 1994. We also believe that anyone who has responsibility in those unspeakable killings against humanity should be held accountable.
This is what the current regime calls harboring genocide ideology or genocide denial.
I therefore solemnly set the goal that if the Rwandan people trust me and elect me as President of Rwanda; my government will hold direct talks with the FDLR. They are Rwandans and have no other country on this planet. However, those who are responsible for crimes of genocide or crimes against humanity will face justice.
3. Our position on the Rwanda Defense Forces
“I am not bringing an army with me”. There is a very capable army is in the country. As long as the army will opt for political neutrality and work towards the fulfillment of the duties of maintaining integrity and sovereignty of the country, protecting the Rwandan people, ensuring peace and security in the region, and protecting government institutions issued from genuine democratic processes, I will always believe in that army.
The Rwanda Defense Force is a key factor for the stability of this country. Many Rwandans respect the motto saying: “In the RDF, good leadership; discipline; mutual trust and respect between members; respect for the law and enduring loyalty to the constitution, are the cornerstone of our success and constant ability to be a force for good”. In this respect, we strongly advocate for professionalism, carrier stability and leadership empowerment.
I therefore take this opportunity to inform and assure soldiers within the RDF, who were not aware of this understanding, that this is indeed our position on the problem regarding the Rwandan army.
Conclusion
Fellow Rwandans, Friends of Rwanda,
We call upon partner countries and the international community to support our efforts to bring about a lasting solution in Rwanda. Development indicators are encouraging but will remain fragile as long as they lack a solid foundation, as long as Rwanda is a one-man-rule. Proponents of the current regime have touted its benefits, such as faster economic growth, more economic opportunities and higher standards of living. However, this process is bypassing big swaths of particularly vulnerable populations. Large segments of the population face crushing poverty.
There will be no lasting stability and no sustainable development without democracy, without fair justice, without the rule of law, without a genuine reconciliation. Those who believed that stability and development were possible in Rwanda without democratization have seen the limits. We strongly believe that long-term, sustainable economic and social development requires democratic governance rooted in the rule of law.
I would like to finish this message by calling upon the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, to let me recover my full freedom and liberties, so that I can enjoy my political rights which are the reason I came back home from exile, hold the constitutional congress of my political party, register the party, compete during the elections and let the Rwandan people decide.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
UDF INKINGI, Chair.
God bless you all.
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Posted by Ann Garrison
The influence of the second world war on Dutch society is difficult to analyse both for insiders and for outsiders. It's hard to find an impartial observer or scolar. If you take part in Dutch society you automatically are part of one of the several subcultures which form the Netherlands.
Often the discussion about the second world war circles around who was bad and who was good, who was courageous, who was a hero and who was a coward. A discussion that doesn't seem to go anywhere in my eyes. What is more worthwhile is to study how ideological currents and their representatives have analyzed the national socialist ideology and how they took position.
Today the Dutch commemorate as allways in Amsterdam the victims of the second world war in the Netherlands. Some panic broke out in the center of Amsterdam at the two minute silence on "De Dam" where the commemoration allways takes place.
The influence of the second world war on Dutch society is difficult to analyse both for insiders and for outsiders. It's hard to find an impartial observer or scolar. If you take part in Dutch society you automatically are part of one of the several subcultures which form the Netherlands.
Often the discussion about the second world war circles around who was bad and who was good, who was courageous, who was a hero and who was a coward. A discussion that doesn't seem to go anywhere in my eyes. What is more worthwhile is to study how ideological currents and their representatives have analyzed the national socialist ideology and how they took position.
© olored Opinions
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Tuesday, May 4, 2010Posted by susan thomson
[Since 1994, the world witnesses the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The current government has been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination with an iron hand, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the majority of the Rwandan people (85% are Hutus), and mass-arrests and mass-murder by the RPF criminal organization.=>ASIF]
I am increasingly worried about the type of information that is flowing out of the mouths of Rwandan political elites these days. This recent East African piece from the former Minister of Information and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo, is emblematic of government spin-doctoring on its oppressive behaviour. Academics, journalists and others who care about peace in Rwanda and the region need to challenge the misinformation of the government in advance of the August elections.
I would provide my views on the attached article as anyone who reads this blog (or my academic work) that the piece is absurd. Read it for yourself and let me know what you think. Perhaps we can have a dialogue on that....
I would much rather hear from Nyamwasa and others who recently fled (quit?) their senior military posts.
I also wish I had time to survey Kagame's speeches from 1999 until present more closely. My sense is that the rhetoric is hardening subtlety and creatively over time. Does anyone have a student or colleague working on such a project?
Posted by susan thomson at Tuesday, May 04, 2010 Labels: East African, misinformation, Mushikiwabo, oppression
Related articles:
- Presidential results announced before the vote?
- Global Integrity is looking for critical voices in Rwanda
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
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